A Loveletter To My Sketchbook
We spend most of our lives staring at screens—typing, scrolling, absorbing endless waves of content. Everything is optimized, streamlined, and designed to be as efficient as possible. But not everything should be a victim of productivity. Some thoughts deserve to be messy, raw, and unfiltered. That’s why my sketchbook is one of the most important things I own. It’s a space where I can be imperfect, where ideas don’t need to be polished before they exist, and where creativity flows without algorithms dictating what comes next.
Writing by hand forces me to slow down, to engage with my thoughts in a way that a keyboard never could. Whether it’s quick notes, chaotic mind maps, or sketches that don’t need to impress anyone—it all belongs on paper. I use different pens for different topics, print out small pictures with my mini Kodak printer, and layer ideas on top of each other. It’s not about aesthetics, it’s about capturing thoughts before they slip away. And in a world obsessed with digital convenience, there’s something deeply satisfying about physically turning a page and seeing the marks of your own thinking.
Get One. Use It. Keep It.
A sketchbook isn’t just a tool—it’s a habit, a ritual, a second brain that exists outside of technology. Whenever a thought feels too heavy, too big, or too complicated, I put it in my sketchbook. That way, my mind doesn’t get cluttered, and I always have a place to return to. It’s one of the simplest but most powerful ways to stay creative, to process ideas, and to track personal growth.
And here’s the best part: every sketchbook is a time capsule. If you fill one every year and keep them, you have a physical record of your evolution. You can flip back through old pages and see exactly where your head was at different points in life. What you struggled with, what inspired you, what patterns kept repeating. It’s a mirror for your thoughts, a map of where you’ve been, and—if you stick with it—a guide for where you’re going.
