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 3rd
Lots of people write in with good suggestions for tweaks to our planning formats, and often those tweaks take the form of supplements or additions. More space for notes is a popular one. Another popular idea, at least for those formats that don’t already have it, is adding a monthly view that would supplement a daily or a weekly planner.
First of all, let me say that we are always grateful for your suggestions, because it helps us understand how people actually use our planners. Also, they do make a difference, as Karen has described. But when it comes to adding pages, we face a problem: if we add pages to our planners, for the most part, then we have to delete other pages. We can’t make the planners larger because the refillable covers would be useless—the planner inserts wouldn’t fit. (Of course, they could stretch a little bit, and as Karen will describe later, we are indeed planning to make notes supplements for the Business and Minister planners.)
So periodically we ask: what would you like to add? And more importantly, in exchange, what would you eliminate? An address book seems quaint to me in this era of Outlook and cell phones, but maybe there are still people who prefer to store that stuff in their planners. Similarly, the maps and reference materials—I like that they exist (though I rarely consult them), and it’s true they come in handy while traveling, but as Marty pointed out, Google can give you the same information with much greater specificity…
So, what do you think? Should we do an annual bound book (i.e., not refillable) with extra pages for notes and calendars? Would you be willing to pay more for that expanded edition? Or should we try to find a way to fit those things into our current planners, or create special supplements for them?
February 2nd
We have a sighting! Neither Karen nor I has made it to the theaters to see It’s Complicated, the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. But several friends and readers have, and they’ve been able to confirm that one of our planners does indeed make an appearance. Writes a friend:
“The funny thing about Meryl Streep’s character (in the movie) is that she forgets appointments and meetings. Steve Martin’s character gives her the gift of the leather bound Quo Vadis planner to help her remember her appointments with him. When she opens the gift, the back of the planner is face up. The imprinted Quo Vadis label is displayed before she turns the planner over.”
Note that we did *not* pay for product placement, which is part of the reason we’re so excited about this! Director Nancy Meyers is apparently just a fan of Quo Vadis — as is Meryl Streep.
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 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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November 23rd
Speaking of bookmarks, here’s a new product that might interest people who like elastic closures on their covers: the, uh, elastic bookmark.
Bascially, the idea is that you slip the bookmark into your planner or notebook, then wrap the elastic around the front and back covers to keep them closed. The brown-and-tan colored closure is supposed to complement a variety of cover colors, while the ruler gives you a handy way to, you know, measure (it’s marked in centimeters and inches).
At 5 inches tall, it’s a bit big for my Sapa X planner, but it fits nicely onto my large- and medium-sized Clairefontaine notebooks, and will be great way of making sure they stay closed whenever I toss them in my bag. I suppose there’s no reason you couldn’t use it for ordinary books, as well.
The other side, if you’re curious, features a little globe graphic:
The elastic bookmark retails for $1.50 and is available now, so ask your favorite retailer if you’re interested.
August 17th
Sarah of Ghost World is an impressively well-organized blogger and pediatrics resident (and Quo Vadis / Rhodia fan). Reading her recent posts about refilling an empty fridge and managing the loose ends in life reminded me of a subject I’ve been meaning to write about since I saw her advice on Carrots ‘n Cake back in April: meal planning.
When I lived in Europe (Germany, Austria, England) for a few years after college, I fell in love with how easy it was to go to the farmer’s market every day, see what inspired me, and cook. Of course, I also had a lot more free time—the easy pace of European life is often oversold, but it’s definitely less hectic than your average New York day. The only thing you had to plan ahead for was Sunday, when everything was closed. And you could always go to a restaurant if you didn’t do your shopping on Saturday.
Here in Red Hook, I’m no longer close to a daily farmer’s market, though we do have a great supermarket. I work from home, and I don’t have kids, so it’s still relatively easy for me to pop over to the store at the end of the day and pick ingredients for that night’s dinner. Nonetheless, I’ve been experimenting with the idea of plotting out a couple meals in advance—in part because it’s summer, and I can now buy a bunch of vegetables at once at our weekly farmer’s market, and in part because, you know, life is stressful, and who doesn’t want more free time to read or garden or take an aimless walk around the block before dinner?
There are plenty of online tools to keep track of recipes and meals; many people also use their planners for that purpose. Thus far, however, I’ve been taking it 2-3 days at a time and using a simple shopping list as a mnemonic device.
How far in advance do you plan your meals?
