Reddit mentions of Ampad Evidence Engineering Pad, 100 Sheets, 5 Squares Per Inch, Green Tint, 11"H x 8 1/2"W

It's a cheap psychological trick. Having a fancy bound notebook with nice paper and features and whatnot sets up the pretense that what I am writing down is Important and Valuable.

When in reality, I am just brain-dumping a bunch of BS so I can move on with my day, or using it as a glorified day planner. It's not really the words that I'm writing that are Important and Valuable so much as the habit of writing and the organization and mental clarity it provides. It's honestly been revolutionary.

If that's what it takes to keep up the habit, so be it. Also, I have been addicted to this particular brand of graph paper used for engineering drawings since all through college. It's brilliant because the lines are ruled on the back side, so they don't clutter up the page but still allow you to use the grid pattern.

But nobody made it in a bound format; all lab notebooks are grid-ruled on both sides which is very distracting to draw/write on. So I've been wandering around with loose-leaf pads for years. Then I discovered the Dot-Grid journals, which is close enough to the perfection of that type of paper that I could reasonably make the switch.

I write literally everything on E2 paper. Although, as far as I can tell, it's basically impossible to find anywhere other than our campus. While it's $7 for 100 sheets on Amazon, I prefer the loose leaf stuff our bookstore sells, as it's 500 sheets for $20. I just use it as filler paper in 1" 3 ring binders, and those become my notebooks