The Moleskine Habit [Friday Focus]

In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains how a keystone habit is “A small change or habit that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives.”

One of my keystone habits is the Moleskine Habit.

I live reasonably modestly.

In my house, the most expensive thing I own is probably my Herman Miller Embody Chair (something I splurged on, given how much time I spend working). [Note: Good luck stealing it, to any robbers reading this post. This thing weighs a tonne!]

But my most valued possession is a Moleskine notebook. One of many that you see in the image above.

For between 6-18 weeks, one of these notebooks rarely leaves my side.

“Hacks” and “tweaks” are part of my DNA.

So, if I can find a way to get a 118% increase in sales just by tweaking some buttons on your homepage to make them stand out – I get really excited by this kind of result.

And this is what the Moleskine does for me, personally.

It lifts the effectiveness of my life in ways that excite me.

Years ago, I had the fortune of meeting a series of CEOs and high-achievers through studying Entrepreneurship at RMIT, working to promote property investing experts, and a bit of charity work I did.

I started noticing that every time they sat down in a meeting, they invariably pulled out a beautiful notebook –

filled to the margins with notes – written in an exquisite executive pen.

I too pulled out my notebook…

A dog-eared journal and a BIC pen.

I think it’s no surprise that high-achievers write more than the average person.

The human brain is fallible. We have a limited ability to think, remember, and act. The more we write down, the more accurately we remember, the greater the volume of thoughts we can carry, and the greater the scale of our actions can be.

And I assumed that the reason these CEO’s and high achievers pulled out expensive notebooks and pens was simply because they could afford them. Or because work paid for them. Or because they needed to “act the part”.

But it was only years later, I realised that the quality actually made a difference.

If your thoughts are something valuable – and indeed, if YOU are someone valuable – then what you think and do deserves to be written down. And what you write DESERVES the respect of a good pen, and a good notebook.

It’s something that lifts the standard of your thoughts, and your actions.

For me, it’s a black square-ruled Moleskine hard-cover classic notebook, and a Fisher AG7.

The Moleskine is the heir to the legendary notebook used by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway. (And at up-to $40 a pop, depending on where you buy it, it’s no peer of the notebook you used in high school history class.)

The Fisher AG7 is the original space pen – designed and patented by Paul C. Fisher (at great personal cost) to work in extreme conditions, temperatures and even zero-gravity conditions where ink typically does not flow. It’s been used by NASA since 1967 (and later by the Soviets too) to prevent electrical short-outs caused by graphite dust in space capsules, shuttles and space stations. (I picked the Fisher because I got annoyed with pens whose ink didn’t flow when writing against a wall, or laying in bed.)

But What Do I Write In It?

Everything.

It’s a storage device for your thoughts and to-do list.

It’s a note-taking advice for every phone call and meeting you make or take.

It’s a journaling tool to vent and focus when the pressure rises.

It’s where I put thoughts that I’m thinking when I can’t get to sleep.

And it’s where I can write about what I’m grateful for.

Don’t Take My Word For It… The Researchers Suggests It Will Change Your Life Too!

Before you start pooh-poohing my well-meaning advice…

Martin Seligman, the American psychologist behind the positivity movement, found that people who write down three positive things before they went to bed at night were happier and less depressed when revisited six months later. (It’s a habit Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg spoke about in her UC Berkeley commencement speech in 2016.)

Writing down a to-do list before you go to bed can help you to fall asleep 9 minutes faster, according to recent research from Baylor University.

And in “Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life”, Dr Susan David shares the story of James Pennebaker, a distinguished professor at the University of Texas.

Pennebaker sank into a deep depression, three months into his marriage. He ate less, drank more, began smoking, withdrew from the world and became increasingly isolated.

About a month into his depression, Pennebaker sat down at a typewriter, and let go of the whole truth of what he was feeling.

Uncensored and emotionally-charged, he wrote about his marriage, his career, his sexuality, his parents, and his feelings on his own mortality.

Within only a few days, Pennebaker’s depression lifted, he began reconnecting at a far deeper level with his wife, and he began seeing greater possibilities for his future.

Professor Pennebaker has gone on to test the effectiveness of this activity with others.

He’s found that just 20 minutes a day of journaling, for just three days straight, can lead to lasting and positive impacts on peoples’ lives.

In one study, engineers who followed this routine after being downsized were three times more likely to be re-employed than those who did not. The journalling helped the engineers to step out of despondency and into meaningful action.

But the writers who thrived the most shared how they learned or grew from situations – with phrases like “it strikes me that” or “I now realise”.

The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, once wrote:

Watch your thoughts, for they become your words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become your character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Every aspect the Moleskine Habit will lift the quality of what you do.

It helps you to gain focus and clarity, see opportunity, escape negative thought patterns, manage more in your day than other mere mortals can, lift the standard of your actions, create habits, and improve your destiny.

So if your destiny, character, habits, actions, or words are important – they deserve the Moleskine Habit.

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