The harmony in a simple index tab
There’s a particular kind of harmony when the little things, the small tools, all come together to make my day-to-day teaching smooth. A harmony wherein the small things work so well they live beneath my focus. The best of undercurrents.
My educational happenings are accompanied by a duo of index tabs in my work bullet journal, one for each course I teach. The tabs ease access to the lesson plan outline each course is presently on. Thumb-friendly flipping directly to the exact lesson I am set to teach each day. As such, my tabs move daily.
These tabs are wanderers
But the Midori tabs I use look exactly the same. Visually separating the two from one another is a challenge. I use location along the edge of my notebook to differentiate between the two otherwise identical metal tabs.
My modern world history class is marked with a tab one-third from the top of the notebook. And my ancient world history class is anchored to the tab one-third from the bottom of the book.
I use a book dart, which rests evenly along a page’s edge, to demarcate my current weekly task list. The dark rests midway between the top and bottom of the notebook. Easy for my thumb to seek and find.
Location is not only everything, it’s harmony.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. The Loft Highworth stood tall above the other six writers this past week. I returned to this combo over and again throughout the week. A clear sign of standout combo material. Blizzard’s soft blue accented lecture notes, lesson plan outlines, and reading notes. I also took on teaching reflections, which proved fun with the Long Blade’s line variation and tooth. 1/2 remaining.
Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (EF) — Empty. A hall of Fame pairing. Excellent for detailed note taking, tracking tasks in my Hobonichi’s 3.7 mm grid, and scratching out lesson plans. The clear colorway fit in well during both serious and creative meetings, too. Bingo.
Pilot Custom 74 (B) — 1/3. A dry B nib this week. Excellent for quick-drying notes. Also worked well for longform writing like journaling and lecture notes.
Krusac Legend L-15 (EF SIG) — 1/3. I experienced some hard starting once the pairing transitioned into my daily driver. The burden of shimmer-heavy inks. Task management, meeting notes, reading notes, lecture notes, and lesson plans.
Esterbrook Estie Raven (B) — 3/4. The Raven’s stealthy colorway and Masquerade’s playful color are a rewarding pair. Wrote every single time I uncapped the combo. Well suited to quick writing tasks like lecture note drafts, meeting notes, and descriptive journaling.
Platinum 3776 (M) — 4/5. The M’s consistent disciplined lines served well for detailed notes in preparation for my new-to-me lecture last Friday. Comfortable and reliable? Winning.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (EF) — ?? I paid intentional attention to the Visconti last week. Lesson plans, reading notes, some scratch notes, and one bout of tutoring notes on a Rhodia pad. Weeping Willow wrote darker and more reliably as the week wore on. Commitment paid off.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Kokuyo Century Grid (A5). Eight new pages. The two-page weekly spread, three pages of meeting notes, one page of lecture notes, and another two of lesson plan outlines. The full monty (definitely the wrong word choice) of notetaking.
The weekly comprises a blending of Moon Beam and Astral. The EF SIG’s lines are wider and darker on the page, which lent a quick skimming ability to the task lists from Wednesday on. The narrow horizontal strokes from the SIG were needed to carry out my three line status tracking within each task’s box.
Behold: the cheery result of completing tasks
Sugar Snap is the star of the week amongst my lesson plan outlines. The lime green ink was easily readable, even through quick glances in-between activities. Snap’s shimmer highlighted my letterforms, rendering my plans scannable even from feet away from my desk.
A shine of a plan coming together
Journal. Kobe Graphilo Grid (A5). I added two one-page journal entries to my journal last week. They cover the first two pages in the second-half of the Graphilo notebook. Both written with B nibs.
Deuling B’s
Sugar Snap carries the first entry. Pilot’s B nib is leaves crisp lines and offers a soft spring while I write. The bounce is enjoyable, and kept me writing.
I washi taped a small note from my partner at the top of the page and scrawled a gratitude reflection underneath. A practice I’ve taken to more frequently in the past year. An artifact of my life last week.
An artifact that belongs IN A MUSEUM
The second entry is from Thursday evening. I wrote it at my desk while my partner taught a voice lesson. The Estie’s B nib stands in stark contrast to Pilot’s B. The steel nib is a stiff affair. The stiffness renders the Estie a resilient writer, and do excellent while writing with pressure.
Written dry. The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 ran dry on Wednesday. The result of near-constant work noting during meetings and tracking my tasks. The EF nib proved well up to the task of keeping Moon Beam’s shimmer flowing. A true shimmer solution.
Newly inked. I stuck out the week with my remaining six pen pairings. The choice to avoid inking a new pen led me to write more with the Pilot 74, Visconti Homo Sapiens and Esterbrook Estie — all three of which I had marked for more attention during last week’s reflection.
There you three are
The collection
Incoming / new orders. My recent influx of pens and inks leaves me content with my current collection. For now, I have no orders scheduled.
That warm, fuzzy feeling of digging what’s already on my desk
Outgoing / trades or sales. A resounding lack of movement here.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. I finished my first book of the 2024 calendar year last week: Alanson’s Valkyrie. I listened to the audiobook while walking our dog, Rumi, and in the early morning while I pull myself together. Ample time for strong progress. Case in point: I’m already 28% through the next book in Alanson’s massive series, Critical Mass. Thoughtless and humorful science fiction.
I also made 49 pages of headway in Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. The story offers a clever mix of perspectives as characters from an advanced Earth culture, a less-advanced Earth culture, and a sapient spider culture all take turns interpreting the meeting of all three peoples. Fabulous science fiction silliness.
As has become my default: all of my fiction reading took place in Apple’s Books app.
Nonfiction. Actionless. Frightfully light on nonfiction reading.
Music. Yutaka Hirasaka has been a persistent presence in my speakers all week. Guitar-driven instrumentals. Mellow music for tea-powered reading sessions. Worth a listen for those who enjoy some calm in their stationery space.
