The Traveler's Notebook has been my primary notebook for over five years now. Aside from testing things for this guide, it is the only notebook I carry. It was originally released by the Japanese stationary company Midori but proved so popular it has become a separate company. This leather-bound Traveller's Notebook is really just that—a leather binding which you can fill with whatever notebook (or notebooks) you want. For example I use the process described here to keep three notebooks within the covers on my traveler's notebook. I have one dot-grid notebook for planning, one plain notebook as my journal, and one heavier paper notebook for sketching and Copic markers. There are other specialized notebooks available (here's a monthly diary and daily planner), as well as inserts to hold business cards and more. Plenty of third-party sellers on Amazon and Etsy offer all sorts of inserts, which may or may not fit.

As you would expect from a company spun out of Midori, all the paper is fantastic, though not great for fountain pens. I also like that there are replacement bands and closure loops, since closure loops always stretch out. At least with the Traveler's Notebook, you can replace the worn-out loops.

If there's a drawback here, it's the slightly odd size. The full-size Traveler's Notebook is 8.7 by 4.9 inches, which is slightly narrower than A5. It's a little different, but I've grown to love it. There's also a “passport” size at 5.3 by 3.9 inches. Note that there are many imitators. I would avoid the cheap Amazon knockoffs, but there are plenty of people on Etsy and elsewhere making very nice notebooks, often in different sizes. I love my A5 Falcon Traveler's Notebook (€64), which wasn't cheap, took ages to ship (it's handmade), but is a work of art.

I have had a Field Notes kraft notebook in my pocket pretty much since the brand launched in 2006. (Coudal Partners, a marketing firm that was at the time doing innovative web design work, is a partner in Field Notes and ensured that web developers like myself heard about Field Notes very early on.) Field Notes draw their note-taking inspiration from the tiny pocket notebooks farmers used to use to track crops. At 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches and only 48 pages long, these soft-cover notebooks fit in just about any pocket (no need to bring back cargo pants) and are my always-on-me notebook for jotting down, well, anything I need to write down. I also use them to track my to-do list, my finances, and my work.

Field Notes paper is high-quality and smudge-proof, even writing in pencil as I do most of the time. Almost always available in a pack of three, Field Notes come in an astonishing range of colors and themes that enthusiasts love to collect. One note of caution: The covers tend to fall off with heavy use. But then I abuse mine, pulling them out and shoving them back in my pocket many times a day. I've taken to reinforcing the inside of each cover with a piece of gaffers tape. I also don't archive them. I changed my mind. I stopped using index cards and went all in on Field Notes, so now I do keep them.

There are many Field Notes holders, including this nice leather cover ($90) from Field Notes. I keep mine in this wax canvas holder ($15), which does double duty as my wallet. Alas, it seem to be no longer made, though the purple is still available. Field Notes does make some heavier-duty notebooks, including a weatherproof version, which looks considerably more durable, but I have not tested it.

The Quo Vadis Habana was my go-to notebook for years and is where I've written the most words. It's what a Moleskine should be. At 6.25 by 9.25 inches, it's larger than a Moleskine or Leuchtturm1917 (A5), but not by much. The cover is hard but not as stiff as a Leuchtturm1917; it has a bit of give that I happen to like, though that makes it more difficult to write in your lap.

The Clairefontaine paper is a gorgeous, warm white color (not yellow, though). I have not been able to find an official paper weight, but I would guess around 80 to 100 gsm. I did not have any issues with bleed, though ballpoint sometimes comes through with a Braille-like ridge (if you press too hard, which I tend to do). The paper is very smooth, and writing on it with a gel or similarly smooth ink feels very fluid and, well, good. It's still my favorite paper for writing with a nice gel-ink pen.

The main reason this isn't my top pick is that at 80 pages for $25, it is one of the most expensive notebooks in this guide. The larger paper size means you get more room on each page, but not that much. It also tends to go in and out of stock so if it's sold out, fear not, it'll be back. If you don't mind splurging, this is a great notebook.

Moo is probably best known for its business cards (we also like them for printing postcards), but the company also makes this unique hardcover, lay-flat notebook, which was popular with our left-handed testers. The notebook has 160 pages and is available in lined or dotted white, non-glare 100-gsm paper (Swedish Munken Kristall paper). The lines and the dots have a 6-mm spacing. The paper works well with most pens, even fountain pens, though if you favor very heavy nibs you may get some bleed.

There are some nice little touches here. For example, the first page is heavy card stock, so that minute you turn it, you have a nice writing surface for the left side of the page. In the middle of the notebook is a layer of heavier, darker colored pages—a bit like a photo insert in printed book. These pages are great for sketching or just acting as a divider, or you can just keep on writing through them. There are no page numbers, but there are little circles at the bottom of the page that you can use for page numbers or other notation. My only real gripe is that there's no elastic closure. Otherwise, this is one of my favorite notebooks.

We have an entire guide to paper planners, which I do not write because in the end, I just use a regular notebook (mostly the Field Notes above). That said, the Hobonichi planner makes me wish I had a use for a planner. (My days are just not that complex. Everything starts with “Write ____.”) The Hobonichis come in two sizes: the A6 Techo (5.8 x 4.1 inches) and the A5 Cousin (8.3 x 5.8 inches). Only the former is available in English, though the Japanese version will work fine, even if you can't read the quotes sprinkled throughout. I have the smaller Techo, which contains over 365 pages of high-quality, Tomoe River paper. If you're a fountain pen user, this is excellent paper, something of a rarity in the planner market.

Hobonichis are more than a planner, though, so I keep one around. I asked editor Adrienne So why she has used one for five years. Each day is dedicated to a single page. So plots out her hourly schedule on the y-axis; boxes out a grid with a checklist for non-work-related tasks at the top; and uses the tiny meal-planning section at the bottom to remind herself what to pack her kids for lunch. The grid pattern is infinitely flexible for wherever your day takes you. It lies perfectly flat open on a desk. The paper takes gel ink nicely. The inspirational quotes are often hilarious, and they look lovely lined up on your bookshelf when the year is over, like a very tiny bound set of doctoral theses. Check out the now defunct but still fun Tumblr, Hobonichi Love, by the woman who translated the Techo to English.

Want to go meta? Roland Allen's The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper is the best book on the history of the notebook as a writing tool. It might be the only history of the notebook, but it's still a great book and fascinating exploration of how notebooks have contributed to, and shaped cultural development over the last 1,000 or so years.

Allen digs into famous notebooks, like those of Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Samuel Pepys, and Charles Darwin, as well as others you've never heard of, like the diaries of fishmongers, sailors, merchants, mathematicians, and loads more who used their notebooks to record the world around them and offer us a glimpse of life in the past. It'll make you want to write in a notebook. Highly recommended.

Ew, what is digital notebook doing here? Just kidding. If you love paper, but want a digital notebook too, we've got a whole guide to Best Digital Notebooks and Smart Pens. Our favorite is the reMarkable Paper Pro. The matte screen feels like paper, or at least as close as a screen is likely to get. It's quick and responsive, and the battery life is excellent, regularly lasting for several weeks on a charge. There is also a keyboard folio ($229) if you want to type your notes in addition to writing.

Once you've made your notes, you can organize them into notebooks and sort them with tags and folders. The reMarkable 2 can also function as an ereader. You can upload PDFs and ebooks to it via the company's app or website, and reMarkable has a Chrome extension that lets you send any webpage to read on the tablet. You can also integrate your notes into Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. You may need a Connect subscription ($3 per month) to access syncing and unlimited cloud storage.