The Perfect Pencil

I finally have a task management system that works.

A while ago, Chris talked a bit about the systems I taught him to use that, we hope, help him manage the email and tasks he’s dealing with. On my end, i’ve used them for over a year, so I figured I’d put together a list of what I use that, when put together, become a compact note and task management system that really works for me.

The first is what I write with: the Perfect Pencil by Faber-Castell.

Everyone should have one of these. If you like Moleskines, try getting a good pencil to go with it. I use light, foldable notebooks but I won’t do a post about those since it’s so common.

Pens stain and need refills, so I use pencils instead. I tried mechanical ones, but despite staying sharp, they can tear up my pocket + stab my leg. So I looked around for a replacement, and the Perfect Pencil came up.

I loved the plastic one, but gave it to Tara Hunt at a conference, so I bought the metal one after that, which is pictured above.

What’s so great about it? First, the point of the pencil doesn’t stab you because it’s held inside the pencil extender. The same extender holds the pencil onto your pocket, so you don’t lose it.

When the pencil gets short, the extender ensures that using it won’t contort your hand. Perfect right?

Best of all, though, is an integrated sharpener. I hope the PencilTalk.org guy will forgive my use of his picture here, but I just can’t take one that’s as good.

Yep, inside there is a great sharpener, so it’s this perfectly integrated, compact little device that holds anything you might need.

The reason I think I need something like this is that digital just doesn’t do the job right now. Voice-recording is socially awkward, and you can’t write fast enough on an iPhone. I also won’t deny that there’s an emotional appeal from using old-fashioned analogue stuff (as people so often say about books).

Anyway, there’s always a lot of interest when I talk about this thing at conferences, so now it’s on paper. I love this thing. Not much point to this post other than that. 🙂

Next time, I’ll talk about my favourite task management tool, Gootodo.com.