Letters in the mail

Posted January 13, 2012 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities | Add your comment »

On the heels of Snail Mail My Email, Dialogus, and the many pen pal match-making sites comes a new initiative called Letters In The Mail.

Through it, people can subscribe to receive weekly letters from writers like Dave Eggers, Margaret Cho, and Jonathan Ames. (The cost is $5 a month, and each subscriber gets the same letter.)

“I got this urge to get back to sending paper letters, and I also knew a lot of authors who I knew would be really excited about it,” founder Stephen Elliott told MSNBC.

If the author decides to include his or her return address, participants are encouraged to write back.

Thanks to Cecilia for passing this on!

| More

Medical planning

Posted January 12, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 4 comments »

One great idea to come out of our survey: a specialized treatment planner for people with cancer and/or other long-term illnesses.

A nice planner (NOT PINK) with large easy to read dates, days of the week like a Septanote but with Notes at the bottom and at the back. Something that feels great in the hand, inspires and doesn’t remind one of Cancer (or heart disease, etc).

A list of Doctor’s names, phone numbers, emails and addresses, as well as blank notes. Even blank notes at the end of each month would be handy… Needs a pocket in the front to hold business cards of doctors and insurance card.

What do you think? If you had (or have) to deal with a long-term illness, would you want to use a dedicated planner for it?

| More

Survey says

Posted January 11, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who’s taken our planner survey. We’ve gotten more than 200 responses thus far, and we’re planning to collect and analyze the results at the end of the month. (So if you haven’t done so already, please take a few minutes to take the survey and make your opinions heard!)

Once that’s done, I’ll be sure to share the results; preliminary findings include:

  • 69% of you would prefer a weekly planner, while 25% prefer a daily planner and 5% prefer a monthly

  • One of you prefers a two-pages-per-day layout (but realizes “that is impractical in a bound book unless, of course, it came in two volumes”)

  • 77% want fountain-pen friendly paper — no surprise, but it’s nice to see the numbers!

  • 72% consider monthly planning pages essential

  • At least one of you wants a place for to-do items each week

Thanks again, and stay tuned for further results!

| More

A new planner for the new year?

Posted January 9, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 5 comments »

I’ve asked this question before, but the new year has me wondering: did you change planner formats in 2012?

I’m still quite happy with the switch I made in 2011 to the Space 17, so I stuck with that for 2012. On the one hand, there’s the old saying — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On the other hand, when it comes to planning, it seems there’s always room for improvement.

What did you decide?

| More

The book of days

Posted January 6, 2012 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

I was poking around online when I came across an old post by needlepoint blogger Cynthia. Cynthia sells her designs online at The Drawn Thread; as it turns out, she’s also a fan of the Note 27, and even stitched her own cover for it!

Pictured above and available for sale here, the cover is a perfect complement to the planner, and every bit its aesthetic equal.

| More

Do you use your receipts and payments pages?

Posted January 4, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 7 comments »

Quo Vadis Minister Equology: Receipts and Payments pages

Now that 2011′s over, it won’t be long before we Americans, at least, need to start preparing our taxes. Unsurprisingly, it often makes things easier to track expenses and deductibles during the year rather than calculating them all at once, and everyone has a different method. I use an Excel spreadsheet marked with different categories, then stuff the receipts in a file.

Some of our planners, like the Trinote, offer dedicated “Receipts and payments” pages, which I imagine you might also be able adapt to that purpose. Or perhaps it’s more useful for small business owners, who have to track both incoming and outgoing funds. Either way, I — and a few of our readers, no doubt — would be curious to hear what people do with these pages… Do you use them? Alter them? Ignore them? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Laurie for the photo!

| More

Happy New Year!

Posted January 2, 2012 by
in Announcements | Add your comment »

Here’s wishing everyone much health and happiness in 2012…

| More

Lobster trap Christmas tree

Posted December 29, 2011 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities | Add your comment »

Though the angle of the sun conspired against my cell-phone picture taking efforts, this lobster trap Christmas tree — at Lee’s Market in Westport, MA — seemed like the perfect follow-up to the book tree Cecilia found earlier, and in the spirit of the not-quite-gone season, I figured I’d post it here.

Hope your holidays were joyful!

| More

Old products for the new year

Posted December 28, 2011 by
in Editorial, Product Reviews | 14 comments »

It doesn’t always happen immediately, but we do sometimes bring back discontinued products and give them another chance to succeed.

Of course, before we do, we need to make sure that people want to see the product return, and are passionate enough about it to actually make a purchase. So in honor of the coming new year, let me ask: what would you like to have back? A few items we’ve toyed around with:

  • Habana notebooks with white paperExacompta journey notebooks

  • Businessnote planners
| More

Do you use your tear-off corners?

Posted December 23, 2011 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 21 comments »

I just made the switch to my 2012 Space 17, and as I was fitting the book into its cover, I started thinking about those little tear-off corners at the bottom of each page — the ones that help you flip straight to your page when you open the planner. I don’t particularly care for them (they’re too prone to excess tearing, in my clumsy hands), and I haven’t used them ever since I got an elastic bookmark.

However, they’re still admirable in their simplicity, and I suspect they must have their fans. What do you think? Do you use them?

| More
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »