I'm back!

Hi everybody, I'm back from my wonderful vacation in snowy Scotland! I have to admit I'm very grumpy to be back in Albania and definitely have the post-vacation blues. And, I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed at everything I have to do in 2010. It will be a very busy year for me, and my planners will all have smoke coming out of them by December! I'll be writing plenty about all of that in future posts.

Lots of things happened while I was away!! The 6th Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper hosted by Journaling Arts features my Ghost of Planners Past #1: Desperation post, as well as a whole bunch of very cool articles and reviews from numerous authors. As soon as I'm done unpacking and doing laundry, I plan to peruse them thoroughly.

Another thing that happened while I was gone is that Kanalt, a Philofaxy reader, has started her own blog: Life Well Planned. She has a guest post this week on Philofaxy about a favorite topic of mine (maps!). My friends tend to make fun of me that I'm never without a map, so her post was especially interesting to me.

I've noticed there are several new readers and commenters here on Plannerisms, welcome! I love reading your comments. I especially love to read about what planner format(s) you are using, how you use them, and how your use changes and develops over time, so feel free to comment any time.

I have lots of things coming up soon here on Plannerisms. In a few days I will feature another guest post from my sister Sandy, where she reviews the Quo Vadis Trinote planner she received from Karen at Exaclair in New York. Sandy has been a very devoted user of the Moleskine large weekly notebook for a couple of years now, so the Trinote was really put to the test, with shocking results. Stay tuned!

I will also have some new posts over on Philofaxy, so be sure to keep up over there too!

I hope the first weeks of 2010 are treating you well. I want to hear from you, especially those of you who are using a new planner format this year. As the days and weeks go by, let us all know how your planner is working for you!

Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh

How do you pronounce "Moleskine?"

The Moleskine US website says it's pronounced "mol-a-skeen'-a" but I don't think I've ever heard it pronounced exactly that way. I've heard "mol-skin," and "mol-skeen," among other pronunciations.

For some reason I pronounce it "moh-leh-skeen'-ay," just because I like to. When I refer to "my Mole" I pronounce it my "moh'-lay."

What do you call it?

Letts A6 Principal daily diary

Here is my 2010 Letts A6 size Principal daily diary/ planner. This is a very simple, basic day per page diary.

Here is a rundown of the content: The first page is personal information, the next page is Notable Dates for 2010 and 2011, the next 2 page spread has calendars for 2010 and 2011 (with the days just as numbers, no writing space) and then starts the day per page section. At the back there are a few pages for addresses and notes. That's it. No maps, no international information, and most disappointingly, no monthly planning of any kind (whether months as columns or month per page).

Despite the spartan content, this diary has some finishing touches that make it a really nice book. It has a hard cover which gives it an elegant book look and feel. The color choices are blue, gray, red and lilac, which of course was my choice (this photo looks more blue than the actual color). I chose to have my initials imprinted on the cover, which is a really nice touch. The cover also has Letts 2010 imprinted in the top corner, and on the spine. But unfortunately, the product code (P1W) is also imprinted on the spine and back cover, which is not attractive at all.

The book has a ribbon page marker, which is infinitely preferable over tear-off corners for a day per page book. This (4 1/4 x6 inches) is an excellent size for a daily book. Small enough to carry around everywhere, but the pages are still large enough for plenty of writing. It's not large enough to use as a journal, for me at least, but as a basic planner or reminders book it's a good size.

The paper is fine, nothing to write home about. There is a little bit of show-through to the other side but it's not terrible. The paper does not have the silky-smooth feel that you could expect from a Moleskine, Quo Vadis or Exacompta brand planner. I can't quite figure out what color the text and lines are: brown? plum? Whatever it is, it's a good color because whether you use black or blue (or any other color) ink the writing stands out. One reason I bought this planner is because the daily pages have all of the holidays for the UK and US (and also Canada and Australia), which I really like having on my planner pages.

In all it's a good little diary/ daily planner. For someone who lives in the UK, it's a good price at less than 7 pounds. But I got the personalization, and paid for international shipping, which together wound up to be about the same cost as the price of the book. To me it was worth it because I wanted to get this book last year but by the time I got around to ordering it, they were sold out. I like this size as a carry-everywhere book. And, I'll admit, I'm a sucker for personalization so that was a big selling point. And hey, it's purple! How could I resist?

Planner stickers!

I like to use stickers in my planners to make events stand out as I flip through my book. Here are two of my favorites:

Dodo pad stickers (which I use on my Dodo Wall Pad). These are colorful and funny without being cutesy. My preschool-age son and daughter love the Dodo, and because they can't read yet the stickers help them see what's going on in our week. For example, in the week shown we had a kids' party, and were traveling to Scotland (which they were very excited about).

Filofax stickers, blogged about by both Steve and myself (which I use in my Minister and also used in my Moleskine planner) are subtle icons on round stickers that look good in any planner. They help events stand out when I am flipping through my planner. Philofaxy readers love these stickers, and I think I can safely say that the Filofax stickers have been welcomed with open arms by the Filofaxing community.

Do you use stickers in your planner to indicate important events? If so, what kind of stickers do you like to use?

Pens and color systems

I like to use different colors of ink to make my tasks and appointments stand out on my planner pages. I started out with a pretty basic color system using a Bic 4 color pen and used the colors as such:

Black: most things

Red: Important things

Blue: Travel

Green: Health/ exercise

But for some reason, 4 colors weren't enough so I branched out. I invested in some Sakura Micron pens, because they are archival quality. I keep my planners forever as a record of my life so I figured I'd better get some pens with ink that will stand the test of time. The Microns, with their archival security and vast color selection, are pretty addictive. They practically encourage chromatic diversification. So now my colors have expanded to:

Black: normal tasks and appointments

Dark blue: travel

Light blue: my husband (things I need him to do, remind him of, etc)

Green: Health/ exercise, and also money (when underlined with red)

Red: Important/ urgent items

Purple: my own personal stuff (purple is my favorite color)

Orange: kids' activities

Yes this may be a little excessive. But all the colors make my page look really good, and makes things stand out. And maybe most usefully, when I look back in my book to reference something it's easy to find. For example, when I need to see my workouts from last week, I only look at green colored items. This really helps when I'm looking at pages chock-full of writing.

Do you use colors in your planner? Do you have a specific color scheme, or just like things to look colorful in your book? What pens do you like to use in your planner?

Do you Uncalendar?

Product image copyright Uncalendar www.uncalendar.com

Uncalendar is a brand that doesn't get nearly enough attention, in my humble opinion. I stumbled across these awesome planners several years ago when I caught sight of a co-worker's open Uncalendar. I didn't know this person very well, and certainly not well enough to ask to see the inside of her planner. But I HAD to know what it was and how it worked so I shamelessly interrogated her a little bit. Uncalendars have this effect on people.

The most basic premise of the Uncalendar is that it's undated (get it?) so you can start any time. But the Uncalendar system goes waaaaaaay beyond just not having numbers pre-printed on the days. Uncalendar is an entire life-management system. Seriously. And yet, you have fun doing it.

There's more. Throughout the book are tips, guidelines, motivational techniques and other methods that can be used with any planner but work especially well with an Uncalendar. These range from basic to advanced, and are helpful to anyone who needs time management or motivational advice. The tone is very friendly and helpful. Do you have a goal? Uncalendar will help you reach it! Do you want to make some positive changes in your life? Uncalendar will help you do it! Just reading the pages of tips makes you feel like whatever you want to do with your life, Uncalendar will help you every step of the way.

A couple of years ago Uncalendar upgraded itself to Uncalendar Lifestyle by adding lists of things to remember about Diet & Exercise, Family & Friends, and Career & Work. For example, the first three reminders for Family & Friends and Career & Work are the same: Say something positive! Go easy on the negatives. Catch someone doing something good. The book has loads of these reminders to help guide you into making positive changes in your lifestyle (get it?) to get where you want to go.

Getting where you want to go is the name of the game with Uncalendar. There is a Goals section that is structured in a way that gets you to write down a big, overall lifestyle goal (top left page). Then below that you can break it down into sub-goals. Then you can further break these down into do-able tasks. There's even a page to help you break your annual plan down into monthly goals, which you then transfer to your weekly pages. It's one thing to have goals. It's a whole other thing to transform them into a workable plan.

I haven't even gotten to the weekly planner section yet! It's a week view on one page, with the opposite page full of list boxes. The weekdays are columns and the weekend days are open blocks. The daily columns are not timed, but have shaded boxes that delineate the column into sections. You can write times into the lines, or not. It's a very flexible system. (Click on photos to enlarge.)This two-page spread with notes boxes on the left and schedule on the right is incredibly flexible for infinite uses. There's space for those daily reminders to help motivate you. You can note that week's goals. You can write your shopping list. Students can note assignments, teachers can plan lessons, business people can keep track of multiple projects at once, parents can keep track of their progeny and their own busy schedules. It's an incredibly powerful planner. Below I have written in various ways to use the daily spaces:

There is also a month view section (also undated so you can start anytime) with huge daily boxes, and an empty box at the beginning of each week that is good to note goals, financial information, keeping track of whatever, planning, etc. There are also Notes pages



and Data pages with graphs for tracking progress, charts for logging info, places to write frequently used phone numbers.

As if the book itself weren't motivational enough, the Uncalendar website has The Training Room, which is completely free and has lots of good advice for goal setting, time management, people management, money management, life management. There are tips for how to best use your planner (which really can be used with any planner system) and general advice. I like to browse through it every now and then for inspiration.

And as if all of that weren't cool enough, the company is a small family-owned business out of Arizona. Their customer service is very personal and excellent. And they ship anywhere in the world!

Uncalendars come in Full Size (8 1/2 x 11 inches) or Half Size (which has a different weekly format that works better on the smaller page). Each size comes in spiral bound or 3 ring binders (which is called Lifestyle Pro). The Full Size in the ring binder can take standard American size 3 hole punched paper, so you can add your own full size pages.

Sooooo... your New Year's resolutions this year are the same as they were last year, huh? Hmm. Well, maybe it's time to get a system that will help you actually achieve your goals instead of just thinking about them.

I'll tell you this much: if you have goals and you are ready to work to reach them, then the Uncalendar would definitely get you there!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2010 everybody!!! I hope this year brings joy and prosperity for you and yours.

Soooooo...who is starting a new planner today???