I usually use a fine ballpoint pen in blue, black or red to write things in my Filofax, notebook or journal. Every now and then I switch to fountain pen (I have a lovely Montblanc Meisterstuck which my husband gave me almost twenty years ago) in blue-black, but I tend to switch back after a while. For several reasons – I am left handed so my hand smears wet ink. I also need to write quickly and close my Filofax which also smudges the ink. As well as that, I hate the thought of losing such an expensive pen.
My schedule changes from hour to hour which means that my Filofax ends up full of confusing scribbles. To prevent myself ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time I usually just rewrite badly scribbled out pages.
This year, however, I have been using pencil. What a difference it has made! I have never used pencil before because my hand smudges HB and it seems so impermanent. Now I am sorry I didn’t switch sooner. I can erase and rewrite as many times as I want. I use 2H leads – for my journal I use an Edwardian pen from 1901 and for my Filofax I use a Pentel GraphGear 500 in 0.3mm width.
Pencil is waterproof and only fades when exposed to light so as long as I keep my book closed it has been fine so far.
I have used a red/blue/green/yellow w/red dot system for years for a large wall calendar – just the dots, nothing more. I have carried that over to my month on 2 pages, using Frixion pens as everything seems to get revised re day or time. In the week on 2 pages, I put notes in black ink and details re my husband and I in blue or red, green for events and yellow with a red dot in the middle for my neighbour (house,etc.). It is a system that has worked well for years but I really miss a full day for each of the seven days – not a couple of lines for the weekends. This year, I was unable to obtain my day per page and don’t think my printer would survive my trying to print out my own! LOL I still haven’t gotten around to setting the new printer up (hanging head in shame!). Sorry, I segued there – I do use pencil on a lot of occasions and sometimes completely but I really like the different colours – it brings it to the front faster – eg we both have the same dr. – whose appointment is it! etc. Naturally, my year is in more than one place! I can’t just use one system – need multiple! LOL
One nice thing about using my Pentel P209 is it fits nicely in the narrow pen loops. No danger of stretching or tearing the stitching.
Great pencil! I too have moved towards a pencil. I have a Midori TN and enjoy penciling in my agenda.
I’ve also begun to use a pencil, primarily for scheduling. I write to-dos and notes in black ink but all appointments are in pencil. I also like how I can keep the page tidy this way.