My Pens Have Jobs
Background
As a new convert to the world of stationery, its a little embarrassing to admit that I already have too many pens. To make matters worse, I don't rotate them out nearly as much as I should to get use out of all of them. The reason? My pens have jobs.
Working (read: sad) Pens
Take my Spoke Design Roady XL, for example. Its a fantastic pen (I have the titanium + blue delrin cap), but I hardly ever use it. Why? Its my chess pen. When I play in over-the-board chess tournaments, it's the sole pen that I use to write down my moves on my scoresheet. Due to that, and the horrible feeling I would have assuming I ever forget it, it simply stays in my chess bag, longing for the next weekend inside a Church or Hotel playing hall.
My most expensive pen, the Pilot Custom Heritage 912, only gets used about once a day. The reason? It's the sole pen I've been using in my 5 year Hobonichi. While that will eventually change, it also means that this pen I could be using all day just sits destitute until right before bed, when I do my journaling for the day.
I don't think I do this out of an abundance of caution or "babying" of my pens, I actually think I started assigning my pens jobs so that I can use more of my pens. But what I've been finding is I only get to use a pen for a few minutes, when in my heart of hearts I'd rather use it all day.
Pen of the Week(s)
While not a novel concept, and in order to fight this growing discomfort with my usage, I will be assigning myself pens of the week(s) instead. This rotation, I think, will be better for my mental usage, while helping me get a better feel for some of the pens that don't currently have an active job, or whose job translated into sparse usage.
I do, however, reserve the right to assign myself 2 pens, one for use at work with my field notes, and one fountain pen at home for note-taking, journaling, and planning in my Hobonichi.
How are you doing with your rotation? How about picking up one of those pens in the drawer for next week, just to remember what all the fuss was about when you bought it.
~ later nerds