Posts Tagged ‘planning’

Blank pages and Sapa X

Posted March 2, 2011 by
in Planning Tips | 3 comments »

I’m an erstwhile Sapa X user, and I never really knew what to do with the blank pages that precede the start of each month. Occasionally I’d jot down notes, but I wasn’t systematic about it, and I rarely referred back to them afterwards. Maybe that’s due to the unsystematic way in which they appear? Because some months start towards the beginning of the week and others in the middle of one, the Sapa X’s two blank pages sometimes face one another, and other times are formed by a single, blank front-and-back sheet.

In any case, judging by one email we just got, I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what to do with them:

I’ve been buying Sapa X for years. I really like this planner, but I never use the blank pages that occur now & then, so I cut them out. It would help if you made them easily removable, using the little holes that you use to make the bottom corners easy to remove.

Of course, that wouldn’t be possible unless each blank page was exactly that — a single page, front and back — otherwise, you’d tear out part of a planning page, too. But it’s definitely an interesting suggestion. Are there any other Sapa X fans who would like to see us implement it? Or people who’ve figured out how to incorporate the blank pages into their planning routine?

Let us know!

| More

Expanding Equology

Posted February 2, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 6 comments »

A Quo Vadis fan in Alaska recently asked us if we’d consider making the Space 24 in Equology, our collection of recycled paper planners.

Thus far, we’ve only made a handful of formats available in Equology: Minister, President, Sapa X, Scholar, and Textagenda. But we realize that people are increasingly interested in using sustainable products, and we’re happy to consider expanding the lineup.

If your favorite planner format were available in Equology, would you try it? In case it makes a difference, note that while our recycled paper is thicker than average at 72g, it doesn’t perform as well with fountain pens as non-recycled paper.

| More

How many planners do you use?

Posted January 25, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 6 comments »

Plenty of people pair a paper planner with a digital device, but how many of you use more than one paper planner? Here’s how one of our fans does it:

I pair the IB Traveler with the Visoplan in a Chelsea cover, and I’ve got everything on the calendar covered!

I paired a Sapa X with a Monthly 4 last year, but the Monthly 4 was really just for gardening, and I kept it in a separate cover. And now that I’ve switched to the Space 17 — which has a monthly calendar in the front — I’m hoping to do everything in one book. Less is more! Or is it? How many planners do you use?

| More

Cover designs

Posted January 10, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

Here’s a suggestion we received from a Scholar user:

I wish you could get more decorative colors, or covers with a little bit of a design. Only the nonrefillable ones have a design, which I almost got except I harm the environment less with a reusable cover, so make some covers for the hippies in the world!

When I first started blogging for Quo Vadis, Karen sent me a lovely planner from our Robert le heros collection — powder blue, at that time. The format didn’t work for me, so I switched to a refillable planner. First, though, I ripped the leatherette cover off its cardboard backing since it seemed silly to let it go to waste. (Sadly, it didn’t look as inspiring after it’d been skinned, and is doubtless now buried deep in some box somewhere.)

At any rate, I sympathize with those who want a bit of decoration on their covers – though I daresay our Club covers offer plenty of fun colors! The reason we don’t make reusable graphic covers is because of our licensing agreements, which are negotiated in France and geared toward the French marketplace. We can license those designs in the US, but we can’t change the basic terms of the agreement.

| More

Are you switching planner formats?

Posted December 20, 2010 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 6 comments »

I’ve used a Sapa X planner for the past few years, but this fall I decided to switch to a different pocket format: the Space 17.

On the one hand, the Sapa’s blank daily boxes fit my unpredictable and un-appointment-heavy schedule. But I’ve long lusted after a full page of notes for each week — just think how much stuff I’ll be able to keep in one place! Addresses, to dos, and all the random details I now jot down in the idea notebook I always carry with me, but that sometimes get lost in that clutter … It will take some adjustment, I’m sure, but I’m already excited to make the transition this week.

Plus, I’ve already found the perfect use for my old Sapa covers.

Are you switching planner formats? What prompted your decision?

| More

How do you use your Quo Vadis?

Posted December 2, 2010 by
in Announcements, Planning Tips, Where to Go? | 6 comments »

Today, we’re launching a very cool, if I do say, new project: a dedicated area of the blog with stories about all the ways that people use their planners.

But first, we need your help. Whether you use your Quo Vadis for birding or bible study, we want to hear about it. Tell us what you do with your planner so we can share it with our readers, and we’ll send you a planner of your own, just in time for 2011! We’re looking for actual stories, not just a sentence or two — something that explains your ideas in a way that’s understandable (and even inspiring) to other readers.

In the meantime, we’ve posted a couple of sample stories, which you can check out at the project’s homepage.

Happy planning!

| More

Paper AND digital

Posted November 15, 2010 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

Image via Dano

I’m in my early thirties, have a Blackberry, a laptop, and an iPod, and am connected to the Internet for a good portion of each workday. I also carry a paper planner with me almost everywhere I go, along with one of any number of notebooks.

Part of that’s cognitive, and part of it’s just habit. But mostly I don’t see a contradiction between using paper AND digital devices to record my appointments, store my to-do lists, and express my creativity. The digital world is awash in bold, impatient proclamations about how we’ll live when newspapers are gone, or YouTube replaces television. I’m excited about innovation, too, but I don’t see why it must, axiomatically, happen at the expense of all that’s come before. It’s a subject I’ve blogged about before, and was reminded of recently when I read this press release about the Moleskine planner collection.

Of course, we paper companies have very selfish reasons for believing that paper diaries and digital planners can coexist. Just like, as a writer, it’s in my interest to believe that people will continue to consume the written word no matter how it’s delivered, and distinguish between good content and mediocre… and still we do, and I do. And maybe we’re not wrong.

| More

The Mezzanine and the Page-A-Day

Posted November 3, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 1 comment »

I just started Nicholson Baker’s odd and excellent novel The Mezzanine, which takes place during a single trip up an escalator and conjures an amazingly detailed portrait of contemporary office life. Here’s one passage that made me smile:

When I came in early in the morning, I sometimes watched (through the glass wall of my office) Tina advance the date of the date-stamper … by a single digit, a performance that by now probably began the day for her, as her first office act—just as my turning ahead my Page-A-Day calendar, with its two hoops of metal over which you guided the holes of the postcard-sized page, to the next day (which I always did last thing the night before, because I found it deflating to confront yesterday’s appointments and “to do’s” first thing in the morning) had become the escapement on which my own life ratcheted forward.

Does anyone else turn their daily (or weekly) calendar pages forward the night before?

| More

What’s in a name?

Posted October 28, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities | Add your comment »

Image by Jeff Lowe

Our recent discussion about the ABP/1 reminded me of a couple points of trivia I figure our readers might be interested in: where do our planner names come from?

Many of them, unfortunately, are shrouded in the mists of time, but here are a few etymologies I’ve managed to track down:

• Visoplan: As you might imagine, VISO stands for “vision” and PLAN for “planning.”

• IB Traveler: This is the English “translation” of a French format called ITALB, where “ITAL” stands for “Italy” and “B” for “Benedetto” (the name of the manager of Quo Vadis Italia in the 70’s).

• ABP/1: As I mentioned in this comment, this format was named after the factory in Marseille where our plastic covers were originally manufactured. It stands for “Au Beau Plastique,” which means “The Beautiful Plastic.”

• Minister: Contrary to what English speakers might imagine, this name takes its cue from the French word for “Secretary” – i.e., Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Education, etc.

Alas, no-one seems to know where Sapa X comes from…

| More

Note the details

Posted October 18, 2010 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 2 comments »

Image via little blue hen

I keep a running to-do list on my desk at all times, in a cheapo Steno notebook that has a vertical red line down the center of each page that splits it into two columns. I use the left-hand column for work-related items, and the right-hand column for errands.

In general, my list of tasks is pretty big-picture — prepare a couple of posts for this blog, for example, or research an article I’m writing. It gives me a good overview of what I’m working on at any given moment, and helps me make a mental calculation about what I need to be doing with my workday. It also doesn’t typically look unmanageable, which is something that helps me stay both happy and productive. If my to-do lists get too long, I get anxious whenever I look at them, and lose time and emotional energy worrying whether I’ll be able to get everything done.

When I get really busy, however, I find it impossible to keep things from slipping through the cracks if I don’t get more granular: find the photograph I need to illustrate my post on the ABP/1, say, or email Mr. So-and-so to schedule an interview. Usually, at that point, I start a whole new list that’s separate from my big-picture overview, and balance that piece of paper on top of the other notebook, or fasten it with a paper clip. I still struggle with the issue of being overwhelmed, but that’s a lot better than overlooking some task because I’m too harried, and adding even more stress to my life.

How detailed are your lists?

| More
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »