https://x17-shop.de/de/mind-papers/a5-mind-papers/a5-mind-papers

h/t: u/bertramski at https://www.reddit.com/r/indexcards/comments/1or8reu/comment/nnqd7vc/

DIY Planner Hipster PDA Edition<br /> by dougj for DIY Planner<br /> accessed on 2025-11-09T09:30:56

Downloadable versions of lots of spreads for the hipster PDA

Confessions of an Office Supply Junky - Episode 5: The Hipster PDA - YouTube<br /> by [[Joe Van Cleave]] video circa 2016<br /> accessed on 2025-09-15T12:38:20

Joe Van Cleave had a pencil box with index cards and a pen with which he used to keep a "Random Access Journaling System, using index cards and topical filing by subject" (dated March 2004). He was using 4 x 6" index cards.

He had a 3 x 5" hipster PDA based on Merlin Mann's idea that had thin metal covers with index cards and a book ring to hold it all together. He used colored cards to create section dividers in his hipster PDA.

He mentions the overlap of the hipster PDA with David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) movement.

JVC started using a hipster PDA in February 2007

He archived them in chronological order.

Grass roots use of the hipster PDA nudged larger stationers like Oxford to make vertical lined index cards specifically for hipster PDAs.

JVC also shows a storyboard done on index cards with two book rings as binding.

Renaissance Art has a 3x5" index card holder made out of leather as a wallet.

JVC was also using a bulldog clip to hold together his index cards.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180227134635/http://pileofindexcards.org/blog/2007/01/27/pile-of-fieldnotes/

I certainly didn't see this coming as part of the Pile of Index Cards... pocketnotebooks! Ostensibly for quick note (idea) capture on the move with transfer later.

via u/runslack at https://www.reddit.com/r/bulletjournal/comments/18rghxp/comment/kg8fv4t/

I see, that’s nice. I asked for a7 format since I want a portable « device ». I currently am following the today system method with my stuff from https://www.x17.de/de/mind-papers/karteikarten-lernkarten-karteikartenbox-karteikartenkasten-lernkartei-mindpapers/.

reply to u/smaczek at https://www.reddit.com/r/notebooks/comments/jjlkh3/hipster_pda_phone_case/

If you or others are still looking, I've been using an A6 Flatty case which easily fits several dozen 4x6" index cards along with my phone and a pen. It's probably a better hand carry (esp. with a pen inside), but will fit into my back pocket. Details:

https://boffosocko.com/2023/04/20/review-of-king-jim-a6-size-horizontal-flatty-works-case-5460/

Alternately, I've looked at Rickshaw Bags' Traveler's Notebook case for this as well: https://www.rickshawbags.com/travelers-notebook-case

Hipster here with respect to the card catalog as furniture without mention of the "hipster PDA".

Getting Things Done with Index Cards<br /> by Jazz DiMauro

referenced in Lifehacker article as early as 2005

Note the use of envelopes for separation. Did this predate the Noguchi Filing System, inspired by it or wholly separate?

definition of hipster PDA, a backronym for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

43 Folders: Introducing the Hipster PDA<br /> by Merlin Mann September 03, 2004

The Hipster PDA<br /> by Gina Trapani

http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda

The original Hipster PDA post? May have been coined before, but this certainly helped to popularize it.

https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2005/03/writing-and-index-cards.html

Looser tradition here for using index cards for writing. Comment have some interesting potential examples from circa 2005

"Skill-stack" is just the tech bro's means of referring to what Engelbart understood years before kambucha and man-buns were in style.