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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Reader Needs Help! Need suggestions for Week + Notes planners

Note Booker, who writes the awesome blog Note Booker, Esq. sent me an email with some specifics on what type of planner he's looking for:


I am looking for a planner that has the following features:

1. No address book section. (That info is all in my phone, no sense carrying around the extra paper.)
2. Monthly AND weekly views. (It's hard to plan ahead without a monthly view, but I want the detail of a weekly view to plan my week.)
3. A notes page opposite each weekly view. (So I can outline my priorities for the week. Something like the Quo Vadis Space 24)
4. Goes through the end of 2011.

I've been looking around, but #2 has been impossible to find, and it is probably the most important consideration. Any suggestions?

Here are the planners I suggested to him, but I want to know if any of you fine readers know of any other planner that would better fit his requirements:

The only bound week + notes planner that I know of that will go all the way through the end of 2011 is the Moleskine 18 month Weekly Notebook. It begins in July, and ends December 2011. (I reviewed mine here on Plannerisms) The Moleskine planner doesn't have monthly calendars per se, but does have monthly planning pages with the months as columns with a line per day. The hard cover books have removable address booklets, the soft cover ones have none.

Very similar to the Moleskine weekly notebook, but a brand I haven't tried yet is the Ecosystem weekly planner. This has the same week + notes format, but has an advantage: they sell a separate monthly calendar insert to slip into the back pocket.

So there he would have the week + notes, and monthly calendars together in one book. But as far as I know they only come in the calendar year, so he would have to get separate books for this year and next year.

My next suggestion is one that Booker sent me: the Quo Vadis Space 24. This has a removable address book. These planners have the huge advantage of having a for-real monthly section at the beginning of the planner, with the days as squares large enough to write in. Additionally, they also have the planning calendars with the months as columns, one line per day. As with all Quo Vadis planners, the paper is a dream to write on. But again, they are calendar-year only.

Of course another option is a Filofax, which has the week + notes diary insert for Personal and also A5 sizes. And he can also put in the monthly calendars.

All of these are good planners, but none of them are exactly and completely what he's looking for.

Does anyone know of a planner that completely fulfills all his requirements? If you do, please post in the comments! Thanks!

6 comments:

  1. Okay, I don't think these meet requirement #4 but how about the Polestar planners? The student planner will meet requirement #4 but not #2. One thing he doesn't mention is what size he is looking for. That is first thing I look at when choosing a planner.

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  2. Wow, Laurie, you really went above and beyond the call of duty here (and with your email to me)! Thanks for the great tips, and I'll be watching this post to see if your readers have any more ideas.

    I don't think most websites give very thorough descriptions of their websites. Hopefully, I'll get into L.A. in the next week or so and be able to browse through the Quo Vadis planners.

    I picked up a Circa sample set, but I don't find any good calendar inserts either through Levenger or Rollabind. I might make my own.

    Thanks again,

    Booker

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  3. Winnie, thanks for that suggestion! I've never used Polestar planners before. I googled and found them, they do have a great layout!

    http://www.polestarcalendars.com/product/BC10

    Booker, my pleasure. I'm happy to help. One thing to keep in mind is that we're at a funny time of year in the planner world: this year's editions are becoming scarce, and the new academic-year versions are emerging now.

    www.TheDailyPlanner.com has the Space 24 in stock under Planners --> Exacompta --> Weekly (Exacompta is the prestige brand from Quo Vadis).

    http://www.thedailyplanner.com/space-24-weekly-wnotesbr6-14-x-9-12-complete-vinyl-c-115_1505_2044_2659_2051_2181.html

    Also, if you (or anyone) is interested in the 2011 Moleskine planners, you might pre-order them from Amazon at 32% off. I've pre-ordered several for under 12 bucks each.

    I'd love to know anyone else's suggestions! :)

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  4. Oh, another great planner with weekly and monthly layouts that are different from other planners are Charlie Gilkey's printable planners. You can print out this month's planners for free, and if you like them you can buy the whole year to download to have on hand.

    I would suggest you start with his Monthly Action Planner and Freelancer Workweek (which has a kind of week + notes layout). But have a look at all of his planners, they are cool. They are task oriented rather than time oriented though, so see if they will work for your situation.

    http://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/

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  5. Oops. I meant to write that "I don't think most websites give very thorough descriptions of their planners."

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  6. I had another thought,after rummaging through a box looking for a planner from 2004 because I knew it had someone's super secret work number written in it on their birthday. What about Harvard Planners? I used them for a few years but in the end they were too big to carry around - I use a pocket Moleskine. I use to buy them from Lee Valley tools but they must be available elsewhere.

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