I started using moleskines as a PDA 3 years ago. It all started with having consultants visit the manufacturing plant I work on and me not being able to effectively write their comments down while on the shopfloor. From then on my system has evolved and now my moleskine is for all practical purposes an extension of my brain.
Since I live in Mexico, I mostly write in Spanish on my moleskine, but I'll show you some pictures that get the idea through.
The main use of my moleskine is to keep track of my daily tasks. Tasks may come from emails, things I see, things my boss asks me to do, etc. I sort tasks from 1 to 3, 1 being something important that needs to be done now, 2 something important that can be done latter and 3 something not important that needs to be done now. There used to be a priority 4 - not important, do latter - but I decided that I'm not going to spend my time on those tasks so I don't even write them down. I try to close tasks in order of priority from 1-3. When I close a task I
Every day, before going home from work, I write down the next day's tasks by copying what I didn't close and resorting new tasks. I always write the date on top and draw a vertical line on the tasks page to keep things neat. If I have a quick note, I write it on the bottom of the page to use that space and keep space for more tasks that might come up. A rule I follow is to not let a task take more than 1 row. Below you can see a typical task page next to another one.
The other thing I use the moleskine for is to write notes of various things like meetings, personal notes, observations about my coworkers and subordinates that I use when I give them feedback, among other things. On the picture below on the left side, you can see notes of several things that happened that day (that page does not get a vertical line since it is for notes only):
For the start of each month, I leave a blank page with the month's name on top. When the month ends I go back to that page and write a summary of what happened on that month by going through my notes:
When I fill up a moleskine, I type the summaries of each month into a journal file in outlook so that the content becomes searchable through desktop search. That way I can easily go back to a specific note in less than a minute.
I keep my old moleskines together so that I can get to the information I need quickly. When I start a new one I write the date on its side and then when I fill one up I write the end date too, like this:
Since I have sensitive information written on my moleskines, and since I'm a bit of a paranoid, I keep them in a metal box with a lock:
Well, this is my system. I have tried several replacement options for it like using the Franklin Covey system, or typing everything on my blackberry, but those options just don't do it for me. There's something about writing down on those small-yet-spacious notebooks that is just irreplaceable.
