Ink Links

-- Pentel Slicci Gel Ink Pen – 0.4 mm – in Brown, Purple, & Dark Purple Ink (No Pen Intended)

-- What Productivity Tools Does the Get-It-Done Guy Use? (Get-It-Done Guy)

-- Artist collects magic markers (Boing Boing)

-- Comics Spotlight on Free Comic Book Day — Today! (GeekDad)

-- Ink review: sailor jentle blue black (Seize the Dave)

-- To mark the paper was a decisive act (Palimpsest)

-- More Old Scriptos (My Supply Room)

-- Fresh or Tired: Pentel R.S.V.P.®: Medium Line Ballpoint Pen (Does This Pen Write?)

-- Kronenheft (Bleistift)

-- Drawing a Blank (CJ Chilvers)

-- The May Carnival of Pen, Pencil & Paper Has Arrived! (Economy Pens)

-- Should Schools Teach Handwriting? (Quo Vadis Blog)

-- Review: FriXion Colors Erasable Markers (Notebook Loves Pen)

-- Idea to Interface Illustrations (Rohdesign)

-- More Sketches (Drawing with a Squirrel)

-- Eberhard Faber Microtomic 3H Drawing Leads Spotlight (Lung Sketching Scrolls)

My Home Office and Getting Things Done

Prior to starting with JetPens, I only worked from home one day a week (if that), and I never really took the time to set up a dedicated workspace. Now that I will be working from home full time, I needed that dedicated space for me to get my work done in the most comfortable and efficient manner possible.

My wife has the real design eye in the family, so she picked out the desk, and moved the lamp from another part of the house to fancy it up a bit. I then went to work junking it up with my laptop, monitor, pens, and all of the other gadgets and gear that make me feel right at home while working away.

From a pen and paper perspective, my two main tools are the Maruman Mnemosyne Imagination A4 graph notebook, and the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Grip 0.3mm black gel ink pen. Two things I like the most about the Maruman are the ability to use it equally as well in portrait or landscape mode (I use landscape), and the silky smooth paper. When the normally slow starting Hi-Tec-C imediately glides across the page as soon as I start writing, I know the paper is good.

I keep a handful of other pens at the ready in my pen cup, such as the Uni-Ball Signo DX 0.38, Pentel Energel Euro Needle 0.35, and a few original Sharpie Pens. I have also cleaned out and added a fresh cartridge to my Charcoal Lamy Safari EF in a threat to use it more, but I haven't gone there yet. Tucked away in my desk drawer are a few (ok four) other pen cases just in case I am feeling frisky about needing something else.

I also use a few new apps on my laptop to help me manage my day, including a free account on Highrise (I am a big Rework fan), and a RespohNote --> Simplenote --> Dropbox setup to help keep all of my notes synced with all of my devices.

Right now, this is a good combination of both analog and digital tools to help me get things done during my workday. Are there any tools - either analog or digital - that help you manage your tasks on a daily basis that I should try out? If so, drop me a note in the comments.

(Hit the Flickr page the see notes on the photo)

JetPens, The Pen Addict, and You

Day one at my new job was great - I am going to be a busy boy! One of the items we discussed at some length is the integration of a new blogging platform into the JetPens site. It is going to take some time to get it fully fleshed out, so I will be posting here frequently until it goes live. I will be sure to let everyone know when that time is as soon as I know.

In the meantime, I am going to try to keep things active here with some giveaways, the regular Saturday Ink Links, and more. Thanks to everyone for all of your kind comments, tweets, and email about the change. I am very excited!