Posts Tagged ‘planning’

Friday review roundup

Posted April 20, 2012 by
in Product Reviews | Add your comment »

It’s something old, something new this Friday with reviews of the Canadian Minister (similar to, but slightly different than, the US version) and the hot-off-the-presses Hebdo, a new format for 2013 with lots of space for Sundays!

  • The Minister is the “cadillac of agenda diaries,” says Heather Burke of Smart Space Organizing. “This is an excellent agenda for those who need to write some detail regarding their appointments, or for a busy family schedule that also relies on a calendar to keep them organized.”
  • The Hebdo is “an excellent addition to the Quo Vadis line,” says Laurie of Plannerisms. “The book is narrow, slim (less than 1/2 an inch thick) and very lightweight so it could comfortably go anywhere with you in your bag.”

Thanks for the great reviews, guys, and happy Friday!

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Friday review roundup

Posted April 13, 2012 by
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Today’s roundup is short and sweet — there’s just one review to feature. Nonetheless, it comes from an interesting source: Modern Vintage Man, a blog that advises gents “on what’s cool, awesome, and needed.” As Tim points out in his review of our Trinote:

The ability to plan ahead is a trait that sets truly great men apart. Planning requires discipline, wisdom, insight, and direction; qualities all men should strive for.

Read the full review here.

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Planners at work (and electronic overload)

Posted March 12, 2012 by
in Editorial | 6 comments »

While reading through the comments to one of my recent posts, I was interested to see that several of you keep separate planners for work and personal use.

I used to use an Outlook calendar for work-related calls and my Space 17 for face-to-face meetings and personal appointments. Then I had to switch to Gcal for one of my freelance clients, or, I should say, I had to start using Gcal to manage calls and meetings with that client. Another client I work with uses one of those online project-management systems. Now I need my Space 17 to coordinate across my work calendars and make sure the appointments on one don’t clash with those on the others.

That works all right, but lately, I’ve been wondering if I should consolidate and use just one electronic calendar, plus a paper one. I don’t like the interface of Gcal as well as I do that of Outlook, but the fact that it’s cloud-based makes things easier, and I’m not such an old bird yet that I can’t learn to make it work. Of course, that makes me wonder if I should consolidate my email systems, too, and abandon Outlook altogether. Too many choices!

Does anyone else suffer from electronic calendar overload syndrome (ECOS)?

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Reference pages and telephone codes

Posted March 8, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Product Reviews | 6 comments »

Laurie’s recent review of the Executive reminds me of a subject that came up in our recent survey, and that I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while… the international telephone codes that are listed in the reference sections of our planners.

As you might guess, they’re a holdover from the pre-Internet era, when that information wasn’t a Google search away and Skype had not been invented. Laurie says she still uses hers; I never have, but the data geek in me would still be somewhat sad to see them go. Uzbekistan is 10 hours ahead of us? Nepal and India 10 and a half?

As a bonus bit of trivia, I found myself wondering what “correspondent’s number” referred to in the Regional Area Code column. Nothing too mysterious, it turns out — simply that that country doesn’t have regional codes, so you should just go ahead and dial your correspondent’s number after dialing the country code.

Do you use the telephone access code chart?

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Friday review roundup

Posted March 2, 2012 by
in Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Happy Friday! We’ve got some great reviews to share with you today… don’t worry, we won’t let the praise go to our heads.

  • Laurie reviews the Executive at Plannerisms and concludes that it’s “an excellent, powerful planner with an extremely efficient weekly format, annual overviews, and spectacular paper in a compact and portable size.”
  • We’re late to the party on this one, but Margarita listed 10 reasons why our planners are special on Mom it Forward back in December. Number 4: “The paper is silky smooth…uh…yeah…uh… I think I have already said that.”
  • If you missed Karen’s post about Clem’s review of Ambre de Birmanie ink earlier this week, be sure to check it out! (The review, that is, not our post.) “A beautiful gem-like amber,” notes Clem, with the beautiful calligraphy and quotes we’ve come to expect in her reviews.

Finally, for those who are curious, here’s a scan of the full vintage brochure I blogged about earlier this week… I’m sorry it’s not more exciting, but it’s the best I could do with a copy of a copy of a copy. Continue reading »

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Academic planners ship April 1

Posted February 22, 2012 by
in Announcements | 1 comment »

A quick update for those of you who are on an academic calendar and are trying to plan ahead: our academic-year planners will ship to retailers on April 1, and should be available for purchase shortly after that.

Hope that helps!

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LiveScribe your planners and notebooks

Posted January 26, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 8 comments »

I first encountered Livescribe — the nifty digital pen-recorder that, via a special sort of paper, enables you to take notes and record things at the same time, then replay certain snippets by tapping on specific words — a few years ago. (If you used it during class and tapped your “test Friday” note, for example, you’d skip straight to the part where your professor announced there’d be a test on Friday covering such-and-such topics.)

A friend who’s a grad student and gadget geek had an early version; as a freelance writer, I was intrigued. There are few things more tedious than transcription, and you don’t always need to transcribe every part of an interview — just the parts that are relevant to your subject. However, I conduct a lot of my interviews on the phone, and the idea of having to do them on speakerphone just so I could use Livescribe didn’t seem terrifically practical. And though I don’t recall LiveScribe paper being of poor quality, the pen-and-paper experience is important to me, and I like being able to choose which tools I use for a particular project.

But there are plenty of others, I’m sure, who’ve come to use and love Livescribe. One of our survey respondents even suggested we release a planner format that’s compatible with Livescribe and Anoto (a similar technology I’ve not seen in person).

With the caveat that I have no idea how easy or difficult this would be, I’m curious to know if you agree. Do you use Livescribe? Would you like a Quo Vadis planner or notebook that’s compatible with it?

Oh, and speaking of our planner survey… if you haven’t already taken it, we’d love to get your opinion! It’ll be online here through the end of the month.

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What are your resolutions for 2012?

Posted January 18, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 2 comments »

I rarely make specific resolutions, but this year, I’m determined to repeat one of the things I did during the week between Christmas and New Year: go through my hanging files and sort out the things I don’t need.

Too often during the year, I see something I don’t have time to deal with but don’t want to lose track of completely, so I file it away for future reference. Unsurprisingly, a lot of those things then proceed to languish for years. It wasn’t even as difficult or time-consuming as I thought to sift through them once and for all.

What are your resolutions this year?

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Medical planning

Posted January 12, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 5 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?

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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?

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