Plannerisms

How do you structure your days?

2012-02-14T01:14:00.000Z

I structure my days chronologically, but it occurred to me there might be other ways to map out your day.

I'm very linear in general so I find it very helpful to map out my day hour by hour. This helps me prepare for what's coming up. If I need to bring something with me, like my kids' sports gear when I pick them up from school, I write that into the hour before pickup so I remember to have those things with me when I walk out the door.

Generally my days are structured as "before pickup" and "after pickup." During the day when my kids are at school is when I do my blog posting, housework, grocery shopping, phone calls, errands, and whatever else I need to do that day. After pickup it's a whirlwind of activities, practices, homework and projects. So I know when I write out my tasks for the day that if I don't have time to do it before I leave to pick them up, it's not going to get done that day. This helps me be more realistic about what I can accomplish in a day.

It's hard for me to imagine a non-chronological day, but I can guess for people who don't need an hourly schedule there might be different ways to structure their days. Maybe they use blocks of time to work on projects. Some freelancers and contractors might work on things when they can and total up their billable hours as they happen.

Do you structure your days in a non-chronological way? How does that work for you?

Paper vs. Digital: an iPhone user's perspective

2012-02-11T00:52:00.000Z

I've stated many times why I prefer paper planners: they're archival, I like the tactile and visual aspects, I'm analog in general, etc. I won't even start on the path to digital, because I have no interest in it. I don't care if it's more efficient or convenient, I like paper and that's it.

My sister has used and loved paper planners for years and has written several guest posts here on Plannerisms including ones about her love affair with her Moleskine weekly notebook, then how she dumped it for the super-efficient Quo Vadis Trinote. It seemed like a love affair that would last forever.

Then she got an iPhone.

But she's still on the fence as to whether or not to use it for her planning and note-taking needs. Apps are great and all, but they can't replicate the feel of pen on paper, and flipping through pages.

Will she convert to digital entirely? Will she use some sort of paper-digital combo?

Read her excellent post about it here: Organization - Digital vs. Tangible on her awesome blog 100 Days of Venting.

I know I'll be following this saga closely!!!

Holborn Zip personal size Filofax in Wine

2012-02-08T01:45:00.002Z

I am very excited to review the Holborn Filofax! This is one of their newer line of binders, and it is gorgeous.

The Holborn binders and folders are made from buttery-soft buffalo leather. Many of you have, or have heard of the Malden and know it's extremely popular because if its super-soft buffalo leather. The Holborn is like a more dressed-up version of the Malden.

First of all, many thanks to Filofax for sending me this beautiful binder as a sample to review! This Filofax is the Holborn Zip, Personal size, Wine color.

The styling of the Holborn is classic, and would be excellent for business or personal use (or a combination of both). The contrast stitching looks great:

The Filofax logo is subtly embossed on the front cover and, delightfully, on the zip pull tab!

There is a full-length pocket on the exterior front cover:

The front pocket could easily fit my phone if I wanted to carry it there:

The zip-around security means no worries about papers and loose ends falling out:

More of the stitching, very stylish:

The inside of the Holborn has lots of pockets and fun hidey-places! At first glance it looks ordinary enough, with loads of slots to hold cards:

Just to the left of the cards is a full-length, open pocket:

This can hold receipts, bills, or even a slim notebook such as a pocket Moleskine cahier or a Filofax Flex slim notebook. (I don't have either of these at home to officially experiment unfortunately!)

Here is the inside of the back cover:

In the back cover there is another full-length open pocket that could hold bills, and in there is a full length zip pocket for coins or other items you don't want escaping:

The leather pen loop is elasticated on the back to accommodate a range of pen sizes:

Here is the binder open:

Here is the Holborn Zip in action and fully loaded!

I haven't used a zipped binder since my very first Filofax-like binder, so it feels good to go back to my roots! And the leather on the Holborn is so smooth and soft, I want to pet and handle it all the time!

Based on information I've seen about the Filofax lineup this year, I have good news and bad news:

The good news is, the Wine color Holborn products will be more widely available starting next month.

The bad news is, the Zipped Holborns are being discontinued!

You can still get zipped Holborns in personal and A5 size at www.PensAndLeather.com, click here to see their Holborn range. (I am not affiliated with PAN but I have ordered from them before and was very pleased.)

Many thanks again to Filofax!

Signature Gutenberg Notebooks by Daycraft

2012-02-03T01:44:00.000Z

Here are the much-talked-about Signature Gutenberg Notebooks by Daycraft. Many thanks to Daycraft for sending me these notebooks as samples to review!

These notebooks are the white Helvetica A6 size and the black Times New Roman A5 size.

Each notebook has representations of the typeface embossed on the front of the soft Italian PU cover:

and on the back:

The white Helvetica has black page edges, which looks really cool:

The 100 gsm woodfree paper is cream colored with 6 mm ruling. There is a black ribbon page marker:

The end papers are black, and inside the front cover there is a printed history of the typeface:

The Times New Roman notebook has its typeface embossed on the front and back covers:

The cream woodfree paper is 100 gsm in this notebook too, with 6 mm ruling, and a white ribbon placemarker:

The history of the Times New Roman typeface is printed inside the front cover:

It's fascinating to read the origin and history of use of these typefaces that we see every day and are now such an integral part of our day to day lives.

From what I understand, Daycraft is currently searching for a US distributor. In the meantime, you can order Daycraft products with international shipping from Vera Chan. Enter the discount code plannerisms to get 20% off all products including Daycraft notebooks and planners!

Many thanks again to Daycraft!

What I'm Currently Using update: The one where I go back on everything I said before.

2012-02-02T01:59:00.001Z

This week I've been going back and forth a lot between planners to figure out what I need. It's been a long journey in just 3 days!

At the beginning of the week, I was using my Moleskine Monthly Notebook and my Moleskine Daily Pocket diary. The daily pocket is the one consistent thing in my planner world. It is my rock. All my daily details go into it. And because it contains permanent records of every day, that gives me more freedom to flit around with my other formats.

You might remember last week (was it only just last week?) I tried to incorporate my Moleskine Bakin weekly planner into the mix so that I could see a week view. This format didn't work well for me, and having to fill things in every day in daily, weekly and monthly formats quickly broke down. So at that point I went back to using my Monthly for planning and my Daily for recording.

This week I decided I really do need a weekly format for planning. The more I used my Monthly for planning, the harder it got. As the page filled up, it was harder to see what was going on. Too many details in a monthly calendar just didn't work for me.

So instead I'm now using my Monthly Notebook as my Goals book. Which, to be honest, was how I had originally intended to use it. After I got it I decided to try this experiment of using it as my planner, along with my daily diary. I wasn't entirely surprised to find out I really do need a weekly view for planning, since I've been planning with weekly views forever.

So now my Monthly Notebook Goals Book has my monthly goals on the page behind each month, and my mid-month and monthly reviews on the page opposite. I'll write my weekly reviews in the numerous lined pages at the back of the book, one page per week. Monthly goals + monthly and weekly reviews in a bound, archival book = Huge Win!

That's all well and good, you say, but what the heck planner am I using now? Good question. Onward to the Weekly Planners:

I busted out my Moleskine weekly notebook in the Large size that I had hanging around "just in case" (not XL that I deemed too big last year) because it's a format that generally works well for me. On the weekly pages I filled in all of my scheduled events for February. Immediately I appreciated having an entire page each week for all of my categorized weekly lists: Urgent, To Call/ Email, Household, Personal etc. Then off I went on my day.

I had a busy day out and about with meetings, activities and other things to do. We all know my bag is heavy, but carrying my Filofax, daily Moleskine, and 18 month weekly notebook all at once seemed excessive. Not to mention, there were seven unused months' worth of pages in the weekly notebook. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to put only the weekly pages I need into the Filofax that I carry everywhere anyway? Well, yes. Yes it would.

***If you are still reading at this point, thank you! Hang in there, we're almost there and you're in for a pleasant surprise too!

So I put the Cotton Cream week on 2 pages that came with my Aston Filofax into my Aqua Finsbury Medical Filofax. This Filofax had gotten to the point where I only opened it when some unpleasant medical thing was happening, and I was starting to get bad associations with using it despite it being a beautiful and very nice Filofax. I had to nip that in the bud and make friends with my Filofax again.

So I loaded up the weekly pages, and freshened up the whole thing--I took out unused pages, archived old notes, revived my Me section and updated my Lists.

Anyone who has been reading this blog awhile knows how many times I've tried and failed to use the personal size weekly pages. The day spaces are Just Too Small. Except now, I only need them for an overview of scheduled events, and for meal planning. All the daily tasks, phone calls, and other details go into my daily Moleskine. (My question to myself: why didn't I figure this out sooner??) I write Urgent tasks and reminders for each particular week in the This Week space above each Monday. Non-urgent and ongoing tasks go behind my Lists tab for easy access. I'm feeling really good about this!

Cotton Cream week on 2 pages in my Aston Orchid

And just to take it a step further, I decided for a real change of pace to move over into my new Aston Orchid. I had intended to wait until we move before using it, but I decided I'm tired of waiting for things and this is something I can enjoy right now.

I did a direct transfer of all the contents right out of the Aqua Finsbury and directly into the Aston Orchid. Boom. Done.

And to round out the newness of it all, I even bought a new pen to go with my new Filofax: a Zebra Sarasa Clip that was an impulse purchase at the bookstore. It's joyful, and I highly recommend it to all you pen lovers out there.

So to recap: I said I can't use Filofax weekly inserts because the day spaces are too small and they are not archival. (Problem solved by using my daily Moleskine for this.) I said I would wait until moving to use my Aston, and start fresh will all-new pages. (I want to enjoy using it now.)

And the result?

It feels really good to use my Filofax once more as my Trusted Adviser and Comfortable Companion. I've missed that.

Aston Filofax in Orchid, with new pen and my phone. I think the colors of the phone, Orchid and Cotton Cream look nice together!

So now I think I've got a really good system going. My daily Moleskine holds the permanent records of all my daily details. My Filofax has my weekly overviews and all the other stuff I need every day. Only two small-ish books to carry around each day. I think I've got all the bases covered!

Will it work for me long-term? Only time will tell!

Printed holidays

2012-01-30T08:48:00.000Z

I like to have holidays printed in my planner's daily spaces, but I know not everyone does.

Planners have a wide range of holiday inclusion, from none at all to too many irrelevant ones. Finding the right balance is tricky, and I suppose you can't please everyone.

Moleskine does a good job of pleasing as many people as possible I suppose: holidays are not printed as words in the day spaces, but the abbreviation of each country with a holiday is represented on the day. It's up to you to figure out exactly what the holiday is. I always write in US and UK holidays, when Daylight Savings and European Summer Time begin and end, and other reminders on the date. It's a tedious process but worth it to have it already in my book when I need it. The flip side of having to write it in myself is of course that I don't have anything irrelevant to my needs in my day spaces.

Quo Vadis planners (English versions) have US and UK holidays, clock-changing, and other days of note like Halloween already printed in the day spaces. They also have holidays of major religions printed on the day spaces. So unless you follow all major world religions, inevitably there will be something irrelevant to you pre-printed. Not a big deal, but some people are bothered by it I guess.

My favorite way of doing holidays in the day spaces is the way Filofax does it. US, UK, Australian and Canadian holidays and clock-changings are pre-printed on the days. Many religious holidays are indicated. And the holidays of loads of other countries are represented by their country abbreviation on the day. For example Indonesia (where I'm currently living) has its holidays indicated on the days by the abbreviation RI, which is convenient for me.

So in effect, the way Filofax does holidays is a combination of how Quo Vadis and Moleskine do it. Although curiously, I've noticed that Halloween is not printed in the Filofax diaries on October 31! I guess technically it's not a religious holiday or a public holiday so maybe that's why it got excluded. As a cultural tradition, I think it should be included. I guess I'm a holiday maximalist! Having all the holidays pre-printed means I don't have to write in anything to prep my planner, and makes me feel like I know what's going on elsewhere in the world.

What about you? Do you like to have holidays written in the day spaces of your planner? Or do they just take up space?

15% off all Success Choice products!

2012-01-27T15:54:00.001Z

The Success Choice has given me a very generous discount code for Plannerisms readers!! Enter code plannerisms12 at checkout to get 15% off your total purchase!

Success Choice planners have a unique setup with weekly layouts, monthly calendars, space to set and track goals, guides for household routines and personal growth. It's a very comprehensive system to help you in every aspect of your life. The planners come in spiral-bound quarterly editions, or loose-leaf for your binder.

Take a look at my review of the spiral-bound planners here with lots of photos and descriptions of the features.

There is also an Address Book insert available that is way more than just an address book--see my review of it here.

The paper used in the planners and address book is recycled, acid-free and archival for permanent records.

The Success Choice also sells hand-made leather covers for their planners, see my review of the beautiful, soft brushed leather cover here.

GUESS WHAT! Success Choice now sells RING BINDERS for their loose leaf planner inserts!! Check them out here!

All of The Success Choice products are made and printed in the USA.

And more great news: the 2013 planners will have wider line spacing in the daily spaces, due to popular demand. Thank you Success Choice for listening to your customers!

Many thanks to The Success Choice for offering this very generous discount code to Plannerisms readers. I will put this in the sidebar for future reference!

How many times do you write it?

2012-01-27T14:15:00.021Z

This is a little bit of a follow-on to my previous post, and is another topic I've been thinking about for awhile. How many times, in how many places, do you write your appointments and other daily commitments?

My limit, apparently, is two. I can keep up with writing this level of detail in only two planner formats at once. Daily and monthly is fine. Weekly and monthly is also fine. Even daily and weekly is fine. Daily, weekly and monthly = planner breakdown.

My recent experiment incorporating my weekly planner into my system with my daily and monthly failed rather quickly. I felt overwhelmed keeping up on all the different planners, and felt scattered instead of in control. I was very surprised! After all, I'd used a daily diary and weekly planner together for most of last year. Why did it fail now?

The answer is, because I'm using a finer level of detail in my monthly planner. When I use a daily and weekly together, my monthly only gets used for permanent reference things like birthdays, holidays, bills and due dates, etc. The fixed, static dates. But lately I've been using my monthly planner in a much more detailed, interactive way by writing in appointments, meetings, reminders, and other scheduled events.

This requires me to look at my monthly planner every day. And of course I have to look at my daily planner several times throughout the day. Adding my weekly planner, where I had to update entries and consult it daily too, was too much.

Not a big surprise really, since I had a similar fail about a year ago.

Which brought me to the realization that my writing and consulting on a daily basis threshold is two places. Which is good to know, because it allows me to choose the two formats that work best for me at that time.

I know some people who can keep up with daily, weekly and monthly planners all at once (and I would like to be one of these people because each format allows for a different perspective of your schedule). I also know people who have to stick to one format, usually weekly, to avoid redundancy.

What about you? How many places do you write your daily things?

Consolidating calendars

2012-01-27T00:45:00.000Z

I've been thinking of writing this post for awhile but put it off, because I already know what some people will suggest as a solution: "Go digital!" But it's not as simple as that.

By "consolidating calendars" I mean, getting all the calendars and timelines in your life down to a simpler, usable system. I thought, maybe most people have this figured out by now. But yesterday as I was surfing blogs I found a reply on one where someone was struggling to consolidate all of her calendars: work, personal, her husband's work schedule, blogging, knitting, etc. And I thought, ok maybe there will be some interest in this topic after all!

My first thought as to who needs help consolidating calendars goes to parents with kids in school. My kids' school doesn't have a regular schedule (for example, every Tuesday is Library Day). Instead, each month the teachers print out a calendar of what their class is doing each day of the month. That way I can consult the calendar each day and know whether to send swim gear, library books or PE kit. It's complicated, but I guess it avoids redundancy in the schedule.

Anyway, I don't write these things into my planner because there's no need. It's simpler just to consult the calendars on my fridge than to re-write all this stuff. But it means I have several places to look each day to see what's happening: each child's classroom calendar, and my planner. Three places is do-able. But at what point do you reach the state of "too many places to look?"

Even people who only have their own schedule to keep track of have different types of calendars to maintain: work, personal, study/ university/ grad school/ night school etc., blog post scheduling, volunteer work, etc. It can be a lot to keep up on!

There's no one right way to keep track of multiple calendars at once. For keeping track of multiple peoples' schedules, the easiest way to see who is doing what each day is to use one of those family calendars where each person has their own column for each day of the week or month. This works well not only for families but also for roommates, coworkers, and any other place where you need to see who's where each day.

Some people like to keep their work planner separate from their personal planner. This works fine if your work/ personal lives are truly separate, or have little overlap. For example, when I worked in a corporation we all had to use Outlook for our work schedules so that people could schedule meetings with everyone who needed to be there. I kept all of my personal stuff in my Filofax. In the rare instance I needed to schedule something during work hours, like a dentist appointment, it was pretty easy to figure out a good time.

Some people, especially those whose work and personal commitments don't follow exact time delineations, might function better having everything all together in one planner. This not only helps avoid overlapping or double booking appointments, it also helps you see what's coming up in a different aspect of your life. For example, you might not necessarily put on your work schedule to buy flowers for the dinner party that night, but if you have everything in one planner you would.

I do know there are lots of electronic options for combining calendars. Partners can share a digital calendar system where they can see each other's schedule and get automatically updated when the other person's schedule changes. But, when you use a paper planner it encourages communication to tell each other when the schedule has changed. I like that.

What about you? What method do you use to keep track of your work, blogging, hobbies, study, kids and/ or partner's schedule, and everything else you've got going on in your life? Do you find it helpful to combine everything in one calendar/ planner, or keep some things separate?

Discount for Plannerisms readers on OfficeHero.co.uk!

2012-01-24T09:45:00.001Z

OfficeHero.co.uk is a new office supplies website with great prices on all your office needs.

Plannerisms readers get a special 5% discount! Just enter the code Planner1sm at checkout.

This offer is good for ALL of this year! And for your easy reference, I have also posted this discount code in the sidebar for whenever you need it.

Happy Shopping! :)

2012 Moleskine Bakin weekly planner

2012-01-24T03:32:00.000Z

I have to admit I bought this planner because the cover is just so cool! My photo doesn't do justice to the coppery metallic design.

Inside it's a horizontal weekly format, with all the usual Moleskine features.

As you might notice, I wrote the month at the top left corner, to make it easier to see where I am in the book. Moleskine printed the months all the way into the middle of the book which makes it harder to find the month/ week I'm looking for.

Right now I'm using the weekly pages as a modified week + notes, where I use the spaces directly under the printed days of the week to plan my days, and the middle of the weekly spread for my tasks lists for that week. I have separate lists for Goals, Email/ Call, Household, Blogs and any other specific topics for that week.

I use the last line on each day's space to write the dinner menu for that day. It really helps me do meal planning to see the entire week at a spread so I can see when my busy days are and what meals I'm able to spend more time on.

Using a weekly spread to plan my week and write my lists allows me to see what I need to do and when I have time to do it.

You can read about how I'm using this planner along with my daily and monthly planners in What I'm Currently Using.

Archival quality planners

2012-01-20T11:15:00.004Z

Today's Free For All Friday on Philofaxy has me thinking about archival quality planners.

I use my planners for planning, but I like to keep them forever and look at them years later so it's important to me that my planner have archival quality paper. Unfortunately, it seems that not a lot of planner companies use archival paper.

I don't know a lot about paper and what makes it archival or not, but I know it's important for it to be acid-free/ pH neutral.

I also know this is not at all the same as chlorine-free. Chlorine-free means no chlorine was used in the paper's bleaching process. This is better for the environment but I don't know if it makes any difference to the archival quality of the paper.

The only three planner brands I know of that specifically are archival quality/ use acid-free paper are Moleskine, Leuchtturm and Quo Vadis.

**Edited to add: Paperblanks and Cartesio planners also use acid-free paper. The Success Choice planners use acid-free, archival recycled paper.

Does anyone know of any other planners that are archival and use acid-free paper?

How to use monthly or weekly AND daily planners at the same time

2012-01-19T05:24:00.000Z

My friend @RoriRants tweeted a question recently (to paraphrase): how do you use a weekly (or in my case monthly) planner and a daily planner/ diary at the same time without being completely redundant? Great question! Here's some ideas.

I used a weekly planner and daily diary at the same time for most of last year. This year so far I'm using a monthly planner instead of the weekly, and still using a daily. Here's how I do it:

In the weekly or monthly planner, I write all my future plans. Upcoming appointments, school holidays and activities, my husband's days off from work, travel, birthdays, etc. All future events go in here. I also write my dinner menus for the week so I can plan quick meals on evenings I get home later, and to see past meals for ideas (or to see when I'm getting too repetitive with the meals).

In the daily, I write everything that happens today. Today's appointments, cute things my kids did and said, the weather, my list of things I need to do today, things I did today that weren't on the list like phone calls and emails. This creates an excellent record of what I did and when.

Using the monthly or weekly for planning and the daily for recording minimizes redundancy, and allows me to use each format for what it's good at.

You can see more details on how I use my daily diary here, and how I used my weekly planner along with it here.

Those of you who use a daily planner and also a monthly or weekly planner, how do you do it? What do you write in each planner?

2012 Planners on sale now

2012-01-18T01:14:00.000Z

If you haven't gotten your 2012 planner yet, or are having a Planner Fail with your current system, don't wait to get your new planner! Many are already sold out.

Here are some brands that have their 2012 planners on sale at a discount:

Moleskine and More still has several sizes and formats of 2012 Moleskine planners available, which they can customize for you with your initials, name, or words of your choice embossed on the cover. Click here to go to their planners page.

Also Ginko Papers has their remaining 2012 calendars and planners at discounted prices, be sure to check out their gorgeous designs here.

Dodo Pad has most formats of their 2012 diaries at 50% off, click here to see!

Organised Mum has some of their 2012 calendars and diaries on sale.

Do you know of any other companies who have discounts on their planners? Are you searching for a new planner?

Two week evaluation: How's your planner working for you?

2012-01-16T12:27:00.000Z

Now that we are a couple of weeks into the year, you've got an idea of how well your planner is functioning for you.

Is it working well? Needs some tweaking? Or is it a Planner Fail and you're on the search for something else?

I don't want to cause a panic, but if you need a different planner be sure to grab it now while you can. Many brands/ styles of planners are already sold out (including the WeekDate weekly planners and some Moleskine sizes and formats). And once we get into March-April (aka the Planner Dry Season), they get really scarce and you have to wait until the academic year planners start in the summer!

So what about you? Are you happy with your setup, or searching for something else?

Rickshaw Zero messenger bag in new Performance Tweed

2012-01-13T16:28:00.000Z

Here's my new custom Zero Messenger bag from Rickshaw Bagworks in the Aubergine Performance Tweed with Iris interior!

I chose this color combination on their Customizer (which is very addictive, don't say I didn't warn ya!).

I'd been looking at their Performance Tweed fabrics for awhile, contemplating which color to get. Then they came out with the Aubergine color, which put me into a bit of a frenzy. Then in November they had a one-day-only 1/2 off sale. Sold!

Look how awesome it looks next to my (well-loved) Zero bag in Iris and pink!

I'm really looking forward to using my new Rickshaw Zero bag! Thanks for another amazing bag Rickshaw! Love ya!

2012 Moleskine Monthly Notebook

2012-01-13T06:18:00.000Z

Huge thanks to my mom for getting me the 2012 Moleskine Monthly Notebook for Christmas!!! I wanted one of these last year but by the time I got around to ordering one, they were tragically sold out. So I've spent the past year ~~pining for one~~ ~~lamenting what could have been~~ looking forward to trying it out this year!

The Moleskine Monthly Notebook is a monthly planner only, no weekly views. It has all the usual Moleskine features including the international information, ivory paper, placemarker and pocket in the back. It comes in Pocket, Large and Extra Large sizes. Mine is the Large size, approximately 5 by 8 1/2 inches.

The Monthly Notebook only comes with the soft cover in black. I had formerly shunned all Moleskine soft covers on principle. I wanted the durability of the hard cover. But I have to say, I'm loving the soft cover, especially in such a slim book. It makes the book very lightweight and slim, so it easily goes everywhere with me in my bag. And it feels nice in my hands. Cover Win!

The planner has a few different types of monthly planners. Side by side reference calendars for this year and next year, very handy:

Months as columns for all of the current year, 4 months to view:

And months as columns for all of next year:

The meat of the planner is month on two pages grid calendars for all of the current year (shown at the top of this post), with a two-page spread of lined note pages between each month:

I use these notes pages for that month's goals, specific things I need to do that month (like vaccine boosters, insurance or magazine renewals, etc), and monthly reviews.

Then after December there are 53 lined pages for notes. Even if you use a two-page spread after December like the rest of the months, that still gives you 51 notes pages, which is enough for one page per week of the entire year (minus one week, and there's sure to be a week of vacation in there somewhere when you won't need an entire page that week).

So here's how I'm using it:

I use the monthly columns for overviews, which is extremely useful to see long-range plans like school holidays and travel.

I use the month on two page calendars for all appointments, activities, bills due and paid, holidays, birthdays, and any other scheduled details.

Like I said above, I use the two-page spread between the months for monthly specifics. I'll use a notes page per week for my weekly lists and to-dos, notes and whatever else. I'm not too structured about how I use these notes pages, I love the flexibility of the unformatted pages.

I love the stripped-down simplicity of this monthly planner. The monthly grids are completely uncluttered, so anything I write is very visible. I can use the notes pages in any way I need to at the time, there's no set way to use it.

I'm using this Monthly Notebook as an accompaniment to my day per page diary, which keeps my daily to-do lists and details. So I use my Monthly for the overview and Daily for the specifics.

Because the monthly pages are smack in the middle of the book, it took a little flipping of pages to locate whatever month I was looking for. So I used a Sharpie marker to indicate the edges of each month's pages, running down the edges (as I have done in my day per page diaries *1* *2* *3* years in a row now). Now I can go directly to the month I'm looking for!

Also as I like to do in my day per page diary, I had my kids decorate some of the pages for me. There are so many notes pages, I wasn't at all worried about them using up too many pages. I handed them the book and asked them not to draw on any of the pages with squares (the monthly calendars themselves) and let them have at it. The result, as always, is that now I have original art from my children in my planner, which makes me absolutely cherish it!

"Our house and Christmas tree"

"Walking through the snowy forest"

I am loving this system. The monthly notebook is a great companion to my pocket daily. It's excellent for monthly and longer-range planning, lists and notes while my daily book plans and records each day's details. They are both light and portable so they go together easily in my bag.

My mom liked this planner so much she ordered one for herself too!

Thanks again Mommy for getting me this planner! I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use yours. Love you!!

What I'm currently using: Why oh why??

2012-01-12T22:39:00.001Z

Some of you may have noticed in my What I'm Currently Using page (in the sidebar) that I've switched things up a little.

At the moment, I'm not using my Organised Mum Life Book. Some of you have expressed shock that I've abandoned the planner that I was loving so much! And to be completely honest I'm surprised myself, because I absolutely love the Life Book. I love it.

But over the past couple of months I found myself using it less and less. It's too big to carry with me everywhere so it sits on my desk next to my computer. My day per page planner goes everywhere with me and is my main planner with all my daily details, so my Org Mum was more like a worksheet to see the weeks and months mapped out. I wrote my weekly lists on the weekly pages along with appointments and meal planning. It works really well. When I use it, that is.

But as I wrote less and less in it I realized that I wrote so little into the daily spaces each week, I could get away with just a monthly view rather than weekly.

My mom gave me a Moleskine Monthly Notebook for Christmas (click here for review), which I've been wanting to try with my daily book for a long time. Monthly views, and pages for notes and lists. Sheer simplicity.

And to further explain my planner changeup, here's what's going on with my life right now. We might be doing yet another international move this summer...or not...or we might stay an additional year here...or not! As you might imagine, the uncertainty of possible major life changes is making me anxious and I'm looking for a way to feel more in control.

The massive benefit of my Moleskine Monthly Notebook is that it's small and slim so it goes in my bag with me everywhere. So when I'm out and about and think of something else to add to my lists or longer-range planning I can capture it directly and not have to try to remember to write it into my book when I get home.

Don't get me wrong, I still adore my OM. I might go back to it (you know how I am). Once things are settled I might start using it again, I can totally see myself doing that. But for now I'm trying out the portability of the Monthly Notebook. When you read my review of it you'll see lots of reasons why I like it.

Will I stay with my Monthly Notebook? Will I go back to the Organised Mum Life Book that I love so much? Will I switch to something completely different? Only time will tell, so stay tuned!

Planner Tally 2011

2012-01-12T00:29:00.002Z

2011 was another year of switching around in lots of different planners. Here is what I used:

I started 2011 determined to choose one planner that I would use all year by the end of January. That was the plan, at least. I was very excited to experiment with the WeekDate planner, and a slight tweak of the Moleskine vertical weekly planner.

Then in mid-January my life was completely upended when I found out we would be moving from Scotland to Indonesia in just 2 months. All my goals and plans for the year were suddenly thrown out the window, and I had yet another international move to prepare for. As I tend to do in these situations, I went for the comfort factor of my Filofax.

When the moving preparations really geared up, I turned to my pocket size daily Moleskine diary, because I was able to carry it around in my pocket to write down all the millions of little details I had to do to prepare for our move before they escaped my scattered and stressed-out brain.

During our moving preparations we all had to get a million vaccines before moving to Indonesia. While scheduling dozens of vaccines over a 6 week period, I realized all this scheduling would be much easier in a weekly planner with days as vertical columns, so I moved over into my Quo Vadis Minister Habana. This planner got me through my move with my sanity (mostly) intact.

Shortly after my move to Indonesia my real planner crisis began as I tried to figure out what would best fit my new life. I was chomping at the bit to use my new A5 Filofax Domino in the gorgeous Ultraviolet color, so I busted that out. Despite a few attempts, I soon abandoned it because it was just too big and heavy to carry everywhere.

At this point I only had my luggage, and my shipment with a variety of planners would not arrive for more than a month (despite the shipping company's "less than a week" promise). Nothing like having a planner crisis with no planners available! Also considering it was April, which is the Planner Dry Season, I was stuck for planner options.

So I bought a notebook and made my own planner, which was pretty successful. The day spaces were too small for everything I wanted to write, so I added in my pocket daily Moleskine for the daily details, and this worked well.

Then in June as I was struggling to settle into my new house and new life, I struggled with what planner to use. After a couple of scary medical incidents, I realized I had to have my Filofax with me at all times with our medical information in it. With my Filofax as my information book, I tried various planner combinations including going back to my self-made planner and then to my WeekDate, while using my daily pocket Moleskine as my log book.

In July I used the Women's Success Planner, which has loads of goal-setting tips and household reminders. It's very comprehensive and I was very excited to use it.

Then when school started in August I switched to my Extra Large 18 month Moleskine weekly notebook, because I needed the massive amounts of writing space and because I'd been gagging to use it ever since I ordered it back in early March.

The XL turned out to be just too big and heavy to carry all the time in my bag, and I had a planner crisis. On the advice of my sister I turned to the Quo Vadis Trinote, which is the planner that saw me through my move to Scotland.

Then in October I moved over into my 2011 Organised Mum Life Book, because it's what I was using exactly a year before in Scotland and I was feeling nostalgic. I used my pocket daily Moleskine along with it and this sytem worked so well that I bought the 2012 Organised Mum Life Book and continued to use this setup for the rest of the year.

I've left out a couple of short-term switchings-around, and I haven't even bothered to count up this total because, wow. It's a lot.

At this point, who can even speculate what I'll use in 2012?

Here is the reverse-chronology I posted on my What I'm Currently Using page, for more information on dates of use and why I used each thing:

October 17-December 31, 2011: I was feeling nostalgic for my Organised Mum Life Book because it's what I was using about this time last year in Scotland, so I got it back out again. It runs Sept 2010 through the end of December 2011 so I can still use it now. I LOVE the month on 2 pages calendars with the pages between the months for goals, notes and budgeting. I also love all the notes pages in the back for annual planning and goals. There's plenty of space at the sides of the weekly pages for my to-do lists, which I can categorize any way I want. The only thing I struggle with in this planner is the day spaces are a little small for me. I get around this by using my Pocket Daily Moleskine as my log book, as I have done for most of this year. I switched straight over to my 2012 Life Book diary (which goes from mid-August 2011 through the end of December 2012) when it arrived Nov 4. It has some excellent updates this year, which you can read all about in my review here. I also treated myself to the purple faux leather cover which I love!

September 8-October 16: After a total Planner Breakdown, my ever-wise sister convinced me to go back to using the Quo Vadis Trinote, which worked so well for me last year. The XL Mole was just too big and heavy in my bag. The Trinote is much slimmer and lighter and more portable, and the days as (huge) columns give me plenty of room to write the multitudes of things I need to do each day. The categorized list boxes alongside my weekly schedule allow me to see what I need to do and when I have time to do it.

August 17-Sept 7: When the school year began I discovered I needed the maximum writing space of my 2011-2012 Extra Large Moleskine Weekly Notebook. On it I have my Dodo Pad Nubuck cover in Aqua. I use my WeekDate Wall calendar on my fridge to keep everyone's activities visible for the whole family.

(September 1-3: In an attempt to incorporate journaling into my daily life, I switched to my Large Moleskine day per page, which you can read about here. Predictably, the day per page didn't allow me to plan ahead so back to my XL Mole I went.)

July 6-August 16: Woman's Success Planner (www.thesuccesschoice.com) with daily Moleskine as logbook.

June 21- July 5: WeekDate planner with daily Moleskine as logbook.

June 13-21 Back to self-made planner with daily Moleskine as logbook.

June 4-12 Filofax as information book and daily Moleskine as logbook.

April 10-June 3: Self-made planner in Daycraft Signature sketchbook. See my May 21 update of how I'm also using my Moleskine daily pocket planner along with it.

April 2- 9: A5 Domino Filofax (in the new Ultra Violet color) with the Quo Vadis Timer 21 inserts sent to me by Steve!

February 21- April 1: Quo Vadis Minister Habana weekly planner, with monthly calendars taped into the pages and a slim Moleskine address booklet in the back pocket.

February 1-20: Moleskine pocket size day per page.

January 16-31: Week on 2 pages in Filofax Deco.

January 8-15: Self-Made planner in Moleskine notebook.
(Concurrently "Calling the Dog")
January 8-15: WeekDate planner.

January 1-7: Moleskine large vertical weekly planner.

Guest review: Moleskine Taskmaster planner

2012-01-11T12:21:00.000Z

Enormous thanks to Mstraat who graciously offered to review the 2012 Moleskine Taskmaster weekly planner. I've been very curious about this planner, so I really appreciate this review!! Here's Mstraat with the glorious details:

I’d like to start by thanking Laurie and the folks at Jenni Bick for the embossed 2012 large daily Moleskine I won in the plannerisms.com giveaway. Of course I subsequently had to view every item on the moleskineandmore.com site and as a result came across something I have needed at work: a planner that has some space for appointments but, more importantly, lots and lots of space for lists. Here is a tour of the Moleskine Professional 2012 Taskmaster Planner – X Large.

The Taskmaster is the usual Moleskine X-Large size of 7.5 x 10 inches (19.5 x 25.4 cm). It is hardcover and so should be sturdy though that adds a bit to the weight, which is 1.5 pounds (680 gm) according to my kitchen scale. By comparison, the daily large Moleskine weighs in at 1.25 pounds, so it isn’t much heavier. It is not quite so thick as the daily one.

Many of the features are the same as in other Moleskine products; ivory colored paper that is fairly thin so you’ll need to be careful what pen is used; “in case of loss” inside the front, followed by pages for personal data yearly overviews for 2012 and 2013; month on one page grids for 2012, a space at the bottom of each page for notes; international holidays; one page for travel planning and one for travels memo; time zones, international airport and flight duration listings; conversions and clothing sizes; and two blank pages with legend.

The weekly pages are a vertical layout, with the date and days across the top as well as indications for international holidays and moon phases.

You can see in the photo of the left side page that there are times for appointments, one line per half hour but printed hourly, with a blank space midday.

On the right side notice that Saturday and Sunday share the column with no times printed to the lines, and that at the bottom there is a small calendar for current and following month. At the bottom side left the week number is printed, and the month on the right.

So far this is pretty mundane planner stuff, but the page following the weekly calendar is what made my heart beat faster!

Look at all the space for lists! One of the features I like in a planner is the ability to use space as I want without needing to white out pre-printed titles. The left side page has the week’s dates and month at the top with lots of blank space, then two sets of lines with a blank space between. The lines are arranged as four columns with tick boxes at the left side of each and a slight break in the center of the lines, but the boxes are faint enough to write clear across the lines if you prefer.

The right hand side has “actions and projects” printed at the top, again with blank space.

There are two sets of lines that extend across the page with a blank space in the center. At the left of each line is a tick box and two dots at the right to use for your own follow up markings.

There is a set of these pages following each week, and I can imagine all sorts of ways to use them. To do lists could be arranged by day, week or project. Project and action lists could be located behind the appropriate date. There is room for agenda item notes or meeting follow up lists. . . Maybe you can tell I completely fell under the Taskmaster’s spell. To finish up, as in other Moleskine planners there are seven blank pages for notes at the back of the Taskmaster, as well as the inner pocket and indexed address book.

I do want to add that the Jenni Bick folks are most helpful. They were quite prompt in answering my email queries about the Taskmaster and even with time for embossing it arrived quickly. The embossing they do is beautiful, as you can see:

and they repackage the Moleskines with the original label—and a free gift! I received a leather bookmark with one planner and a key fob with the other. I am anxious to begin using the Taskmaster and will update you on how it has worked out for me after I have used it a bit. Thanks to Laurie for letting me share this review!

Thanks again so much to Mstraat for this excellent and thorough review!!

2013 Moleskine planners, wow!!!!

2012-01-11T01:05:00.000Z

I just found the new Moleskine catalog with the 2013 planners! Woo hoo!!

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/landing-pages/catalogs/moleskine/index.html

There are some seriously exciting things in there!

I have already pre-ordered from Amazon some of the 2013 Star Wars planners (!!!) and the Passions Family diary. I'm also very pleased to see there are finally colored planners in the large size!

One thing that did upset me a lot though is I see the 2-year planner with vertical months (with a line per day) is back in the 2013 planners. This means they have done away with my beloved monthly grid calendars. This might be a dealbreaker for me. I absolutely must see my months as grids. I will get the monthly notebook to go along with my planner (maybe this is what they have in mind to sell more planners) but it won't be the same as having the months in my daily book.

Some other things I found in the new catalog that look cool are the postal notebooks and cards!

What looks exciting to you in the upcoming new Moleskine lineup?

Using your planner to set and achieve your goals

2012-01-09T13:28:00.000Z

Now's the time of year when many of us are thinking about our goals for the upcoming year.

I love goal-setting tips, and I especially love to think of ways to use a planner to set and reach goals. Here are some posts I've written about using your planner to set and achieve your goals:

I wrote this post on Philofaxy a couple of months ago on using a Filofax for goal-setting, but it can be used with just about any planner/ notebook setup. It has a lot of general tips on how to set goals, track progress, document your efforts and what to do when you've reached your goal:

Setting goals with your Filofax

Below is a post that links to an article I read that explains how to set achievable goals, and the importance of tracking your goals and recognizing your benchmarks along the way. It also finally explains the flaws of many self-help books!

Secrets for Success

Here's a post I wrote awhile back about incorporating daily goals into my planner, with a link to Travis the Trout's excellent series on Goals journals:

Daily Goals

Goal-setting usually makes me think of Uncalendar planners (www.uncalendar.com), because they are designed to help you set your goals and then incorporate them into your daily schedule. See more about that in these posts:

Do you Uncalendar? (an explanation of the Uncalendar system featuring the Full Size Uncalendar.)

Uncalendar Half-Size review

Time for new goals! (How I used my Half-Size Uncalendar as my goals workbook.)

And don't miss the Uncalendar Training Room which is free to all and full of goal-setting and life management advice.

Do you use your planner to set and track your goals? Do you have any new goals for 2012? Please post a comment! :)

Back online!

2012-01-09T09:15:00.000Z

Hi everyone, I'm back from my wonderful vacation in Scotland! I'm currently working my way through replies (and struggling with jet lag) so if you are waiting to hear back from me please give me a few days.

There's lots of excitement coming up here on Plannerisms, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T09:25:00.003Z

Have you made any resolutions for 2012? Are you using a new planner/ diary this year?

All the best to you in 2012!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:24:00.001Z

Did Santa bring you any cool planner/ stationery goodies?

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

How I use my pocket daily Moleskine diary

2011-12-22T09:10:00.000Z

Mstraat asked how I use my pocket size day per page Moleskine diary. Here are some details!

Mstraat asked if I designate spaces on my daily page for certain things. I don't designate spaces on the daily page for specific types of things, mainly because I never know how much space I'll need for each thing each day. My page is much more free-form. If I used a Large daily planner I might delineate spaces, but with the Pocket size I just cram things in wherever they'll go.

At the very top of the page I write the important event of the day, holiday, birthday, anything else of major importance (and have my kids do art there too).

I write appointments into the appropriate time slot, and circle it so I know it's an appointment and not a task. I write in appointments as soon as I know them for all future dates. I carry this planner with me everywhere so I can always reference it to see when I'm available, to make appointments, and record things that need to be done on the days they need doing.

I write tasks in approximately when they need to get done. For example, if I need to do something in the morning, before I pick my kids up at school, or after school I'll write the tasks in those locations. I only write things that NEED to get done TODAY on my daily page. Things that need to get done sometime this week go on this week's page in my weekly planner (which I talk about briefly here, and you can see more details of how I use my Organised Mum Life Book weekly planner in my review of it here).

I also write in things I did that day, to have a log of what happened each day and when. Emails sent, phone calls made, other notes get written onto today's page. I'm always surprised at how much stuff I do each day, and it's gratifying to look back and realize, "Oh THAT'S how I spent my morning. I really was busy!"

I usually write what I'm making for dinner in the 5pm time slot, because that's what time I'm cooking so I'm not likely to have anything else scheduled during that time so that space is available.

If I have something specific to do in the evening, like make a phone call to the US, I write that in the evening. I like the open format with the times down the side because it's really useful to me to see my day chronologically. That way I see when I have time do to things.

After the 8pm time slot there are several lines for notes which I use to record details such as expenditures for the day, notes of things that happened, and any other details of the day.

I also record other things on the daily pages. For example: my daughter was ill for a couple of weeks with a recurring fever and upper respiratory infection. I recorded her temperature throughout the day for several days. When I took her back to the doctor because she wasn't improving, he asked what her temperature had been for the past several days. I was able to look back in my diary and see that her fever was relatively low each morning, then got higher and higher as the day went on each day. This, as it turns out, is a symptom of typhoid fever, which is rampant right now during the rainy season. The doc gave her antibiotics and said if the fever wasn't completely gone in 48 hours she had to come back to be tested for typhoid. Luckily the antibiotics did the trick and she only had a respiratory infection. But if I hadn't been recording her temps each day I might not have noticed the pattern. Also now I have a permanent record of her symptoms and how long they lasted, so the next time she's ill I can compare to what she had before.

I record a lot on each day's page, and I was tempted to get a larger daily book for next year. But for this entire year the pocket size has had enough space for everything I need to write each day. Also, this book has the advantage of actually being small enough to fit in my pocket so I can jot down things before I forget. And, it weighs next to nothing and takes up no space in my bag, so I take it everywhere with me.

These advantages, for me at least, convinced me to use a pocket size daily diary again for 2012. And I got the Moleskine again because the open format allows me to use the entire page without restrictions. To encourage myself to use this planner all year long, I let my kids do art on the pages throughout the book, which you can see more of here.

So there are some details on how I use my pocket size daily Moleskine! If you have any questions or would like any more specifics on useage just post a comment and I'll be happy to answer!

Reader question: US planner similar to Organised Mum Life Book?

2011-12-22T07:52:00.000Z

Reader Amelia emailed me recently to ask if there is a planner in the US that is similar to the Organised Mum Life Book (click here to see the product page, which has a direct link to my review! I'm so flattered they posted my review!).

Organised Mum does international shipping at very reasonable rates and with fast service. But Amelia would like a planner with similar features that has a US focus with US holidays etc.

I know there are a million "Mom planners" out there. Does anyone know of one in particular that's like the Org Mum Life Book?

Amelia, please post a comment and let us know more specifics about what features you are looking for: Budgeting pages? Menu planning? Tear-off shopping lists? Holiday planning? All of the above?

Thanks in advance to everyone for any suggestions!!

(PS I'm having a WONDERFUL time in Scotland!! I love it here!!!!!)

Offline while traveling

2011-12-16T03:21:00.002Z

I'm off to Scotland! I'll be offline for 3 weeks while I'm traveling. I have a couple of posts scheduled while I'm gone.

When I get back in January I have a bunch of products to review, so be sure to check back in to see cool new things here on Plannerisms!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Lessons Learned 2011 and Planner Plans 2012

2011-12-15T09:39:00.000Z

I've spent a lot of years searching for The Perfect Planner.

Recently I was looking back through old emails with my sister from back before I started this blog. Back then my sister was the (very patient) recipient of all of my planner angst, and there was a lot of it.

At that time I was cycling through these: my Filofax to have my planner and information pages all in one book; a large weekly planner (the Full Size Uncalendar at that time) for more planning space, and a day per page planner for detailed records. For those of you who have been reading this blog awhile, that pattern should sound familiar, because it's the same pattern I've been cycling through ever since.

Until recently.

For the past couple of months, my system has been working very well. I've been using my personal size Aqua Finsbury Filofax as my Medical and Info Filofax, which goes in my bag with me everywhere. My pocket daily Moleskine also goes everywhere with me, and is my main planning and recording book. My 2012 Organised Mum Life Book is my planner, goals workbook, holidays and birthdays planner, budgeting assistant and all-around life management tool, and it stays home almost all the time.

Wait a second you might say, this sounds suspiciously like the Life Book + Daily Diary system I used last year that quickly failed. Why is it so successful this time?

Here's the difference: last time I used the weekly Life Book as my main planner, and my daily Textagenda as my go-everywhere record book. The problem was, my Life Book stayed at home all the time, but I didn't do any forward planning in my daily Textagenda. So to make any plans I had to wait until I got home to consult my Life Book. I was constantly going back and forth between the two. It was a confusing mess.

Now the difference is subtle but significant: my daily planner is my main planner. All future plans are recorded in it right away. It goes everywhere with me, even around the house and to my bedside table to capture everything I need to do or remember. I synch it with my weekly Life Book, which stays at home on my desk, open next to my computer. I record all my appointments and household tasks, and do my meal planning each week in my Life Book. It is more like a workbook to help me organize my thoughts and see the pattern of my week (and month, on the monthly calendars). And like I mentioned before I use all the other pages too like holiday planning, budgeting etc. It doesn't need to go everywhere with me, but when I do take it somewhere it zips securely shut in its lovely purple cover and off we go.

I tabified my Life Book to be able to flip easily to each monthly calendar:

This system is working brilliantly for me. For years I cycled through Filofax, large weekly and small daily planners, and now I'm using all three. Because I don't carry all three with me, it's not a ton in my bag. Because I have very specific purposes for each, I don't feel scattered. I love all of the books I'm using, and I plan to use this system indefinitely.

Have I reached Planner Nirvana? Maybe for now. But guess what: there is a 99.9% chance that we'll be doing yet another international move next year. And you know how moving throws my planner system into a tizzy!

So, stay tuned for more planner antics in 2012!

My Planner of the Year 2011

2011-12-15T09:38:00.001Z

Is my pocket daily Moleskine! I'm still using it along with my weekly planner to capture all my daily details, and it's working wonderfully.

I use it to list all the things I need to do today, and to capture information throughout the day. Then it is a permanent reference of what I did each day.

Another reason this planner is a winner is because even though it's so small it really does fit in my pocket, there's lots of space to write on the daily pages. In fact I measured the pages and this has as much or more writing space as larger daily planners because the open format allows me to write from the very top to the very bottom of the page, and to each side (which I often do). In other daily planners, a more cluttered format provides less actual writing space.

You might remember this planner was my mid-year planner winner too. I love it so much I plan to use my 2012 daily pocket Moleskine the same way.

To liven up the cover and pages, I had my kids decorate it for me. Here is my 2011 Mole on the left, and 2012 on the right:

I have added monthly indicators as I love to do.

I love the decorations!

My kids colorized the formerly boring map:

and decorated holiday pages too:

I'm planning to use my daily pocket Moleskine for all of 2012. That's a big commitment for me! You can see my next post for more details on how I'm using this daily diary along with my weekly planner.

Weekly + Daily Planner

2011-12-15T06:02:00.000Z

I've had several people ask me if I know of a planner that has weekly pages followed by daily pages. I don't unfortunately, but reader Fanny emailed me with a great idea to create your own:

The At-A-Glance Circle The Date Planning Notebook has lined pages and dates printed down the side of each page. The idea is, you circle today's date on the page. That way if you use several pages in a day, they are all indicated. Or you could use one page for each day. These books also have other planner features like reference calendars and contacts pages. They come in a couple of different sizes so you can choose what works best for you.

Fanny's excellent idea is to use a two-page spread to draw up your weekly format however you like it: week + notes, horizontal or vertical. Then, use the subsequent pages as a day-per-page diary. Repeat for each week.

I think this is genius! You wouldn't be able to get an entire year in one book, but it's a great option for this otherwise impossible to find format.

Many thanks again to Fanny for sharing your great idea!

Collins pocket weekly planners

2011-12-13T07:21:00.000Z

Here is a selection of pocket size weekly planners from Collins UK (http://www.collinsdebden.co.uk/):

Collins has partnered with Disney for some of their diary designs. This Tinkerbell design is very cute:

The diary is packed with features like information pages, planning calendars, and even budgeting pages. There is also an annual planner:

The weekly pages have a Tinkerbell design each week:

In the back are pages for quick contacts reference:

My favorite of these three weekly planners is the Domani pocket weekly diary. The padded cover is elegant and looks very professional:

The gilt page edges, cream paper and ribbon pagemarker all add to the look of elegance:

Inside there are loads of info pages including international facts:

Dialing codes, time zones, travel information, year planner, and more:

The weekly format has timed lines for each weekday from 9 am to 6 pm.

In the back of the book there are full-color maps of the UK, a London city map, and a map of the London Underground.

The Bubble weekly diary has a colorful cover:

It also has loads of information pages:

It has an open weekly format with unlined daily spaces:

The Bubble diary also has a ribbon pagemarker, several pages for notes and contacts.

Many thanks to Collins for sending me these pocket diary samples to review!

Collins Vanessa weekly diary

2011-12-12T00:58:00.000Z

Here is a diary I had never had the opportunity to try before: the Vanessa A5 weekly desk diary from Collins:

This is a weekly diary from Collins Australia (http://www.collinsdebden.com.au). Like other Collins diaries for 2012, this diary supports the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, which I really appreciate:

The diary is double wiro-bound in a removable cover, with a pocket in the front for holding papers, tickets etc.

There are loads of information pages at the front of the book including reference calendars, public holidays and Australia school holidays, world holidays, international dialing codes, conversions and other measurement info, annual planning pages, monthly expense records, cash summaries, forward planning calendar, and pages for frequently used contacts.

The weekly format has timed lines for each day from 9am to 5 pm. Holidays are printed on the day spaces. There are six months of reference calendars along the top of the page.

The paper is cream colored and smooth. There is a ribbon marker to mark the current week. This diary measures 22.5 cm tall, 16 cm wide and just 1 cm thick.

In the back of the planner there are several full-color city maps from Australia and New Zealand:

The Vanessa line of planners also come in day per page format, and in a variety of sizes. Click here to see the entire collection.

Many thanks to Collins for sending me this diary as a sample to review!

Calling all Uncalendar users!

2011-12-08T15:03:00.001Z

Please read this!

I'm very interested in how you use your Uncalendar. There are endless ways to use the weekly Worksheet and all the Data and Graph boxes throughout the book. If you could share how you use these spaces, it would give us all ideas of how to use Uncalendar planners in new ways.

So if you use an Uncalendar, please either:

Upload your image to the Uncalendar Group on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/uncalendar/

Or, email your photos to me at: Plannerisms (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll load the photos for you.

I'd love to see how you use your Un, and want to give other Uncalendar users ideas on how to best use their Un! I'm especially interested in photos of how you use pages other than the weekly and monthly pages such as the Data pages, Goals, graphs, etc.

For example, here's something I thought of: using each week's graph as a daily Goals tracker:

This is a great way to remind yourself of daily goals, a way to reward yourself for doing those things that need to get done each day, and a quick visual to see if you are achieving your goals each day or letting things slide.

If you haven't seen an Uncalendar before, check out their website www.uncalendar.com!

Also you can read my posts about Uncalendar planners:

Do You Uncalendar? (Uncalendar Full Size review)

Uncalendar Half Size review

Time For New Goals! (How I used my Half-Size Uncalendar last year)

Secrets For Success (Ideas on using your Uncalendar for goal setting and progress tracking.)

PS: I am not at all affiliated with Uncalendar, I just really like their products!

Ecosystem and Whomi planners not produced for 2012

2011-12-08T03:27:00.000Z

I've had several people email me to ask if I have any information about Ecosystem and Whomi planners.

I don't personally, but from what people have told me, they have received replies from Ecosystem (www.ecosystemlife.com) that their planners are not being produced for 2012 and they hope to bring them back for 2013.

Whomi planners (www.whomi.com) also hope to return for 2013, you can read more about their production plans here.

I was very surprised and disappointed that these two excellent planner brands are currently out of production. Tough times for the planner industry!

Collins Home and Work Diary

2011-12-06T06:59:00.001Z

If you are managing work, home, personal and/ or community responsibilities and need some help keeping everything straight, check out the Collins Home and Work Diary.

This is a new diary for 2012, and is specifically designed for very busy people who have a lot to manage. It is absolutely packed with features. Below you can see the Table of Contents listing the pages. (Click on photos for larger views.) This is way more than just a diary, this is a method for managing your seemingly endless tasks, and your stress levels.

Before I get into it let me say that I appreciate the charities this diary supports: saving the Tasmanian Devils to try to prevent them going extinct:

and the Fistula Relief Aid Fund to help women in Africa who have had problems in childbirth:

Now on to the diary itself. It is designed by a psychologist who specializes in stress-related disorders.There are several pages of text with advice on reducing anxiety, preventing feelings of pressure about the future, helping you through overwhelming household chores, action planning and goal setting.

There is a page to help you set your goals for all of 2012, in a variety of categories:

Then for each month there is a page to set your goals for that month:

Also for each month there is a page for your expense summary:

This is a day-per-page diary, and each page is a large 24 cm wide by 21 cm tall. Each daily page has your appointments schedule along the edge of the page, with 24 hours starting at 3 am and ending at 2am. This 24 hour schedule is great for people who work shifts or need to record medication dosages around the clock.

On each day's page there are task lists for Personal, Family/ Community and Business, and space for Journaling/ Notes. There's a space to list errands for the day, record important totals and an inspirational quote for each day.

Along the edge of the pages the months are indicated, to help you find the month and day you are looking for easily. There are also two ribbon placemarkers so you can mark the current day and your monthly goals page for easy reference.

There are several pages for notes, and in the back of the book there is a top-opening transparent plastic envelope to hold cards and other bits of paper.

Also in this diary are reference calendars, year planners, telephone listings, conversions and international dialing codes, world holidays and more. There's a household cleaning list to help you schedule and assign chores. There's also a 10 week countdown planner to Christmas, and an undesignated 10 week countdown planner to use for planning a wedding, move, or other major event. There's so much more in this diary I can't even detail it all. It's very comprehensive!

Many thanks to Collins for sending me this diary as a sample to review!

Images published with written permission from Collins.

Ginko Papers Night Sky planner

2011-12-01T13:06:00.000Z

Ginko Papers sent me this beautiful planner as a gift, to thank me for reviews and posts I have done on their products. I wanted to review it here to show you how pretty it is!

This is the Night Sky planner. It has a clear plastic cover, which I removed for the photo below to get a better view of the design, which is so pretty.

This little diary measures only 4 by 5 3/4 inches, and is super-slim and weighs practically nothing so you can slip it into your pocket or any bag to go everywhere with you. And it is gorgeous, gorgeous gorgeous.

There are reference calendars for 2012 and 2013:

This planner started in October 2011 and goes all the way through the end of December 2012. The month on two pages calendars are tabbed, and embedded in the weeks.

Each month has a new theme on its monthly and weekly pages.

It has a week per page format for quick reference to your schedule.

So pretty!!

At the back of the book there are several lined pages for notes, and several pages of perforated tear-out notes for those moments when you need to write down your number or website to give someone.

It has a ribbon placemarker, and the plastic cover has a pen loop and pockets for cards.

Many thanks again to Ginko Papers for this beautiful little planner! Check out their entire calendar and planner selection here: http://www.ginkopapers.com/store/calendars/ (make sure to click through all the pages!).

Last year I reviewed their Rabbit planner that has months and weeks visible at the same time, click here to see my review. This year they have the same format available with a couple of different cover designs:

Here is the Twin Planner with the collage cover: http://www.ginkopapers.com/store/calendars/?show_item=1423

and here it is with the Clover cover: http://www.ginkopapers.com/store/calendars/?show_item=1422

They did have this format in a couple of other cover styles, but they have already sold out!

Renaissance Art leather and paper samples

2011-11-29T01:10:00.003Z

Renaissance Art has a huge variety of types and colors of leathers to choose from for their Moleskine and Custom leather covers.

There is a thicker, more rustic leather that is available in black or brown, and a thinner sleeker leather that comes in loads of colors. All of these are shown below:

Here are The Browns. The colors are, starting top left, Distressed Rustic Brown, Rustic Brown, British Tan. Bottom row at left is Flight Jacket, and bottom right is Molasses (which I reviewed a cover made from, click here to see).

Below are the back sides of these same samples, with the name labels showing.

Here are what I call The Deeps. Top left is Black and top right is Rustic Black, which is thicker.

Bottom row from the left are Twilight Blue, Merlot (which I reviewed in a custom cover here) and Wintergreen.

Below are the backs of these samples with the name labels visible.

Here are what I call The Brights. At the top are Cranberry and Ocean Blue.

Bottom row starting at the left are Rust, Sunflower and Avocado.

Below are the backs:

I didn't know this before, but Ren Art also has a variety of papers used in their leather journals, sketchbooks and photo albums. Below are photos of the paper selection to choose from. At the top left is Frankfurt White, which is 120 gsm. Top right is Zerkall Book white/ smooth which is 145 gsm.

Bottom left is Frankfurt Creme which is 120 gsm, and at the right is Arches Text Wove creme 120 gsm.

All of these papers are designed to take inks well. I don't use fountain pens, but you can click here to see O-kami's review of these papers with ink tests.

You can buy these samples on the Renaissance Art website to help you decide how to customize your book. The cost of the samples is credited to your account for a future purchase so in the end they don't cost you anything.

Many thanks to Ren Art for sending me these samples to review!

Note: I will earn a commission on orders generated through the links in this post.

Paper poll result: white vs. cream

2011-11-28T02:14:00.000Z

I'm very surprised by the result of this poll!!

Back when I introduced this poll, I stated my preference for white paper (which still stands). I've heard of marketing research that indicates, in general, US customers prefer white paper and European customers prefer cream/ ivory paper. Since the majority of my readers are in the US, I expected a majority of voters preferring white paper.

But boy was I wrong!!

Out of 94 votes, only 31 (33%) were for white paper, and 63 (67%) were for cream/ ivory.

No wonder there are so many notebooks available with cream or ivory paper, and good white-paper notebooks are becoming scarce!

What I didn't include in the poll is whether people prefer, for example, ivory paper in their notebooks but white paper in your planner. Do you prefer ivory paper for everything, or only for notebooks? Please pose a comment!

Letts Bicentenary Diary

2011-11-23T08:09:00.017Z

I am so excited about this diary!! It is a peek at the very beginning of diary creation. It's like holding the diary version of the Big Bang in your hands!! This is how it all started!!

This is the Letts Bicentenary Diary, produced to celebrate 200 years of diaries printed by Letts. Inside this diary are pages detailing the beginning of Letts by founder John Letts, and his creation of the very first commercial diary in 1812, which revolutionized the shipping industry and business worlds at that time. The history of the company and of diary use itself is described, and famous diary users (including some royals!) are named.

You have no idea how exciting I found this. (Or, if you've been reading this blog awhile, maybe you do). What you might not know is that I love old things, and especially learning about the beginnings of things. I did my Master's degree on the origin of birds. I have antique furniture. I write in notebooks and planners.

So to read about how diaries/ planners got started from the very beginning was very exciting! I have to admit I had goosebumps while I was reading it!! (Yes I freely admit I'm a geek!)

There is a timeline over several pages tracking significant events over the past 200 years, from the production of the first diaries to 2012. Fascinating to see how our world has changed in that time, yet people are still faithfully recording our lives on paper in books! I love it!

Another thing I found fascinating: next to the page of current measurements and conversions there is a page of measurements and conversions in the 1800's! It tells you why tyres/ tires are called that, what's a carucate, and how many mouthfuls are in a pint. I love learning about stuff like this!

The look of the diary is meant to replicate the appearance of the original diary in 1812, and the book is made using the same techniques used then. The diary comes in a beautiful box ready to give as a gift, or to house your collector's edition diary. It also includes a card that states which number your diary is out of only 2000 printed!

The end pages have a beautiful pattern inside, this photo doesn't nearly do it justice.

The diary has an open weekly format with a space for notes, and holidays are printed in the day spaces. The print and style look like they could be straight out of the 1812 original.

Yet for the antique appearance of the book, the features are entirely modern. There are loads of useful pages including reference calendars:

Modern-day country information:

A planner for 2012:

And for all of 2013:

There are several pages in the back for Contacts and Notes. A red ribbon placemarker and gilt page edges add to the luxurious look of this book.

The back cover retains that old-world look too:

Now, let me tell you about the paper. It is so spectacular I tweeted @LettsDiaries to ask what it is. It is Cotton Cream 90 gsm, and it is divine. Thick, smooth, and just cream-colored enough to add to the antique look of the book. It's gorgeous. Letts said this same paper is also used in the Duchess and Westminster diaries in their Limited Edition collections (http://www.lettsoflondon.co.uk)

The diary is approximately A6 size, a little taller. I measure it at about 4 1/2 by 7 inches (nearly 12 cm by nearly 18 cm). It's a very portable size, slim and light so you could carry it around everywhere with you.

What could possibly make this diary any cooler?? I'll tell you what: it's made in Scotland. I think I may swoon.

I pre-ordered this diary back in July because I absolutely did not want to miss out on this collector's edition, and I'm so happy to have it! If you are interested in this one, don't wait a single second. With only 2000 in print, they'll go fast! Here's the product link:

http://www.letts.co.uk/bicentenary-diary-2012-week-to-view.html

My day per page planner collection

2011-11-21T12:47:00.000Z

I love day per page planners. Even though I've tried and failed several times over the past couple of years to use one as my main planner, I still love them for recording daily details that otherwise wouldn't get captured.

Here is my collection of day per page planners that I have used in some way or another over the years.

Below are close-ups of these planners. Click on the links for the backstories!

Here are my Exacompta Daily Pocket planners. I used the green one for awhile in 2001 while I was traveling from Nepal to Paris and then around Scotland (my first trip there). It was great to travel with because it took up practically no space in my bag and weighs next to nothing.

The blue one on the right is the one I used in 2009. It's great because it really is small enough to keep in my pocket so I was able to jot down things before I forgot when I was out on the playground, chasing my toddlers around the house, or anywhere.

Below are my pocket size daily Moleskine planners. I let my kids decorate them for me. The one on the left is from 2006 but I didn't use it much because I didn't like it nearly as much as the one I used in 2005, but couldn't get another of the same kind for that year.

In 2010 I switched from the Exacompta Daily Pocket to the Moleskine daily pocket for the hard cover and elastic strap. I've been using this year's pretty consistently, and already have next year's version ready to go (far right).

My A6 day per page planners. I love this size. The brown faux suede one on the left is the planner I used the year my daughter was born. It's one of the only planners I've ever used every day for the entire year. In it I recorded all the events of my daughter's first year, and our move to Moscow. It lives in a fireproof box.

The black one next to it is the exact same type and brand of planner that I used for awhile in 2009. The lilac one is my Letts Principal diary, and the red one is from Russia.

My Textagendas. I have a special place in my heart for Textagenda planners! The one on the left is the one I used in Nepal, the purple one is from France, and the pink one is from the UK.

Below are my Cavallini leather day per page planner and my DIARYYYYYY TWOOOOO THOOOOUUUSAAAAAAND:

My A5 day per page planners. On the left is the Exacompta Journal 21. The other two are from Albania, and I used them while I was living there.

My large daily Moleskine planners that I use as journals:

I like using different sizes of day per page planners for different purposes. A5's are my favorite for using as journals but I find them too big/ heavy to carry everywhere with me as planners. I love the size of the Textagenda for lots of writing space in a portable book. A6 is probably my favorite size for a daily book because of the shape and size. It's big enough to capture details but small enough to go everywhere, even in my hand around the house. Pocket size planners are great for keeping in my pocket on those really scattered days when I need to write things down before I forget.

Do you use a day per page planner? What size do you prefer?

New poll: which color paper do you prefer?

2011-11-21T00:50:00.000Z

You'll see my new poll over there in the sidebar. I'm really curious to see which color paper people prefer.

There seem to be more and more ivory or cream colored paper products out there. I don't know if it's because Moleskine products have cream paper and have become so widespread that other brands feel they need to have cream paper to compete. I think making the paper cream or ivory is an easy way for brands to make the product seem more "special" or "upscale" without actually providing better quality.

Personally, I prefer white paper. Thick, smooth and the whiter the better. White paper is nicer to look at, in my option, and shows ink colors better.

I'd love to know what you think. Please vote in the poll at the right!

Poll results: what type of planner do you use?

2011-11-20T13:01:00.000Z

Here are the poll results for what types of planners readers use:

Do you use a day per page planner or a week to view?

55 votes
Day Per Page: 21 (39%)
Weekly 34 (69%)

Do you use a bound book planner or a ring binder organizer?

50 votes
Bound book: 26 (52%)
Ring binder: 24 (48%)

Do you use an Academic-year planner or a Calendar-year planner?

46 votes
Academic Year 2 (4%)
Calendar Year 38 (82%)
Planner that starts in July or August and goes all the way through the end of the following December 6 (13%)

Do you plan to use the same planner/ diary in 2012 as you did in 2011, or move on to something different?

52 votes
Same Planner 19 (36%)
Something Different 33 (63%)

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in these polls! I'm always fascinated by what planners people use.

I was surprised that so many people use day-per-page planners! And bound books juuuuuust edged out binder-organizers by a slim margin. I was also surprised that more people don't use academic-year planners.

And, best of luck to all of you who are trying out a new planner system in 2012! I'll want to hear from you after you start your planner to know how it's going!

Update: Avrum's Action Journal

2011-11-18T12:34:00.007Z

You may remember Avrum's guest post awhile back about his cool, comprehensive self-made system. (If you don't, don't worry: Click here to see it! )

Avrum sent me an email yesterday showing me his new system and it blew my socks off!! I love how it captures work, personal life, tasks, ideas and art all on a new two-page spread every day. And all in an uber-cool book!!

Here's Avrum:

It's been a while, and thought I'd update you on my efforts to combine various planning modalities and mediums (see attached photo). For the past few weeks I've been using an Action Journal (Behance) and borrowing elements from:

* Danny Gregory's "The Creative License" (Combine to-do's, plans, and sketches on same page)

* Bill Westerman's Getting S**t Done

* Misc focusing advice/MIT (most important tasks)

If I wake up before my kid (16 months), I follow Step 2 of Getting S**t Done:

"Sit down with my notebook (laptop asleep, phone off, newspaper closed) and open it to the next blank page. I write the day and date at the top. I dump a list of the things that are top of mind, in no particular order. That’s important, because it lets me get everything out without worrying about structure. I combine work and personal items. Then, I go back to previous days and look for unfinished items. For each one I find, I draw a slash through its box (indicating it’s been moved forward), and rewrite it on today’s page."

Then I do my best to identify 2 - 4 tasks related to high value projects, and place those in the orange boxes. The left side of the page is used for sketches, mostly about how my day is going.

At night, I use the the small grey box (bottom right) to jot down a quick thought about something I learned today, or would like to do differently tomorrow.

Initial observations/feelings lead me to believe I've created a system that captures almost everything I've been seeking in a system:

* Nostalgia/journal

* very portable

* Attractive tool (Action Journal)

* Creativity/art

* Focus

* Starting each day afresh

* Consequence(s) for outstanding items (rewriting them daily)

I made the photo extra-large even though it runs into the sidebar because a smaller view just doesn't do it justice! Click on the photo to get a better look at it.

Many, many thanks to Avrum for sharing this amazing system!! I know I'm extremely inspired by these ideas and I will be incorporating some of these methods in my system!

Ghost of Planners Past #6: My favorite

2011-11-17T12:37:00.000Z

There are several reasons why this planner is my favorite. One is because it's a day per page planner, and I always like those. Another reason is because I used it all year long, which is so rare for me. And, its faux-suede cover is fuzzy to touch, and I'm a sucker for anything fuzzy.

But the real reason this planner is my favorite is because it's from the year my daughter was born. She was born early in the year, and this planner holds the record of memorable moments from her first year. That was also the year we moved to Moscow so there are lots of major life changes recorded in this book.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I was using my personal Buckingham Filofax. As much as I loved it, it had gotten totally out of control with how many pages I had in it. It was a fat, heavy brick and I was ready to streamline.

I went to my local Borders bookstore (I miss you Borders! :*( ) and looked at the huge array of planners available. I looked at rows and rows of weekly planners. One caught my eye: the Go Mom planner (which was a large ring binder with loads of inserts). I thought, "I'm about to be a mom, maybe this will work for me!" I opened it and was quickly overwhelmed by the weekly and monthly views alongside to-do and shopping lists. It was too much for me at the time. I wanted something simpler.

I found some day per page planners. I've been in love with day per page planners ever since my sister's Textagenda. One planner in particular caught my eye. It was A6 sized, very portable. The brown faux suede cover was fuzzy and soft in my hands. It was a Time Traveler planner, in a size they unfortunately don't make anymore.

I opened it up and found loads of international information including dialing codes and conversion charts.

It had white, smooth paper and a full page for each day, even Saturdays and Sundays.

Then I turned to the back of the book and found loads of full-color maps of every continent!

To top it off, there were tons of full-color maps of cities around the world including Washington DC (where I was moving from) and Moscow (where I was moving to).

Sold. I remember thinking, "Well that was an easy decision!"

My new planner was indeed much lighter in my bag than my Filofax. In it I recorded the details of my final days at work, paperwork I needed to fill out and people I needed to contact.

Then soon after that the pages recorded the details of my daughter's birth and early days. Parents out there know it's very important to record the details of a newborn's eating, sleeping and elimination so the daily pages of this time are filled with all of those details. My planner hardly left my side. Everything was recorded in careful detail. In photos of my daughter's earliest days you can almost always see my small brown planner somewhere in the photo.

Just two months later we moved to Moscow, and my life was suddenly completely different. It's bittersweet to look back through my planner now and remember those days when everything my daughter did was new; I was keenly homesick and missing friends and family; and I was adjusting to life in a foreign country.

This planner is very rare in that I used it every day from the first of the year to the end. For some reason I've never been able to replicate that level of planner loyalty and satisfaction ever since.

Renaissance Art custom leather cover

2011-11-15T12:49:00.000Z

Here is my custom-made leather cover from Renaissance Art! This is the Merlot color, which is a deep purply wine color. It is super-smooth and soft, and I love the character-creases in the leather!

Here is the cover open and empty:

The Renaissance Art logo is embossed on the back:

I had this cover customized to fit my Quo Vadis Trinote planner, and it fits perfectly!

With the ability to customize a cover to fit nearly any size book (up to 9 x 12 inches!), you can get a leather cover for any planner, notebook or book. So if you're not satisfied with the cover on your planner or notebook, click here to check out Renaissance Art's selection of custom leather cover colors and styles, hand made to fit your book!

Just measure your book and enter the dimensions on the ordering page, and Ren Art will hand-make your leather cover to fit your book. Choose from thick or thin leather in a variety of colors and styles.

You can also choose to personalize your leather cover by having your name, initials, website, motivational phrase etc. embossed on the cover. And if you want them to tweak your cover in any way just let them know, they're good at that too.

Many thanks to Renaissance Art for sending me this cover as a sample to review!

**Note: I am an affiliate of Renaissance Art, and if you click through the links above and make a purchase on their site I will earn a commission.

Winners of the personalized Moleskine giveaway!

2011-11-14T08:33:00.000Z

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Personalized Moleskine Planner giveaway!

Here are the randomly-generated winners:

james

frogdanceflower

mstraat

Congratulations!!!! Winners, please email me at Plannerisms at gmail dot com, and I'll pass your email address on to Moleskine And More so they can contact you about personalizing and delivering your prize Moleskine!

And to those of you who didn't win, take heart! You can still get a personalized Moleskine, at a special discount of 15% off! Enter code PLANNERISMS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order on www. JenniBick.com AND at www.MoleskineAndMore.com! This offer is good through December 31, 2011.

Many thanks again to Moleskine And More for sponsoring this giveaway!

Last day to enter to win a personalized 2012 Moleskine daily planner!

2011-11-13T12:32:00.000Z

If you haven't already entered the giveaway for your chance to win one of three PERSONALIZED Moleskine day per page planners, don't miss out! Click here to enter for your chance to win!

Winners will be announced here tomorrow!

Erin Condren Life Planner

2011-11-11T11:32:00.000Z

There's been lots of buzz around the blogosphere lately about the Erin Condren planner, so I was really excited to review one! Many thanks to the EC team for their very generous discount code, and thanks for supporting your blogging community!

Erin Condren products are colorful, and PERSONALIZED! There are loads of personalization options. When you click on your cover choice, take a minute to examine your color options. For some cover choices you can specify what colors you want. For some covers you can even upload photos!

I chose the motivational quote cover, personalized with my name and blog, which looks awesome:

I ordered my planner in late September, so my planner begins October 2011 and goes all the way through December 2012. There is a monthly calendar at the beginning of each month, and tabs so you can access each month easily:

Now the thing is, the weeks at the beginning and end of each month are broken up, because the monthly calendar is EXACTLY at the beginning of the month. I've used planners before that have months embedded in the weeks, but those had the monthly calendar before the week when the month starts so that every week remained intact. The EC planners have the month spliced into the middle of the week. Let me show you what I mean.

Below is the end of January and beginning of February. You can see the last couple of days of January (Monday and Tuesday) on the left page. Then on the right page is the February calendar.

Then there is a two-page spread for notes:

Then turn the page again and there is the rest of the week:

Bottom line is, this will either bother you or it won't. I know a lot of people who use this planner who aren't bothered about the week being broken up.

Here's what a normal week looks like. It's an excellent layout with Goals and Tasks in the left column, and the daily columns divided into Morning, Day and Night.

Every month has a new color scheme, which is very pretty and adds variety:

There is a page to write in your important numbers, and several pages of colorful stickers, some of which are pre-printed and some are blank to write whatever you like.

There is a double-sided pocket in the back to hold bits of paper, tickets etc.:

There's also a plastic zip pouch for smaller items. This comes loaded with goodies! :)

Something that surprised me about this planner was the size. Including the plastic rings and tabs I measure it at more than 8 inches (22 cm) wide and 9 1/4 inches (23.5 cm) tall, and more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. As a size comparison, it's slightly larger than my A5 Domino Filofax:

But, with a large book comes a large page size so there's plenty of room to write. The paper is very thick with no show-through. I don't use fountain pens, but my friend @RoriRants who does says the paper performs nicely with fountain pens, no feathering or bleed-through.

To summarize, the Erin Condren planner is a large, colorful planner with loads of personalization options, an excellent weekly format, monthly calendars, tabs, notes pages, pockets, and great paper.

If you look around online you can sometimes find a discount code for this planner, so do a search before you order!

You can find Erin Condren products on their website, and also check them out on Facebook and on Twitter:

www.erincondren.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ErinCondrencom/433447875270

http://twitter.com/#!/@erincondren

Moleskine products have California Proposition 65 warning on Amazon.com

2011-11-11T02:03:00.004Z

Many thanks to reader Erin for bringing this to my attention! On Amazon.com, many Moleskine notebooks and planners are now are listed with the California Proposition 65 warning. (Click here to see.) When looking at the Moleskine products info page on Amazon, scroll down to Product Details to see if the California residents warning is listed.

Erin said in the same email that Ecosystem planners are not being made for 2012, which is even more disappointing now to not have them as an alternative to Moleskines.

I don't know much about California's Proposition 65, can anyone educate me?

**Edited: Many thanks to New Kid for posting Moleskine's link to this issue. According to Moleskine, all of their products made since August 2010 are Proposition 65 compliant:

http://www.moleskine.com/prop65.php

How have your planning needs changed over the years?

2011-11-10T02:15:00.000Z

I'd love to hear about your personal Planner Evolution!

My planner needs have changed drastically over the years. I first started using a planner in high school to record assignments. Very basic. In fact I just drew up my own in an extra notebook I had. Even in undergrad I just used my planner to keep track of assignments and work hours in my part-time jobs. Back then I used whatever planner had the best scenery or wildlife photos.

While working in Alaska I first got turned on to a Filofax-style binder, which changed my entire life. You can read all about that revelation here.

In grad school I bought my first real Filofax, and it held my life together. I wrote assignments, reminders, course requirements, grade records, travel plans and everything else into my Filofax. It hardly left my side.

When I worked in a corporate office I continued to use my Filofax for personal things and Outlook at work, which everyone had to use to schedule meetings. I didn't have a problem keeping my Filofax synched with Outlook.

Then when I had kids things suddenly got much more complicated. We moved to Moscow when my daughter was a newborn, and had my son just a year and a half later. While the kids were babies we made multiple international trips per year which required tons of coordination and loads of gear! Packing lists, dosage lists for over the counter infant medication, vaccine records, calendars and more were stuffed into my Filofax.

Since then life continues to get more and more complicated, and I'm always searching for a planner that can handle it all. Both kids are in school now with after school activities, projects and events. I schedule parent volunteers in both kids' classes, which is fun but does require some mad planning skills. I have my own things going on too, with multiple blogs to write and/ or contribute to, household chores etc. And most likely we'll be doing another international move next year, which I am already starting to gear up for!

I'd love to hear how your planner needs have changed and evolved over the years! Have they gotten more complicated? Have you streamlined or simplified your planning needs? Please post a comment!

And if you haven't yet entered to win a personalized Moleskine planner from Jenni Bick, click here to enter!

Giveaway! Win a PERSONALIZED Moleskine planner from MoleskineAndMore.com!

2011-11-07T13:07:00.077Z

***This competition is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who participated! See the winners on the Monday November 14 post!

Jenni Bick Bookbinding (www.jennibick.com) has a new website called Moleskine and More (www.MoleskineAndMore.com) that does custom personalization of Moleskine planners and notebooks!

If you've ever ordered from Jenni Bick before (which I have, and they are excellent) you'll know they are famous for beautiful embossed personalization on diaries, notebooks and photo albums.

Now Jenni Bick has created Moleskine and More to specialize in personalized Moleskine notebooks and planners. I am very excited that now we can easily add that personal touch to our Moleskines!

Moleskine And More has generously offered to give away THREE personalized Moleskine planners to Plannerisms readers! The planner is the Large Hardcover Day Per Page Moleskine, which is a fantastic planner.

I've been using this planner for several years as my journal (which you can read about here), Dora uses the softcover large daily Moleskine as her work diary, and if you want more ideas on how to use a day per page planner/ diary click here to see my post with loads of suggestions. The large daily planner is very versatile, and is sleek and sophisticated so you can use it at home, at work, at school and everywhere!

Here are the rules of the contest:

1) This giveaway is open world wide!

2) Post a comment on this post. Only one comment per person please. Your comment will be your entry. In your comment, if you want, you can write what you'll have personalized on your Moleskine. You don't even have to be specific, just say your name or initials, a motivational quote, your company or website's name, etc. Or if you don't feel like sharing, that's okay too!

3) Comments/ entries will close Sunday November 13 at midnight in New York City, USA. That's the time zone.

4) Winners will be determined by random number generation on Random.org.

5) The three winners will be announced on this blog Monday November 14!

That's it! Pretty easy. Good luck everybody!

You can also check out the Jenni Bick blog, find them on Facebook, and see their gallery of custom embossed journals!

Many thanks to Moleskine And More for sponsoring this giveaway!

2012 Life Book diary and faux leather cover by Organised Mum

2011-11-06T08:00:00.002Z

I love my 2011 Life Book diary from Organised Mum so much, I ordered the 2012 Life Book diary! And this time I treated myself to the purple faux leather cover too!

There are several updates to the 2012 Life Book including excellent new paper, an elastic closure strap and some slight changes to the format. You can click here to see my review and photos of the 2011 Life Book if you'd like to compare it to the 2012 version.

One very noticeable improvement in the 2012 Life Book is the paper! Last year's paper had quite a bit of show-through, especially with wet inks. But now the paper is absolutely glorious. No show-through whatsoever, even with my Sharpie pens and Microns. The paper is thick, smooth, white and very pleasant to use.

The 2012 Life Book began in mid-August this year and goes all the way through the end of December 2012. The 2011 Life Book began in September 2010 to coincide with the start of the school year in England. Scotland (and the US) start school earlier, and last year I suggested to Organised Mum that it would be useful to us if the diary started in August. Thank you to Organised Mum for listening to your customers!!

When you buy the 2012 Life Book together with a faux leather cover it costs a little bit less than buying each separately. It comes fully loaded with the Life Book slotted into its holder pocket in the cover, the Addresses booklet and stickers in the documents pocket in the front. There is also a black elastic pen loop next to the front pocket to keep your pen handy with your diary.

The Addresses booklet has A-Z pages for addresses and phone numbers, useful contacts for services and businesses, a quick-reference page for frequently used phone numbers, and a page for birthdays and anniversaries. You can use this booklet year after year to avoid rewriting contact info each year.

The Life Book diary comes with two pages of stickers to help you mark important dates. I also bought extras of these General Stickers, the School Stickers, and the Household Stickers.

Here is the front of the Purple Berry faux leather cover! I like the dapply look of the faux leather, and that it wipes clean easily (which I need!). It looks so smart I'll carry it in my hands most of the time, but when I do put it in my bag it will protect my Life Book from all the other things I have banging around in my bag. The cover is soft and smooth and wonderful to touch!

Here is the zip-around goodness! No worries about papers flying out.

One of the additions to the Life Book diary this year is the elastic closure strap which is great for keeping your book securely closed while you're out and about if you're not using a cover. I think this is an excellent addition to the book.

Some other changes include the design inside the cover, and an easier-to-read font.

The Useful Numbers and reference calendars are still here just like in the 2011 version (thank goodness!)

The Weekly Routines pages have changed. Now there are three two-page spreads with columns for seven different people or categories to show what's happening when on a weekly basis.

The weekly format has a slight change: this year the days of the week and Meal Ideas text are located on the left side of the days, last year they were on the right. Also the font has changed (and I think it looks very nice). Holidays and moon phases are printed on the day spaces, which I really appreciate. The weekly pages start August 15, 2011 and go through the end of December 2012.

I love the Meal Ideas prompt, it gets me thinking about what to make for dinner throughout the week so I don't have that horrible feeling at 5pm while I'm staring into the fridge wondering what to make for dinner!

Click on the photo below to see the difference between the 2011 version (top) and the 2012 version (bottom).

I have to be honest, I miss the seasonal decorations in the 2011 version. The winter months had snowflakes, the spring months had dandelion fluff, the summer months had butterflies and the autumn months had leaves. Now all weekly and monthly pages have a flower design. It's very pretty, but I liked the seasonal icons. However, the Life Book has a sizeable customer base in Australia, where of course the seasons are reversed from those in the northern hemisphere, so to be consistent for all users it makes sense to have the flower design.

Below you can see how I use the lined areas at the page edges. (Click the photo for a larger view.) The left edge is meant to be used as a tear-out shopping list, but instead I use the top of that column for my Goals for the week, and below that is my main To Do list for the week. The right edge is where I put things I need to do for my Blogs and Household. In the bottom right corner under Important I write financial totals for the week.

The Notes and Next Week space is a great landing spot for those random bits of information that come in during the week, and to prepare for next week. I also write two or three lines each week for a Weekly Review.

There are two clear, top-tabbed divider pages included in the Life Book. They clip onto the rings and can be moved from page to page. I use one to mark my current week and one to mark my current month.

After the weekly section there is a page for Notes, then the (very pretty) tabbed divider for the Monthly section. I get really excited about the features in this section!

First there is a page for Notes, where I will write my goals and resolutions for 2012:

2012's version has monthly calendars for August 2011 through December 2012:

I LOVE having a two-page monthly spread to plan my month. Holidays are printed on the day spaces. Here is the clear divider to mark the current month:

After each month there's a two-page spread for Things To Do that month (where I write my monthly goals and tasks) and Notes for that month (where I write my Mid-Month review in the top 1/3 of the page and my Monthly review in the bottom 2/3 of the page).

THEN there is a two-page spread for Budget and Expenditures! I love these pages sandwiched between the monthly calendars to keep my plans, goals, reviews and budget all together for each month! Very organized. I feel so in control when I use these pages!

At the end of the Monthly section is another Notes page, which I think I will use for my year-end review. Next is a tabbed section for Christmas and holidays planning.

There are pages to record Christmas Plans, Budget, Presents, Shopping, and Cards.

Next is a Summer planner with eight undated weeks to plan the entire summer on one two-page spread. This is a great way to plan out the summer so at the end of it you don't wonder "Where did the summer go??"

Next are three two-page spreads for Thoughts and Plans for each of 2011, 2012 and 2013. After that there are several pages for Notes.

In the back of the book there are forward planning calendars for 2013 and 2014. There is a pocket to hold your Addresses booklet, Stickers and other papers (if you're not using a cover).

I ordered the 2012 Life Book diary together with the faux leather cover along with the stickers I mentioned above. I used international shipping which I thought was very reasonably priced.

I have to say, moving over into my 2012 Life Book made me a little sad to leave my 2011 Life Book because I love it so much! It's extremely rare that I ever move directly over into the following year's version of the same planner. Usually I move to a totally different type of planner. So, Organised Mum, you deserve some kind of Plannerisms Consistency Award! Well done!!

Versatile Bloggers Award

2011-11-04T02:03:00.000Z

Many thanks to @celestriana of Cupcakes and Cadenzas for awarding me as one of her top 15 Versatile Bloggers! I am so honored!!

Here are the rules:

1. You have to thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Did that.

2. You have to share seven facts about yourself. See below.

3. You have to send the award on to fifteen other bloggers whose blogs you appreciate and then let them know that they have been given the award. Read below. I specifically had to not duplicate any blogs that Celestriana has already awarded, some of them would definitely have been on my list!

So here are seven things you may or may not already know about me:

1. I am 5 ft 8 inches tall.

2. I've been married for nearly 20 years.

3. In 20 years I have moved 25 times.

4.I have lived in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), Scotland, Russia, Nepal and Indonesia.

5. I have traveled in 26 different countries.

6. I am now living in Indonesia, which is my first time south of the Equator.

7. For 15 years my dream has been to travel to Iceland, but I never seem to make it up there. Maybe next year!

And here are my 15 blogs to whom I award the Versatile Blogger Award!

1. Rori Rants
2. The Zeitgeist of Zoe
3. The Crazy Life of J
4. Filofanatic
5. Filomaniac
6.The Life of the Perpetual Student
7. The SNARLing Post
8. Lady Dandelion
9. Planet Millie (Ms. Logica)
10. Paper Love Story
11. Girl in Maths
12. DIY Sara
13. Globetrotting Cacti
14. Filofax Fixation
15. Kathiza Writes

Thanks again to Denise for awarding me this honor, I am very flattered you enjoy my blog! And thanks also to all of my awardees for writing their blogs. I find them interesting, inspiring, informational and fun to read!

Filofax diary poll result!

2011-11-04T01:38:00.000Z

Thank you to everyone who voted in my poll, which I did out of sheer curiosity. You can see the results in the sidebar.

I wasn't surprised to see that most people use a Personal size insert, and most people use Week on Two Pages.

I was surprised that more people don't use the week + notes format, because in bound planners this format is so extremely popular. My own personal opinion is maybe people don't use the Filofax version more because of the multi-languages! In my experience they take up too much day space.

I didn't do a breakdown to see how many people use, for example, an A5 week on 2 pages vs. a Personal size week on 2 pgs because I thought that would make the poll too complicated.

I love learning about how people use their planners so I found this poll fascinating! Thanks again to everyone who voted.

Renaissance Art leather Moleskine cover

2011-10-31T14:46:00.037Z

Here is the Renaissance Art leather Moleskine cover in the gorgeous Molasses color! It is a rich, deep brown that is very handsome and classy-looking. The leather is so smooth and soft and feels nice in my hands. And you will notice in the photo, you can use the Moleskine's elastic strap closure with this style of cover!

Below you can see the cover empty and open to see how it works. There is a slit in the right side that allows the elastic strap to come through. You can use the strap on the outside of the cover like I've shown above, or on your pages.

Below you can see what it looks like open with the Moleskine strap coming through:

The Renaissance Art logo is subtly embossed on the back cover:

Here is another view of the rich brown color of the Molasses cover!

Many thanks to Renaissance Art for sending me this awesome cover as a sample to review. I have to admit my husband nabbed it as soon as I finished taking photos of it! He's now using it on his work Moleskine and loves it.

Renaissance Art has a fantastic variety of colors and leathers for Moleskine covers in both the Pocket and Large sizes. You can choose different types of closures including snap, stud, or wrap, or no closure. And some of the cover styles come with a leather pen loop, in your choice of three different sizes to fit your pen. Solves that pesky problem of how to keep your pen with your Moleskine!

This cover is part of the Rustic Elegance line of covers which comes in 12 colors and is a thin, soft leather. They also have a thicker leather for their Rustic covers, in brown and black.

All of Renaissance Art's products are hand made in the USA.

Click here to check out Renaissance Art's selection of leather Moleskine covers!

**Note for transparency's sake: I am an affiliate of Renaissance Art, and if you click through the links above and make a purchase on their site I will earn a commission.

Poll for Filofax users

2011-10-28T06:59:00.001+01:00

Hey Filofax users! I'm running a poll to see what size and format of planner/ diary inserts you use in your "main" Filofax. You can choose multiple things, for example if you use monthly and weekly inserts in your A5 Filofax you can choose all of those.

I'm really curious to see what everyone is using! Please place your vote over at the right.

Filofax Competition Winners!

2011-10-27T12:00:00.003+01:00

Congratulations to the winners of the Share Your Filofax Memories competition! They are:

Charlotte H.

Ray B.

Bluebonnetreads

Alexandra D.

Lynn R.

Jane O.

Congratulations to you all!!

Winners,you will receive an email soon from Filofax asking for your mailing address so you can receive your prize! In your reply, please let them know if you would or would not like your winning entry to be posted on the Filofax Facebook page.

Many, many thanks to everyone who submitted entries and shared your significant Filofax memories. I really enjoyed reading about your emotional bond with your Filofax! The bond we have with our Filofaxes proves it's much more than just a binder! It represents our lives.

Competition closed

2011-10-27T00:00:00.008+01:00

The Share Your Filofax Memories competition is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who entered!

Winners will be announced Thursday at noon UK time!

My own favorite Filofax memory

2011-10-25T12:12:00.001+01:00

In honor of the Share Your Filofax Memories competition, I thought I would share my own favorite Filofax memory.

This memory is an excerpt from a longer comment I posted back in August 2009 on Steve's excellent post How Do You Use Your Filofax In Your Job Or At Home. Go read it, because there's lots of great stories on there about how people's Filofaxes enrich their lives!

Here is my own favorite Filofax memory:

"Fast forward to 2001 while I was in grad school, I found my Buckingham Filofax. It got me through grad school beautifully. Its most glorious time during that phase of my life was while I was traveling to various museums in Europe doing my research. It contained: a Europe map that was outdated but still useful; all the contact information that my graduate adviser had set up for me of whom to meet at each museum; addresses for the hostels I would stay at; train time information. I remember sitting in Munich with a beer and my Filofax, planning where to go next. It was great."

That memory for me represents my own personal freedom and growth. I wasn't used to traveling alone, and I found it liberating (if slightly lonely). My Filofax was my companion and guide. I felt like I could go anywhere with my Filofax in my hand and I'd be under control!

Filofax Competition Update: More Winners!

2011-10-25T02:22:00.001+01:00

If you haven't already entered the Share Your Filofax Memories competition, hurry! Filofax has kindly offered further organizers for this activity, so the FIRST 6 to enter will receive a lovely personal organizer!

Here are the revised instructions on how to enter:

This October, Filofax and Plannerisms would like to invite you to share your favorite Filofax memory. Whether it’s a tale about your first Filofax, the story of your first visit to the Filofax store or even a moment when a Filofax played an important part in your life, we want to hear from you!

You will be able submit your cherished Filofax memories by 26th October at 23:59(UK time) to laurie758 at gmail dot com with "Filofax competition" in the subject line. This can be beautifully handwritten, typed or even drawn onto the special Filofax diary page template which you can download from the link below.

The FIRST 6 entrants to Plannerisms will receive brand new Filofax organizers as a very special thank you for participating in the challenge!

Interested in sharing your Filofax memories? Here’s how to take part:

Download the Filofax diary page template from this link PPT format PDF Format
Write, draw or type your 300-500 word memory onto the Filofax diary page template. ***Please do a word count and make sure your words are 300 to 500 words!
Send your memory back by 26th October at 23:59(UK time) to laurie758 at gmail dot com.
The first 6 entrants on Plannerisms will receive brand new Filofax organizers!

This competition is open worldwide!

Please enter to win a Filofax

2011-10-23T03:12:00.002+01:00

Shockingly, I've had no only two entries in the Share Your Filofax Memories competition! Don't forget, the top THREE entries from Plannerisms will win a new Filofax, so your chances are very good!

This competition is coming straight from Filofax HQ who would love to know the emotional bonds people have with their Filofax. This competition is being run simultaneously here on Plannerisms as well as on Philofaxy, Musings of a Caribbean Princess, Imy's World and Filomaniac.

So please share your favorite Filofax memory, whether it's a trip of a lifetime guided by your Filofax, how your Filofax helped you through a particularly special or significant time in your life, or a certain moment when your Filofax was very important to you.

Click here to see how to enter the competition, and click here to read Steve's excellent FAQ about the competition.

This contest is open worldwide.

Hurry, entries close Oct 26th at 23:59 UK time!

Gakken planners selling fast!

2011-10-21T01:32:00.002+01:00

You may remember my review last year of the Gakken rabbit planner with the excellent layout of months on the top that turn independently of the weekly pages on the bottom. (And if you don't remember it, click here to see loads of photos of the fantastic layout of this planner!)

I got an email from Ginko Papers that they have this format in stock again this year! The Twin Planners as they are called come with a variety of cover options (some of which are already sold out!). These planners are super-slim and portable, and the paper is absolutely divine.

As I write this the Clover cover is still in stock, as is the Collage cover, but the Pink and Black covers are already sold out. These planners started at the beginning of October and go all the way through the end of December 2012, so you can start them right away and use them through the end of next year!

There are also lots of cute monthly planners, other week + month formats, and desk calendars available. Click here to check out Ginko Paper's entire calendar selection, be sure to click through all the pages to see them all!

New guest post on Love Notebooks blog: Alternative Uses for Planners

2011-10-19T01:33:00.000+01:00

Go check out my new guest post on Love Notebooks blog, Alternative Uses for Planners! I had a lot of fun writing that one! There's even ideas for uses for past-year planners (which I have tons of!).

Can you think of other alternative uses for planners?

Win a Filofax! Share Your Filofax Memories

2011-10-12T12:00:00.012+01:00

This October, Filofax and Plannerisms would like to invite you to share your favorite Filofax memory. Whether it’s a tale about your first Filofax, the story of your first visit to the Filofax store or even a moment when a Filofax played an important part in your life, we want to hear from you!

Over the next two weeks, you will be able submit your cherished Filofax memories by 26th October at 23:59(UK time) to laurie758 at gmail dot com with "Filofax competition" in the subject line. This can be beautifully handwritten, typed or even drawn onto the special Filofax diary page template which you can download from the link below.

I will then choose the top 10 memories to be uploaded onto the official Filofax Facebook page for fans all over the world to read and ‘like’.

On the 4th November, the three memories which have the most ‘likes’ from the Plannerisms Facebook album will receive brand new Filofax organizers as a very special thank you for participating in the challenge.

Interested in sharing your Filofax memories? Here’s how to take part:

Download the Filofax diary page template from this link PPT format PDF Format
Write, draw or type your 300-500 word memory onto the Filofax diary page template.
Send your memory back by 26th October at 23:59(UK time) to laurie758 at gmail dot com. I will then select the top 10 stories to be uploaded onto the Filofax Facebook page. Maximum of 3 entries per person.
Filofax fans will then be encouraged to ‘like’ their favorite memories.
The three memories that receive the most ‘likes’ from the Plannerisms album will receive brand new Filofax organizers!

This competition is open worldwide!

I'm really looking forward to reading your entries! Good luck everyone. :)

Have questions? Click here to read Steve's excellent FAQ about this competition!

Moleskine madness and Filofax fun at Kinokuniya bookstore Singapore

2011-10-11T05:39:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I went to Singapore and got to go to the massive Kinokuniya bookstore in the Ngee Ann City mall! Imagine my delight when I discovered they had nearly every Moleskine product made, Filofaxes, Flex, and loads of other cool things! I don't get to see Moleskine or Filofax products in stores here in Jakarta so I felt like I was blissfully swimming in goodies!

I was astounded by their enormous Moleskine collection. There were numerous rotating stands throughout the store, and a huge table stacked with Moleskine planners and limited edition notebooks (where I could almost hear angels singing!). They had every notebook from the colorful Extra Smalls to the huge Folio books and everything in between. I was thrilled to get to check out the limited edition Star Wars series notebooks, which look great! They had the Moleskine bags and pens, eyeglasses and other accessories too.

I could hardly get over my joy at seeing all the Moleskine planners in person!! They had samples available with the shrink-wrap removed so people could look through each type of planner to check out the pages. I had a great time thumbing through the planner formats I hadn't seen in person before! They had many of the limited edition planners including Peanuts and Bakin. I especially liked the coppery foil look of the Bakin design which looks extremely cool in person.

I was very happy to see the Moleskine Action Planner, which is a vertical weekly planner in the Extra Large size with a hard cover. I've been wanting to check this planner out ever since I first saw it online. There is a column on each weekly page for lists with tick-boxes beside each item. I flipped through the planner and was happy to see there are month per page calendars. It also has extra information pages including international flight times between major cities, very interesting.

I looked at the classic daily planners in large and pocket sizes with soft covers. I use these planners in the hard cover, but the soft cover is a nice option for someone who wants the flexibility and lighter weight.

I got to look at the Panoramic Planner, which is an excellent format but available only in Pocket size. I'd love to see this planner in the Large size. I also got to see the new Cahier week per page planner. This would be great for someone with minimal scheduling needs, but I wonder how the cahier cover would hold up to a year's use.

I was very excited to look through the Monthly Notebook planners in Pocket, Large and Extra Large sizes. These are great because there is a two-page spread of lined pages between each monthly two-page spread, and loads of lined pages in the back. I wanted to get one of these for this year and by the time I got around to ordering they were sold out. My mom is sending me one for 2012 and I can hardly wait! I will use it as my goals planner to write my monthly and weekly goals and reviews.

I wondered what the staff would think if I joyously wallowed in a pile of planners but managed to restrain myself!!

The store also had some Filofaxes in various sizes and some inserts. The Filofaxes were all behind locked glass, and since I knew I wasn't going to buy any I didn't trouble anyone to get them out. I noticed the brown Chameleon, A5 Amazonas in brown and red, and the Sketch personal size binders along with several Dominos and Finsburies. Even though I didn't get to handle any, it was fun to check out binders I hadn't seen before.

They also had a selection of Filofax Flex products in A5, personal and pocket sizes. I think Filofax could improve the packaging on these to make it more evident what the product is and how it works. Just looking at it, it looks like a regular notebook.

There were loads of other planners, Asian brands with really cute designs, and a very nice brand of planners called Luxe. The Luxe planners were daily or weekly in various formats and sizes. One interesting format I'd never seen before was an A5 size book with two days per page, only on the right page with the back of the page blank. The day space was lined, and the daily schedule was at the edge of the page, perforated to tear off! I'm not sure exactly what the purpose was but guessed it's for when you don't want to carry the entire book, you can rip off the little timed section to carry in your pocket to see what your schedule is for today. I really enjoyed seeing some different formats!

As wonderful as it was to see all of these things in person, I somehow managed to walk out of the store without a single purchase! Mainly because the Moleskine notebooks and planners cost about twice as much as they do in the US, so if I decide to buy any it would be much cheaper for me to order online. Now, should I get the Star Wars notebooks in Large or Pocket size....?

2011-2012 Plan-It Middle School and High School planners

2011-10-08T12:29:00.015+01:00

I am very excited that Plan-It has a new line of planners developed specifically for Middle School and High School students! They incorporate goal-setting right into the planner pages, and are packed with tips on goal setting, effective studying, internet safety and loads more.

These planners have the same excellent weekly format with monthly calendars embedded in the weeks as the other Plan-It planners I have reviewed. The layout is the same in both the Middle School and High School planners. Both of these planners run from August 2011 through July 2012.

The inside cover has all of 2011 at a glance. The first page has spaces to write your personal information, emergency contacts and other information.

There are pages to write your class schedule for easy reference.

And there are LOADS of information pages! I won't show them all, but there are pages for Study Tips; Study Skills with advice on different learning methods; Goal Planning tips and space to list goals in different categories; excellent pages with information about Internet Safety; Test Taking Tips, Social Studies facts (shown below), details on the Branches of U.S. Government and how they work; English parts of speech, punctuation, spelling tips, and rules for capitalization; a huge list of Commonly Misspelled Words; Science tables of measurements, metric system equivalencies, conversion tables between U.S. and metric measurements; Geometry angles and shapes. There's tons of information packed into this book for handy reference!

There are a couple of lined pages for notes, then the planner section begins. At the beginning of each month there is a monthly calendar on the two-page spread. Notice at the top of the monthly pages are spaces for Monthly Goals and Long-Term goals, which is a wonderful feature. There's also room for notes along the right side of the page, and holidays are printed in the day spaces.There are reference calendars for last month and next month too.

The weekly pages have lined day spaces with loads of room to write, even on the weekends. Holidays are also printed in these day spaces, and there is a reference calendar of the current month. I really like the color scheme in the Middle School planner, the pages are so nice to look at!

Starting in July the calendar switches to a week per page, saving pages during the summer when you probably will use your planner less than during the school year. Inside the back cover is a reference calendar for all of 2012.

These planners measure approximately 5 1/2 inches wide by 8 1/4 inches tall and are only about 1/4 inch thick, so they are very portable and can go everywhere with you in your bag. The spiral binding allows them to lay totally flat and easily fold back on themselves.

As you might imagine, I especially love the Goal Setting pages (which I specifically didn't show a photo of because I don't want to give away any secrets!) and the space in the monthly pages to write goals, to keep them visible all the time. Plan-It, I would love to see a "grown up" version of this planner with pages of goal-setting tips and spaces to write goals on the monthly and weekly pages. This is extremely useful for everyone, at any age.

Many, many thanks to Plan-It for sending me these planners as samples to review! They are excellent for students of any age, and anyone at all really. I would highly recommend these for anyone looking for an academic-year planner.

You can find Plan-It Planners at http://www.plan-itplanners.com/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/planitplanners, and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/planitplanners.

You can click here to see all the Plan-It planners currently available on Amazon.com.

Click on the images below to go directly to the product pages for the Middle School and High School planners I reviewed in this post.

Life Well Planned blog name change

2011-10-07T11:24:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to make you aware that kanalt's excellent blog Life Well Planned has had a name change and is now Well Planned Life. The new website is http://wellplannedlife.blogspot.com/. You can read more deets about it here.

Be sure to update your links and bookmarks so you don't miss any of her excellent posts!

Setting Goals with your Filofax

2011-10-03T06:20:00.000+01:00

Today on Philofaxy I posted a big long article with steps for setting and achieving goals, and how to use your Filofax to help you.

Click here to go to the post.

How do you use your planner to help you set and reach your goals?

Plan-It 7x9 inch planners

2011-09-29T13:43:00.002+01:00

You may have seen my previous posts on the Plan-It planners, which are excellent. Now I'm very excited that this year they have added a new, larger size planner to their lineup!

Click here to see my review of the 5 1/2 by 8 inch Plan-It planners. The new larger planners measure 7 by 9 inches, with the same great layout.

These planners go from August 2011 through the end of July 2012. They have the same great layout and features of the other Plan-It planners, with more space to write.

Below are the Plan-It 2011-2012 (7"x9") Fashion Day Planner with the Paisley Bird cover
and the Plan-It 2011-2012 (7"x9") Fashion Day Planner with the Black cover

Inside the front cover there is a 2011 year at a glance reference calendar. The first page has spaces to write your contact info and where to find Plan-It online including their website www.plan-itplanners.com, Facebook and Twitter.

The next page has a list of holidays during the school year, then a page to record your class schedule:

At the beginning of each month, embedded in the weeks are monthly calendars with the month across the two-page spread. This has loads of great features like space for notes, holidays printed on the days, and monthly tabs to help you find the month you're looking for when planning ahead. We all know how much I love monthly tabs!!

The weekly spread has loads of room to write, and the weekend days are big! Hooray!

At the back of the book there are a couple of pages for addresses and notes:

The last page is a handy place to write frequently used numbers. Inside the back cover is a reference calendar for 2012.

The book measures only 5/16 of an inch thick, so even though the pages are larger the book is still extremely lightweight and portable. The rounded corners make it even more streamlined so it will have no problem going everywhere with you in your bag.

So, if you are looking for a planner with a large weekly layout, months on two pages, in the academic year format with pretty covers (and at a GREAT price) you'll definitely want to check out the Plan-It 7x9 inch planners! Well done Plan-It!

Many thanks to Plan-It for sending me these products as samples to review!

What's your most treasured planner?

2011-09-27T13:21:00.001+01:00

Today I was reading through my Ghost of Planners Past series and looking at the planners themselves. These are some of my most treasured planners along with my Septanote, my French Textagenda I used in grad school and my day per page planner I used the year my daughter was born.

Steve wrote a couple of posts on Philofaxy discussing the value of using your planner as a diary and showing some pages from the Filofax diary inserts he used during the year his son was born which contain some very special memories.

Do you have planners from times in your life that you treasure?

Have you chosen your 2012 planner yet?

2011-09-23T03:57:00.000+01:00

'Tis the season to get next year's planner, if you haven't already!

Students or parents with kids in school probably already have next year's planner, or an academic-year planner to be able to plan the entire school year all in one book. 17 or 18 month planners are especially useful because you can use them to plan the school year and the rest of next year too.

Folks who use calendar-year planners are buying next year's now as future appointments start popping up into the new year.

Do you know what planner you will use next year? Have you bought it yet? Will you use the same planner as this year or are you looking for something new?

If you need some help deciding what planner to use, you're in the right place! I have lots of suggestions.

Take a look in the sidebar under Helpful Posts to see tips on choosing your planner. These posts will help you decide what format (daily, weekly, monthly), size and layout (vertical or horizontal days) will work best for you.

If you want to see reviews of specific planners, look at Browse Planner Brands and Formats.

And if you have any questions or want some advice, please leave a comment! I'll be happy to help.

So, what planner are YOU going to use in 2012?

Monsieur leather notebook

2011-09-15T07:17:00.001+01:00

When I opened this handsome notebook, my husband immediately said, "That's mine." He's normally a Moleskine man so I was a little surprised when he was so adamant about this notebook! Except not really. I should have known he would nab this one because it is Just. That. Cool.

Monsieur Notebooks (http://monsieurnotebook.com/) are hand bound in India from a single piece of vegetable-tanned leather. The leather is thick and soft with natural markings on it and has that great leather smell to it. I'll show you the other great features of this notebook in a sec but first I want to point out the price of these notebooks: In the UK these are priced at 9.99 pounds for the A6 size, 12.99 for A5 and 21.99 for A4! Those are spectacular prices for real, handmade leather notebooks!

Here is the back of the notebook where you can see more information on the band.

The cover is flexible without being floppy:

Here is the cover without the packaging. The color and texture of the leather are amazing. There is an elastic closure.

On the back cover you can see the only branding is the logo subtly embossed in the bottom right corner.

Inside the front cover there is a place to write your name and any other information you like such as contact information, contents etc.

Inside the front cover is the brand marking:

The pages are lined with 6 mm ruling (same width as Moleskine ruling). The paper is very light ivory, lighter in color than Moleskine paper. There is a real ribbon placemarker which is color matched to the cover, a very elegant touch.

The entire look of the book is sophisticated and luxurious. And again I just can't get over the price! You get an amazing notebook for the money.

My husband took this to work with him before I could do any ink tests on it, but you can see how it performs with a variety of inks in these excellent reviews by Ms Logica and Notebooktivity. The paper in this notebook is 90 gsm, thick and smooth.

Starting this month the Monsieur Notebooks collection will include fountain pen friendly notebooks with 100 gsm paper! The notebooks are available in a variety of sizes and papers, portrait and landscape layouts. The leather covers come in this brown color as well as black, green, pink, turquoise, navy blue and red. Click here for more information on the selection available.

Monsieur Notebooks are available at PaperNation.co.uk and you can also click here to see more retailers. There are stockists throughout the UK and Ireland, and even in Hungary!

Many thanks to Monsieur Notebooks for sending me this excellent notebook to review. From my impressions and my husband's immediate reaction, I'll say you have a winner here!

Philofaxy All Stars Guest Post: Imy's Filofax Flex!

2011-09-13T09:21:00.002+01:00

Many thanks to Imy of Imy's World for this Philofaxy All Stars guest post of her Filofax Flex!!! I haven't seen any of the Flex products in person so I was very interested in her post! Here's Imy:

I am doing a guest post for the Philofaxy AllStars Tour!

I wanted to write a review on the Flex by Filofax for a long time then I offered to do it for Plannerisms and luckily she said YES!

I have it in the LOVELY Magenta, it also comes in Black and Slate!

Mine is A5 but it also comes in Pocket and Slim, the range of sizes Is very similar to Personal, Pocket and A5 Filofaxes!

The cover is priced at £27.00 which comes with a Pen Holder and a Jot Pad!

I ordered the Note Book, Pull out 2011 Diary and a 2011/2012 Diary!

The Notebook comes in different thicknesses a layouts, you can choose between plain or ruled. The thicknesses you can choose from are either 80 pages or 256 pages! I only have the Ruled 80 Pages, as you can see its just the right thickness as it is!

If you want to replace the Jot pads after using them, it will cost £10 and you get a set of 3 with ONLY 16 sheets, they do tear off but this feels like quite a high price for what it is! It may be very nice paper but still I find it far too expensive!

To get extra pen holders its £3, but you can only get extra ones in GREY! There is one other thing you can do with them, and that is hole punch them, and put them in a Filofax so you can have extra pen loops, also once you have done that you could stick post its on the card! Well that is a small idea I have!

So I will now compare it to my A5 Adelphi to show you the size comparison, which to be honest isn’t too much different!

The only difference really is length they are virtually the same width!

As you can see its actually thicker than the Adelphi, which is a Slimline A5, there both the same width.

Here is the pen loop and the Jot Pad which I REALLY do not like because of the price, its just so ridiculous! But I’m sure you can find a similar note pad! But still I was not happy with the width and the cost of it!

I find that the pen holder is really tight tho and it struggles to put thicker pens in even though its elastic, its not very stretchy elastic!

There are plenty of pockets inside the Flex there are 6 credit card slots and a larger slot below!

There are 4 slots for diaries and notepads, contact pages etc, what ever you want to put in!

You can also fit different standard A5 notebooks in!

I love the colours of the covers for the notepads and diaries it goes so well with the pink.

The inside of the notepad.

I love the inside coves to the notepads too, it just reminds me of something from school!

The paper inside the notebook and diary and all the other paper used for these books is beautiful! There so lovely to write on, there like the Cotton Cream paper, its so nice to write on and feels very nice and smooth for writing on!

But then the majority of the paper in the normal Filofax is lovely like the colour but obviously the diary paper on normal Filofax pages are a lot thinner and not very nice, I think Filofax should really start to make pages using the paper in the Flex!

It would be great if the diary had holes in and also so you are able to rip it out! I know that a lot of other people have had that idea as well! So its obviously a great idea!

I find that when you move the flex a bit it can cause a bit of trouble as the notebooks can slide out and you have to keep pushing them back in!

The diary is just your usually week to view layout, with a notes section which gives you 8 equal boxes, on the pages it shows you the month to view, In the notes section!

It’s the same lovely paper, I don’t need to bore you all with the paper again hehe

The week to view diary I have looks like this: -

it’s the same lovely paper and there is plenty of room to write peoples birthday and other events!

What I would love to see from the new edition of the Flex if they carry on with it is: -

Leather covers
Day per page, but in 12 books, so you only have to carry one month at a time
Month to two pages, with a whole 12 months in
Finance books
Travel book
City planner
Similar things to what you get with the Filofax but set things! It would add so much to it!

Cannot wait to see Edition 2!

But for now I cannot leave my perfect A5 Adelphi!

See are you can see I wrote all this in my Filofax rather than my Flex but I don’t think I will be changing unless they add so many more things!

I agree with what others have said it’s a glorified notebook! But I feel as if it had other things done it may become a great change from a Filofax!

But all the Filofax lovers out there, the one thing that may be useful are, like uni maybe as a notebook as its such lovely paper or college just for making notes outside of your Filofax!

I hope you have enjoyed it!

Thank you so much Laurie for letting me write for Plannerisms!

Many thanks again to Imy for this wonderfully detailed post and excellent photos!

How do you store your planners?

2011-09-10T14:11:00.000+01:00

Reader Tina emailed me recently asking how I store my planners long-term. I actually keep all of my planners and notebooks out on shelves (as shown here) because I refer to them often. I do keep my journals in a fireproof safe though, just in case.

But it's a great question, and I'd love to know how you store your old planners, notebooks and/ or journals long-term. Do you use lidded bins? A cardboard box? An archival storage system of some kind?

Please leave a comment!

Copyright notice

2011-09-09T02:41:00.000+01:00

I hate to do a post about this, but unfortunately it is necessary.

I have discovered that someone (who I will not name here) has lifted text from my blog and used it in their own blog post, then called it a "guest post." I'm sure they meant no harm by it, but please realize this is copyright infringement. The person did credit me, but because they used my actual text without asking my permission, it violates copyright laws.

I only just discovered this because I follow them on Twitter and clicked on one of their tweets about a new blog post. Imagine my surprise to see my own text incorporated into their post as a "guest post" from me.

If you would like to refer to my posts in your own blog, you can create a link to my actual post. If you would like me to write a guest post for your blog, please contact me and I would be more than happy to talk to you about it.

But please, whatever you do, don't use my actual text in your post without asking me first. Even if you credit me, it's still copyright infringement.

Please respect online authors and our materials.

Thank you!!!

**Note: I previously had my Copyright notice at the bottom of my main page, and I have now moved it up to the top of my sidebar so it is visible to everyone who reads my blog, to avoid any confusion!

2012 WeekDate weekly planner

2011-09-07T13:06:00.000+01:00

Take a look at this new cover style for the 2012 WeekDate planner! This is the Bohemian cover. I thought it looked extra cool with my swimming pool behind it:

There is a great selection of cover colors and styles available for the 2012 WeekDate planners, click here to see all the cover choices.

Several weeks ago I was desperately trying to order this planner but was having PayPal difficulties. Specifically, my order originating from Indonesia set off PayPal's fraud warning and froze my account! Grr! I contacted Weekdate to see if there was another way I could order, and Kay very generously offered to send me one as thanks for my previous WeekDate reviews. Many, many thanks to Kay for sending me this 2012 WeekDate planner, I know you don't normally send samples so I really appreciate this!!

If you have a lot of recurring weekly and/ or monthly events, the WeekDate planner is the one for you. You write your recurring events only once, and they stay visible all the time so you don't have to re-write them every week or month. And if your schedule changes, you erase it once and write in the new schedule. No more flipping week to week changing events!

The WeekDate's recurring schedule system is also wonderful for writing in your routines to keep you on track for exercise, meal planning, FlyLady Zone work, and anything else you need to be reminded to do on a weekly or monthly basis.

Below is the WeekDate planner completely open. The tri-fold format opens out big and folds up small for lots of writing space in a very slim and portable planner.

At the top is the Monthly recurring section, in the middle is the current week, and at the bottom is the Weekly recurring section. When you turn the pages, only the current week is turned so your monthly and weekly recurring items stay visible at all times. The days of the week are color coded to correspond to the appropriate week on the monthly recurring section so you always know where you are in the month. The back sides of the weekly pages are lined for lists, notes, financial records etc. so this is a week + notes format, with all seven days as full-size columns.

Click here for more information on How It Works.

The first page of the WeekDate planner has a short explanation of how to use it, click on the photo for a larger view:

The back side of the front page has Hints and Tips for using your WeekDate planner:

The inside of the front cover has lines to write your contact info in case your planner is lost:

Inside the cover there is a removable card for frequently used or emergency contacts:

Inside the very back of the planner is a removable card for annually-recurring events like birthdays, anniversaries, insurance renewals etc. that you can use year after year:

The back outside cover has the entire year at a glance:

And the last page of the planner has all of next year at a glance:

Below are some photos of the weekly pages showing examples of what types of holidays and useful reminders are pre-printed on the day spaces. Click on the photos for a larger view.

US public holidays are all indicated (like MLKJ Day):

Other holidays like Valentine's Day are too. (And there at the right of the page you can see the tear-off edge so you flip directly to the current week, and the month tab to find the month you're looking for easily.)

Halloween, and Daylight Savings Time! So you don't forget to set your clocks:

Earth day and Tax Day too:

Here is the planner with the previous weeks' pages folded under the planner, which it does easily:

In my post on ways to use the WeekDate planner (click here to see) I have more details about the color-coding system for the weeks and monthly recurring system,the Monthly Set Days section, weekly reminders, using the planner for FlyLady Zone work etc.

Check out my review of the 2011 WeekDate planner here, with more photos of the inside of the planner and all its features.

You can see all of the WeekDate products at www.weekdate.com.

WeekDate DOES ship internationally, click here to see their shipping rates. When I lived in Scotland I had my WeekDate planner shipped to me there and it arrived quickly and with no problems.

If you want to start the WeekDate system right now you are in serious luck because there are just a few 2011 WeekDate planners left, and they are on sale! Click here to get yours before they are gone so you can start WeekDating right away!

I own several WeekDate products including the Wall calendar (click here for my review), the WeekDate White wipe-off wall planner (click here for my review), and the weekly planners so if you have any questions about the products post a comment and I'll be happy to answer!

Philofaxy All Stars guest post: Femke and her FlyLady Filofax

2011-09-04T14:22:00.001+01:00

Many thanks to Femke for this awesome guest post on how she uses her Filofax as her FlyLady Control Journal! I know this is a topic that's been talked about a lot recently, so I really appreciate all the details!!

I’m using my Filofax as a guide for Fly Lady, to clean my house and keep up with everything. I kept our house clean but I still felt like I couldn’t have people over unexpectedly. I’d heard about Fly Lady before, but at one point I decided to just give it a try.

I’m still a Fly Baby but my Control Journal is filled to the brim. If you’re not familiar with Fly Lady, I advise you to check the website, here. Even if you don’t fully use Fly Lady, there are some great tips for keeping your house clean and neat.

When I open my Filofax (an A5 Domino Snake), I see a photo of myself running the 5K last year. This is a motivation photo, because I really want to run another 5K, but haven’t trained in a year.

First off, I start with the emergency contacts. This is the first page when you open my Filofax. I don’t have many of them, just both of our parents, our doorkeeper (very luxurious, since we live in a large building), our insurance advisor (he does all our insurances) and the vet. I advise everyone to keep a list like this in a safe place, because you never know when you need it.

Tab 1 and 2 are my weekly calendar and monthly calendar. In my weekly calendar, I write down the list of house chores, the weekly chores and this week’s zone. In the middle of the week, I keep my to do list for the zones. I mark the things I’ve done with pencil and at the end of the week erase them. I also write down my moods and if I have a migraine or slight headache, as part of my mission 101. In my monthly calendar I write down the birthdays and important days for that month.

Tab 3: my to do lists. Here I keep the lists for the weekly zones but also stuff I still need to do for my control journal, or what I need to buy. I don’t keep my personal to do’s in this Filofax, this is only for things I need to do around the house.

Tab 4: is where I keep all my lists. Daily, weekly, monthly routines, a list of the zones and what needs to be done, and my pantry and master grocery list is what you can find in there.

Tab 5: following that, I keep my “Mission 101” list in there, including my book list and movie list. This is the personal section of my Control Journal.

Tab 6 is my addresses tab. I use the A-Z dividers for that as well. In here I keep every address I may ever need. I don’t cross out, I just add.

Here I also keep a list of the Christmas cards I’ve sent out last year and from whom we received a card. This way I can easily revise our list.

Even if you’re not using the Fly Lady concept, I would really recommend a Filofax, or even a folder in a specific place with an address book (or list) and emergency list. Because it is true, you never know what may happen or when you need a specific phone number.

Thanks again to Femke for all the great details, and the inspiration to set up my own FlyLady/ Household/ Motivational Filofax!!

Experiment revisited: Large Moleskine Day Per Page

2011-09-02T02:04:00.002+01:00

I know what you're thinking: "How many times is she going to try (and fail) with a day per page planner?" Well, follow me here and see what I'm thinking:

Back in December I tried using my large Moleskine day per page as my planner. I was extremely inspired by other people's usage methods of it, and even my husband suggested I use it (which you can read about here). Predictably, it failed rather quickly, which day per page planners tend to do for me because I have a hard time planning ahead effectively seeing only one day per page.

Then in January (in this post) I lamented the fact that I haven't kept a journal in a long time, but when I was doing my large day-per-page experiment I captured memories that otherwise would have slipped away. In that post I wondered if I should use the large daily as my planner and journal combined. But at the time I was gearing up for my big move from Scotland to Indonesia, and I needed a big weekly planner to get me through my move. Now, nine months later and looking back at my question in January, the answer is: I wish I'd used the large daily as my planner and journal combined. If I had, I would have captured so many more memories.

As I wrote in my Consistency is Key post, I've finally realized it matters less whether I have a perfect capturing system. What matters is that things get captured. In an ideal world, I would have time each day to sit and write in my journal. But that requires me to get and open my journal and sit down to write in it. In reality, it's my planner that's in my hands throughout the day so if something's going to get written, it will be in there.

I went back through some of my old posts including Past vs. Future, Planner Permanence and Planning Tool/ Record of Events and noticed the theme. I'm craving the permanence of having a record of my life in a bound book. Since I can't seem to get myself to journal despite my desire to do so, I'm going to do a combined planner/ journal in my large daily Mole. Plus my ever-wise husband has a great point: combining planning/ recording and journaling in one book will create a very complete record of my life at the time.

I was also inspired by this post on the Quo Vadis blog, scroll down to #6 where she talks about how she uses her Textagenda (day per page academic-year) as a combined planner and journal. Also I looked back through my Textagenda from last year, and even though I didn't use it for very long the combination of planning and journaling it contains is now priceless.

I hear you: how will I plan ahead with my day per page planner? I have a couple of strategies. In the front of the Moleskine there are monthly planners, and in the Large size planners the day spaces in the monthly calendars are big enough to write in a fair amount of detail. I also use my WeekDate Wall calendar on the fridge so my family can see it. Because it has weekly recurring events visible all the time, I can picture my week easily.

I'm using my beautiful brushed leather Success Choice cover on my large daily Moleskine, which fits easily with room to spare. Some people have asked me how I'm protecting the leather of this cover and the answer is, I'm not. In fact just today I got something sticky on it and so now there's a mark. I try not to worry about it, it just adds character and the fact is it's bound to get marks on it because my life is messy! The Success Choice cover has a fabric ribbon placemarker, so I use it to mark the current month and the Moleskine's ribbon placemarker to mark today, for easy access between my monthly and daily views.

Because I'm using my daily planner as my journal too, I use it to capture ideas, thoughts, quotes and other random things. One thing I am committed to doing is writing at the bottom of the page at least one positive thing each day. It will help me see the good in each day, which will be an especially useful exercise on those really aggravating days! And it will be a great record of things I enjoy in my life.

I already have the 2012 large Moleskine day per page planner, so at the end of this year I can continue straight into it.

So, please wish me luck in this new experiment! I hope it will be permanent!

My guest post on Globetrotting Cacti

2011-09-01T14:59:00.000+01:00

Another Philofaxy All Stars guest post of mine went up recently! It's on Globetrotting Cacti and it's loaded with tips for handling long flights with babies and/ or toddlers. Many thanks to Alison for letting me do a guest post on her awesome blog!

Click here to see my guest post on Globetrotting Cacti!

My guest post on Imy's World: What's In My Bag!

2011-09-01T12:29:00.001+01:00

Many thanks to Imy for letting me do a Philofaxy All Stars guest post on her blog! You'll finally get to see all the crazy stuff I carry in my bag every day!

Click here to see my guest post on Imy's World!

Dodo Pad blog relaunch!

2011-08-30T16:04:00.001+01:00

The Dodo Pad blog has relaunched with a new title and a new direction!

Dodevoted is the new name of the blog. It's all about using and loving Dodo Pad diaries, planners, household organizers and other products. There will be articles on organizing your time and life for parents, students, professionals and anyone else who wants to have fun and be well-planned at the same time.

In case you didn't already know, I write the Dodo Pad blog! I've had a great time writing as the character Miss Peabody. The new focus of the blog will be interaction with readers, which I hope will include you! Please tune in to Dodevoted (www.dodopadblog.com), subscribe, and comment often! I'm really looking forward to hearing from you. :)

It's official: I'm an addict

2011-08-24T01:49:00.001+01:00

I made Notebook Addict of the Week on Notebook Stories!! Awesome!!

I feel like I've just entered a VERY exclusive club. Thank you Nifty for including me!

Check out the post about my official addiction HERE and be sure to read other excellent posts on the Notebook Stories blog HERE.

Dodo Pad Nubuck leather cover in Aqua

2011-08-19T09:22:00.000+01:00

Feast your eyes on this! Here is the Dodo Pad Nubuck leather cover in Aqua!

The light sea green color is absolutely gorgeous. And, this cover feels amazing in my hands! The Nubuck is velvety and soft. "Dodo Pad" is embossed on the front and there is an elastic strap closure to hold the book shut securely.

Here is the back of the cover:

As you would expect from something Italian-made, it's beautiful inside and out! Here is the very classy-looking lining:

Here it is with my 2012 Dodo Pad diary!

Below you can see how the front cover of the diary fits into the leather cover:

And here is the back cover:

I love seeing the aqua cover at the edges of the diary pages!

Here's the cover again in all its glory, containing my Dodo Pad diary!

As if it already weren't cool enough, the Desk size Dodo Pad covers fit on Extra Large Moleskine planners and notebooks with only a tiny bit of hacking. Click here (and scroll down in the post) to see how I lightly hacked my iridescent lilac Dodo Pad cover to fit my Extra Large Moleskine planner.

Summer Planner

2011-08-17T13:00:00.004+01:00

Where did summer go?? Now that the school year has started, I can hardly remember how I spent our summer. It just flew right by.

Now I wish I had planned my summer using something like this Summer Planner in my Organized Mum Life Book:

So I created one for next summer. Since my kids' school is out in early June, we have 10 weeks to plan. They fit nicely on one page in my Extra Large Moleskine (click photo for a better view):

I like seeing all the weeks of the summer together instead of separately on their monthly calendars. It helps me see the continuity of the entire summer, and will make summer plans go that much more smoothly. It will also help with our countdown for Back To School next year!

Did you plan your summer or did it sort of just happen? Do you have a method in place for planning your summers?

Moms! I need ideas for storing kids' art!

2011-08-14T11:58:00.002+01:00

Right now at the beginning of the school year I want to put systems in place that will keep me organized all school year long.

This is my first year with both kids in school, and I already know that the art and papers they bring home will quickly get out of control if I don't set up systems now to deal with them from the very beginning!

I already have a folder for each child to hold class newsletters and information from the school, so that's set. My big dilemma is how to deal with art, writing and other "creations" the kids bring home.

I want to keep everything they bring home until the end of the school year, then I'll go through it all and decide what to keep.

So, experienced Moms, what's my best bet? Should I get a bin or basket for each kid and put everything into it? Or is there some kind of binder system that would work better?

My other issue is what to do with their backpacks, library books, ongoing projects and such. Our walls are solid concrete so I can't install hooks in the walls, but I can use tables, shelves and/ or racks for such things (although I don't have major retailers like Target or Ikea so they have to be something made out of wood, which I can have made for cheap here).

And, I need to keep these things in sight without being in the way constantly. (My kids inherited my out of sight out of mind tendencies so anything "put away" gets completely forgotten about!)

I would appreciate any ideas for keeping school items organized and under control. Please post a comment!

Thanks! :)

2012 Dodo Pad desk diary and Wall Pad

2011-08-12T09:50:00.000+01:00

For the first time in its 46 years of publication, the 2012 Dodo Pad diary has a new cover design!

Don't worry, the beloved Dodo is still there! Below on the left is the 2012 original Dodo Pad desk diary, and on the right is the Wall pad.

I love the aqua/ spearmint color. I'm on an aqua kick this year!

Notice the brick pattern in the background on the Wall pad cover!

Here are the backs of the covers:

The insides of the Dodo Pad diary and Wall pad have the same weekly grid format with dates of note and plenty of doodle/ notes space each week:

The Wall pad has the same content but opens vertically for hanging on the wall:

I ordered these diaries from www.dodopad.com which has a great new look and new features. Be sure to check out the new website!

Writing in 2012?

2011-08-09T13:22:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody! Are you starting to fill in your 2012 planner yet?

I know many of us who are on an academic year schedule are filling in the school year in our 2012 calendars. I like being able to plan the entire year so I write in school breaks as soon as I know them.

I like to write in my new planner(s) as soon as I can. I love filling in dates in a new planner! As soon as I know any events they get written in, and annually-recurring dates like birthdays and anniversaries go straight into my new planner.

As I wrote in my previous post, this sometimes comes around to bite me when plans change!

Do you fill in dates in next year's planner as soon as you can? Or do you wait until the year starts?

Diary do-over

2011-08-05T07:39:00.000+01:00

Back in November when I was filling in my 2011 planners, I thought this year was going to be vastly different from how it has turned out.

Back then I filled in all the school holidays and events until the end of the school year in July. I wrote in all my kids' dance and sports practices every week until summer. I wrote in local holidays we would be observing. I like to write everything into my planner that's coming up so it's already there when I need it.

Problem is, after March none of those things took place, for us anyway. Then I had all of these now-irrelevant things written into my planners.

I switch around planners so often it turned out to be a non-issue in my bound planners, luckily, because it would have been an annoying mess to white-out all of those entries.

In my Medical Filofax that I take everywhere with me, I use the month on two page calendars to record when any of us have a doctor's visit (which has been a weekly occurrence this summer), track my weight, and any significant events as a long-term record.

But my April-July pages had numerous now-irrelevant entries taking up space in the small day spaces. Rather than white-out the pages, I simply replaced them.

One of the many joys of Filofax is the ability to remove and/ or replace pages. I ordered up a new 2011 Month on Two Pages insert and replaced the relevant pages.

What do you do when plans vastly change? Do you replace diary pages in your Filofax? Do you white out or scratch out entries in your pages? Or do you buy an entirely new planner?

The Success Choice leather cover

2011-08-01T13:29:00.004+01:00

Here is my new brushed leather cover for my Woman's Success Planner!

The color is listed as "sunrise yellow" but don't expect a bright artificial yellow, it is a natural yellow-tan. These photos are are pretty good representation of the color, on my computer at least! Click here to read the meaning of the logo.

Click here for the cover's product page for more specific information.

Below is the cover open and empty so you can easily see the interior layout. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) The left cover flap has an opening where you can tuck in papers. Below that is a slot for cards. There is a ribbon placemarker sewn into the top of the cover to conveniently find your page.

On the right side there is a slot at the top where a slim jotter pad could slide in, a vertical slot to slip in your checkbook, and below that another card slot. There is a pen loop that is not elasticated, so slimmer pens can clip on with their clip. The closure tab slides into a loop in the front cover. I love to play with the closure flap, it is soft like a puppy's ear!

Here is the back of the cover. At the bottom you can see the logo Rustico, Made in the USA. All Success Choice products are made in the USA.

Below you can see how the cover of the Woman's Success Planner (click here for my review with lots of photos) fits easily into the front cover flap:

And the back cover flap:

The cover is designed to also fit the Address Book (click here for my review and lots of photos of this not-just-an-address-book!).

I didn't take a photo of it, but you can actually fit two of the quarterly planners into the cover at once (along with the address book), so you can plan 6 months at a time. I'll be doing this in the last week of the quarter so I can plan ahead to the next week and month.

Below you can see a size comparison with my personal size Filofax: it's only slightly larger:

And definitely slimmer, even with the address book in it too.

Here is the front of the cover containing my Woman's Success Planner and Address Book, with my pen of choice in the pen loop. (That's a Sakura Micron 05 dark blue for you pen lovers.)

I love the cheery yellow color and the soft feel of the brushed leather. It makes me want to hold it all the time! Pamela, the creator of Success Choice planners, uses this exact cover herself, and she says the brushed leather gets softer over the years. When I first put the cover on my planner I thought to myself, "Just when I thought I couldn't love my Success Choice planner any more, now I do!"

I am a big believer in the idea that things we use every day should be as pleasant to use as possible. This cover is so soft and beautiful (and has that nice leather smell) that it really adds to the enjoyment of using my planner, especially since I handle my planner so often throughout the day.

I did some experiments with this cover to see what else would fit in it. It will accommodate any planner or notebook that is 8 1/2 inches tall, of various widths or thicknesses. It fits on my large Moleskine day per page planner easily, so there's plenty of room for any of the large Moleskine planners or notebooks. It also fits on my wider Medium size Leuchtturm notebooks, and my Uncalendar Half Size planner. Iiiiiiinnnnteresting....

I ordered this cover from The Success Choice, click here for the product page. The covers are currently on sale for 25% off, and US shipping is included in the price. The covers also come in black, carmel brown, chocolate brown and cranberry, click here to see all the Success Choice leather covers.

My haul!

2011-07-28T17:12:00.001+01:00

Here is my haul from Filofax, Dodo Pad and Success Choice!

In the photo you see (clockwise from top center) the red Finchley tote by Filofax, which I've been wanting for ages; the buttery yellow brushed leather cover for my Woman's Success Planner from Success Choice; the Dodo Pad Nubuck cover in Aqua (which is so scrummy soft I can't get over it), 2012 Dodo Wall Pad and Dodo Pad diary with the handsome new style cover; and my new personal Aqua Finsbury Filofax!

First thing you might notice is, none of these are colors I usually go for! I don't normally get anything red, but the dark Finchley red is just gorgeous. Also I'm into cheery colors these days like the yellow cover, and I'm definitely on an Aqua kick! I'm also on a leather kick in general, and all of these leather items are fabulous!

Over the next couple of weeks I'll post more photos of each of these items on the following blogs: Finchley tote on Bagsey blog; Aqua Filofax on Philofaxy blog, and the Dodo Pad diaries, Nubuck cover, and Success Choice leather cover here on Plannerisms complete with interior photos.

As a parting shot, look how gorgeous my personal Finsburies look together!

Edited to add: my post about the Finchley tote is now up on Bagsey blog, and my post showing interior photos of my Aqua Finsbury is up on Philofaxy!