Erasing anxiety with an erasable pen
– and now I can use my good notebooks
I hated handwriting in school. I wrote the same story over and over again, I wrote the shortest entries in my journal, and would honestly have preferred any school activity other than handwriting.
That’s a lie. Handwriting was mildly better that physical education.
The problem was not that I didn’t have anything to write. It was that I was frustrated by my messy handwriting. By high school I was freed from compulsory cursive and opted for typing wherever possible, but I rarely actually wrote things. That was until I was 15, when somehow my father convinced me to start journalling. I had one of those roughly B5 sized project books, with a lined page on some side and a blank page on the other. Dad told me to write a full page every day. It didn’t matter what it was, I just had to fill the page. If I wasn’t enjoying writing after a month, he’d let the idea go.
The erasable pens don’t enter the picture for about another 20 years, but I promise I’ll get there quicker than that.
The point is, by the end of the month my day felt incomplete until I had written that full page. Some days I wrote two pages. It’s was for my eyes only, so it was rough, i crossed out words, I wrote over and under the lines, I smudged ink and pencil leads, but it didn’t matter. I got my thoughts out and I loved the feeling!
From journalling, to scrapbooking, back to journalling and then to bullet journalling, I need to get my thoughts on onto paper to relieve the mental chaos and to remind me to actually get things done and not just think about it.
My handwriting has barely improved since my school days. It’s still a mess and honestly I’m lucky not to have been pulled into an HR meeting given how some colleagues have misread my handwritten notes. So it’s important to me that I am able to write clear notes and not less the chaos of my mind (or of my patchy fine motor skills) get in the way of what I’m planning.
When I came across Frixion pens, I was skeptical. I remember those old erasers from the 1980s, the two toned ones that had the regular eraser and that hard blue bit that people would say was to erase ink but in reality it just tore the paper?
But along came Frixion pens, and they just… work. You write, you use the eraser at the end, and they just work.
At first I thought this was a fun addition to my stationery. But then I realised the true potential – I could bullet journal without being concerned about messing up the page. And that meant that all notebooks were on the table. Literally. I could lay out all my excess unused notebooks (if there is such a thing) and choose any of them without thinking that that one was too good, too special, too pretty for me to use. Bullet Journals don’t need to be pretty. But you do need to be able to read them. And my casual handwriting is so atrocious that I had a genuine fear of making such a mess in a notebook that I would give up. But with my erasable pens, that fear vanished. Just like the ink.
The pens work like invisible ink. The heat caused by using the eraser makes the ink fade to the point that it’s not visible. But if you do this by mistake, you can stick your notebook in the freezer and bring the notes back.
You laugh, but wait until you absent-mindedly put your coffee mug on your notebook and lose a beautifully neat circle of notes. Then you will be glad for this tip! I am genuinely this messy!
Another feature I love about these pens are that they are refillable. I’ve gone through close to a dozen refills over the years, but I’m still using my original pens. I tend to fidget, so the lids are cracked and the bits have snapped off, but they still work as intended and none of the erasers have fallen off or worn out.
There is a broad range of Frixion pens now, but here arre my thoughts on the ones I’ve used:
- Frixion Ball : These are the specific pens I refer to above. I have only used the 0.7 and they write in smooth, bold colours. I’m keen to try the 0.5 and the ultra-fine Frixion Point (0.25).
- Frixion Light: A highlighter version of the Frixion pen, and honestly they look like a regular highlighter and erase with even more ease than the pens. A total game-changer!
- Frixion Fineliner: These are a lighter ink, and less smooth on the paper. They are good if you tend to smudge a thicker ink, but I find the colour a bit light for me. Hoever, they feel lovely on smooth surfaces such as RocketBooks.
- You can fine the full range, including clickers and artistic pens at the Pilot Store.
Have you tried any of this range, or would you recommend any other brands of reusable pens? I’m always on the looking for bullet journal supplies and erasable and refillable are at the top of my list. Send me ideas on the socials 🙂
