Archive for November, 2007
November 30th
Like most European calendars, Quo Vadis weekly planners are laid out according to a typical work-week schedule, beginning on Monday and running through Sunday. The only Sunday-to-Saturday planner that we offer is the Visoplan, which is a monthly planner.
Occasionally, we get requests for more Sunday-to-Saturday planners. Sometimes, the reasons are religious: many American Christians believe that the Sabbath day is the most appropriate and reverent day on which to start the week (though confusion remains as to why this is the case if Sunday is the seventh day, i.e. the day on which God rested).
Other times, the reasons have to do with an unconventional work schedule. We recently received an email from a nurse whose work-week begins on Sunday, and who finds it difficult to quickly glance at the appointments in her Monday-to-Sunday planner.
Would you like to see a weekly QV planner that runs from Sunday to Saturday? How important is it to you? Let us know in the comments!
November 29th
Please consider writing a review of your current planner. Visitors to the Quo Vadis website read the reviews of individual agendas to see what other people like and value about a product.
A review of the planner you currently use will help other people decide if that particular format will work for them.
We pay close attention to feedback we get from this blog, email messages and product reviews to see what features our customers like, don’t care about, and what product improvements they would like us to make.
Over the years, customer comments have provided the richest source of new design and product development ideas.
You can access individual planner review forms via the quick link on the lower right hand side of the home page; or, on each product page at the top right. (Hint: look for the yellow pencil!)
Thank you very much.
November 28th
A Massachusetts reader recently emailed us to say what she likes best about her Robert le Héros planner: the elastic band that keeps the planner closed. (“The hard cover is also a plus for not getting crushed in my bookbag.”)
Could you make similar planners with the elastic band, similar size, and in hard cover with different cover designs? I like the current design, but I would definitely buy another one next year if there were other designs to choose from since I like the look of my planner to change each year.
How about it? If we made your favorite Quo Vadis planner with an elastic band on the cover, would you be interested? Or would you prefer some sort of a tab or a snap closure—or nothing at all?
November 27th
In spite of the proliferation of electronic and web-based calendars, the popularity of the 12-month wall calendar never seems to wane. In fact, the choice of themes (cats, dogs, boats, landscapes, nature, occult, etc.) at bookstores and gift shops seem to be growing. Banks and other business still hand out calendars to their customers, and nonprofits like the Sierra Club use calendars and engagement books for publicity and fund raising.
Many people continue to hang a wall calendar in their cubicle or office for quick reference, and also have one hanging in the kitchen to remind family members about appointments and activities as they whiz by on the way to the refrigerator.
There are all kinds of special interest calendars for sale on the web. Pressed for time, I decided to order my 2008 kitchen calendar online this year. I chanced upon Sea Serpent Productions, a company that produces mugs, calendars and mouse pads via Cafe Press. The illustrations on the calendar were inspired by world-famous and legendary sea monsters from Loch Ness (Nessie), Okanagan Lake (Ogopogo), Lake Champlain (Champ), the Cadboro Bay Sea Serpent and others.
Since I love the sea, old tales, and the idea of the existence of sea monsters, this calendar was custom-made for me.
November 25th
One of the ways we say Quo Vadis agendas can help you is by eliminating clutter and chaos in your week.
Timothy Ferris, an entrepreneur from Long Island and the author of the best-seller, “The Four-Hour Work Week” takes pretty much the same view about time management. He believes a lot of this clutter begins with distractions like email and is ruthless about eliminating it. He is also a proponent of out-sourcing what we don’t need to do ourselves.
After reading Mr. Ferris’ book, Jason Hoffman, a founder of Joyent, a company that designs web-based software, encouraged his employees to cut out instant messaging and concentrate on one thing at a time rather than multi-tasking. He urged them to severely restrict email use and conduct business the old-fashioned wy, by telephone.
“All of a sudden,” Mr. Hoffman said of the results, “their evenings are free. All of a sudden Monday doesn’t seem so overwhelming.”
November 22nd
A Happy Thanksgiving to all!
November 21st
In honor of Thanksgiving, here are some forgotten turkey- and feast-related phrases, courtesy of John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms:
Poor as Job’s turkey: A common simile.
Acknowledging the corn: An expression of recent origin, which has now become very common. It means to confess, or acknowledge a charge or imputation.
Stuffening: Stuffing; seasoning for meat or poultry. usually made of bread and herbs to give it a higher relish. Western.
The much larger 1877 edition of Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (online, thanks to Google Books) contains another good one:
To talk turkey: To say pleasant things; to talk so as to please the hearer.
And here’s a funny simile from the 1877 edition: “As innocent as a sucking turkey.”
Happy feasting!
November 20th
My office pet peeve are people who get to meetings late. When I run a meeting we’ll wait 5 minutes for everyone to get settled and then begin. I do not do a recap for the late arrivals - if they want to know what happened in the first 10 or 15 minutes, they can ask me after the meeting is done. When the emotional payoff of feeling important or exceptional isn’t catered to, some of the chronically late actually make it to a meeting (almost) on time…
In the November 13 edition of the Wall Street Journal, writer Jared Sandberg penned a very funny–and pointed–”Cubicle Culture” column on late people. Here’s an excerpt:
“Most people prefer messiness, loud noises and even bad smells to late people. In a recent study commissioned by staffing firm Randstand USA, 54% of respondents said others’ poor time management skills drove them nuts. Even late people can’t stand when others are late, in part because from the point of view of habitually late people, meetings start very promptly.”
“What makes people late? Maybe it’s being overly optimistic about the time needed to commute and park, a warm bed in a cold room, or a task for which no amount of planning can apportion adequate time: getting that second sock on a toddler’s foot. ”
“Most chronically late people consistently underestimate time by 25% to 30% says Diane DeLonzor, author of “Never Be Late Again.” “Late people indulge in magical thinking,” she says. “They remember that day 10 years ago when they made it to work in seven minutes flat. That becomes their standard.”
“That explains one of the most baffling types of late people: Those who are routinely late by a precise amount of time–the punctually late.”
“There’s not one comprehensive theory why everyone’s late,” said Piers Steel, a professor at the University of California’s Haskayne School of Business who authored an article earlier this year called, “The Nature of Procrastination.” But one primary cause is that people “can’t get motivated well before their deadlines.”
November 19th
Speaking of old words and old dictionaries, I was recently dusting off some books on my bookshelves when I came across an impulse purchase I made a couple of years ago: a facsimile edition of John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms, first published in 1848 (turns out it’s also available online). Bartlett, a Providence, Rhode Island native who worked, variously, as a clerk in a dry goods store, a book-keeper, a bookseller, a bank cashier, a boundary commissioner, and the Rhode Island Secretary of State, endeavored to compile:
A Vocabulary of the colloquial language of the United States… in which should be embraced all those words usually called provincial or vulgar—all the words, whatever be their origin, which are used in familiar conversation, and but seldom employed in composition—all the perversions of language, and abuses of words into which people, in certain sections of the country, have fallen, and some of those remarkable and ludicrous forms of speech which have been adopted in the Western States.
(As you might have guessed, he was rather partial to the language of his native New England.)
At any rate, the book is a fascinating look into American social, linguistic, and political history, and many of the words are positively delightful. Here, for example, is absquatulate: “To run away, to abscond. Used only in familiar language.”
Or wamble-cropped: “Sick at the stomach; and figuratively, wretched; humiliated.”
Or meechin: “A person with a downcast look is said to look meechin. Used on Long Island.”
November 15th
I was recently browsing through old posts on the French Quo Vadis blog—a great way, as it turns out, for me to practice the schoolbook French I never use anymore—when I came across a nifty little etymology of the word “agenda.” It comes from the Latin agere, which, as the blog explains, means “to do” or “to act” (actually, like many Latin verbs, it’s a little more complicated than that, but never mind).
The word agenda, then, means “that which must be done.” In French, it now refers to any sort of item or device (like a planner or a PDA) that enables people to associate “that which must be done” with specific moments in time. In English, of course, it can also refer to the actual plans themselves, as in the question, “What’s the agenda for today?”
