that time of year: planner angst

It’s the time of year with beautiful mornings when I realize there are only a few pages left in my planner and I wonder what I’m going to do in a few weeks.

Yes, I still use a paper planner. Are you surprised given my work? I do not advocate using a tool just because it exists or everyone else uses it. I look for solutions that are the best fit for the needs of the individual. I’ve tried to be digital only. It doesn’t work for me.

I use a hybrid system of a paper calendar for appointments/records, a separate planner for tasks, an electronic calendar for reoccurring appointments and shared needs, and various work logs/journals. With the exception of the work logs, most of the time the planner lives on my office desk.

For the past few years, I’ve used the large moleskine weekly with notes. This year, my radical change was to purchase it in red (the only non-black colour available for 2012, I am NOT a fan of red (or yellow)) so that I could quickly differentiate it from the other moleskines in my bag and on my desk.

It works, but my needs changed this year, I find myself recording more per day.

I’m not ready to go to a page-per-day because I like to see the week-as-a-whole. I’ve looked at many different vendors (this is a good list) and have come to what I believe is the right decision. I’ll try it. If it fails, I’ll try something else in February (and probably snag a good discount sale while I’m at it).

I also do not want to change the size because this is the size paper I love. A5 and A5-ish is my comfort-zone. I cannot explain why, I love index cards and tabloid size too on occasion, but for my notebooks this size works for me. Yes, I miss my composition books but I do not care to make the entire planner myself.

The planner in question has become more of a desk calendar and a diary record of my day than the carry-around book of all things that it was this time last year. Yes, I still keep track of what I wear, books I’ve completed, what I made for dinner, and various appointments. I now also keep record of mum’s medical appointments and the doings of not one but two businesses. For the past few months I’ve struggled to fit everything in the space available despite my collection of super fine point pens. A few months ago I began to use a disc notebook for project and task management, therefore there isn’t as much for the moleskine’s notes page and it is generally 90% blank at the end of the week.

I plan to purchase the large weekly horizontal planner, most likely in green. It’s not perfect, there are many things I don’t like about it (I’d like Shabbat and Sunday to be the same size as the rest of the week), but I hope it is a gradual change (since I’m staying with the same company) and not a radical departure from a format I’ve been using for years. I plan to continue to manage my tasks in the disc notebook, most likely using this refill. I’ll try to post more on how I handle tasks soon. I’ve tried a lot of systems. I’ve found this works for me.

Do you use a hybrid system? Do you have a calendar format you adore above all else? Why?

Do you know where your addresses are? Mine are (surprise) in a hybrid system, I record home addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, family info and things in an address book and keep emails with email. We had a database of addresses, but it’s now seven years out-of-date (oops?).

• Category: tools
• Tag: gtd, journals, moleskine, planning, project management, stationary, time mgmt