Merry Christmas!

Did Santa bring you any cool planner/ stationery goodies?

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

How I use my pocket daily Moleskine diary

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?

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

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

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

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

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!