Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Planner Dependence

I guess I'm just old fashioned, but I just can't find a virtual replacement for my Moleskine. A quick Google search will reveal that I'm not the only one who can't seem to make the switch to digital. I've been working on my planner for 2013 and thought I'd share since I like getting peeks into OPP.  That's "Other People's Planners".

Old Planners 
I've been keeping some form of diary/journal/planner for years. I dug out the old ones that I could find this morning to see what kinds of things I used to record. Not much has changed about the things I record in my planner, but I did figure out why I'm so tired all the time. I was working 70 hour work weeks in 1997!

Planners
I did realize that most the years I kept a planner, I didn't keep a personal journal/diary. That stack of Moleskines contains years of daily journals. Some years, like in 2007, I wrote almost a full page every day of the year. Other years, like 2010, I hardly wrote anything in the entire journal. (Maybe it's because I bought a red Moleskine in 2010; I think I need to stick to classic black.)

August 2012
In the past couple of years, I've been having more fun with my planners. I figure if I'm going to be looking at something multiple times a day, it should be fun to look at. This year, I used a Moleskine XL Monthly Planner with a soft cover and I'm in love!

Pages
Not only does it contain my calendar, but I've used it to journal, take notes, record ideas, sketch, make lists (gift lists, shopping lists, to-do lists, books I want to read lists, wish lists, etc.), copy scriptures and quotes, remember passwords, write down recipes, and log my freelance work hours to name a few. 

journal doodles
It's also a good place to doodle.

planner supplies
For 2013, I'm going with a completely blank XL Moleskine with a soft cover. With the blank pages, I can customize it to be exactly what I want. I spent some time yesterday thinking about how I wanted to organize it and drawing in the monthly calendars. I've never used a system (like GTD or the Action method), but I made myself some "action stickers" and printed out a GTD work-flow to see if I like using them. I love that paper/washi tapes are getting so easy to find, because it's a fun way to add some color and pattern to your planner. I also bought some really neat paper tapes at Daiso in San Francisco like Post-It notes on a tape roll. (I wish I'd bought more!) My favorite pens for my Moleskines are Pigma Microns. 

I've got an iPhone and an iPad, but I still can't give up my paper planner, I've tried. I've got organization/productivity apps like Evernote, Notability, OneNote, Toodledo, UPad, Time Optimizer, the Moleskine app, Errands, and Mindjet in addition to the calendar and reminders on the iPad, and I don't like any of them.

So far, the only things I can't get my paper planner to do is make a noise to remind me to do something and back itself up. Other than that, the battery never dies, it boots up instantly, and requires no wi-fi connection. I think I remember things better when I've gone through the act of physically writing them down. 

So, who else can't seem to break their paper habit?