This is the second year in a row I've used a pocket size daily planner to carry around in my pocket and jot down those little things that pop into my head that otherwise would be lost. The dated daily format makes it easier for me to find those things again later. Last year I used an Exacompta Daily Pocket for this role, but this year I went with the Mole for the hard cover and especially the elastic strap. For 2011 there will be a showdown between these two planners since the Exacompta Daily Pocket will come with a Smooth cover that has an elastic closure.
But I digress. I wanted to show you my monthly tab hack. First let me show you what I was trying to do. I love having monthly tabs (really just colored areas on the side of the page indicating the month) like the Journal 21:
And the Plan-It planners:
Especially on a day-per-page book, it really helps to have the months indicated to easily find the day I'm looking for. This works great for planning ahead and also for past reference.
So first I went through each page and gathered up each month's worth of day pages. I used a black Sharpie to color the edges of the month's pages in the designated area. I did that for each month, going down the side of the page. That looked really good. I should have taken a picture of it. But I didn't. Instead I blazed forward with Phase 2.
I decided the tabs were very useful, but it would be so much more functional to have the months indicated too. So I wrote the months with their corresponding tabs. The result doesn't look so great. But, this is so useful to me that I don't care that it looks like a kindergartener did it.
I also wrote the year on the spine in silver Sharpie, just because I like to:
I love my ugly monthly tabs. They really do make it a snap to find the month, and subsequently the day, I'm looking for.
Have you done any hacks on your planner? How have they helped you?
Great idea - love the fact that you felt you had to mention that it looked like a child had done it - that bit made me giggle :D
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it though?? I guess I felt compelled to mention it because so many artistic people use Moleskines and do beautiful things with them. I just don't have any artistic ability whatsoever. I really put the "hack" in "planner hack!"
ReplyDeleteThank you to JJ who posted this in the comments of my March 1 Philofaxy post!
ReplyDeleteGetting Sh-t Done:
http://www.utilware.com/gsd3.html
I think a day per page planner would be perfect for this! Might try it with my little Mole.
It's important to make things work for us, sometimes regardless of how they look, which by the way, is endearing that it looks like a child made it, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteI myself put post its on the mini MO2P and WO2P labeled with 1-12, just so I can find the days within the months easily.