A decade of Plannerisms!!!

I started Plannerisms ten years ago today! Wow!!! A lot has happened in ten years, for myself personally and in the planner world.

First of all, I want to say a massive Thank You to my planner friends who have been with me on this wild planner ride! Planners brought us together, and I've stayed in touch with you through all the crazy ups and downs we've all had in the past ten years via the online planner communities. I really feel like we are part of each others' lives and have supported each other through thick and thin. I am enormously grateful to my planner friends for your emotional and moral support over the years!

In my first post on Plannerisms I said:

Hi everybody! I have finally decided to give in and indulge my planner obsession by starting my very own blog about it. If you too are obsessed with planners, then you're in the right place.

In this blog I will be talking about my own planners, other people's planners, and websites that feature planners. I will talk about what planners I have and what ones I want. I'll do reviews, praise, complain, change my mind and otherwise go on about planners. If that sounds good to you, then subscribe so you don't miss a word!

And that is exactly what I did! From there, Plannerisms went on quite a journey.

In the ten years since, I went through a few more international moves before happily settling where I currently am several years ago. My kids, who were small at the time, are big now.

Professionally, I have been writing Quo Vadis blog, the official brand blog for Quo Vadis planners, since October 2014. Quo Vadis has always been one of my very favorite planner brands, so getting to write about how much I love their planners has been my dream job! I've written a lot about Quo Vadis planners here on Plannerisms over the years.

And I've had my Plannerisms planners, which I designed with spaces for annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals, published for several years in a row now! You can see more information about the Plannerisms planners here. 

At the time when I started Plannerisms, I had recently been asked to become a contributor on Philofaxy, where I still contribute regularly and where many of my long-time planner friends still hang out! Big shout-out to Steve, who has been running Philofaxy for many years now; Nan, who kept Philofaxy alive after the original Philofaxer was no longer able to continue the blog; and Anita who is also a long-time contributor on Philofaxy!

Ten years ago, the planner world was very different than it is now. Planners were mainly for planning. The decorative planner trend hadn't hit yet. For awhile it seemed that paper planners were on the decline, as I wrote in this post.

I've been very glad to see the revival of paper planners, although I admit I'm not a fan of the decoration aspect. If you do a search about planners you are more likely to come up with information about decorating with stickers and washi than actually planning. I'm glad people enjoy it as a hobby, but it's not for me.

My planner is, and always has been, a tool for planning my days and keeping me on track with my tasks and goals.

When I first started Plannerisms, I was trying to find "my perfect planner." I have to admit, I'm still on that journey! Life changes all the time and so do my planner needs. I have learned a lot about myself and what I need and want from my planner in that time. And even though I have been through many planner brands and blogs (see them listed in the sidebar), there are several that I still enjoy to this day.

In those early years, I really enjoyed reading Productive Flourishing by Charlie Gilkey, and I still do. I find his blog to be a great source of motivation and inspiration. I discovered his website via his printable planners. He also now has a bound version of his planners. (You can see the Momentum Planners here, they are excellent.) I even got to communicate directly with Charlie, who is such a positive and uplifting guy. He has recently published a book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea To Done, which I recently bought and I am really looking forward to reading. Congratulations Charlie!

Another early planner inspiration for me was Uncalendar, which I had used several years before. I'm not currenly using an Uncalendar, but I still love the positive messages, flexibility of use, and goal-setting inspiration in these planners.

The planner that started my whole planner obsession was a vinyl Cambridge ring binder, which I used for several years before buying my first real Filofax, a personal size Buckingham, in 2001. You can read more about my Filofax journey here.  I still use Filofaxes, sometimes as my day to day planner. But these days I use a bound weekly planner as my main day to day planner, and my Filofax stays home on my desk with my monthly pages, far-future planning pages, work planning pages, and reference information.

I've written a lot about Moleskine here on Plannerisms. Although I never have been able to find a Moleskine planner that works well for me, I have to admit I love their notebooks and I'm a sucker for the limited edition Harry Potter and Star Wars covers.

A planner brand I discovered not long after I started Plannerisms is WeekDate, which I have reviewed often here. I love the Only Write It Once concept, and that the company is small, female-owned, and the planners are made in the USA.

And of course I still love Quo Vadis planners. My first serious time-management planner was a Quo Vadis, and ever since I've been hooked on their organization, high quality, and amazing paper.

Other planner brands I love: Boxclever Press (I've been using their Family Life Book Diary in the kitchen for the whole family to use for 7 (!!) years in a row now!), Philofaxy's free printables, Mum's Office, The Success Choice, Letts, Personal-Planner, Agendio, Gallery Leather, Mixed Role Productions, Polestar Planners, Planner Pads, Franklin Planner, and so many others.

Social media has changed a lot in the past decade. Back when I started Plannerisms, blogging was in its heyday. There were so many blogs that I loved to read, most of which have shut down now. There are several people in my Planners Inner Circle (you know who you are!) who have all managed to stick together through the transitions from blogs to Facebook and now to Instagram. I miss the days of blogs with good content, and the conversations that were generated there. Instagram is a nice and quick way to stay in contact a little and often, but it's shallow and I don't feel the same kind of connection as I did with blogs.

I admit this blog is very quiet these days, because my planner mojo mostly goes to my day job writing the Quo Vadis blog. I am on Facebook @plannerisms and on Instagram @plannerisms. I don't post very often, but I am around.

I am very curious to see what the next ten years will bring for planners, and planner users.

Thank you again to everyone in the planner community!

WeekDate planners in a new format!

I am VERY happy to report that WeekDate planners are back, with a great new format!

The famous and unique Only Write It Once format is the same, don't worry! You still have space to write recurring monthly and weekly events, and see everything all at once.

What's different is now the WeekDate planner fits into a Voyager notebook! (It also fits in a standard size Midori Traveler's Notebook too!) Shown below is the Pink cover but they are also available in Black, Light Blue, Nutmeg Brown, Midnight Blue, and Burgundy. Click here to see all the covers!

The Voyager Notebook comes with notes inserts and storage pockets. You can also buy refills for the notes booklets with graph, lined, dotted, or kraft paper. Note that the WeekDate planners are sold separately from the Voyager Notebook, so you choose your cover color, get your WeekDate insert, and pop it right in for maximum portability and note-taking convenience!



Here's the WeekDate planner folded out, in the Voyager Notebook:

Also new, the WeekDate planners are in 6-month booklets, so you can start with the academic year or the calendar year, whichever fits your needs. Then you can swap booklets in and out as they get filled, add the next 6 month's planner, and completely customize your book however you need!

For those of you who are not already familiar with WeekDate planners, here is how they work: At the top there is a fold-out place in the cover to write your recurring monthly events. This is color coded so you can write, for example, a meeting that's always on the first Monday of the month, the farmer's market that's on the second Saturday of each month, cleaning schedules, or anything else. (If you don't have any recurring monthly events, it's easy to cut off this section if you don't want it there.)

The weekly pages are color coded to go along with the monthly section. So for example in the photo above, you can see by the color coding that they are the fourth Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the month, and the fifth Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the month. Sunday Sept 1st is blue to show it's the first Sunday in the month.

The layout allows you to see two weeks at once.

Below the weeks is my favorite part of the WeekDate planner: a fold-out space to write your recurring weekly events. This is where you put your class schedule, your kids' after-school activities, trash/ recycling pickup, carpool schedules, etc. Anything that happens every week goes here, and that's how you Only Write It Once! For things that happen every other week, you can make a note next to it "Even weeks" or "Odd weeks." For example if trash is picked up Wednesdays on even weeks and recycling is picked up Wednesday of odd weeks. If something is only on until a certain date, you can note that too (for example "volleyball Thurs 4-6 pm until end of Nov.")

Then to see what's going on each day, you look up and down the column. Monthly recurring events at the top, weekly recurring events at the bottom, day specific events written in the days.

This means everything is visible all the time, so nothing slips through the cracks. And no more double-booking, yay! 

There are other goodies in the WeekDate planner too: Month overviews and goals/ to-dos:

Tracking and info, and space to write your goals/ must-do tasks/ notes for that six months:

I won't show everything, but there's also a Time Tracker page to track your progress through the year, a year overview page, a place to write your monthly set days (for example Rent Due 1st each month, credit card payment due 15th each month, etc.), monthly review pages, important dates in the next six months, and how-to-use tips. US holidays are printed on the days so you don't have to worry about writing those in. Never miss another date again!

You can either use the WeekDate booklet on its own, which is very slim and light, or you can tuck it into a Voyager's Notebook to keep it with your notes booklets. The Voyager Notebook holds three booklets, so you can either have a full year of WeekDate planners (two six-month booklets) plus a notes booklet, or you can have one six-month WeekDate planner and two notes booklets, whichever suits your needs!

The booklets are the perfect place to keep your never-ending to-do lists, make notes, do journaling or sketching, or keep anything else you need with your planner. So handy!

WeekDate planners are only available at WeekDate.com! July-December 2019 planners are still available, so you can get started with this easy system right away. And January-June 2020 planners are now shipping so you can start planning ahead into next year!

Quo Vadis Dr Paper notebook and Note 21 weekly planner/ diary

These are the new Dr Paper notebook and Note 21 weekly planner/ diary from Quo Vadis UK! The Dr Paper covers have city themes: Amsterdam and Barcelona (shown) and Paris (not shown).

The covers are made from coated card, so they are thin and flexible yet very sturdy. These planners/ diaires and notebooks are very streamlined and lightweight, so they are easy to carry with you everywhere. The paper in them is the classic Clairefontaine paper: 90 gsm, smooth and bright white, perfect for fountain pens.

First up, the Dr Paper notebook. It's A6 (pocket size), very nice and compact. The thin flexible cover lets the book fit easily in your pocket and the elastic closure keeps it securely shut. It's the perfect go-everywhere notebook, and would make an excellent travel journal.

Now, the Note 21 weekly planner/ diary. This is a 16 month diary, which allows you to plan the school year and all the way through the end of the next year in one book. The weekly pages are formatted to keep you organised with each day's Priority, a lined page each week for notes, and a designated space for your task list with boxes to check off.

Tear-off corners mark your current week so you can find your page quickly and easily.

At the beginning of each month there is a two-page monthly calendar! What a fantastic feature! Before each week there is a space to write events happening that week, notes and reminders.

There are loads of other great features too. Time Schedule pages let you write your recurring weekly schedule for easy reference when planning.

Anno-planning pages for the current year (in the front of the book) give you an overview of your entire year in one view. There is also an anno-planner at the back of the book for the following year, where you can write future events and appointments.

Other features include a holiday budget tracker and world time zones map, perfect for traveling!

There are also collections in the back including wish lists and lists of birthdays and holidays for the whole year.

There are also extra pages for notes, and contacts pages.

This book is crammed with useful pages and features, yet is slim and very portable with its compact size and thin flexible (yet very sturdy) cover. The elastic closure keeps it securely closed. This diary is perfect to take with you everywhere you go so you never miss a thing.

The Dr Paper notebook and Note 21 planner/ diary are available (with worldwide shipping) at QuoVadis-Diaries.co.uk.

Many thanks to QuoVadis-Diaries.co.uk for sending me these excellent products as samples to review!

Quo Vadis Everest weekly planners

Here are some brand-new planners from Quo Vadis UK: The Everest diaries!

These 16 month (Sept-Dec) weekly planners/ diaries have a textured cover and contrasting elastic closure. Shown are the A5 size Planning 21 SD and the pocket (A6) size Business SD.

The flexible covers come in a selection of colors: Caribbean Green, Denim Blue, or Orange. My camera didn't capture the colors very well, but the cover on the left is Caribbean Green and on the right is Denim Blue.

These diaries have a special binding that not only lies open flat but can be folded back on itself. The pages have perforated corners to mark your spot, and a pocket inside the back cover to hold papers, tickets, and cards.

Inside the front cover there is a gorgeous image of Everest. If you look to the right of the photo you can see prayer flags hanging on the hillside. It's a beautiful and inspiring image to have in your planner.

The weekly layout is so functional and easy to use. The two-color print looks crisp and clean. The day spaced are timed 8 am to 9 pm with a space at the top of each day for that day's priority, and a space at the bottom of each day for notes or lists.

To the right of the right page is the weekly dashboard for your categorized lists. This allows you to see what you need to do, alongside your schedule so you can see when you'll have time to do it.

The languages are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Holidays for these countries are indicated on the day spaces.

These planners are packed with features. There is an anno-planner for the current year so you can see the big picture of your year, and for the future year so you can plan ahead.

There are reference calendars, and conversion tables.

And lots of full-color maps! There are maps of France, Germany/ Switzerland/ Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal, the UK and Ireland, Belgium, Poland/ Czech Republic/ Hungary, and continent maps of Europe, Africa, North and Central America, South America, Asia, Oceana, and a world time zones map.

There are also international telephone access codes, and some pages for notes.

The pocket size Business SD has all the same features. This format works well on the small pages.

Despite being packed with features, these diaries are still very slim and portable.

I have shown the A5 Planning 21 SD and the pocket (A6) size Business SD. This planner is also available in the larger President SD. You can see the entire range of 16-month Everest planners here.

QuoVadis-Diaries.co.uk ships internationally! You can contact them for shipping estimates to your location.

Many thanks to QuoVadis-Diaries.co.uk for sending me these product samples to review.