Reply to query about the differences between using index cards versus planners at https://reddit.com/r/indexcards/comments/1or2btl/gloria_steinems_memindex/

Broadly, yes, but there are a few subtle affordances index cards have over book-bound or notebook-style planners: - Self indexing. Any notes you write down on separate cards really self-index themselves when filed versus needing to index them on a separate page in your planner/notebook which, if used over several years, means consulting multiple indexes rather than just one to search your data. (This is big for me as I also use cards for my commonplacebook/zettelkasten/pkm needs as well as for project planning and general notes.) - More portable. You can put one or several at your own discretion in your pocket at a time. (You can also carry a larger swath in a small pouch if you need more.) - Better protection against total loss. If you lose your planner, everything in if for the year is gone. If you loose the cards you're carrying, it's only a few days' worth. - Takes away the worries of starting and/or perfection, especially in a new notebook as you can always rewrite/recreate a card. - If you make your own layouts/spreads, there's less worry about planning ahead. - If you need to, you can lay out multiple cards at a time to more easily view, cross-reference, or reorganize them on the table instead of all your data being bound on separate pages and needing to flip back and forth. - Index cards can be much less expensive, particularly when compared to some of the higher end notebooks, even if you buy the more premium cards.

In the end it all comes down to personal preference and what works best for you and your favorite working methods.

More material on these and related topics based on my own research and experiences: https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/

So we'll expect the notebook to be recommended over the index card?

"index card" doesn't appear in the text

At Mark Dykeman's rate, to convert to cheap composition books, he's looking at $26/year for the equivalent paper consumption. On a per day basis, it's $0.071 per day in paper.

This can be compared with my per day cost of $0.421 per day for index cards, which is more expensive, though not $1-2 per day for more expensive notebooks.

Mark Dykeman indicates that at regular work, he fills up a 180 page notebook and at the relatively steep cost of notebooks, he's paying $1-2 a day for paper.

This naturally brings up the idea of what it might cost per day in index cards for some zettlers' practices. I've already got some notes on price of storage...

As a rough calculation, despite most of my note taking being done digitally, I'm going through a pack of 500 Oxford cards at $12.87 every 5 months at my current pace. This is $0.02574 per card and 5 months is roughly 150 days. My current card cost per day is: $0.02574/card * 500 cards / (150 days) = $12.78/150 days = $0.0858 per day which is far better than $2/day.

Though if I had an all-physical card habit, I would be using quite a bit more.

On July 3, 2022 I was at 10,099 annotations and today May 11, 2023 I'm at 15,259 annotations. At one annotation per card that's 5,160 cards in the span of 312 days giving me a cost of $0.02574/card * 5,160 cards / 312 days = $0.421 per day or an average of $153.75 per year averaging 6,036 cards per year.

(Note that this doesn't also include the average of three physical cards a day I'm using in addition, so the total would be slightly higher.)

Index cards are thus, quite a bit cheaper a habit than fine stationery notebooks.