Announcement: I'm the fill-in blogger for Quo Vadis Blog!!

Anyone who has been reading my blog a long time knows how much I love Quo Vadis planners. I've used and reviewed a lot of them here on Plannerisms. In fact my sister's Quo Vadis Textagenda planner started a whole new planner obsession for me that continues to this day.

I've been an avid reader of the Quo Vadis blog for years, and have said many times it's my gold standard of what a planner brand's blog should be. I've been honored to be a guest poster there several times. So when Karen (THE Karen of Exaclair USA) asked me if I would be interested in filling in for QV blogger Leah while she is on maternity leave, I was very flattered and absolutely thrilled!

Leah does a fantastic job on QV blog so I have big shoes to fill while she is away! My first day on Quo Vadis blog will be October 1, so look for me there! (And I'll continue to post here on Plannerisms too. :)  )

Moleskine Hobbit 2014 Limited Edition boxed notebook

I've been waiting for this notebook to come out for weeks! It's the new Limited Edition Moleskine Hobbit notebook, this time in a cool-looking box:

The notebook itself is cloth-bound, which is new and different for Moleskine. I like it.

Unlike previous incarnations of the Moleskine Hobbit notebooks, this one does not come in other sizes or permutations. It is the large size (5 by 8 1/4 inches), lined only.

I won't show you all the surprises inside the box and notebook, but here are some glimpses.

There are custom endpapers inside the front and back of the notebook. Here is the In Case Of Loss first page:

Inside there are 15 pages with illustrations and quotes from The Hobbit. I won't show them all, here is just one:

Inside the back pocket is Thror's map, which you can hold up to the light to see the Moon Runes.

This notebook has 321 lined pages, plus the 15 pages of illustrations and quotes resulting in a total of 336 pages. This makes it slightly thicker than the usual Moleskine notebook with 240 pages (shown in yellow below for comparison). The higher page count is good for those of us who go through notebooks fairly quickly.

The other usual Moleskine features are here: acid-free paper, elastic closure, placemarker (a nice red ribbon in this notebook).

This notebook is sure to please any Tolkien fan.

At the time when I ordered this notebook it wasn't yet available on the Moleskine website so I ordered it from Amazon UK. I have no affiliation with Moleskine or Amazon, I'm just excited about this notebook!

Color-coding: Planned vs Done

Recently I started using specific colors of ink for planning ahead vs recording what I actually did. I write all my plans ahead of time in black pen. Then on the day, the only pen I have in my hand is blue. I check off what I accomplished, and write in emergent tasks (items that weren't planned but come up during the day). It's very interesting at the end of the day to see what I originally intended to do that day (black) and what I ended up actually doing (blue).

Have you done a similar experiment? If you're having trouble getting certain tasks done and aren't sure what you spent your day doing, this is a very valuable exercise. It creates an easy visual of intentions vs actions.

My ongoing debate: day per page diary or notebook/ Bullet Journal?

I know, I know. Why does this bug me so much?

Backstory for those who haven't been following the saga:

For years I struggled to journal. Finally in 2013 I had great success with a dated day per page diary. The dated page prompted me to write SOMETHING every day, or else the page would be wasted. So I got in the habit of capturing details every day. It was grand.

But I struggled a bit with the book. It was heavy in my bag, and sometimes a page per day felt limiting.

About this time last year I busted into a notebook/ Bullet Journal instead, and enjoyed the freedom. But for some reason day per page diaries have a charm that pulls me back. I just like them.

Now that I've been using a notebook/ Bullet Journal for almost a year, I can evaluate the pros and cons of each system. Get ready for some serious geekdom:

Dated Day Per Page Book: 

Pros: 

• I love the aesthetics of the chunky book. 
• Superior archiving and easier to find things in one book all year. 
• Captures a snapshot of my day. Easier to flip through and see one page/ day at a time. 
• Easier to see trends over the entire year like when flowers bloomed, leaves turned etc. 
• Edited to add: I like the progression through the book as the progression of the year.
• I like the content of DPP diaries (maps, conversions, etc). 
• Having a dated page per day makes me fill in as much as I can about the day, which sometimes causes me to write MORE. I don’t like empty spaces. 
• Can fill in things on days ahead of time, like what to bring along to places. 
• Kids can draw pictures and borders on upcoming days for a nice surprise when I arrive at that date.
• Timed lines help me map out my day better… 

Cons: 

• …but I tend to become a slave to it, looking at it all day to see what I should be doing at any giving moment. 
• Content tends to be more businesslike, simple log book with less depth. 
• Limited to one page per day. Have to make choices about what is worthy of being written on each day’s page. 
• Heavier book. 
• No space for lists and non day specific items. 

Plain Notebook/ Bullet Journal: 

Pros: 

• Can be whatever I need it to be at that moment, even different day to day. 
• Kids do drawings on the pages without restrictions.
• More FUN/ in-depth content. 
• Lighter book. 
• I get to use several books per year, a new book every 3-4 months which helps satisfy my urge to use new books. 
• More space to stick things in, although I hardly ever do. 

Cons: 

• Doesn’t have the content of dated DPP diaries. 
• Several books each year means relevant lists must be copied over or lost. 
• Have to dig out old books to look up past information.
• Harder to find things in pages. 
• Despite having unlimited space, sometimes I actually write LESS because I don’t feel the pressure to fill the page. 

I like both, for opposite reasons. The structure and content of day per page diaries vs. the freedom of undated notebooks.

So what I'm trying out now is pre-dating two weeks of day-on-two-pages in my notebook/ Bullet Journal. That way I have a good compromise: I can fill things in ahead of time, and having two pages already designated for each day encourages me to write more.

Which do you like better? Dated daily pages (like Hobonichi etc.), or a notebook/ Bullet Journal? Why?

Links Updated

I updated my Links list (see above next to Home). I went through each and every one of the Blogs I Like and was sad to see that many of the blogs I've been following for years are no more. Some were entirely gone, and some hadn't posted in a year or more so I deleted them. There were a few that haven't posted in a long time that I kept because I just couldn't let go of them yet.

What are your favorite stationery blogs?