Archive for March, 2010

Family planning

Posted March 15, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | 9 comments »

We just got an email from a newly-married Textagenda user who likes to keep track of her husband’s schedule in addition to her own, and who had some good ideas about a new planning format for families:

I would like to see a two-page-a-day format — the left-hand page with an expanded version of the [Textagenda's] hourly breakdown (but with at least two separate columns so I could track my schedule and my husband’s side-by-side… probably 3-4 would be better for moms) and the right-hand page with the blank lined section for notes.

Personally, I tend to think of those big monthly wall calendars when I think of family planners, but I suppose they’re not very portable (or to everyone’s taste, for that matter). So I’ll throw the question out to our readers. Moms, dads, newlyweds! Would you be interested in an expanded family planner? What features would you like to see in it?

Image via jonny goldstein.

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What makes a good engagement/wedding journal?

Posted March 12, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

A reader from Texas has a great idea for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and he’s looking for advice:

I want to give journals to both my daughter and her fiance to record their thoughts and feelings while their hearts and brains are still mushy and creative. To be read at their anniversaries and low points. Do you have any suggestions?

What kind of a journal would you recommend? Something with a bit of structure, like a daily diary, or a more free-form notebook like the Habana or the Webbie? Any other ideas?

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How often do you switch planners?

Posted March 11, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | 4 comments »

We often hear from people who are trying to decide between several different planning formats, or who’ve used a particular format for years but have always been curious about another one. As a Business user recently explained: “I still love the others and am pondering excuses to use them all, somehow.”

I totally know the feeling — I’ve been a Sapa X user for years, but have always wondered if I should try a format like Space 17 or Rhodia, with weekly note-taking space. Still, my jury-rigged time management system doesn’t make me feel like I *need* weekly note-taking space, so never I’ve indulged the curiosity. Though I did just find an excuse to use a Monthly 4!

What do you do when you see a new format that you like? How do you decide whether or not you’re going to switch?

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Days and weeks and stress

Posted March 9, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | 2 comments »

Our weekly planners are more popular than our daily formats, but daily has its core users. One recent convert wrote in with an interesting rationale:

As I was starting to fill things into my planner I was like: wow, this is so much less stressful looking than my old planner was.

Daily planners are more “stress-less” because you can use them with a “one day at a time” mentality.

As always, it depends on your particular habits and schedule, but I thought it was a very good point!

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Plan how your garden grows

Posted March 8, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | Add your comment »

It’s difficult to imagine that we had 20+ inches of snow last weekend, cause this weekend was beautiful: sunny, clear, with temperatures that had you peeling off gloves and scarves and even coats as you walked around.

I’ve been dreaming of spring ever since last summer, which seems to be something of an occupational hazard of gardening. This year, I’m prepared for it, too. I’ve already decided what I want to grow and ordered my seeds. I’ve also figured out exactly when I should start them, thanks to this nifty new Monthly 4 planner Karen gave me. In the past, I usually waited until the weather was warm, then scrambled to get my seeds started. Thanks to the Monthly 4, I’m already ahead of the game, and my tomatoes and brussels sprouts are sitting in peat planters on the windowsill.

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Goals in your pocket — or your planner

Posted March 4, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

Chet Chin recently tipped us off to a cool idea for setting and sticking to goals: a small, downloadable booklet that you fill out, fold up, and carry in your wallet to remind yourself of, say, your financial goals and educational goals and so on. There are six categories in all — including one blank one — and enough space to list five goals in each category.

Chet decided to paste the categories into the notes pages of her customized planner rather than carry the card in her wallet. That made plenty of sense to me, because really, who needs another piece of paper in their wallet, gathering lint and dust? It also turns her planner into a nifty goal-tracking tool, because she can flip to those pages whenever she needs some inspiration:

Besides writing down the goals, I plan to write down the progress of meeting those goals. Which would make the “Notes” section a log of sorts.

Neat idea, eh?

Image via.

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More fields

Posted March 3, 2010 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

We just got a couple new images from Christian Skagen’s “Horizontal Fields” series, which we blogged about last week (with my apologies for having flubbed the title; sorry — it’s “Horizontal Fields,” not “Horizontal Lines” as I first wrote).

Anyway, click through to see some pieces Christian made with J. Herbin Rose Tendresse and Bleu Azur and a Pelikan M250 EF:

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Quo Vadis Bookmark

Posted March 2, 2010 by
in Announcements, Editorial | 9 comments »

All 2011 planners with Club or Soya covers will be sold with an elastic bookmark.  The bookmark also works as a ruler with measurements in inches and cm.  The reverse side has “Quo Vadis” in several different languages.  “Quo Vadis” means “Where are you going?” – a good question for planning your time.

Bookmarks can be sold separately by retailers if they choose to buy them. They are sold in a pack of 10.

I have a few extra in the office I would be happy to send to our QV blog readers.  Please send us a quick note with your mailing address via the Contact Us form on the blog.

You can have a look at photos of them here.

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DIY with DCP

Posted March 1, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

Karen sent me a few sheets of Clairefontaine DCP paper in the fall. DCP (which stands for “Digital Color Printing”) is a thick, white, glossy, A4 printer paper, and it’s apparently designed for printing photographs and other color graphics. It comes in ivory, too, and can also be used, Karen told me, for bookmaking.

I don’t have a color printer, and I haven’t tried to make a book since the 3rd or 4th grade. Frankly, I found the A4 size a little awkward at first, since it’s thinner and longer than standard American paper and didn’t really fit into any of my binders. So I stuck it in a folder and forgot about it until this weekend, when I needed to customize an old tea box for a present and didn’t have time to go out and get the proper supplies.

DCP, it turned out, was just the thing for the job. I wanted something I could write on (so decoupage was out), but I also needed paper that was thick enough to hide the images on the box I was reusing:

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