I lavish attention on my PIM.

I’ve written here about a lot of it: my task-management software, my note-taking software, my Pomodoro timer gear, even my wall calendar.

But there’s one humble-but-vital set of gear I haven’t talked about: my pen and pocket notebook.

I use gel pens. I used to use only 0.7mm Sarasa pens until they started routinely jamming on me. I switched over to 1.0mm Pilot G-2 pens; I like them fine, except those silly extra 0.3mm, which make the mark a little thick for me. (Given how often the Sarasa pens were jamming on me, I don’t think I’m going to go back.)

I use any thin notebook that fits in my shirt pocket. I especially like the “Field Notes” notebooks because of the cool name and the witty implications. But I’ve used the Moleskine “Cahier books” as well.

The major point is to have something that’s always with you and allows rapid data entry.

The dirty secret about electronic stuff is it’s unbelievably slow for data entry.

Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, called his software “Quicken” because he wanted it to be quicker than writing checks with a pen. He succeeded, but modern smart phones do not. By the time you’ve got the phone out, woken it up, corrected a few typos, fired up Evernote, and made a note I could have ten notes filled out in my notebook with my pen. 10:1. (I’ve never tried it, but I just bet it’s so!)

When I can’t put the notebook in my shirt pocket (would you believe the nerve of these shirt companies making so many men’s shirts without a breast pocket?) I stick it in a back pocket of my pants. It shortens the life of the notebook — the binding gets worn out more quickly in that position — but it’s worth it to have it ever-ready.

And then part of my morning routine is to move any notes from the notebook to my PIM (or to Evernote for things that don’t have an action). I do that (it’s pretty quick) every morning, or almost every morning.

That’s it. A humble, but a key link.