Have a look at Arc Notebooks from Staples. They have a wide variety of notebooks and accessories to allow you to customize it your needs. I used a bunch of notebooks including Moleskin and Ecosystem notebooks. I do love the bound book and the permanence of them. But the simple fact that they are bound makes them very inflexible.

The Arc System relies on discs to hold the paper. The real beauty of this system is in the punch. It’s kind of a half circle with a slot. What’s great is that its very secure but yet the pages are easily removed.

You need to capture your ideas and have an organized method in which to do so. 

I loved the portable slim nature of the Moleskin notebooks. But I found them not right for me. I needed something else.

I wanted a system that could be flexible, easy to add to, easy to subtract to, portable and allow me to make an organizational structure.

The Arc notebooks allow me to do all of that and fairly easily too.

Here’s what I purchased:

• 6 ¾” x 8 ¾” Notebook – I like the junior sized books. This size is really portable and handles most things really well. If I need to take a lot of notes I do use letter sized pads and yes Staples offers that size also.
• Tab Dividers – These are thin black plastic dividers. They work well.
• Poly Ruler – I use this mark where I’m at in the notebook.
• Paper Refills – You may remember how much I love the Action Method products and can you believe it they make refills that work with the Arc system – YEAH! I use the dot grid paper and the action method paper. But Staples offers a wide variety of paper refills and a pretty reasonably price.

Here’s how I have the dividers setup:

• Right on Top – I have an Action Pad Mini sheet inserted. It’s the first thing I see when I open up the book. This is my capture point for any task. I can flip open the book write down my task and close it. Or if I’m working on an idea and realize I need to call someone I write on this list. I review the list often. When I review the list if I can do the task at that point, I do it, if not it goes into my productivity system.
• Section 1 – Daily Notes:  These are just random daily notes and most of the time not to important. I use the dot grid paper here.
• Sections 2 – Meeting Notes – I have my Action Method paper here and dedicate this section for taking meeting notes. Truth be told I prefer using letter sized paper for note taking but I can do a pretty good job with the junior sized paper.
• Section 3 – Weekly Calendar Template – I devoted a whole section to how I plan my week. My weeks don’t always go as perfect as I have them laid out in this section but I try. I have a weekly summary view then I break down each day.

• Section 4 – Big Ideas! Any time I have a big idea or thought that I want to flesh out I use this section.

Want more choices? Well Staples didn’t invent this product but rather cloned the idea from the Levenger Circa series books. Levenger has a lot of great products and there Circa series books are the cream of the crop and you will also pay for that cream.

Have a notebook that use? Let me know on Twitter.