Welcome to Plannerisms

Friday, January 24, 2014

Free For All Friday No. 20: What would you like to see more of here on Plannerisms?

Today I want to check in with you, dear readers, and ask: what would you like to see more of on Plannerisms?

Would you like to see more how-to-use-planners posts? Would you like to see more reviews? (Keep in mind I buy my own planners most of the time, so my reviews are limited by my budget.) Are you liking these weekly forums? Is there something else you would like to see?

Thanks for your input! I want to make Plannerisms relevant and interesting, and a place where you enjoy visiting often.

As always on Fridays, feel free to discuss/ ask anything planner-related!

18 comments:

  1. Hi Laurie. Please keep the reviews coming! The fact that you pay for most of your planners is what gives your reviews authenticity and credibility! When items are donated (and especially if this happens on a regular basis - a certain major ring-bound organiser company, comes to mind) it must be very difficult to be critical of the product! Reviews can end up as more of a product description than a real-life user review. They can be a tad benign and overly positive. However, your reviews come from the heart, as someone who is both extremely knowledgeable and not afraid to give her opinion as a genuine, paying customer! You always state if you've received the item as a sample or if you've an affiliated link where you will earn commission from future sales too.

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    1. Thanks Tim! Yes my aim is to be as straightforward and transparent as possible with reviews. I'm glad to know they are useful!

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  2. 1st...love your site! I like the weekly forum and the reviews. I think how to ideas for using the different planners would be good. Especially when more people comment and you get different ideas from different perspectives. Thanks for all your hard work!

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    1. Thanks Jo Ann!

      Is this the type of post you mean: http://www.plannerisms.com/2011/07/planner-tips-using-weekly-planners.html

      Also if you look in the sidebar under Planners and Notebooks I have Reviewed, tips and articles and click on Using Planners you can see my posts on different ways to use planners. :)

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    2. I second this! I am using DIYfish and enjoy seeing how others use theirs. I use mine differently, but that's the beauty of seeing each others. There is more than one way to use the exact same product.
      Also, could we some plannerisms planners that have been dissected and used in a ring bound system? See how that's working for them?

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    3. That would be great! I would love it if people would send me photos of how they are using their planners, to give everyone else ideas on how to use them.

      I have heard of people cutting and punching their Plannerisms planners to fit their ring binders but haven't heard back from anyone using it this way. I would love to know how it's going!

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    4. I loved the Plannerism concept bu ended up dissecting mine last year. I had chopped the card cover to try get it to fit into an A5 Flex cover. It looked awful, so I took it apart for use as loose pages in my ring binder (Laurie has a photo). Plannerisms are bound together by a lot of glue as well as stitching, so it's necessary to trim the pages as the glue sticks. There's still enough space left in the margins so that, when punched, you loose very little content. Used on their own, the Plannerism pages are fine. However, this trimming makes the pages even narrower and highlights that the sheets are not true A5 like Filofax. So that when mixed in an A5 planner/ organiser they stick out above other pages and dividers at the top (because they're taller) and the pages can't easily be found along the vertical edge because they are narrower! After a few weeks, it annoyed me so much that (sorry to report) I switched to a bound monthly Moleskine instead. This year, I've gone back to Filofax - a Slimline Holborn for portability and an A5 ringed system on my desk. I still yearn for a true A5 bound planner though!

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    5. Tim I had forgotten you had sent me photos of your Plannerisms, cut and punched for your ring binder. That was nearly a year ago, wow! Would it be ok if I do a post on it and include the photos you sent me?

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    6. Of course! I'm only sorry I wasn't able to stick with the Plannerism, because (apart from the size issue) it's a great product! Your posts 18 months ago enthused me towards a bound planner and I purchased one as soon as they became available! The monthly Moleskine I subsequently purchased was also following two of your posts - one being your review and the other your suggestion about buying reduced price planners part way through the year to experiment with!

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  3. Laurie, congratulations for reviewing only what you buy yourself.
    Quite frankly, when one does not, like Tim says, perception of bias is present, I am afraid.

    Customer service, where applicable, is a good theme, if I may suggest.
    The weekly forum is excellent.
    Planner reviews, paper, planning systems.
    Ah, you did a series on goal setting in the recent past that was excellent.

    Your blog is the best in the category of planners, organisers, notebooks, journals, etc.
    Congrats.

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    1. Hi gdigesu, thank you for your kind words!

      To clarify, I do reviews of planners I have not purchased myself and have been provided to me. But when I do, I always state that they were sent to me as a sample to review (which I am required by law to state).

      Whether I bought the planner myself or received it as a sample, I always give it a fair review.

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  4. I enjoy reading for the different options of planning systems out there, but would also love to see how others are using their planners, how they're adapting different systems, etc. to give inspiration for customization. :)

    Love your blog, and I pop in weekly, even if I don't comment all of the time. :)

    - Melissa
    http://www.measi.net/measiblog/

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  5. How about a series on work arounds for bound planners: if your planner doesn't have a cover, pen loop, page marker, elastic closure, pocket, and how to have extra pages for notes?

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    1. mstraat that's a great idea! I do several of these work-arounds with my bound planner, so I can definitely do a series.

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  6. I love "how I use" and "how to use" posts. I realize that probably to make this work we the readers will need to be willing to share more. I am willing to do so personally but may take some nagging... I often intend to write a guest post and end up getting frustrated and just making a video instead!

    I enjoy the Friday chats too.

    And your useful reviews are fantastic. I often get the impression that a certain looseleaf planner producer chooses to send samples for review only to people who they trust will provide glowing reviews. We see no such nonsense at plannerisms. I fully trust that you will tell us what you really think, whether you bought it yourself or were given it by the producer.

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  7. I enjoy the in depth reviews of planners, notebooks and the photographs that you include provide a great visual. I also particularly like the videos of the planners and your suggestions for their use. Of great interest to me has been the information you provide about pens and their use with various products. Bleed through is a pet hate of mine and it would be great to see how the more popular makes of pens affect some of the items in reviews you undertake.This blog is excellent, so very informative. Thanks!

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  8. Laurie, I run a hybrid system, comprising of a (1) ring organiser, and (2) apps and digital appliances for contacts, calendars, referencing, maps, retrieval, and sharing. The bridge between the two worlds are scanning apps, and the corresponding hardware - smartphone, tablet, or desktop scanners at the office or home.

    The ring organiser is used for "capturing", drafting, note taking, concept development, depiction of ideas and thoughts during meetings, and so on. My cognition works best on paper for those areas.

    For the other needs - contact & appointment management, sharing (notes, appointments, messages, projects, tasks, notes, directions, …), archiving, maps, project & task management (what, when, how much, how, resources, delegation), *retrieval*, and *fall back* for these, the digital world functions more effectively - for my needs.

    As a romantic, I have had to come to terms with the fact that paper is not better than digital for the last block above.

    (i) These days, digital is ubiquitous, very fast, has high availability in my whereabouts, and allows for - secure, frequent, fast, wide - retrieval, and sharing.

    (ii) The idea of carrying maps in an organiser is romantic, but awkward, given the many geographies we cover nowadays.

    (iii) Also, dense project & task planning, management requires frequent updating, retrieval, and sharing with many people, and geographies, which cannot be accomplished with analog tools.

    The analog component above is working 100%. The "bridge" is fine, thanks. Some recent tweaks on the *digital* side have improved the fall back, fast retrieval, and sharing components of the system. We can talk about it, if and when you like.

    Your weekly forum, as you call it, is the best in the “industry”. Keep it coming!

    Giovani

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    1. Wow Giovani, sounds like you've got all your bases covered with your excellent blend of digital and paper! And thanks for your kind words about the weekly forum. When I first started it I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested, but it seems to be going very well!

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