Do you Uncalendar?

Product image copyright Uncalendar www.uncalendar.com

Uncalendar is a brand that doesn't get nearly enough attention, in my humble opinion. I stumbled across these awesome planners several years ago when I caught sight of a co-worker's open Uncalendar. I didn't know this person very well, and certainly not well enough to ask to see the inside of her planner. But I HAD to know what it was and how it worked so I shamelessly interrogated her a little bit. Uncalendars have this effect on people.

The most basic premise of the Uncalendar is that it's undated (get it?) so you can start any time. But the Uncalendar system goes waaaaaaay beyond just not having numbers pre-printed on the days. Uncalendar is an entire life-management system. Seriously. And yet, you have fun doing it.

There's more. Throughout the book are tips, guidelines, motivational techniques and other methods that can be used with any planner but work especially well with an Uncalendar. These range from basic to advanced, and are helpful to anyone who needs time management or motivational advice. The tone is very friendly and helpful. Do you have a goal? Uncalendar will help you reach it! Do you want to make some positive changes in your life? Uncalendar will help you do it! Just reading the pages of tips makes you feel like whatever you want to do with your life, Uncalendar will help you every step of the way.

A couple of years ago Uncalendar upgraded itself to Uncalendar Lifestyle by adding lists of things to remember about Diet & Exercise, Family & Friends, and Career & Work. For example, the first three reminders for Family & Friends and Career & Work are the same: Say something positive! Go easy on the negatives. Catch someone doing something good. The book has loads of these reminders to help guide you into making positive changes in your lifestyle (get it?) to get where you want to go.

Getting where you want to go is the name of the game with Uncalendar. There is a Goals section that is structured in a way that gets you to write down a big, overall lifestyle goal (top left page). Then below that you can break it down into sub-goals. Then you can further break these down into do-able tasks. There's even a page to help you break your annual plan down into monthly goals, which you then transfer to your weekly pages. It's one thing to have goals. It's a whole other thing to transform them into a workable plan.

I haven't even gotten to the weekly planner section yet! It's a week view on one page, with the opposite page full of list boxes. The weekdays are columns and the weekend days are open blocks. The daily columns are not timed, but have shaded boxes that delineate the column into sections. You can write times into the lines, or not. It's a very flexible system. (Click on photos to enlarge.)This two-page spread with notes boxes on the left and schedule on the right is incredibly flexible for infinite uses. There's space for those daily reminders to help motivate you. You can note that week's goals. You can write your shopping list. Students can note assignments, teachers can plan lessons, business people can keep track of multiple projects at once, parents can keep track of their progeny and their own busy schedules. It's an incredibly powerful planner. Below I have written in various ways to use the daily spaces:

There is also a month view section (also undated so you can start anytime) with huge daily boxes, and an empty box at the beginning of each week that is good to note goals, financial information, keeping track of whatever, planning, etc. There are also Notes pages



and Data pages with graphs for tracking progress, charts for logging info, places to write frequently used phone numbers.

As if the book itself weren't motivational enough, the Uncalendar website has The Training Room, which is completely free and has lots of good advice for goal setting, time management, people management, money management, life management. There are tips for how to best use your planner (which really can be used with any planner system) and general advice. I like to browse through it every now and then for inspiration.

And as if all of that weren't cool enough, the company is a small family-owned business out of Arizona. Their customer service is very personal and excellent. And they ship anywhere in the world!

Uncalendars come in Full Size (8 1/2 x 11 inches) or Half Size (which has a different weekly format that works better on the smaller page). Each size comes in spiral bound or 3 ring binders (which is called Lifestyle Pro). The Full Size in the ring binder can take standard American size 3 hole punched paper, so you can add your own full size pages.

Sooooo... your New Year's resolutions this year are the same as they were last year, huh? Hmm. Well, maybe it's time to get a system that will help you actually achieve your goals instead of just thinking about them.

I'll tell you this much: if you have goals and you are ready to work to reach them, then the Uncalendar would definitely get you there!