A pocket-sized notebook

No joke, having a notebook and pen handy at all times while conceptualizing my dissertation was far more valuable than you might think. It was good for me socially as well because when an idea struck, I could jot it down rather than spending the next few hours obsessing over it. Of course, an iPhone or other PDA can help you take notes as well, but for me they are no replacement for the feel of a flair pen on real paper. You just need to be sure you don’t lose the notebooks!

I’m a huge fan of the Rollbahn notebooks, though there are a host of options depending on your preferences.

They take a bit of a beating in my pocket, but that	I wish I knew how this bizarre set of doodles led to the design on the right (from BeeSign), but I know that jotting it down like this was crucial.	This is how the flower ultimately looked in BeeSign. (1)

(1) It is also important to note that Chris Fink of Protagraphics played a central role in helping me translate my ideas into the final design of BeeSign and improving upon them in the process.