My Remarkable2 is My Constant Companion
People Stop and Ask…
I’ve been asked by friends, colleagues, and even strangers in coffee shops, “what is that thing” you’re writing on? I’ve been using my Remarkable2 for over a year, and it continues to impress.
I wanted to share why it works for me and how I use it so I can possibly help others who might be seeking a little efficiency, focus, and mobility.
Before
First, let’s step back to mid-2020, when I converted from my “old system” to the Remarkable2. First, let’s talk about my work environment. I am pretty mobile. I work at home and in the office. And when I’m traveling on weekends, I always have my “essentials” with me for moments of work, journaling, etm.
My old system consisted of:
• A leather-bound journal for daily gratitude and other writing
• A 365-page hard-bound Moleskine Daily Planner
• A notebook (or two) to capture meeting notes, thinking, writing, and brainstorming. A notebook would last me 2–3 weeks at most.
The biggest challenges that I had were carrying multiple form factors and finding the notes that I needed quickly and efficiently. I know that Evernote and OneNote are used by many, but I also find myself drawing lots of pictures, diagrams, flowcharts, and models in my notes, so with only the ability to type, these tools weren’t hitting the mark for me.
Organizing my Remarkable2
Folders
I have a very small number of core folders in which almost ALL of my notebooks are filed. I avoid having stray notebooks outside their appropriate folder. I will go into the details around each folder later in the article.
The Five Folders that I use include the following:
• Content — This is all sales & marketing content related, primarily first drafts and outlines.
• Journal — This folder contains my personal journal notebooks.
• Meeting Notes — This folder contains notes from specific meetings.
• Thinking — This folder contains ideation, weird creative stuff, and innovative thinking.
• ToDo Lists — This folder contains a series of To-Do Lists.
Tags
The Remarkable2 has more recently added a tagging capability that you can place on notebooks to create a different search dimension for your information. I have used this feature only a little because I find that my notebook naming structure works pretty well for me in terms of finding what I am looking for.
However, I have had a few specific ‘projects’ that I have been working on recently. Thus, I have created tags for these few specific projects so that I can identify & search a little more easily. Yet, I am not an expert tag user at this point.
Notebook Naming
The naming convention, while pretty straightforward, has allowed me to locate what I am looking for. Typically, I write i) the company name of who I am meeting with, ii) the participant names, and iii) the subject of the meeting, all within the notebook title. It makes for easy searching.
Unused Features
I am definitely not using 100% of the capability of the Remarkable2. Here are a few features that I don’t need/use regularly:
• Sketching — I can’t sketch above a 2nd-grade level, so if you are planning to do a lot of sketching, maybe iPad is more what you’re after.
• pdf or epub File imports — I have not imported books or articles to read on the Remarkable. I use Kindle or Chrome for that.
• Converting Text to Type — Rahter, I email people my handwritten files because there are often a lot of drawings, outlines, arrows, and other things that don’t convert over well. And while my handwriting is not the best, my team has worked well with what I have sent to them. Overall, I have sent very few documents via email, most for my use only!
The Meeting Notes Folder
One of the biggest benefits wins that I have found is that I maintain one notebook for all recurring meetings. So, for example, I have a standing weekly meeting with our CEO. For each meeting, I open the same notebook and append my notes to the end of the last meeting’s notes. I can review the notes from the prior meeting right before the meeting begins.
Before my Remarkable2, I did not have a great way to review or find the details from the last meeting. I would often have to search through notebooks by date. And I was burning through notebooks fast, so sometimes I had important notes in spent notebooks that I had left at home.
The notebook naming convention is the most important part of using meeting notes. I’m sure you could create sub-folders by client, project, role, or another dimension, but personally, I have not found that to be critical.
The Journal Folder
I create a new Notebook for my journal each calendar year because I add my new journal notes to the endlessly sized digital notebook for as much as I want.
Occasionally, I have even inserted pages in the journal when I want to go back and add something. This has been very useful because it allows the journal to have a real flow.
And I genuinely like the handwriting element of the Remarkable2. While it’s not a real pen and paper, the feel of it is not distracting at all, and it’s not tiring on my hand to write many pages in one sitting. And, even in my journal, I can make little drawings or charts as I want.
I have not found the desire to insert pictures or other “memories” into the journal (e.g., concert ticket stubs), probably because I didn’t even do this in the old journal either.
The To-Do List Folder
This folder is the most active because I utilize the current month’s To-Do List notebook daily. At the end of each month, I use the Remarkable2’s duplicate function to create a copy of last month’s to-do list to become the foundation for the next month’s To-Do List.
Each To-Do List Notebook is comprised of 4 Parts:
• Longer-Term Goals/Tasks by Key Role — (e.g. Personal, Family, Work, Community Board) Each role has its own page where I keep track of non-date specific lists based on the role.
• Current Month Item Tracker — This is a one-page list that I review daily/weekly. Note that I do use my Reminder App on my phone too, but the reminders that I set are to remind myself to put the To-Do into my Remarkable2.
• Current Month Rocks & Wins — The “Rocks” are my list of 3 to 7 critical ‘must have’ objectives for the month. The “Wins” are my list of celebrations during the month so I can have a quick list of all the amazing things that happened and have been accomplished! This is all on one page of the notebook.
• Daily Tasks & Objectives — I create and date a new page every morning. I use a special template for this (that works for me). See below. On this template, I have TWO buckets — work and personal. For each of the buckets, I identify the top 3 (and never more than three) priorities for the day. And below the top 3, I can list other action items as well. But the goal is to cross off the top 3 work and the top 3 personal each and every day!
Overall Summary
I’ve used my Remarkable2 daily for over two years. It’s reliable, compact, and has great battery life. I like that it’s a single-function device as I don’t get distracted by emails or the internet browser. I consider it one of my secret weapons.
I think it would also be great for students (compared to a laptop), and I am confident that you can configure a folder, tag, and notebook structure that works for the flow of your life if what I’ve written above doesn’t work for you.
I hope that this was helpful if you’re considering a new tool/device. And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have in the comments.
