Planners at work

I know a lot of people use electronic scheduling systems at work (whether corporate-enforced or by choice), but there are still lots of people who use paper planners at work. Some people (like myself) just plan better on paper. Others have to keep official written records. And for many, it's just nice to have a break from the screen.

Moleskine planners are popular at work (as they are everywhere). Mstraat did an excellent guest post here awhile back on how she used her Moleskine Taskmaster planner at work. You can click here to see the details of her post.

Weekly schedule

Weekly lists

Dora did a great guest post here on Plannerisms on how she has used large softcover Moleskine day per page planners as her work diary for several years. Click here to see her excellent post.

Daily records

I've used various planners for work over the years. There are two planners in particular that I used at work when I had to schedule my time heavily.

One of these was a Full Size Uncalendar. I liked the 8 1/2 by 11 inch pages with all the space to write my categorized task lists and schedule each day. But I had to be careful about how much I wrote on the pages, especially tasks. If I had too much written in each page, I had trouble prioritizing my tasks and would just stare at my planner like a deer in the headlights, wondering what I should be doing next.

A planner that worked really well for me was my Quo Vadis Septanote. I used it for everything: work, part-time classes, grad school applications, etc. I liked having everything in one planner.

I have a lot of online friends who use a Filofax or Franklin Covey binder for work, but a common problem is the binder gets overstuffed because people try to put absolutely everything into the binder. Often, work project notes are better off in a separate binder or file at work and don't need to be carried with you everywhere you go.

What planner do you like for work? Do you use it for your entire life, or only work things? I'm especially interested in how working mothers use their planner to coordinate work, kids, after schools, home, and your own stuff. Please post a comment!

Quo Vadis Trinote vs. Septanote planners

This comparison is to help those of you who are trying to decide between the Quo Vadis Trinote or Septanote planners. Many thanks to Karen at Exaclair for sending me these planners to review (along with the very handy elastic strap/ bookmark)!

Both the Septanote and Trinote have the same weekly Agenda Planning Diary format, but there are some differences that will determine which one will best fit your needs.

The biggest difference of course is that the Septanote is an academic year planner (July-July) and the Trinote is on the calendar year (December-December). That alone may determine which is best for you.

But beyond that major difference, there are some other features that may cause you to prefer one over the other.

In summary, the Septanote has more pages for notes, and the Trinote has more information pages. I will walk you through them to show you the specifics.

At the beginning of both planners, there is a page for your personal information, and a page with international dialing codes.

The next two-page spread has on the left page a chart of monthly temperatures for many cities around the world. In the Trinote, the page on the right has a chart of international holidays. In the Septanote, this page is lined for notes (click on photos to enlarge):The next two-page spread in both planners is the current year's Anno-Planning calendar, which goes July-June in the Septanote and January-December in the Trinote:

Throughout the planners, the Trinote is printed in gray and teal inks and the Septanote is only in gray:At the end of the weekly pages, both planners have an Anno-Planning calendar for the following year. In the Trinote, between the last weekly spread and the Anno-Planner, there is a January calendar to start planning into the following year:

Both planners contain the same (excellent) maps of the continents marked with cities, lakes, rivers and other major landmarks. After the maps there is a lined page for notes, which is the only notes page in the Trinote:
After this page, the Trinote has four pages for Receipts and Payments. In the Septanote, these are Notes pages.
In the back of both planners there are overview calendars of last-this-next year. Also in both planners there is a removable address book tucked into the back sleeve of the cover. And both planners have the same 90 g extra-white Clairefontaine paper that is famous for being wonderful to write on and fountain-pen friendly.

So there is the breakdown of each planner. If academic year vs. calendar year is your main need, then your choice is easy. If it doesn't matter which schedule you're on, you can choose which will function better for you: Septanote with more pages for notes, or Trinote with more information, a month planner to start the next year, and pages for financial records.

The Septanote is an excellent planner for anyone on the academic year schedule. Not only students but parents, teachers, school administrators and university professors would really benefit from the organization of the daily columns and categorized list boxes on the weekly page.

All those notes pages in the Septanote can be used by students to record their class schedule, grades, and extracurricular activities. Parents will really benefit from the extra notes pages to write in their child(ren)'s school contact information, carpool schedules, party planning and gift lists for the year.

Another great feature of both the Septanote and Trinote planners that's excellent for parents: you can use the daily column for your own schedule, and the Notes space under each day to keep track of what everyone else in your family is doing. That way you can see everyone's schedule all at once, on the same page.

Quo Vadis Septanote planners for the 2010/ 2011 academic year are now available online and in stores.

Quo Vadis Septanote Then And Now

I found my Quo Vadis Septanote from 1998-1999 while cleaning out my garage this weekend! What a blast from the past!

This planner is from a particularly interesting time of my life, which is actually very similar in some ways to my life right now. Then I was, and now I am, going through a major transition: finishing up things where I am and getting ready to move to a foreign country.

During the school year 1998-1999 I was working as a lab tech in a chemistry lab at the university where my husband was getting his undergrad degree (as an "older student" in his 20's). As my husband was finishing up his degree, I was applying to grad schools and we were applying to join the Peace Corps. (As things turned out, we went into the Peace Corps in the summer of 1999 and both went to grad school after that).

This week in my Septanote, November 30-December 6 1998, is fairly typical of what I was doing at the time. (You can click the photos to enlarge.)You can see chemistry lab tasks (like "make 6% acrylamide" on Wednesday), things I was doing for my grad school applications (like sending my transcripts and GRE scores to schools I applied to), things I had to do for the class I was taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and other general life stuff (like yoga class, the only time in my life I've ever done a yoga class). It was a pretty busy time for me.

Here is a photo of the Anno-Planner, which is one of my favorite features of Quo Vadis planners--it shows the entire year across a two-page spread with the months as columns. In this planner I used the Anno-Planner to keep track of my paychecks and bills due. I got paid twice a month, and each check was enough to cover either my rent or my bills. So I noted on paydays which one that check was primarily going toward (which you can see as "bills" or "rent" on the pages). For each bill, as soon as I received it I wrote its amount on the date it was due.

You can see that my rent was due on the 10th of each month, and was $435 per month. I got paid every two weeks, which meant I always got paid on different dates. My phone bills were always due around the middle of the month, utilities at the beginning of the month, and my credit card bill was due around the end of the month. Since my pay dates changed all the time, I had to be strategic about saving enough from one paycheck to another to cover all my bills all month. This anno-planner was perfect for allowing me to budget every month.


You have no idea how excited I am about this: I have a 2009-2010 Septanote, generously sent to me by Karen at Exaclair, that I will be reviewing soon here on Plannerisms. I stopped using my 1998-1999 Septanote May 1 of that year, the last day of my job. As a result, I have blank pages in that planner. So I can compare this year's Septanote to my old Septanote!

Side-by-side, you can see the format updates Quo Vadis has made since then. (Click to enlarge.)

Here is something really interesting: the days in 1999 are the same as they are this year. So for example, in the photo below you can see the week of June 28-July 4 has the same days of the week this year as they did in 1999:
The fonts are different, the old ink color was brown and now it's gray. The months in the top right corner have a different layout, because in the old planner there is a box for Week's Dominant that is not in this year's planner.

Most notably, the layout of the list boxes is different. Back in 1999, emailing was not nearly as common as it is today, so there was no box labeled Email. Also, See and Do each had their own box, which are now combined into the See-Do box in this year's version. Now the Write box has been done away with completely. This space, along with Cash Due and To Pay have all been combined into the Pay-Receive box.

What an amazing opportunity to see not only how my own life has changed in 11 years, but also to see how the Septanote has changed and evolved over that time!