In this video I’m doing a full tour of my Paper Republic journal—aka the little pocket leather journal that has basically become an extension of my life. I filmed this at 8:00 a.m. in truly horrid rainy-week lighting (I’m sorry), but you can still see everything clearly. I share the exterior details (mine is the pocket size in conac, and yes, it’s patina’d a lot over time), plus the few accessories I keep on it: my tomato and fish charms, and the metal pen loop that keeps my go-to pen attached. Then I flip through every insert I currently keep inside. My setup is minimal on purpose—I only keep what I’ll actually use, so I don’t overwhelm myself. I show my pocket Moleskine grid notebook that I use as my bullet journal/planner, a plain-paper pocket sketchbook (marked “IWI”) that I use for pencil sketches, and three Field Notes grid notebooks that act as my commonplace notebooks: hobby notes, research, and exploration lists. The big takeaway is that you don’t need a super intricate traveler-style setup for it to be effective—you just need a few tried-and-true inserts that fit your real life, and you’ll actually reach for it every day (sometimes multiple times a day, like I do).