Whether you’re carrying it in your back pocket, sticking it in your bag, or leaving it on your desk, a productivity notebook is a good thing to have. Maintaining an organized notebook can keep you organized. It also allows you to record ideas that would otherwise float away. If you’re ready to start checking off tasks, consider one of of the notebooks below. These are the best productivity notebooks you can buy.
Clear Habit Journal
The Clear Habit Journal is meant to gift you a handle on your daily habits, work technique, brainstorming, productivity, and organization, among other things. It combines a simple daily journal, dot grid notebook, and habit tracker, making it a sort of single stop for everything you’d need for successful focused journaling. It’s not available until January 2019, but you can reserve your own copy of the initial run. In the meantime, you can read through Atomic Habits, the book that details the science behind the Clear Habit Journal. $24
Word.
We found simple organizational tools are usually the best ones. That’s why notebooks from Word., a brand we launched a few years ago, don’t have huge, detailed lists of insanely complicated note taking schemes or crazy layouts. With a Word. notebook, you write down your to-do list, a few goals or tasks, or an idea for a project. Then you use a simple bullet point system for tracking progress. It’s all printed on the inside front cover and takes all of one minute to familiarize yourself with. It’ll keep you focused on what matters without you needing a full class to understand what those marks in your notebooks mean. $10
Back to Paper 2019 Notebook
There are few things as all encompassing as this notebook. It has sections for planning your year, daily journal sections, time zones, international dialing codes, four different language labels for days and months, an address book, grids, and lines. But that’s everything you’d need if you were to do what this notebook aims to convince you to do, which is switch back to paper for 2019. Admittedly, it makes a pretty good argument. $24
The Notebook from Bullet Journal
Bullet Journal’s another company keeping things simple. Their notebooks are laid out in a dot-grid system, which is important if you need something more versatile than lines but more organized than blank sheets. A dot grid lets you keep your writing organized while also giving you uninterrupted space for sketching. Bullet Journal’s also devised their own hieroglyphic system for task management while also providing space for you to supplement whatever symbols you invent yourself. $25
Hatch Notebook
The Hatch Notebook, as the name suggests, is designed to help develop an idea to its fullest potential. The pages are laid out in grids and lists that should allow you to come at your idea from a number of different angles. It helps you brainstorm challenges, expansions, tangents, audience, value, competition, and a whole lot of everything else. It’s perfect for people who like guided development and structure, with plenty of organization and room for particular planning. $25
MindJournal
The MindJournal’s a bit weird in that it’s pretty much the only notebook on this list that comes with the promise of revolutionizing the way you live your life, and the info on the website comes off a little like a motivational speaker. At the same time, it provides everything you’d need to build a solid and healthy daily journaling habit. Plus it’s a good looking notebook. For guys that always find their journaling habit falling off after a few weeks, the MindJournal might do exactly what it promises. $45
Kokuyo Jibun Techo 2019 3 in 1
Japanese design is enjoying quite the resurgence, and the Kokuyo Jibun Techo notebook set is a great example of what the country and design can bring to productivity notebooks. Three different notebooks come wrapped up in the main package, one for life, one for a daily diary, and one for big ideas. Each one has a different organizational philosophy behind it (knowing Japanese isn’t mandatory, but it’ll definitely help), and they have the potential to allow you to keep an exhaustive record of your year. It’ll be a challenge, but if you’re up for it, give these a shot. You’ll be your own record keeper. $50
