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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

2011-2012 Moleskine 18 month planners available now (already!)!

Yesterday when I received the tweet from The Paperie UK (@thepaperie) that they have the 2011-2012 Moleskine 18 month planners (click through here to see their page) already, I could hardly believe it!  Is it that time of the year already?

Yes. Yes it is.  (It's never too early for New! Planners!)

First of all, I want to pat The Paperie on the back for offering us the chance to buy planners for next year in February. Wow!!

Second, I have to force myself not to panic-buy these planners in every size, because they do sell out very quickly.  If you wait until July when they start, they may very well be gone by then.  One year my sister decided she wanted one in August and had to search far and wide, and then was very lucky to find one at all.

I love these planners for their excellent layout (which I reviewed the 2009 version of here and the 2010 with monthly calendars here).  The week + notes format works very well for lots of people in various circumstances: students, parents, business people, anyone really.

I love that they start the week of end June/ beginning July and go all the way through the end of the following year.  That way you have a 6 month window in which to begin your planner. There's lots of reasons why this is useful.

Those of us jonesing for a new planner mid-year can start it right on the first day.

For students, teachers and parents in the US and Scotland who start school in August, you can start it then and use it for the entire school year.  Here in the UK I've discovered that many of the academic year planners begin in September, when England starts school.  That's too late for those of us who start in August.  The 18 month planners give everyone starting school in autumn the opportunity to start the planner at the beginning of the school year, no matter which month you start school.

Something else I could do with this planner is something I've thought of for awhile: begin a new planner on my birthday (in October) and use it for my entire age year.  I could label the spine with my age and "2011-2012."  I don't know many other planners that could go October to October. I don't think I'll actually do this though because it doesn't follow the academic or calendar year, so it would break up the year in an odd and not-useful way.  I have a friend whose birthday is December 31st, she could do this!  Anyway, I digress...

I hope Moleskine has kept the monthly calendars with the days as blocks to write in, instead of reverting back to the months as columns which were in the previous-years' Moleskine planners. I know there were a lot of people who cried out for the return of the monthly columns, so much so that Moleskine made them available as printouts on Moleskine.com (although I can't find that template now).  But the monthly block-calendars are so much more useful for those of us who need to visualize each month.

I love the idea of buying a planner now that will go all the way through 2012.  I have a freakish desire to plan ahead as much as possible.

I'm trying to resist buying one right now for a couple of reasons. I am really loving my Quo Vadis Minister weekly planner, and I don't have any desire to change from it.  I don't really need the Mole.  It has failed me in the past. And, I don't know what my planner needs will be in Indonesia.  My Minister might continue to work great for me all year. Or I may find new and glorious planner possibilities there.

But can I resist buying the Mole?  It appeals to me even if only for the comfort factor.

Will I?  Won't I? ...  ;)

13 comments:

  1. Totally love it - you truly are a planner aficionado!! :-)

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  2. Thank you angela, that is very kind of you! I would be likely to say something more like "freak," or at least "obsessive!" But aficionado is much nicer. :)

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  4. This is hard to resist! I thought I was bad, but my challenge of using a filofax for a whole year is difficult. I miss my moleskine :(

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  5. As a side note, I had the realization today that if I had used my July 2010-December 2011 Moleskine planner this whole time, I would've lived in 3 different countries during the course of the planner: Albania, Scotland and Indonesia! Would have been interesting (and odd) to have records of living in three such different places in one book.

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  6. Hi.
    just noticed the new 18 months today too .... I really like the idea of having 18 months, however as the new calendars always starts in July I find there is hardly any possibility to use all of the 18 months. For me the best would be if Moleskine would bring out the new 18 months diary to continue when the previous is going to finish. This way one could actually use the full 18 months and then continue with the next one and use it again for 18 months.
    I had emailed Moleskine about this last year in July when I started the new one. The reply I received, was that they are going to add my suggestion to their pool of ideas.

    Happy planning.

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  7. notebooktivity, I see your point. It does seem like a shame to waste planner pages.

    But because the 18 month planner goes all the way through the end of December, you could just go with a calendar-year planner after that. This would be useful for people transitioning from the academic year to calendar year (after they graduate for example). They can complete the entire 18 months in their planner, then get a calendar-year planner after that.

    It is an interesting idea though, and I wonder if Moleskine will implement it in the future.

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  8. So who was I kidding? There was no way I could resist buying one of these planners.

    I almost bought the Large 18 month weekly notebook, which would have been the 3rd year in a row I've bought it. But both times I've used this planner it failed sooner or later due to the small day spaces (especially those tiny weekend days!).

    So I ordered up the Extra-Large 18 month weekly notebook this time. I actually almost bought the 12 month version back in January, but resisted because I already had so many weekly planners for this year. So I promised myself I would get one of the 18 month ones when it came out. When I remembered that promise to myself, all systems were go.

    Another reason I'm happy to have the 18 month planner: last fall when my daughter started school, I realized it would be nice to use an academic-year planner to be able to plan her entire school year in one book. (That's when I got the Life Book which you can read about here: http://www.plannerisms.com/2010/09/2011-life-book-diary.html and which I abandoned after only a month because the day spaces were too small for my needs.) Next school year both of my kids will be in school, so I think I'll be glad to have the big day spaces of the XL Mole, in the academic year format.

    Ever thorough, last night I drew a mock-up of the weekly notebook format in my Moleskine extra-large cahier notebook, to see what the format would be like in the Extra Large size. (I've used the Moleskine weekly notebook in the Pocket and Large sizes but hadn't tried it in the Extra Large size before.) I put in everything from my current (very busy week). And the result was, I loved it. I've always loved the format but previously felt restricted in the smaller sizes. In the XL planner the day spaces are plenty big for me, and the huge page each week for notes will hold all my weekly lists. I really hope the monthly calendars are still there, because having a big month spread will be excellent for planning too.

    I'm really excited about this planner! I can hardly wait for it to get here. You can be sure I'll post about it here on Plannerisms after it arrives!

    The Extra Large 18 month only comes with the soft cover, which I don't have any experience with (I've only bought hard covers or cahiers). I hope I like the soft cover and that it's not too floppy.

    So now my goal is to continue to use my Minister until the 18 month Moleskine starts in July, then switch over. If I manage to stick with the Moleskine, I'll have the entire school year conveniently together in one book.

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  9. Fantastic kudos to Moleskine for doing this....I get very frustrated mid-year when the time comes for the new planners and I can't get them.....as someone who plans months, and sometimes a whole year or more in advance, these really are invaluable. My old Time Manager always carried an 18 month planner in the front, taking me through to June of the following year, and its great to have this option from The Papeterie and Moleskine themselves.

    I'm certainly going to be looking into these as a serious planning option for mid-2011 onwards. The overlap is one of the key things to making it all work for me.

    Thanks so much for flagging this up

    David

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  10. David I agree, I find the 18 month format very useful for planning to the end of contracts etc. And I too like the flexibility of the overlap.

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  11. Hi Laurie,
    I thought about your idea too :-) However it would just postpone the 6 months of wasted time as the new 18 months planner will start again in July ... :-(

    I really like the idea of NOT having to start a new planner in January. December is busy enough with all the festivities and I am glad I dot have to prepare a new planner (entering birthdays, etc) for January; so I will stick with the 18 months planner.

    I doubt that Moleskine will extend the use of the 18 months planner, after all they are running a business and want to sell as many planners as they can.

    Happy Thursday
    Marcus

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  12. Good point Marcus! It benefits Moleskine to sell as many planners as possible.

    And I agree, January is an awkward time for me to start a planner too. Usually we travel during Christmas and New Year, so if I start a new planner the week of New Year's Day that's two planners I have to bring with me on my trip!

    And anyway, now with kids in school it helps me to have an academic-year planner.

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  13. I think I will stick to the 18 months planner and use them for 12 months. Although I am always open to try new things, I believe I woudl struggle with the monthly planner. I had another look and I believe now, maybe I should try the extra large 18 months planner ... :-) Happy Weekend.

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