A fresh notebook feels like a fresh start. Make the second page count too.

New beginnings come with a burst of energy nobody has to earn. A clean page, a Monday, a new term: each carries a sense that things are different now, and the feeling is genuine for roughly two days. Then the ordinary week returns and the notebook gets abandoned around page four. Starting was never the hard part.

Decide now what happens on the day the novelty wears off, because it will, on schedule. Set the bar low enough that a bad week cannot break it. A badly written second page beats a perfect first one.