Posts Tagged ‘planning’

Focus on formats: the Sapa X

Posted March 7, 2013 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Before I fell in love with the Space 17 and its weekly notes page, it was the Sapa X I used to plan my days and weeks. Like the Space 17, it’s compact and ultra portable, and it works very well for people like me who don’t have a lot of appointments. Karen combines it with a Rhodia pad to get all the space she needs.

What I miss about the Sapa X is its blank planning boxes, which give you a lot of freedom to doodle, partition, and organize each day however suits you best. It has two blank notes pages at the start of each month and a mini monthly calendar on each week that shows where the week falls in that month. For me, though, the extra room to take notes on the Space 17 makes it hard to contemplate going back.

Do you use the Sapa X? What do you like best and least about it?

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Look back, not forward, with the anno planner?

Posted February 11, 2013 by
in Planning Tips | 2 comments »

Reader Penny uses a Moleskine rather than a Quo Vadis planner, but she has an interesting suggestion about how to use its Anno Planner: not to plan ahead, but to record what’s already happened.

I want to end with how I use the anno section, a section that many apparently struggle with, regardless of brand. In my anno section, I record what I made for dinner.

You could extrapolate from here and record financial data, too, it strikes me — money spent or earned.

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Friday review roundup

Posted January 25, 2013 by
in Planning Tips, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Two great planner reviews as we head into this clear, cold New York weekend.

  • Deborah Crombie leads the Jungle Red Writers in a discussion about paper vs. digital calendars and describes why she loves her Minister: “It’s not too bulky, but there’s enough room to make notes on that day’s to-do list, and to add a little detail about activities … Most important of all, I put my page or word count goals for every day of the week at the top of that day, and then I have to write down what I actually achieved. I haven’t come up with anything digital that makes the same impact on my brain.”

  • Aisasia reviews the Scholar: “I used to use this style of planner for school and it was helpful because I listed tasks/homework assignments … Overall, this is a great planner but not one for me (my heart is set with the Space 24).”
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Guest post: Anno planning

Posted January 24, 2013 by
in Planning Tips, Product Reviews | 8 comments »

Image via Plannerisms

Our friend Kate Marshall is curious to know what people do with their anno planners — and she isn’t the only one! But because habits evolve over time, we figured we’d pose the question again. Here’s Kate’s take:

So I have this Hebdo planner that I’ve been using (in the purple Texas cover if you must know). I must have flipped through the “Anno-Planning” pages a hundred times before but this was the first time I really paid attention to them. And I wondered: what do people use them for?

If you’re not familiar with the Anno pages, they’re a section in every Quo Vadis planner, that shows the year on a two-page spread. The boxes are fairly small (or maybe my handwriting is just really big), so I’ve mostly limited myself to writing in my paydays (via green dollar-sign symbols) and recurring bills (via red dollar-sign symbols, of course).

Karen mentioned that she uses hers as a sort of yearly calendar. I’m curious about how others use the Anno-Planning pages, though: as a full-on calendar? To record events after the fact? To give your thumbs a break as you flip past the Anno pages to get to the “real” planner? To lay out your plans for world domination? (Ooh, I may have said too much.)

Talk amongst yourselves :-)

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Time & Life planners

Posted January 3, 2013 by
in Videos | 7 comments »

Time & Life film (UK) from Quo Vadis on Vimeo.

Another video our parent company recently released is the one above, which showcases our Time & Life planning format. The Time & Life isn’t available in the US, but we’d love to get your feedback on it! It comes in a few different sizes and, like our Hebdo, gives Sundays equal billing.

What do you think? Worth importing?

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When do you switch planners?

Posted December 27, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 7 comments »

There’s always a bit of overlap between this year’s planner and next year’s. I’m usually so eager to crack open the fresh, unmarked pages of next year’s book that I swap it in as soon as I can. Usually, I’ve also got dance and symphony subscription dates to enter, though not, in 2013, with a new baby.

Do you finish out your planners or start a new one before the year turns?

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Send us pics of your 2012 planner

Posted December 19, 2012 by
in Beautiful Creations, Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

There’s something wonderful about the crisp, unmarked promise of next year’s planner, but there’s also something lovely about the tired, happy pages of last year’s planner.

I don’t save my old planners, but I do like to flip through them before I toss them into the recycling bin. There it was, my year: the hurried pre-baby preparation, the post-baby scheduling silence, the distracted return to work, the chaos of Sandy and its aftermath.

We’d love to see YOUR old planners! If you’re so inclined, tweet them @quovadisblog or post them to our Facebook or Flickr pages.

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Friday review roundup

Posted November 16, 2012 by
in Product Reviews | 3 comments »

I’ve been a bit out of touch, but I’m glad not to have missed Laurie’s review of the Russian-language Note 16. As Laurie says, the Note 16 is the same size and shape as the Quo Vadis Executive and the same format as the Note 27.

What’s up with the numbers 16 and 27? Karen didn’t know, but we’ll try to track down the answer…

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My newfound love/hate with lists

Posted October 24, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

I’ve always loved to-do lists, the precision of spelling out tasks and the satisfaction of crossing them off. As I’ve mentioned before, they’re even more important now that I’m a mother, because I’m utterly unable to remember anything without them. To do: get more sleep? (I wish.)

On the other hand, lists also make it painfully obvious how little I accomplish in a day. I bought some small bookshelves for my son’s room about a month and a half ago, and it’s taken me until this morning to execute the plan I had of covering them with fabric and hanging them on the wall. (It was a multi-stage journey in which each successive step uncovered something else I needed, from a glue gun to anchors and drill bits.)

At the very least, this has made me much less aspirational when I choose which tasks to write down. “Empty compost bucket” — that I can do. Churn the pile, weed the garden, and think about planting some garlic? That’ll be on the list until spring.

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From dawn till dusk (and beyond)

Posted October 2, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

One of the most interesting points that our anonymous contest winner raised in her review of the Minister: the length of the day.

Since I work long hours (my day starts at 5:30am, ends ~9pm) I also like that the times (8am – 9pm) spanned in the Minister is longer than the average planner, which usually runs from 9am to 6pm or so. Still, it doesn’t encompass the entirety of my working day (most people will not have this problem!), so I can’t schedule 7am meetings in it.

At the moment, I can’t imagine scheduling anything more complicated than a diaper change in the early morning, but I know there are plenty of people whose days start and end before and after mine. What do you think? Do you need an after-hours planner?

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