Moleskine 2018 Pro weekly planner

First of all I want to apologize for the very poor quality of these photos. I don't have much time but I wanted to get this info out there. I took the photos on my phone in poor lighting and loaded them up real quick.

The Moleskine Pro planners lineup has changed a bit for 2018. Below I talk about the Extra Large version, and further down I talk about the Large one.

Gone is the Action Planner. Now the only version of the Extra Large Pro planner has pages between each week for lists and notes like the Taskmaster did. Personally I think this makes the planner extremely useful for busy people and it's wonderful to have so much space to track tasks and projects each week!

The 2018 XL Pro also has excellent pages for annual goals, monthly goals and tasks, and something very exciting: a page with an index for each week! I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out in the bad lighting today. It's a page that says Weekly Contents with a line per week and the weeks numbered, so you can index the main events or things to remember each week.

Here are some photos. The week is a standard vertical timed weekly, timed from 7 am to 8pm with lines every half hour. Saturday and Sunday are not timed.

In between each week there are pages for notes, tracking projects and tasks. The left page says Notes. The right page has Projects and Status at the top, and Tasks at the bottom.

There are also monthly pages, I love these! The right page says Monthly Projects and Goals at the top, and This Month's Focus at the bottom.

In the back of the planner there are several blank pages for notes, some of which are perforated if you want to tear them out. There are also perforated list pages. Personally I don't find the lists as useful as I use sticky notes for things like that,  but even if you don't remove them from the book they are convenient list pages.

Again I apologize for the crappiness of the photos but hopefully you get the idea. If you have any questions about this planner let me know and I'll be happy to answer them!

I tried to find out if the Large size Pro planner has pages in between each week like the XL has. I posted the question to Moleskine on their Facebook page, and they just sent me the link to the product page which I had already seen and which does not say if the Large and A4 versions of this planner have pages between the weeks. I found this page on the Jenni Bick website which says the XL has 264 pages, Large has 168 and A4 has 160 so if that is correct that would mean no pages between the weeks. I have asked Moleskine for a confirmation but have not received a reply from them yet.

(Update: Moleskine replied on Facebook to say I need to ask this question on the Contact form on their website:  https://us.moleskine.com/contact-us  However I was unable to, because the pull-down menus didn't work for me, and anyway I found it very intrusive that they asked for my phone number. I don't need them harvesting all of my data, so I left it. Then I ended up ordering the Large size one after all, because if it does in fact have pages between the weeks it will be so perfect! I don't think it does, but curiosity got the better of me. I'll report back after I have received it.)

UPDATE: I have received the Large Pro 2018 that I ordered and I am VERY happy to report it DOES INDEED have a two-page spread for lists and notes between each week! It also has the same annual goals page, weekly contents page, monthly pages, etc. All the content is exactly the same in the L and XL. There is no page count on the label, and I haven't counted the pages by hand, but the number must be the same in the L and XL because they both have all the same pages. Anyway, I am thrilled that there is a full two page spread every week for tracking projects, tasks, and notes! Well done Moleskine!!!

So if you liked the Taskmaster, I think you will like this planner even better with the monthly and goals pages. If you are very busy with a full schedule, lots of tasks, tracking projects and goals, then I think you will love this planner! It crams a lot in while still being portable and a reasonable size.

Please note: I am not affiliated with Moleskine in any way, and I paid for these planners with my own money. I am happy to answer any questions about these specific planners but if you want more info you'll need to contact Moleskine directly. I just wanted to put this info out there for anyone else who was confused like I was!

Deafmessanger 2018 diaries

Due to popular demand, Deafmessanger now has a new larger diary for 2018! The Small A6 one is still there, and has been joined by the Big size that is slightly smaller than A5. I think they will be very popular!

My not very scientific measurements of the two are: Big: 7 3/8 inches tall and 5 1/4 inches wide; Small: 6 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches wide. Both sizes are very lightweight and easy to carry around.

Both sizes come with a variety of cover artwork. They sell out quickly every year so don't wait! You can see all the Small diaries here and the Big diaries here. As each cover style sells out they disappear from the website, so what you see is what is left.

The diaries are all handmade in Prague by artist Kucin. I absolutely love the style of his artwork. The art is stenciled and spray painted. In every book there are loads of added items that he has found like old maps or pages from ledger books, post cards and photos, and cutouts from magazines. These items are upcycled or recycled, and come from all over the world. Kucin finds them everywhere: flea markets, sales, and things that have been thrown away or given away. You never know what you will find in your book, and each book is unique.

The colored page edges are a nice contrast. Each diary comes with a pencil so you can get started right away and always keep your pencil with your diary. There is also a ribbon pagemarker, and an elastic strap to keep everything contained.

Inside the front cover there is a pocket made from cards, magazine clippings, or pictures. Each one is unique. This pocket is a great place to keep little slips of paper, reminder notes, receipts, cards, etc.

There are month overview pages with six months across a two page spread. This gives you a great overview of your year and lets you see important days, events, deadlines, holidays, travel, and the big picture of your year.

Below is a week spread. Each two-page spread has a full week Monday to Sunday with equal space for each day. Every week is different with a new picture or quote or something stuck in. This keeps your diary interesting all year. You never know what you will find when you turn the page! The weekly pages are perfect for planning ahead, writing memories or notes, and/ or keeping as a journal.

Here is a cool map that was stuck into the book, and a quote. I love all the surprises I find in the books!

New this year! There are stickers to label the lined and blank pages in the back of the book to customize them as you like. There are also stickers to mark special days in your diary pages.

Inside the back cover is the contact info for Deafmessanger.com, and more cool pictures.

Deafmessanger diaries and notebooks represent so much of what is meaningful and important to me: art, self expression, memory, history, and the importance of tangible things in this increasingly digital world. The books are engaging while being quiet, allowing you the headspace to think and express yourself on the pages. They give you the freedom to write your plans and memories, and a quiet space to reflect.

Deafmessanger notebooks and diaries make great gifts. They ship worldwide! You can contact them to ask about international shipping rates. You can convert the prices to your currency at XE.com or a similar conversion site.

You can see all the Deafmessanger diaries, notebooks, bags, posters, and puzzles at Deafmessanger.com.

Be sure to follow Deafmessanger on Facebook to see how they create their artwork! You can read their blog here for news and updates.

Also be sure to follow them on Instagram @deafmessanger

You can see my previous posts featuring Deafmessanger diaries and notebooks here, scroll down to see them all!

Many thanks to Kucin for sending me these diaries as samples to review! I love them!

WeekDate Academic 2017-2018 planner

I feel really bad it has taken me SO LONG to get this post up! The wonderful folks at WeekDate sent me this fantastic academic year planner and I've been meaning to get this post done for weeks! It's been a crazy start to the school year, to say the least. Anyway, my apologies it has taken me so long!

The academic year WeekDate planner allows you to write all your recurring events only once, so you don't have to write them week after week in your planner. Then when something changes (which it ALWAYS does, doesn't it?!) you just change it once and you are done! No more flipping page to page, erasing or whiting-out what you've written when a recurring event changes. I'll walk you through the book and show you how it works.

The WeekDate academic year planner is A5 size, slim and VERY lightweight so it's easy to take with you everywhere in your bag. The chipboard cover provides a sturdy writing surface no matter where you are.

Under the chipboard cover is the colorful cover. This year I went with the blue Uncomplicated cover, because I would LOVE this year to be uncomplicated! (Although to be honest, so far it has been anything but!!) You can see all the cover colors here.

When you open the cover, this is what you see. There's a place to write your personal information. Also you can see the far right of the cover folds out to give you a place for information you need to keep at hand throughout the year, goals reminders, a dashboard for sticky notes, or however you like to use this space. It then folds in to mark your current page.

Here is the meat of the planner. The pages have the weeks printed August-July, with the days as vertical columns and an extra column at the right to write tasks and reminders.

Below the weekly pages is another space that has Monday through Sunday. This space is actually the inside of that blue cover you saw before. This area stays visible when you turn the weekly pages.

This allows you to write your recurring events in the space below the weeks, where you will see it all the time even when you turn the weekly pages. Below you can see an example of how to use this space.



I don't know how well you can see what I've written, but I've divided each day's space into AM/ PM/ Evening. You could just as easily use the three divisions for yourself and family members, personal/ work, or any other way you like.

Here is where you write your recurring events like after school activities, clubs, classes, meetings, etc. Use pencil so if something changes you can update it easily. I even put routine tasks like printing the school lunch menu and washing water bottles every Sunday evening. At the bottom of Wednesday's column I wrote ODD: Trash/ EVEN: Recycling so I can see which weeks to put out which thing, without having to write it over and over again in my calendar!

So the idea is, your recurring events go at the bottom which is always visible, and your one-off scheduled events (like a dentist appointment, meeting, study session, etc) go on your weekly pages along with tasks, errands, etc.

Then you just look down your daily column to see what you've got going on each day. The wonderful thing is, even when you look ahead several weeks (like making the next dentist appointment, for example) you don't have to try to think of what you've got going on that week and possibly double-book; you can see right there what is already planned, so you can plan around those events. Genius!

You can also write reminders to yourself in your weekly pages of when it will be time to update the set schedule. For example when volleyball ends in November, I can write on that week's page "Last volleyball" so I know to erase that from the recurring schedule. In the spring I can write when softball starts, so I know to enter those times into the schedule.

There are lots of other features in the planner too. Every month there is a month grid calendar to give you the overview of the entire month, along with a page for notes, reminders, goals, events planning (like birthday parties or travel), etc.

Here's a feature I love: the Time Tracker. You can bubble in each day as it passes. I like to circle important days in red to see a countdown until the big day. You could also use this as a habit tracker: for example bubble in each day you exercise so you can see when you are keeping up your good habits and when you are slacking off!

There are also year overview calendars for 2017 and 2018.

And there are several notes pages in the back. Also every planner comes with a pencil and they are the BEST PENCILS! I have several I have collected over the years, and they are the most-stolen pencils in our house!

WeekDate is a small business run by Kay Odell, who basically runs the whole show herself! The planners are all printed in the USA.

For more information on WeekDate planners, and to order, see WeekDate.com.

Also don't forget to follow them on Facebook and Instagram!

Thanks again so much to Kay for this amazing planner!

Photos published with permission from WeekDate.

Guest review: Wall Street Journal planner and notebook

Reader Steve S. recently contacted me to ask if I had ever reviewed the Wall Street Journal planner and/ or notebook. I had to admit I hadn't heard of either of these. He very kindly offered to review these products! Here is his review:

"Productivity Planner: Goals & Daily Schedule" and "Productive Meetings: Notes & Actions" are two new planning tools in the Wall St. Journal Collection. These A5 books (8.31 in. x 5.71 in. x 0.77 in., 1.05 lb.) are $30 each. I find them only in WSJ(US) and not in Europe. They are hard-bound, dark blue, "feel like suede," and do not lie flat when open. They are fitted with burgundy ribbon place markers and gray elastic closures. The paper is "off-white," and the printing alternates between "light-charcoal" and "medium-charcoal," which makes them unamenable to reproduction here. WSJ has designed these books to accompany "Extreme Productivity" by Robert Pozen with forewards by that author and bullet points appropriate to each book. The books were printed by brandbook, Frankfurt a/M, Germany.

"Productivity Planner: Goals & Daily Schedules" is intended to apply the principles set forth in "Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours" by Robert Pozen. Pages are unnumbered.

The heart of the book is a 208-page undated calendar. The calendar takes the form of a week on four pages. The first page (verso) has Monday on top and Tuesday at bottom. The 12 lines for each day have three columns for time, name of appointment, and purpose. Page 2 recto is Wednesday-Thursday, page 3 verso is Friday-Saturday, and page 4 recto is Sunday-Carry over to Next Week.

At the beginning of the book are two pages for yearly goals: personal left, professional right; each divided into high-priority top, low-priority bottom. There follow 25 pages of monthly objectives, likewise personal and professional right and left, high and low priority top and bottom.

The second book is "Productive Meetings: Notes & Actions." Pages are numbered I - v, and 1 -244. Index pages are i - v. Meetings are divided into short meetings, one page; and large meetings, a two page spread.

Short meetings pages (1 - 109) have space for date, subject, attendees, MY purpose (my emphasis), issues discussed, decisions made, next steps (when and by whom).

Large meetings pages (112 - 217) are the same, except that "Issues Discussed" and "Decisions Made" have boxes for "By Whom" and "By When" for each.

The paper for the end leaves ("If Found, Return to") is 150 gsm. That for the remaining pages of the books is 100 gsm. Also, the covers of the books are embossed with the titles in bronze, not copper.

Many thanks for this excellent review Steve! Has anyone else ever used either of these books and can comment on them?

2018 Plannerisms planners are now available!

Great news! The 2018 Plannerisms planners are now available to order!

Click here for ordering info.

To see lots of photos of the Plannerisms planners and how they work, click here!

For more tips on how to use the various features in the Plannerisms planners, click here!

Huge thanks to everyone who has purchased Plannerisms planners over the years, I hope it is helping you set and reach your goals!

What would your Ideal Plannner look like?

Hey everybody! I know it's been a long time! I've been busy.

This is a topic I think about often, of course: the Ideal Planner.

In reality, it's different for everyone. One person's Ideal Planner is not ideal for someone else, and vice versa. But I'm curious to hear what you desire in a planner.

I feel like I've seen just about every planner format out there. And yet...it seems like we could do better, right? Surely there's a planner layout that will help you do everything you need and want to do.

Do you want a planner that can incorporate priorities, goals, tracking, etc? Or do you just want something simple that you can use in different ways?

What would your ideal planner look like?

Please post a comment!

Agendio A5 Filofax pages

After I used the Agendio A5 Filofax pages I reviewed on Philofaxy for awhile, I realized I needed to see my days in more detail. So I ordered up these weekly pages with timed daily columns (click on photos for a better/ larger view):

This is weekly format Model number 12227.

As with everything Agendio, the pages are fully customizable. I chose the times 8 am to 7:30 pm to the half hour, but I could have started with any hour and/or done hourly increments if I wanted. I chose a different color theme for each month, which I really enjoy. I love the bright white, smooth 90 gsm paper. (My photos don't do these pages justice at all. The paper is very white and the colors are very nice!)

I chose which country's holidays to add (US and UK because I'm American living in Britain, and Iceland just for fun).

I also added my own events like birthdays, special days, when I'm due to write Free For All Fridays on Philofaxy, when my dog is due for vaccines and when my parking pass is due to expire, bills due, when I need to submit invoices, etc. (Click for larger view.)

At the right of the page I customized the lists area to have task lists for Personal and Work, and a colored area at the top right for my weekly goals. The color changes each month according to that month's color theme, which is so appealing.
 

I use the space below the daily columns to write in my blog posts planning. This is a great way to keep the posts schedule visible and not mixed into the rest of my day.

I feel like I have achieved Planner Nirvana at last! These pages are very appealing to look at and use due to the colors and the high quality paper. The layout keeps my days very organized, and I can see at a glance what I have going on and when I have time in my schedule to fit in work, volunteering, school events, etc.

Agendio has a new feature where you can preview your planner before you order it! It's a great way to see exactly what your planner is going to look like before you order it.

There are many things I love about Agendio planners: the enormous variety of formats (weekly, weekly + monthly, weekly + daily, daily + monthly, etc) and layouts (daily columns, daily rows, grid), sizes and types (bound planners or looseleaf refills). I can design the page to be exactly how I want it to be, with my own sections and labels.

Another thing I love is the peace of mind knowing all my important dates and events are already in the planner. I don't have to worry about forgetting anything, because everything is already printed into the correct dates. I have chosen exactly which holidays I want printed, so everything in my planner is relevant to me. And all of my events are saved, so when I'm ready to order next year's planner, all the holidays and recurring events will automatically go into my new planner too.

Agendio has a referral program that works like this:

If you have never registered with Agendio before, please click through this link to see the information on the planner I made and register at Agendio. Then if you order a planner from Agendio, I will receive a discount on my next planner (which I will inevitably order, because customizing my own planner is very addictive!). It doesn't cost you anything at all, and I will get a discount on my next planner. Thank you!!!

I purchased this planner with my own money. I am not affiliated with Agendio, I'm just a very happy customer!