February 8th
Image via Bitterjug
Like many people, I often have ideas about work or writing projects right as I’m falling asleep. I know I won’t remember them when I wake up, so I keep a little notepad and pen next to my bed to jot them down.
Here’s the thing: If I use a regular pen, I run the risk of not being able to decipher my groggy, sleep-blind scrawl when I wake up. I thought I’d solved that problem a couple years ago at the Museum of Natural History gift shop, where I found an inexpensive ball-point pen whose barrel had a light in it. It was perfect—it gave me just enough light to see what I was writing without disturbing anyone or jolting me awake.
But the light bulb broke after a couple of months, and since nobody had any idea where I could replace it, I ended up consigning the pen to daytime use and buying another like it on eBay. That pen, too, has since fallen apart, despite my best efforts to keep its inexpensively made pieces in line.
In the age of cheap manufacturing, is there anyone out there who makes a high-quality version of this pen? I realize it’s a novelty item, and it’s not like I’m about to shell out big money for it. But I can’t, in good environmental conscience, buy another cheapie with the expectation that it’ll last a few months or a year, then break and be thrown in the trash.
Got any recommendations?
February 5th
I found these images recently when I was straightening up my desktop (New Year’s resolution: keep my files better organized).
Karen sent them to me years ago, and it’s just madness that I’ve never blogged about them, because they’re totally interesting. Here, for example, is a montage of old print ads (click through to see a larger version):
And here’s an office display that seems to have been set up for a trade show booth or something:
Here’s a simpler trade show display:
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February 3rd
Lots of people write in with good suggestions for tweaks to our planning formats, and often those tweaks take the form of supplements or additions. More space for notes is a popular one. Another popular idea, at least for those formats that don’t already have it, is adding a monthly view that would supplement a daily or a weekly planner.
First of all, let me say that we are always grateful for your suggestions, because it helps us understand how people actually use our planners. Also, they do make a difference, as Karen has described. But when it comes to adding pages, we face a problem: if we add pages to our planners, for the most part, then we have to delete other pages. We can’t make the planners larger because the refillable covers would be useless—the planner inserts wouldn’t fit. (Of course, they could stretch a little bit, and as Karen will describe later, we are indeed planning to make notes supplements for the Business and Minister planners.)
So periodically we ask: what would you like to add? And more importantly, in exchange, what would you eliminate? An address book seems quaint to me in this era of Outlook and cell phones, but maybe there are still people who prefer to store that stuff in their planners. Similarly, the maps and reference materials—I like that they exist (though I rarely consult them), and it’s true they come in handy while traveling, but as Marty pointed out, Google can give you the same information with much greater specificity…
So, what do you think? Should we do an annual bound book (i.e., not refillable) with extra pages for notes and calendars? Would you be willing to pay more for that expanded edition? Or should we try to find a way to fit those things into our current planners, or create special supplements for them?
February 2nd
We have a sighting! Neither Karen nor I has made it to the theaters to see It’s Complicated, the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. But several friends and readers have, and they’ve been able to confirm that one of our planners does indeed make an appearance. Writes a friend:
“The funny thing about Meryl Streep’s character (in the movie) is that she forgets appointments and meetings. Steve Martin’s character gives her the gift of the leather bound Quo Vadis planner to help her remember her appointments with him. When she opens the gift, the back of the planner is face up. The imprinted Quo Vadis label is displayed before she turns the planner over.”
Note that we did *not* pay for product placement, which is part of the reason we’re so excited about this! Director Nancy Meyers is apparently just a fan of Quo Vadis — as is Meryl Streep.
February 1st
Guest blogger Laurie Huff is a planner aficionado and frequent traveler. She currently lives in Tirana, Albania.
When your daily patterns are mostly predictable, your planner needs are straightforward. You know what your home and work life consists of, and your planner needs are usually consistent from week to week.
But all this is turned on its head when traveling. What works fine at home or in the office may break down when you’re out in the world. Unpredictable things happen while traveling (which of course is part of the fun of traveling in the first place), and you need a planner that is flexible enough to handle out of the ordinary needs. This is especially true when traveling internationally. Suddenly you need information at your fingertips such as international dialing codes and time zone information that you might not normally need in your day to day life. Especially for people who travel frequently, whether for work or pleasure, you need a planner that can handle your day to day life as well as your travel needs.
Several years ago while traveling back to the US after living in Nepal, I spent 3 weeks in Paris and 3 weeks traveling around Scotland. That year I used an Exacompta Daily Pocket planner, and that little book was a champ. The book itself is tiny, light, and took up no space at all in my bag. But the page size is still substantial, and having a page for each day was great during my entire trip. I used that little book for everything. Each page had plenty of room to write flight reservation details and phone numbers of hostels I stayed in. While in Paris I took a short course in French language, and the daily pages held my lesson reminders and reading assignments. On one page I drew a map of how to get to a new friend’s apartment off the Champs-Elysees for dinner. I recorded each place I went on my journey around Scotland. In the cover pockets I tucked in slips of paper with people’s email addresses, ferry schedules and postcard stamps. I filled the pages with the location of that excellent crepe place, the quaint restaurant where we ate a delicious dinner, and the cool shops I found on the little side streets. Now it’s an excellent record of my trip, and when I look through that little book the memories come right back.
Last fall on a trip to Budapest I didn’t even bring my planner because the one I was using at the time was too bulky. Besides, I was only going for a week, surely I could live without my planner? No, of course not. I had forgotten to notify my credit card company that I was traveling, and when I used my card to pre-pay my hotel the early warning protection caused it to seize up. I needed to call the US from Hungary to rectify it. But what is the code to dial OUT of Hungary for an international call?? If I’d had my planner with me with its page of international dialing codes, I would have had that information at my fingertips. But instead, with no planner (and no internet) it took me about 30 minutes of searching and asking people before I found out it’s 00, like much of the rest of Europe. By the time I placed my call, the Fraud Protection office was closed. 5 minutes ago. So I had to wait until the next day to call. Lesson learned: don’t leave home without my planner and its list of international dialing codes!
My most recent trip was to Scotland over the holidays, and I brought along my Minister planner (with its list of international dialing codes, time zones and extensive maps, which I love). I didn’t really think I’d be using it much during my vacation. I wound up using it extensively, to my surprise.
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January 29th
Quo Vadis uses Clairefontaine paper for most of our agendas. (The recycled paper used in the Equology line comes from another French company.) Clairefontaine is famous for its exceptionally white and ultra smooth paper. It is the best paper in the world for writing.
The paper used for Quo Vadis planners is made at the main Clairefontaine mill located in the Vosges region of France. It is situated 90 km from Strasbourg in the Meurthe river valley. Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of Alsace in north-eastern France.
In 1858, Jean-Baptiste Bichelberger chose the small town of Etival-Clairefontaine in the Vosges mountains to set up his paper mill. Â It is in the heart of a region with a long-standing tradition of paper-making. Clairefontaine was established on the site of a paper mill built in 1512.
Taking advantage of the rags supplied by the local textile industry, Clairefontaine quickly became one of the most important mills in the area. The mill has been making paper since 1858 and stationery products since 1890.
Clairefontaine paper is shipped in rolls from the mill to the Quo Vadis manufacturing plant in Hamburg, NY. The paper is different colors and weights for the different books: most are bright white, but some are ivory and others tinted a very light mint green. The planners made at the Hamburg plant are destined for the U.S, Canada, Australia and the U.K.
Read about Clairefontaine’s environmental commitment here.
Learn more about the different Clairefontaine mills here.
Who is Claire Fontaine?
January 28th
A reader from Michigan wrote in with a good suggestion for improving the next generation of planners:
Very simply, add more “Notes” pages … each planner, regardless of size, should have at least 10 pages … There is a lot of information that I want in my planner but it is not tied to a specific day, week or month and is best kept in one consolidated place in the Notes pages.
What do you think? Do you want more space for notes at the front or back of your planner? Or a separate supplement with blank pages you could tuck in the cover each year?
January 26th
Tom Hall is an IT lawyer, fountain pen aficionado, author, and frequent guest blogger round these parts. Here are his thoughts on the Habana — and a page from his newest work-in-progress…
Some days we are lucky, and the mail carrier does not leave behind any bills. Other days we are VERY lucky and he or she leaves behind a fat envelope containing a sample from Karen at Exaclair.
A few weeks ago one of those envelopes arrived, holding a Habana notebook. I’ve been a bit slow to write about it. It is almost too nice to use, leaving me with a puzzle: What should I write in it? Daily notes? Class notes? To Do lists? Article drafts? Sketches for never-to-be woodworking projects? Probably not. All these are ephemeral, or, at least disposable. 80 sheets of 90 gram Clairefontaine paper is simply too good for “Take out the trash,” “Fix the kitchen sink,” and “The Grate Great aMAmerican Novl Novel”. Such transitory and inconsequential expressions do not belong in a notebook so well made that it, and its contents, may be around long after I’ve shuffled off my mortal coil. Besides, do I want the great-grandkids to know that I did manage to fix the sink?
Then I had an AHA! Moment. It would be a tremendous lab notebook. It is durable. At 6”x9” and 80 sheets, it offers plenty of room to write. More, the pages handle fountain pen ink and even heavy pencil with aplomb. This image shows a few lines written with J. Herbin ink and my big Parker, Duofold, which lays down ink like a paint brush. Provided I did my part, the Habana would provide me with a permanent record, a record for the ages. I pictured myself handing it to my patent attorney, to document my claims to my world-shaking discovery, clutching it as I accepted, with suitable humility, my Nobel Prize. I imagined my descendants, many generations removed from now, gazing at it in admiration, in its place of honor beside the Declaration of Independence. But then Reality intruded, reminding me that I haven’t had a science course since high school, where I shared a lab bench with Francis Bacon. My last experiment (an attempt to brew a new ink) produced only bad smells and that I can hardly change a light bulb without running a very risk of electrocuting myself.
Only somewhat daunted, I returned to the conundrum: What does one write in a notebook that cries out to be written in, but which also demands quality content?
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January 25th
Guest blogger Lito Apostolakou is a freelance author, historian, and feature writer at Suite101; she also has a fascinating blog on the history of writing instruments. Here, she writes about seeing one of Leonardo’s notebooks.
It doesn’t look like much, in fact the humble notebook is no bigger than a pack of playing cards, yet it is one of the most precious objects on display in the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The notebook of Leonardo da Vinci which dates from 1490-3 is one of five owned by the museum and it was bequeathed by English collector, John Forster in 1876.
It is packed with tiny handwriting, notes about geometry, hydraulics and weights and (curiously) with drawings of hats. At the time Leonardo compiled his notebook he was working for Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan and he was probably required to create costumes for court festivities – hence the hat drawings. The notebook seems to be suffering from ink corrosion (due to the iron gall ink Leonardo used) and is very light sensitive. It was a privilege to have seen it.
January 22nd
I’ve said it before, but everyone has their own idea of what makes a perfect planner. Most of us muddle through by selecting the company and format that best suits our needs, and perhaps a bit of customization.
Some dedicated souls, however, bust out their pens and their rulers and make the planner of their dreams. As a non-crafty person, I’m in awe of the patience this requires. But I can certainly see the appeal; after all, what other planning system can claim to be exactly tailored to the way you think and live?
If you’re curious about exploring homemade planners, check out Chet Chin’s posts about converting her large Habana notebook into a 2010 planner — then making sure it feels like her own.
Chet does her customization in advance and by hand, but reader Dave Terry uses a date stamp and stamps each new day as he goes. He also creates a detailed index so he can find things later. You can read more about Dave’s planning system on his blog and at D*I*Y Planner (which, incidentally, has a wonderful collection of ideas and templates for customized planners).
