Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category
March 11th
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?
March 9th
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!
March 8th
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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March 4th
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.
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 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 18th
IT lawyer, fountain pen aficionado, and guest blogger Tom Hall recently took the Journal 21 for a test drive. Here are his thoughts…
“Let me check my calendar.”
The first time I uttered those words, I knew I was no longer young and carefree, with my every moment under my sole control. On the other hand, it meant that I was out of school and gainfully employed. In another moment I realized that I did not HAVE a calendar. Thus I joined professionals worldwide in the Quest for the Perfect Planner.
For a long time I used a simple, pocket-sized planner. It was all I needed to navigate from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting during the work day. More than once it kept me from arriving at the office on a holiday.
Then along came pocket sized, electronic planners. Like most guys, I’m a sucker for gadgets, and this one came with a built in rationalization: it made coordinating my schedule with my secretary far easier. I used it quite happily for several years, until I was asked to give a deposition in a contract dispute. The opposing attorney asked where I had been on a given day, several years earlier. Thanks to the electronic gadget, I was able to tell him. Unhappily, he decided to explore my schedule for that day in detail, and then did the same for every day for the week before and after. Needless to say, I no longer carry around such extensive records of my days.
As time moved forward, the maker of my favorite electronic gadget fell on hard times. They revised their products to keep pace with competition, raised their prices and eliminated the features I valued. When my gadgets wore out, I discovered that there were no adequate successors available. I was, apparently, obsolete. Somewhat bemused, I rejoined the Quest.
About this time, Karen put out a call for volunteers willing to test Exacompta planners. Her timing was exquisite. I had strayed from the True Path, and was attempting, with little success and much frustration, to sync the calendar on my cell phone with an on line service. My brother said it best: “Isn’t pencil and paper faster, easier and more reliable?”
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January 15th
If good suggestions come in threes, it’s time to put this to a vote: would you be interested in an unlined planner? Jeff Abbott made the suggestion in a comment to an earlier post, where it was seconded by NateB.
Then Kim Brugger mentioned how busy the pages of her Minister looked, which I suspect has a lot to do with the lines.
At the moment, our only unlined planner is the Sapa X; I use it, and I’m definitely a fan of the clean and simple format. But it’s a relatively small planner, and that’s not to everyone’s taste.
Anyway, if you have an opinion one way or the other, talk to us! Let us know what you envision (is it a daily or a weekly planner? is it big or small? does it offer different boxes for organization, or just present you with one big, blank page?), or tell us why you think it would never work for you.
January 6th
Speaking of ministers, guest blogger David Maliniak recently took one for a test drive… here’s his take on the experience.
The concept of planning inherently implies a disciplined approach to an endeavor; that endeavor can range from something as mundane as a trip to the grocery store to the broader concerns of life itself. Some weeks ago, I took up Exaclair’s Karen Doherty on the gracious 2nd Annual Planner Review offer and received a very nice Minister 2010 Agenda Planning Diary for evaluation. Using it got me thinking about my personal history with planning and how I organize my time and life.
I’ve always liked to think of myself as a relatively organized person. I don’t lose things; my desk is pretty neat. My professional life revolves around deadlines and schedules. I’m an editor for a trade magazine/website that serves electronic design engineers and there’s always an interview to conduct, stories to write, meetings to attend. I manage to juggle it all one way or another. Sure, balls drop from time to time but on balance, I stay on track.
But the dirty little secret that I harbor is this: I’m not really as organized as I seem. I don’t even like to admit it to myself, but the truth is that my organizational skills hang on a very slender thread. What I’ve realized is that I’m not so much organized as I am habitual. Using planners has always hinged on habit for me. If I didn’t forget to write in them, I’d forget to look at them later.
Now that I’m in my fifties, I find that I cannot rely on my memory as I did when I was 20 or 30.
Past efforts at using paper planners, and there have been a few, have petered out due to an inability to develop the habit of using them. Over the years I’ve learned to rely on computer-based organization tools provided by my employer, such as Microsoft Outlook. But should I forget to set alarms and reminders for things, Outlook can quickly devolve into “Look out!” I’ve tried using my cell phone’s calendar function, but entering data on it is just too darned hard.
So upon receiving the Quo Vadis planner, I resolved that this time would be different. “Yeah, sure,” you’re thinking. But I’ve already hit upon some things that I believe will be the keys to success for this undisciplined soul.
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December 15th
Here’s another Equology review from Kim Brugger, who took the Minister for a test drive this fall…
Overall—I like the planner. I enjoy using products that are green in nature. The first couple of pages were the standard reference type material—quite helpful if you are an international traveler. Once you get into the meat of planner (the calendar pages)—it has an interesting layout. There is a lot of good information on each of the pages. As you can see from the photo of the calendar pages—the date, the day of the week and the month are at the top of each of the columns. There is a small three month calendar at the far right along with which week of the year it is. On the right side of the calendar is a section for notes based on a standard set of categories (phone, fax, email, to do, etc). Useful for keeping quick notes that come up throughout the week. My only dislike with the planner was how busy the calendar pages looked. For most people—I imagine this wouldn’t be a distraction—but I tend towards a minimalistic slant.
I like that the planner will lay flat once you have worked the binding a bit to loosen it up. The included address book is helpful if you don’t have your contacts stored in a different location. The ink tests were helpful to determine which types of pens I can use. All of the inks performed well. I would say I thought the Pilot Precision V5 RT performed the best. That is my favorite daily use pen anyway—so that might have biased the testing 
I am looking forward to using this planner throughout 2010 and will definitely keep an eye out for future versions.
