Working With Wipebook

"Being able to use the Wipebook book has made it really easy for me to get ideas down"

It was a cold day in 2014. Actually, it may not have been cold. I really don’t remember. But it was 2014 when I first became aware of this thing called Wipebook. I found it while looking for interesting and useful projects on Kickstarter. And, there it was. Wipebook 3. I backed this project at the time, and have been using my Wipebook Journal for the last seven years.

Recently, I got my hands on a newer product, the Wipebook Pro. It’s been great using this for a variety of purposes. It’s 10 double sided sheets of lined pages, and so it’s technically 20 pages, but I find I really only use one side. No reason, other than personal preference. The spiral binding allows the book to lay flat - something critical for me, and I love that it allows me to flip the open pages all the way around, so it takes up less space than if I had to keep it open all the time. And that’s likely one of the reasons I only use one side of the pages.

I’ve been pretty lucky over the last two years; I’ve been able to continue working, this entire time, but working now from a home office. Using the Wipebook has been a huge win for taking notes during the endless video calls I find myself on. With lots of reusable pages, I’m able to capture what I need on those calls, often creating checklists for myself in the book… And, being able to wipe off a page when everything is done is a pretty satisfying feeling.

When I’m not in meetings, a lot of what I do for work involves facilitating or teaching workshops on a variety of topics. Being able to use the Wipebook book has made it really easy for me to get ideas down in planning these events. Who needs to be there, what the structure of the conversation might be, what outcomes we’re looking to achieve. I’m able to structure my plans for these, and then easily add or remove things as the plans actually start to come together. Later this month, I’m giving a (virtual) talk at a conference, and planned out most of the structure and points in that talk using the Wipebook. And while there are electronic tools available, there’s something about doing it with a pen and a notepad that I find allows the ideas to flow, without any technology getting in the way. I’ve yet to find another solution that works for me nearly as well. Instead of the tool getting in my way of capturing ideas, thoughts, and possibilities, the Wipebook allows the ideas to just flow, and then to go back and edit or erase later, when I’m not focused on brainstorming.

When combined with the Wipebook app, which I’ve really only recently started using, I’m able to go back and see the ideas I’ve used previously, which often gets me started for whatever I’m working on next. Again, there are other apps and ways of doing this, but there are some small, subtle things about the app that just make it work perfectly for me.

Jeff Kosciejew, Educator

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