I know I’m not alone based on the queries I’ve been receiving lately: “I’m not happy with my planner this year, I want a change, please can you help?!”
I understand. While overall I’m still using my filofax faudori flex, I’ve made a few changes and I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do when January arrives.
When I reached the last few pages of my logbook at the end of August, I picked up a softcover grid filofax and drew out the remainder of the year, loosely following the Hobonichi A5 Cousin.
My goal was to see what I thought about incorporating both my planning and work logs into one book.
To my surprise this format is working well. I still often use the flex and several books throughout the course of my day, but it’s nice to also travel light with the essentials if I need to.
I was also pleased to discover that the hand-drawn format isn’t distracting or upsetting to me this time. Yes, I wish I had made different pen and ink choices, but it’s not disastrous as previous hand-drawn planners. It took longer to be ready than I expected, first I sketched the layout in pencil, then over several sessions I inked it in. The Hobonichi Cousin and a few other pre-printed options because while I’ll always need to add in a few unique-to-me things, I like having some of the basic structure set up for me.
The biggest shock is that I’ve started to use washi tape. While I’ve drawn my outfits, the weather, and am particular about my task-complete highlighter du jour, I don’t decorate my planner. In my research for new planner options I came across a whole world of decorated planners I never knew existed. I have friends who art journal, but that’s different. Yes I find all the stamps and stickers fascinating, but my planner is a tool and while I like my tools to be designed well and asethetically pleasing to me, I have been things to do with my time.
However, I’ve been fascinated by washi tape for years, but haven’t gotten it. Friends have sent samples and after trying a few pieces, for the most part, I’ve passed them onward.
After taking all the time to draw the planner, I realized I wanted a consistent way to mark multi-day events that wouldn’t bleed through the light weight moleskine paper. I also learned that Hans and Greta (my current foster kittens) love post-it notes. So when I discovered solid coloured washi tape, I found a use for it.
month view
vertical week view
day view
What changes will I make for 2016? Time will tell. I have numerous quibbles with most of the planners easily available here in the States. I’m hopeful to visit Muji and Kinokuniya soon to review notebook and planner options and will then make a decision. Who knows, maybe I’ll try the custom route again.
Are you pleased with your 2015 planning system? What changes are you thinking of for next year?
On Instagram the other day, a follower commented on one of my morning coffee & planner posts that they wished they were as organized as I am. A picture doesn’t tell the full story; I rarely feel as organized as I look. Right now I’m in a transitional phase revising, refining, and refocusing some of my work and I also made a planner change two weeks ago.
While I really enjoyed my custom system, I kept refining it every few weeks and printing out new pages. When both the ink jet and laser printers needed to be fed new ink on the same day, I realized enough. I wasn’t printing copious amounts of high colour planning pages, but the printing I did added up.
After purchasing ink that Sunday afternoon, I went across the strip mall to the local art supply store. My primary goal was to research watercolour supplies, however I also hoped that there might still be some 2015 planners on the shelves. I was lucky, there was a sizable selection and they were even half-off. It was a difficult decision to chose one. I cannot overstate how I love the size of my log books. However, I do not like how most planners here in the states make Saturday regular and Sunday tucked into the corner.
That doesn’t work well for me. I don’t need to track much on Shabbat and I often work on Sundays. There is a lovely Time and Life Planner that provides “equal weight” to each day, but it’s a very special order and my planner budget was tight this year. I also would love to try a Hobonichi Cousin, but again, that requires planning ahead!
Back at the store, if a Dashboard Weekly Planner had been in stock, I likely would have purchased it. I know if the Colour a Month planners came in the large size I would likely use them for my log books. As it was I wavered wondering if I should use the 12 Month Weekly Planner/Diary Vertical (large) or even return to the 12 Month Weekly Notebook (large, softcover with notes), a design I used for several years. I almost picked up an Excompta 2015 Visual Planner Refill but wasn’t quite happy with the layout even though the page size is closer to perfect.
In the end, I returned to the format I knew and enjoyed from last year, and picked up a Trinote refill. Beyond staring down my budget, why didn’t I go with something different? I wanted to settle in as quickly as possible and get on with doing.
The rise of bullet journal(er)s has given me some new ideas for my own logbooks. Overall my day-to-day format has remained the same. I now record the week’s tasks on a left-hand page and facing it, the routine tasks and habits with a grid to check. The half-filled boxes just mean I partially did the task. A dot in the box is if I didn’t have my highlighter du jour handy. I apologize for the extensive blurring (you can click to see the images full size) it was taking longer to create a page I felt comfortable sharing in full than to edit it.
In the Trinote I’m writing with whatever pen is handy, and have fallen back in love with Pigma Micron 01s as they don’t smear when I highlight over them. I do wish the 01 size came in hunter green.
I am currently optimistic that this system will work well as we continue through the year. I feel mostly settled in to the new system and while it doesn’t travel with my everywhere (my log book does) it’s working. I still haven’t decided how I’ll use the priority boxes at the top. I’m not the only one with questions about how I’ll use them and expect I’ll just start doodling the day’s weather.
How is your planner system working for you? Have you made changes? Are you starting to look at the academic planners with longing?
We are now in the third quarter so I think it’s time to look into my current planner arrangement. I’ll pause to let you see where I was at the end of January. Yes, it changed again. Does that surprise anyone?
I partially blame that bizarre need to photograph my lists. (Yes, even after reading this.)
Each morning as I sit down with my first cup of coffee, I photograph my todo list. It initially fit on my favourite 3×5 index cards, but then, as lists tend to do, it expanded and needed more space. So I began to fill a composition book page each day.
Why was I not writing in my cica-arc hybrid notebook? Even with the arc paper, I find it expensive for something that is intended to be recycled very soon. Also, all my rings are 1″ and while that is nice to hold a year’s worth of paper at once, the resulting notebook (even with a change of front cover) is still bulky and heavy. I have my eye on a set of smaller rings but haven’t yet been able to commit to the purchase.
So welcome, the humble, cheap wide ruled composition book, comfort food of my childhood, teen years, college days, and beyond. How I love you. But you do have one serious character flaw, the spacing between each line is vast. As you can see (click to make bigger), my handwriting is … atrocious. I yearn for a grid or dot system. And the paper is so thin… it disintegrates before I finish the volume, so am I really saving any money?
I held the demise of the last composition book at bay for an extra week by quickly sewing a simple cover out of scrap fabric. The only thing I forgot to add was an elastic closure. Oops. It holds a pen (or two), a highlighter, and in the bigger pocket is an eraser and some post-it flags.
This helped, but last week saw the end.
I then pulled a slightly more expensive book off the shelf, a grid composition book and set to work setting it up. only four days in I’m happier to have paid just a little more for this book. My handwriting has improved and due to the smaller grid size, even when the list is impossible, it isn’t frightening because it doesn’t take up the whole page.
So why do I like this set up over all the other planners I keep purchasing and abandoning?
It’s customized to me and my needs. I first set up a 3 week rolling view, then follow with three weeks of relevant daily pages. Why 3 weeks? I find it’s helpful to see more than one week at a time, and when I do two or four weeks, they just aren’t right. Plus with the rolling, I am no longer caught with surprise at the start of a new month.
While I love the flexibility of a traditional filofax or circa/arc system, I need everything to be attached in one book so I can find it later if I need to. Yes, these books are meant to be temporary records, but I still need all their pages attached while I’m working with them.
I do wish my calendar could auto populate at least some events on the pages without my needing to write them out and transcribe them (or affix labels). I’m sure if I looked into inDesign programming I could probably make it happen, but then I’d be back into the issue of needing to print a custom notebook or going the circa/filofax route again.
I bet if a planner company (or individual) set out to offer planners in 3 month (aka a quarter) chunks with various layouts… I’d probably be one of the first in line to purchase.
The other complaint right now is very silly. It bothers me that I have a discord in paper sizes, though that does allow for me to very quickly pick up the one I need. I confess I’ve been eying this system once again. (A5 smooth grey cover, then either slim moleskines or other A5 notebooks. I think.)
All too soon it’s the last day of January, time to discuss how the new planners and I are getting along.
Overall it’s going well, I’m surprised at what a difference a small formatting change can make. As I wrote in planner angst, I was nervous about the impact of those small changes.
Let’s start with task planning.
Last year, I migrated to a junior-sized hybrid circa/arc system for tasks. I like the circa planning pages but as I consider these a temporary record, refill cost is a concern. So for 2013 I opted for the Arc week/month refill.
This is a sample of the pages I used last year, immediately following a Monday morning planning session. Do you see my hack for dealing with repetitive tasks?
I use labels. I like the small return address label size. I type four lines of text in two columns per label and cut them in half to cram the most information onto each label as I can. These examples are out-dated and it was really hard to write up a sample week to scan and publish without it looking really silly.
I highlight tasks as they are completed, colour coding each day. That way I can see at a glance when tasks were completed and when something hasn’t been. I use a Zebra Mildliner Set (Mild & Fluorescent Color) with a mild grey and violet to round out the set. I purchased mine at Kinokuniya which is how I acquired the singles. I do wish I had a green instead of just the blue-green from my set, the blue and blue-green are very similar shades! The colours didn’t scan well and I did some amateur image correction so the yellow and orange would show up. Again, this is a made-up week, but it is representative on how it generally looks by Sunday evening.
For 2013 there was a long getting to know you curve for the arc format I chose. I’m still not 100% in love with it, but perhaps it will help make my week more efficient. I also have yet to print up new repetitive task labels. It’s not really bad as I do gain from rewriting tasks (more on that in a bit) but I do miss them. I also tried to not be so set-in-my-ways with the highlighter colours. After a three week trial, I decided I don’t like it. Last week I went back to my preferred rainbow order.
What are the format differences and how do they impact me?
Changes I like: The Arc background shades alternate days. I like that more than I expected I would. I like the monthly divider tabs, not a surprise as it’s something I felt was missing from my Circa system. For the layout, I like that I can block Saturday and Sunday together as one task day, since Shabbat tasks don’t require a planner! I do have a colour for Saturdays and often tasks are coloured in if I need to check on something Saturday night. I like when there is not a lot of purple appearing for the week.
Changes I do not like: I do not care at all for the five months at a glance. I never look at it as the font is too small to see unless the planner is in front of my nose. I also haven’t figured out how to use 3 lines of notes at the bottom of each page.
However, what really bothers me is how the week is broken up across the fold. My week generally has a Monday-Thursday focus with Friday reserved for scrambling to pick up missing pieces and prepare for Shabbat.
I have felt a bit lost on Thursdays, though I’ve never gotten the hang of them in general. In an ideal world this new format would mean Thursday would become the new Friday (but without Shabbat stress) as the weekly work review day and bear the bulk of the scramble to get everything done, but that hasn’t happened yet.
I’ve not yet declared complete planner fail, but I do wish the 2013 junior sized inserts would go on extreme discount.
Now to the topic of my task rewriting habit…
Each morning over my coffee, I check in with the planner and basecamp and do a mini-review of open projects, the week, and what I need to focus on for that day. That results in an index card that looks much like this. The card often includes items that don’t make it into the more big-picture task planner. They are even more temporary than the planner, I only keep them long enough to write the next day’s list.
Does it work? For me, yes.
Is it efficient? For me, yes.
The repetitive writing brings the important things for that day to the top of my brain and allows what isn’t important to settle a little. That’s not a bad thing.
Finally, the big question, how is that big change in format for the desk calendar/diary record faring?
I’m still not 100% sure how I plan to fill this out. I have been writing entries in pencil (4H grade), but as that definitely didn’t scan well, I edited the image and typed up the daily entries. I used a free font based on a scan of my handwriting, so please don’t twitch too much with the bad kerning.
The biggest change is that there is no sketching of what I wore. This makes me sad but at least I’m writing the items down. Why aren’t there doodles? My plan was to work on my sketching skills, but I have a desire for this book to be perfect and I know the sketches will not be. Therefore there aren’t any and further, I’ve not been doodling much lately. I have a selection of books on sketching and doodling I’d like to look through, but the main thing is I need to get past this mind-block of needing perfection and start sketching.
Overall I am pleased with this format even with the page break on Wednesday. The oxide green is a very nice colour and it makes me happy (hah I hadn’t noticed my font colour until I edited this post).
I admit to eyeing the new 18 Month Turntable after I learned about it, but that is more curiosity than my having any real need for it. It has features that remind me of ways I’ve tracked tasks in the past and I love that it can easily be used two different directions and changed weekly if desired!
I want to end with how I use the anno section, a section that many apparently struggle with, regardless of brand. In my anno section, I record what I made for dinner. I’ve been doing this for a while with different formats. This list is typed with that font because again, I’ve not yet inked anything into this planner.
How are your calendars and planning devices faring so far this year?
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?).
Now to the topic of my task rewriting habit…
For the past few years, I’ve used