I’ve already gotten a lot of use out of my Monthly 4 garden planner, which helped me figure out when to start my seeds and put stuff in the ground this spring.

In many ways, though, it’s next year things will really pay off, because I’ve also started using it to record when things are actually ripe. Last year was something of an anomaly because of all the cool, wet weather we had in June and July. But I could have sworn I had ripe tomatoes by this time two years ago! Yet here this year’s plants sit, with promising green clusters…

At least I know I started them on time.

It’s not hard to appreciate the virtues of thick, strong, smooth paper. Now that I write with fountain pens, I value them even more — what better way to showcase my lovely J. Herbin inks? For the past year, I’ve been using my fountain pens for everyday deskbound tasks like writing and note-taking and lists. (The next step, as I mentioned earlier, is taking them out of the house.) And I’ve been able to integrate them into nearly everything I do at my desk, with one strange but stubborn exception: Post-it notes.

I don’t use post-its that often now that I’ve begun to incorporate a Rhodia mousepad into my quote-unquote time management system. But I’m always looking for ways to prevent myself from overlooking the little things I need to do or keep track of each day, and bright yellow Post-its are a still an integral part of that arsenal.

Post-it brand post-its are actually pretty sturdy. But they’ve got this strange sort of sheen overlay that’s just death for fountain pens. Even Herbin ink performs badly; it’s splotchy and there’s lots of feathering. Here it is in a fine-nibbed Pelikano:

And here it is in the same pen on 90g Clairefontaine:

In the grand scheme of things, of course, this is hardly a big deal. (For whatever reason, my Phileas, whose medium nib is comparatively thin, performs somewhat better on post-its.) I’m still curious, though: what does the sheen accomplish? Does it make the post-it stronger or less susceptible to water damage? At this rate, you’d be better off writing on cheap printer paper. Maybe I’ll have to try the 4X4 Post-its that get such good reviews on FPN…

Many writers keep idea notebooks — myself included — to catch the random thoughts that cross their minds all day. One savvy reader has an intriguing method for keeping things a little more organized; in an email exchange, he explains:

i use planners to keep notes and ideas. i find it’s easier to refer back to the notes and ideas by just flipping back through the days or weeks. it’s much more organized than if i just kept an ‘idea’ notebook. that was just chaos.

Afterwards, our correspondent uses a Habana notebook to elaborate on the ideas he wants to develop. Pretty cool system, huh?

I got home last night to find New York in full bloom of an early summer — hot, sticky, humid. The good news: this big, lovely poppy that greeted me.

The sad, if inevitable, news: my email inbox, which I’d managed to completely clear before I left, is back up to its usual levels.

I always wonder about email and vacation. Like any modern workaholic, I often travel with my laptop if I’m going to be gone for a while, mostly to keep up with news and also, sometimes, to write (I sketch ideas and outline on paper, but I can’t compose any long-form without a computer). It’s also nice to be able to keep an eye on my email. I try not to let that take up too much time or intrude on my enjoyment of things; I’m reminded of an anecdote from Damon Young’s Distraction — excerpted here — where he reflexively answers a phone call while vacationing in Ithaca.

On the other hand, I do try to answer a few things here and there, because how disheartening is it to come home to a jam-packed inbox, and know that you’ll have to spend your first day back in the office answering emails rather than doing real work? As with most technological things, it’s hard to find a balance.

What’s your approach?

Want to learn more about our Trinote or Septanote planners? Check out the comprehensive review/comparison that Laurie Huff just posted on Plannerisms.

Here’s a hint: one of them might be useful to those of you who’re currently looking for a new academic year planner! At any rate, Laurie’s review should answer every question you can think of except how the paper feels to the touch. (Which, alas, is a tough one to answer online.)

Thanks, Laurie!

“I purchased a Trinote planner,” a QV customer wrote, “and for the most part, I am happy; however, it does not have a month-at-a-glance.  I like the space for notes after each day, and I like the hours through 9:00 pm. I am a psychotherapist and need the daily hours to list all my appointments; however, I also use my planner for meetings, case consultations, and for personal use, so a monthly calendar would be nice to have as well.  What would you suggest for a refill? I hate to throw this one out but it really does not provide all that I need.”

Unfortunately for this Trinote user, we do not have any plans to add monthly pages.  It will make the book too large for the refillable cover; and make it more expensive as well because of extra pages and printing.

As a stopgap measure I would suggest that she either get a Monthly 4 refill–which is the same size as the Trinote–and stick it between the back cover and the book and hold it inside with an elastic band.  I would be happy to send her one of our new bookmarks to keep it in place.

Another possibility would be to buy a pocket-size Visoplan or Exaplan refill and tuck them in an inside cover flap.  I have done that myself when I needed a monthly overview to back up my weekly planner.

My suggestion for 2011 would be to purchase a Visual or Space 24  instead of a Trinote, or, sad to say, find another brand that better meets your needs.  The Visual and the Space 24 both have built in monthly planning pages.

Your suggestions for Quo Vadis and any other DIY solutions would be welcome.

Image by Kevin Van Aelst

Anyone else read Virginia Heffernan’s latest column in the New York Times Magazine this weekend? In a piece called “Calendar Daze” — it’s referred to more starkly online as “The Demise of Datebooks” — Heffernan waxed elegiac about her old Filofax:

[It] was also a place for plot arcs, self-invention and self-regulation. It was, in every sense, a diary — a forward-running record, unlike backward-running blogs. The quality of the paper stock, the slot for the pen, the blank but substantial cover, the hints of grand possibilities that came with the inserts — all of these inspired not just introspection but also the joining of history: the mapping of an individual life onto the grand old Gregorian-calendar template.

Online commenters quickly began wondering why, if she liked it so well, she didn’t just switch back from her “dull Google version.” I’m wondering why these things are always presented in terms of either/or. As far as I’m concerned, there are features of online calendars that are totally unique and utterly helpful — automatic reminders, for example, which I’ve praised before, and which I’ve come to rely on when I’m working at my desk. And there are strengths of paper planners that digital tools may never match, like the way they encourage creative thinking (as Heffernan writes, her planner “liberated my imagination by allowing for such elegant expression of it”).

Why not take advantage of both?

Here’s another idea from our friend Greg Davis that should work for non-attorneys, too:

I’ve started using the Habana Notebooks for various journal type duties. I have one for all my notes about the jury trials I’ve done — keeping track of the good things, or bad things for each trial, what happened and what mistakes I made that I never want to repeat.

It reminded me of Diane’s guest post about keeping track of what she does at work each month… In any case, it sounds like a very good way to keep yourself inspired and find ways to improve!

We’ve gotten a couple of emails lately from people who use our products as nature journals, keeping track of special outings and recording what’s around them at home.

One reader in southwest Wisconsin uses a daily undated Exacompta Forum journal to track birds and other species. “I had been looking for one with dates but not days to use year after year,” she writes. The undated Forum, “while it wasn’t what I thought I wanted, works perfectly… It’s the right size, it has a lovely feel, and the lines are not too far apart.”

Greg Davis, a Milaca, MN based attorney who switched back to paper planners after a courtroom ban on cell phones, has been using a Habana to keep track of fishing outings. “I have been bitten by the Steelhead fly fishing bug and need to keep track of the outings so I can see what works… temperature, weather, water levels, water conditions, etc.,” Greg writes. (That’s his 26″ Hen in the photo above.)

It helps me see where I went wrong with the birding journal I started last year, then abandoned. I’d been using a day-per-page Notor, but after a while it seemed foolish since we don’t get a lot of variety here in Brooklyn on a daily basis, and the rest of the journal was sort of just going to waste. Still, it *is* nice to keep track of dates as well as species. I suppose it should have been obvious, but I’d never thought about using an undated journal or notebook, and keeping it for years to come!

Do you keep a nature journal?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a planning enthusiast like Laurie has lots of great ideas about what to do with different layouts and formats. We were emailing about my new Monthly 4 garden planner recently, and she mentioned another application that sounded like a natural fit:

A friend of mine is due to have a baby any minute, and I realized the Monthly 4 would make an excellent pregnancy planner.

The mom-to-be could mark her due date and then keep track of everything she has to do each month to prepare for the big day. The list boxes each month could be used for topics like: baby’s room prep (furniture to buy, painting and decoration, etc.), things to do to prepare for the birth (like set up maternity leave), baby gear to buy, etc. The monthly format makes scheduling all those prenatal appointments and childbirth classes easy.

Something I did during my pregnancies was on my monthly calendar I wrote in each week what week of pregnancy I was (because for every prenatal appointment they ask, How many weeks are you? So it was nice to have a quick reference).

With the caveat that I don’t have kids myself and thus have no idea what it takes to plan a pregnancy, I’ll say that it sounds like a good idea to me! Might also be a good gift for a new mom-to-be from her friends or family members.