Mid-Year Planners

Here we are smack in the middle of 2010. How's it going for you?

Right now you are either in the middle of your 2010 calendar-year planner, or getting ready to start your new 2010/2011 academic year planner.

I always get very excited each year when the academic year planners come out, because it's a chance to start a new planner mid-year. (And you know I love to start a new planner!)

You don't have to be a student or teacher to use a mid-year or an academic-year planner. Parents with kids in school may find they can plan easier when their planner follows the school year schedule. Some people find, for work or personal reasons, they prefer their planner to start mid-year.

Or, you may need a new planner now for other reasons, especially if you've experienced any of these: getting married, moving, changing jobs or taking on new responsibilities. Any major life change can change your planner needs significantly, causing you to need a new planner.

And, there's always the case of Planner Fail, which will leave you searching for an alternative.

Well guess what, we're all in luck! There's a ton of excellent planners starting right now. Here are just a few:

If you're tired of your boring, restrictive planner and want something colorful and fun, look no further! The Dodo Acad-Pad will keep you engaged all year with its humor and art.
Dodo Acad-Pad Desk Diary 2010/11 2010/11: Academic Mid Year Diary - a Combined Memo-doodle-planner-message-ment-organizer Book (Dodo Pad)

The Acad-Pad comes in a variety of sizes and formats including the original desk planner, wall calendar, portable mini size and new personal size Filofax insert.

See my Acad-Pad review here.

Dodo Acad-Pad Filofax-compatible Diary 2010/11 2010/11: Academic Mid Year Diary - a Combined Memo-doodle-planner-message-ment-organizer Insert (Dodo Pad)

I recently discovered that Plan-It Fashion Planners, which I adore and raved about in my review, now come in academic year formats! I absolutely love the new Paisley Bird covers, beautiful!

2010-2011 Daily Fashion Plan-It Day Planner Organizer Agenda - August to August- Paisley Bird

And the new natural-toned covers are gorgeous too:

2010 Daily Fashion Plan-It Day Planner Organizer Agenda - Bird Stripe

These are fantastic planners with excellent features, at a great price.

If you want a planner that is minimalist and flexible to fit many different needs, check out the Moleskine 18 month planners. These come in the very popular Weekly Notebook format (click here for my review)
in pocket, large or extra large sizes:

 

Moleskine 2011 18 Month Weekly Notebook: Black Hard Cover Large (Moleskine Legendary Notebooks (Calendars))

And the horizontal weekly format in pocket or large sizes:

Moleskine 2011 18 Month Weekly Planner Horizontal: Red Hard Cover Large (Moleskine Srl)

Quo Vadis has a great selection of academic-year planners in a variety of formats, sizes and cover styles. There are too many for me to list here, so I'll mention just a few.

Their best-selling Textagenda is a day-per-page academic-year planner that is the perfect size to fit into your backpack or bag. It has an enormous selection of covers to choose from, so you're sure to find one that fits your personality.

They have an extensive range of weekly formats and sizes, including (to name just a few) the open-format Scholar, the structured Septanote (which I reviewed here and here), and new this year, the Rhodia planners in academic-year format.

If you prefer to see your entire month in one view, check out the desk size Monthly 4 planner. This is an 18 month planner that starts in July. Its large page size gives you plenty of room to write all your plans, but the super-slim book is portable enough to go in your bag with you everywhere. See my Monthly 4 review here.

See Quo Vadis's entire range of academic-year planners here.

So there are just a few of the academic-year planners available now.


Of course another option is to use an undated calendar, which you can start any time at all: mid-year, calendar year, on your birthday*, whenever. And, you can use it only during the times you need it so there are no wasted blank pages.

(*I think it would be interesting to start a new planner on my birthday and use it for that 12 month period. Has anybody ever done this?)

My favorite undated planners are:

For an undated day-per-page planner I love Parker Planners, which you can read my review of here. Parker Planners are pocket-sized and hold four months of daily pages. They have an excellent layout which will organize your appointments, notes, to-dos and ideas on a daily basis.

For an undated weekly planner, you can't beat Uncalendar, which comes spiral bound or loose leaf in a 3 ring binder, in two different sizes: Full Size with 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages, or the more portable Half Size. Uncalendar's time management tips and goal-setting pages are very motivating and helpful.  You can read my review of Uncalendar planners here.

Do you prefer to use an academic-year or calendar-year planner? Which day of the year do you like to start your planner?

Q & A with Ethan Parker of Parker Planners

Ethan Parker of Parker Planners very kindly agreed to answer my questions about his company, how he started it, and what it's like to be a young entrepreneur. Ethan, thanks very much for your time and thoughtful answers!

1) What first inspired you to create a planner? Was it for your own use, or to fill the needs of someone else, or both?

I was trying to create the ideal planner. I didn't want to have to carry a large planner around - I wanted something that would be discreet enough to fit in my pocket and still have plenty of room to plan on. Later, as people saw me using my planner friends and family started asking that I make them planners. From there Parker Planners was born.

2) What was your creative process? How did you decide on the format and style of the planner? Did you know exactly how you wanted your planner to be right from the beginning, or did you go through several variations before you hit on the final form?

The planner is on version 5.0 right now, but all planners have been relatively similar. We keep tweaking it based on customer input and I doubt it will ever be completely the final version. Changes to the most recent version include an extra week of planning, 2 new cover options, and a mini calendar in the back that is modeled after a conventional wall calendar.

3) What was your path to success: starting up your company, publishing your first planners?

Our first batches of planners were printed at local printers, but they charged high prices for the low quantities we started with. Now we have found a great place that charges much less bulk pricing. With college bookstores we really just got lucky, the bookstores liked that the planner was unique and we offered flexibility and responsiveness that other companies couldn't offer.

4) How did you market your planners to the first buyers?

Just walked in there and said "what do you think of this?"

5) I saw on your website that you sell lots of planners at university bookstores. I can see how your planners would be very useful to college students. What other types of people use your planners? Have you heard of any surprising users/ uses of your planners?

One surprising story was that at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID there was a convention where baptist women loved our planners. That one was kinda funny.

6) What are your future goals for Parker Planners?

Market to bigger retail locations and expand to a national sales base.

7) What advice to you have for other young entrepreneurs?

Just try it. Stop talking about your idea, ditch school for a day, and throw $500 and 35 hours at it. See what happens. You will learn more during that time than in 5 years of what we like to call "school" in this country.

Parker Planners has been amazing for me. I love my job! Sure it doesn't pay a lot and right now is a difficult time to start a business but truly I don't regret my path whatsoever. I wouldn't change a thing. Money is not the end goal, but it can motivate toward achieving genuine goals along the way. We are always looking for talented people that care more for others than themselves. If you are in Utah Valley we'd like to hear from you if you fit that description at all.


Many thanks again to Ethan!

Parker Planners

Parker Planners are pocket-size day-per-page undated planners that have 4 months worth of daily pages. Let me break each of those descriptions down for you.

Pocket size: this planner measures only 4.25 by 3.5 inches, and really is small enough to fit into any pocket. And even though it's a daily, the fact that it holds only 4 months worth of pages means it's very slim:

Back in December I posted about a day per page format with a page before each Monday for that week's lists and goals. Lo and behold, the Parker Planner has this exact format! I'm very excited!

You can click on the photos to enlarge and get a closer look at the page formats:
The days are undated, but the days of the week are designated Monday-Sunday. Before each Monday there is a weekly planning page to note important events, goals and ideas for that week, which I find extremely helpful.

This also results in a very effective layout for the week: Weekly Overview and Monday are together, to get your week started off right. Then Tuesday-Wednesday are together, Thursday-Friday to finish up your work week, then Saturday and Sunday are together to see your weekend days side by side. I really like this layout!

Other excellent features include:

Suggestions for use and Personal Info page, with the planner's to/from dates:
Lots of pages in the back for notes and ideas:Pages for contacts, and a space inside the back cover to keep sticky notes:
The daily pages have an excellent layout with the day's schedule from 6 am to 10 pm, space to jot notes and ideas, and lines for main things to do that day. Here is an example of a day when I had several meetings and various other things to do:
Because the pages are undated, you can start them any time, and use them only when you need to so there are no wasted pages. The 4 month book will get you through a university semester. The tiny size means you can take it absolutely everywhere with you, so that wherever you are at any time you can jot down notes and ideas, schedule an appointment and check your agenda. It makes an excellent companion to your smartphone.

Parker Planners are sold in select university bookstores, and you can order them online at:

http://www.parkerplanners.com/buy.html

Many thanks to Parker Planners for sending me this planner as a sample. I have really enjoyed learning about the planners and the company.

Stay tuned, on Wednesday I'll post a Q & A with Ethan Parker, creator of Parker Planners! I found it very interesting to learn how this young entrepreneur started his company from the ground up.