» A Pocket in Your Journal
Image courtesy of Biffybeans ©All Rights Reserved
A recent e-mail from Chris Meisenzahl asks: “I generally write on one side of each page in a journal. I also use the rear pocket for ticket stubs, receipts, mementos, etc. As the pocket gets things in it it becomes more and more awkward to write on the right side of the open journal. Has there ever been any thought of moving the pocket to inside the front cover, instead of the rear?”
Hmmm… Good feedback here. I know that I have easily tested half a dozen journals with pockets and they are always located at the back of the book. If a person was to only ever write on the right facing page in a journal, (and I’m sure many do) a pocket at the front would make more sense.
I write on both sides of the page and I am trying to imagine how that would impact writing on the left facing page. I think it ultimately hinges on how the book opens when lying flat. I would imagine that the pocket in any position would be less obtrusive if the book opens as flat as possible.
For me, I rarely use the pockets in my journals because I’ve found that when I place items inside, I typically forget I put them in there and then can’t locate them again when I go looking. I think I’m one of those people that might be better suited to carry around one of those expandable folders to hold all my stuff.
Do you use the pockets at the back of your journals? Do you think it’s rear location is acceptable for your needs?
Comments
I use the pockets in my notebooks, but I don’t generally find them to be a problem. The notebook in using at the moment (rhodia webnotebook) hasn’t got much in it yet, so i can’t speak for that, but my last notebook (a large moleskine) had so much stuff abandone in the pocket that I had to empty it – the pocket was almost as wide as the notebook originally was!
I find it hider to write on a flat surface (like a desk) when the pocket is quite full, because the pages don’t lie flat then.
Actually thinking about the location of the pocket though, I would assume the pocket is in an inconvenient place at the moment. I’m left-handed and I wouldn’t want the pocket at the front because if it’s full then it will get in the way when I write on the right-hand pages. Isn’t this a problem for right-handed people writing on left-hand pages at the moment?
Thanks! ;-)
I was asked:
>> “But would not the same problem arise when you would write on the left side?”
I answered:
“Yes, it definitely would. But I figured that for people who only write on one side, the vast majority would be writing on the same side I do. And if a person writes on both sides, they would be no worse off than they are now. ;-)”
At first I really liked the idea of placing the pocket inside the front cover… but then I thought, “Wouldn’t all the stuff either fall out of the pocket or slide down to the binding whenever you opened the notebook?”
That’s my guess for why the pocket has traditionally remained at the rear of the notebook. If a manufacturer could remedy that problem, however, it would be a likely crowd pleaser.
James
Umm … have you ever considered flipping the journal over and writing from back to front?
I considered writing back to front, but that still causes me to run into my ‘everything falling out of the pocket’ problem. Sad face.
James
Quick suggestion. Fabric store. Velcro tabs. Glue dots.
Leave a Comment