Memiary is a good example of my favorite type of application, simple, focused, efficient and productive. It has a painless sign up system and will let you in immediately so you can start recording your actions. Bacially it enables you to record 5 actions each day, with different display options, searching by date and so on, so you can go back and see what you did a day, a month or a year ago.

At first this may seem limiting, since you’re only allowed 5 entries a day. However, I believe this isn’t meant for task management, or as a conventional diary service. There are many uses you can put this method to, like gaining focus and finding your priorities. Turn the page to take a look at some of the uses I could squeeze out of this stylish app, if you have any other ideas let me know.

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Google Notebook was a nice service to begin with, but it lacked many features. Now that it has matured a bit, a lot of options and ways to organize and be more productive were added, making this not just a thought jotter, but a full fledged organizer. Here are a few tips helping you to turn Google Notebook into something more like OneNote or EverNote than textpad and notepad.

Create a note title

Whenever I write in my Google notebook I always create titles. There are two reasons you should start this good practice. One is obvious, when the note is (or notes are) expanded you can easily see what’s what without having to read into notes. The second reason is that when the notes are collapsed, you can also identify notes very quickly. So that your titles are identifiable in collapsed mode it is best if you add a special symbol after them.

I usually create titles in the format “text - text |”. If you create lists for separate days of the week you could create a title on the first line saying: “tuesday - shopping list”. This will be collapsed and all formatting will be removed, but due to the hyphen and the pipe after, your title will be identifiable when the note is collapsed.

Use labels for future reference

Labels were originally not part of Google Notebook, but they are very welcome now. Labels allow you to group notes that are otherwise totally unrelated. I could have a shopping list in there somewhere and I could also have a post on Hack Your Day about how to productively shop with a shopping list.

While in this particular example I may not benefit from seeing the link between these two, who knows? Perhaps while shopping I find a totally cool method which I only remember to share because I saw the link between the two.

Nevertheless, labeling can help you organize and conserve space by enabling you to reduce your notebook count. Not that you have space limitations, but the simpler your system the better. You can then go to the sort menu and sort by label, or just click on a label to list all notes that belong there.

Combine Google Bookmarks and Google Notebook

Google’s bookmark service has been fully integrated into Google Notebooks, giving you a unified way of organizing notes and bookmarks. Visiting the two services separately is still an option, but pretty pointless, since Notebook offers a much better experience. You can add bookmarks like usual, jot down your notes and so on, they will be updated in both places.

What changed though is that you now have all of Notebook’s tools to help you manage them. You (or a collaborator) can add a comment, assign a label, and this all adds to your organization and productivity, since it is integrated into your system.

Use the Firefox Browser extension

The Notebook Firefox extension is actually one of the best extensions I’ve seen, you can use it for all sorts of stuff. The main reason I suggest using it is that this is the tool that allows you to gather data like you can with Outlook and Evernote.

The extension opens a small window in your browser and allows you to paste data, or actually create and manipulate notes like you do in the full screen browser version. The windows is small, about 300×200px, but still provides a rich experience, very similar to the normal editing mode, how they managed to make this work is a mystery to me.

The browser extension also comes with a handy context menu entry enabling you to save snippets of data as you highlight it. You can right click anywhere on a page and click “note this with Google Notebook” and the small editor will autmatically open, creating a new note with the URL as the title. If you highlight any text on the page, this will automatically added to the note as well.

This will shave hours of your working time in the long run, and will probably save you some frustration as well, this is one extension I rely on heavily because often I save the stuff I want to write about like this. No need to find relevant entries in my RSS feed or bookmarks, I just open Google Notebook.

Use the drag and drop feature

If you hover your mouse over the left hand side of a note, you will see that you can drag it. You can simply take a note and drag it into a different notebook. This is a great feature if you want to keep a record of things to do and things done. Just drag the note to the relevant Notebook.

You could also use this for task management. Just create a task list and Notebooks for phases of a project. When a task enters a new phase just drag and drop it. There are many other ways you can use this feature, it will keep you productive by taking clicks and checkboxes away from the equation and letting you simple rearrange your thoughts.

Make full use of the comments option

Remember that you can use comments for youself, this isn’t just for other users to share their thoughts on your notes. I use a comment box like the “add a note” feature when creating bookmarks. For example when creating a task I would try to be as brief as possible and then add things to do with it in comments.

You can also add notes like “waiting for input” in the comments, or you could add ingredients to a recipe you still need to buy. The uses are again endless, and can contribute a lot to your productivity.

Since the comments section gets condensed as you collapse the notes, it is also good practice to keep your comments short and well organized too, this will enable you to make the most info out without needing to open anything.

What I have been doing for all my notes since I was about 16 years old was adding little bits of data on each page that would allow me to easily find what I’m looking for. I started simply with page numbers, something I’m betting many of us do, but there are so many other ways you can find anything in your Moleskine, here are a few tips.

Positioning your metadata

The most important thing when placing your metadata in your Moleskine is to go inwards. Put the most relevant or most important bit of data on the outermost part, since this is easiest to access. You can then work systematically inwards, placing the less important bits of data as you go.

Another way to go is to put all your data on the outer edge, which would be the right side for most. You can move along the side vertically instead of horizontally, so by just folding up a bit of each page you can see all relevant info. For me it’s hard to write consistently this way, and it would look horrible for me, so I take the horizontal approach, but whichever way you choose id fine.

Use information relevant to you

Just because all of us always put in page numbers and titles at the top, this doesn’t mean you have to too. You may have a book of thoughts where page numbers don’t really mean anything. In this case you may want to add tags, categories, dates, etc, so your data becomes better organized.

Having as much info as possible is good, but you shouldn’t go overboard and cram everything there is onto the top of your page. Choose a set of data that you need, but one that fits well on the page, adding to your experience instead of bogging it down with data not really needed.

Using tags and categories

Tags and categories can be used with Moleskine notebooks, not just blogs and web pages. In the same way you categorize a post, you can do so with an entry in your Moleskine. Once you’ve used one for a while you will get a rough estimate on your methods. You may spend 50% of the notebook on thoughts, 30% on tasks and 20% on misc. When you go out and buy your next notebook you can pre-label a number of pages with categories you will use.

Color coding is also a way of categorizing and tagging entries. Instead of having to label your Moleskine entries, just use some colored markers or highlighters to indicate them. You can create a page which contains the rules for categorizing, using just 3 markers, which you can keep in the Moleskine, you can color code at least 12 categories easily using horizontal and vertical lines, simple colors, the possibilities are endless.

Further customization

As I just said, the possibilities really are endless. You can cut off the corners of some pages to indicate they are no longer in use, you can cut away corners in different ways to indicate different categories.

You can fold them in, attach post it notes, even rip them out. The point it that there is no set rule for marking and organizing your Moleskine, it is yours to develop and tailor to your own specific taste. If you have your own cool ways of organization and productivity with your Moleskine please let us know!

I love my Moleskine and I need it to be big, fat and bold, but when on the run, it takes time to heave it out of my bag or luggage. Thankfully those smart, smart people at the Moleskine company came up with some smaller notebooks, and the perfect one for the man on the go is Ruled Reporter Notebook Moleskine.

I wouldn’t actually use this on its own, but it can be a great supplement to your already existing Moleskine ruled notebook or diary. I personally use a daily diary and love every page of it, but here’s how I use my little one when I can’t afford to bring the diary with me.

When I’m on the road I can store the reporter notebook in my shirt pocket or my jeans and pull it out in a second when an idea comes to mind. I jot it down and put it back, my idea is recorded and it only took a few seconds.

Now when I get back home the “merging” of the documents simply happens using a literal cut and paste technique. I tear out the page and stick it in the relevant page. If the whole reporter page you wrote can be put in one section just apply glue and stick, but you can also cut it down to smaller pieces to stick into different sections, contexts, you name it.

The great thing about this method is that you don’t need to actually write down your ideas again. Since the notebooks are of similar high quality, you can glue in the pages no problem! take a look below in the recommended products section for everything you’ll need for this, right down to the glue.

Moleskines are the best notebooks ever. They are very high quality, feature rounded edges and have oilcloth bound covers, with acid-free pages. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you productivity ninjas and GTD followers what a Moleskine is it is widely used by many people, including loads of CEOs and historical figures like Picasso and Hemingway. Even I personally own a planner, wow! Here’s a list of my favorite types of Moleskine simple notebooks, if you are in need of one, don’t be shy to order.

The Moleskine Notebook

This is the original real deal, the simple notebook. The large notebook gives you 240 lined pages to store all your thoughts, tasks and ideas, while the pocket gives you a still impressive 192. The simple notebook truly gives you the freedom that is the essence of Moleskine, since you are free to do anything. If you want, you can use it as a calendar, a notepad, you can sketch in it, use it as a todo list, it’s your choice.

There are three types of paper you can choose from, the classic lined, the squared and the plain notebook. Personally I prefer the lined version, this is what gives me the most freedom, while actually giving the notebook some structure. If you need the total freedom go for the plain one, and if you use it for a load of calculations, I would suggest the squared Moleskine. Instead of linking to all this, here’s a little widget you can use to select the one you need, enjoy!