As we all know, I love finding new planners and I get very excited about them! Even if it's a format that wouldn't actually work for me, I get excited about new ideas in planners, layouts, artwork, quotes, spectacular paper, on and on.
Are there any particular planners you find exciting, even if it wouldn't actually work for you?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything planner-related!
I just bought a vintage pocket size filofax and find that it actually fits into my pocket: suddenly intrigued by the idea of having a small format planner, but I don't think I could make it work. What is the smallest format practical? I've never gone smaller than a personal size filofax. My father uses a tiny bound at-a-glance but only for appointments.
ReplyDeleteUm, pretty much ever planner I've ever seen? It took me a long time to figure out that "looks so interesting" is not at all related to "will work for me." That said, a pocket Filofax is the one I most wish would actually work. There is something very attractive about the size and I own a couple of awesome ones I would love to use. But the rings totally get in the way and I do better with a bound planner because it keeps me from messing with my system all the time.
ReplyDeleteI go all drooly over the DayTimer catalog; I love their spiral bound planners with the leather covers. Especially the small ones. Almost bought one for work. And of course the Plannerisms Planner has tempted me all year but I resist when it comes to bound planners. I feel like if a planner is not working perfectly and is looseleaf I can add or remove pages to make it work. With bound I can't do that and I really don't want to resort to sticky notes. Stuff just gets lost underneath them. Lately I've been tempted by large planners too; I love the idea of having a week to view with enough space to actually capture everything I write every day. But that would be insanity.
ReplyDeleteWrote the following to a couple of email planner buddies of mine a few days ago:
"after much thought and consideration I think I've landed on a concept for managing my planner needs to balance perspective with space for daily details within the confines of a regular personal size filofax. I kept looking back into my Winchester (which still contains the Wo2P diary with task page interleaved which was used for everything until July 1 and for personal needs for the month of July) and using my fat FranklinCovey binder. I really feel comfortable on the 2PPD, especially for work days when I REQUIRE the space, I've really been using these pages to their full advantage lately and see that in the weekly diary I was constantly cramming things into barely adequate space and was not writing things which I should have been due to lack of space, so I want to maintain that capability. That said, daily pages are extremely inconvenient for future scheduling (you need to turn so many pages to see your schedule, as you both know). So I need the pages for the current day and a few days out, but not for months at a time.
As you may gather, my synthesis of this situation is to run the weekly diary as my primary scheduling and tickler without month views for 9-12 months at a time. And then, during the weekly review (which I'm becoming far more disciplined about doing each week) insert a week's worth of 2ppd, probably between the weekly diary and the reference info parts of my planner. Plot out the week's schedule and start to flesh out the tasks and use the daily pages to get me through the week. I believe that once I'm in the week I can just use the daily pages for all additional scheduling which comes up. At the end of the week I will archive the prior week's pages in my storage binder and insert the coming week.
The major weakness of this system is that I will not have prior week's daily pages with me; On occasion (but not terribly frequently) I refer back to these to see what days I completed which tasks, or what days various stuff happened. I'm thinking that during the weekly review I can move some of this information onto the corresponding weekly pages so I can overcome this problem.
At any rate, this design solves the problem of how-to-manage-in-relatively-small-rings, how to balance the perspective of weekly planning and views with the need for lots of space per day, and will force ongoing disciplined weekly reviews and forward planning. I am a strong believer in forcing myself to adopt habits; for about one year I put my wallet contents in my filofax and stopped carrying a wallet to train myself to carry my filofax with me everywhere. Once I had the habit down I went back to a wallet for convenience. I now can choose to take the planner with me, but about 90% of circumstances it is with me."
I've just been so busy I've not had time to get this set up; I love planner setups as a procrastination strategy but I really don't have time to procrastinate right now and my existing setup is working fine from a strictly functional perspective. I think the above described system should help me gain better control and fit back into a more reasonable size binder; I really miss my Winchester!
Josh, I used Daytimer one page per day pocket size (spiral) for ten years or so and they worked really well until my life changed completely. The covers didn't wear very well, but I never bought the really expensive ones either.
ReplyDeleteAnd Plannerisms planners Monday!! There weren't blue ones last year, were there? Cause I think I would have bought that color.
The blue is a new color this year. :)
DeleteBlue? Yay! I LOVE blue!
DeleteI use my Filofax/Gillio for all my planning - apart from rough planning (spiral bound standard notepad) as I cannot bring myself to just write totally messily in my planner (yes, I am a freak). But, every time I see your posts for the various bound planners I want to try them, which could possibly be a good thing for me, but I'm not brave enough. But the one that I adore, and am pretty sure really wouldn't work for me, is the Erin Condren planner. I could watch the videos all day I love it so much (and the music is fab), it is colourful, it has tabs, you can choose your cover, it just makes my heart sing... but... I really don't think it would ever work for me :-(
ReplyDeleteGutted - it looks like the Erin Condren website has changed and as well as there no longer being the pretty tinkly sounds as you move your mouse, the video showing the planner is no longer there and I am now unable to find the layout pictures etc... this however is probably a good thing as I's probably just try to convince myself that it could work for me :o)
DeleteI use a Planner Pad, but I have been looking at the Action Day Planner, because it has plenty of room for goals and tasks, like the Planner Pad, but also a place for delegation, which I have to do more.
ReplyDeleteI also like the Uncalendar but I don't like the colors.I wish they would make an Uncalendar in grey tones. Still, I feel the Planner Pad is the best system for me, so I have ordered it again for 2014.
And although these are all weekly planners and I need the weekly format, I keep on dreaming that, one day, I will have a day-on-two-pages again. One day, when my business is really successful and I have a PA to carry it into my private jet :-)
The question I would like to ask is: Does anyone else have planner delusion, when you think your next planner will solve all your time management issues and make you super efficient, just by having it, or is it just me?
Yes yes yes!!! Wow, Planner Delusion is the perfect word for it. I think that happens a lot with Filofax users too, where we think a new Filofax will solve ALL of our problems. I know I've definitely fallen into Planner Delusion many many times over the years.
DeleteOh, yeah! Planner delusion is real!!!
DeleteMy very first planner was the smallest size spiral Daytimer. I have 2 leather covers only one of them shows some wear. about 16 years ago it became to small for my needs. My current system is: I use the planner pad to house all needed info for the year, I keep this one. I use my Plannerisms as my work-horse, I love the layout. And a separate planner/journal for my blog I've started. Until the notice yesterday, I kept checking back about 3 times a day to see if I could order the Plannerism yet.
ReplyDeleteoops, I forgot to add that I have the uncalendar also, but I have a major mind block with how to use it (yep, I've opened up everything in the training room). So I would like to see more reviews on ways people use it. I have to say, I really like the bright colors, that is why I bought it. I buy something, then use it to see if it will work. Like everyone else I have had a lot of failures.
ReplyDeleteCarol, I've been using my Uncalendar for a few months now and am quite happy with the listing and tracking functions but am reaching a crisis point with the lack of weekend planning space. For a long time I just planned those days in my notebook but that's not working as well anymore, mainly because I work on Saturdays and that's one of the busiest days of the week - and I need a record of what happens on Saturday in my primary calendar. If your weekends are quiet, and you like to track exercise, water, and whatever else, and have lots of things to list, the Uncalendar is just fabulous. For myself, I've fallen back into the Plannerpad as next best option until end of year, and it's not nearly as good for tracking. I miss my Un but the lack of Saturday space is a deal breaker for me now.
DeleteThat was fast. I am back in the Un again just dealing with the tiny weekends.
DeleteI am really drawn to bound systems, especially the Uncalendar, but then I'm completely saddened by the thought of leaving my Malden. I guess that's what happens when an overly sentimental child grows up...
ReplyDeleteSo, unless I somehow receive a green Gillio with gold rings, I think it'll still be the Malden for me. Though I will be trying new inserts for 2014!
Thanks for starting your FFAF. This is great for us planner aficionados.
ReplyDeleteAgreed :)
DeleteYes, I've tried to many to count. *sigh* but I still love trying each and everyone!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the moleskine that can be used regularly or sideways. It would never work for me, but I think it looks so fun to use. I am also interested in trying out a Filofax, but I have trouble breaking away from my DIY planner.
ReplyDelete