How do you feel about planner notebooks with highly formatted pages? I love seeing images of how people use them, as the pages sometimes look wonderfully dense and textured with text and colors and highlighting. But when it comes to using them myself, I’m a bit reluctant. I make lots of lists on paper, but when it comes to keeping track of appointments and projects, I tend to use digital tools instead. I love to use pens on paper, but for some purposes I have to admit I don’t find it efficient. The image below with blocks of time laid out with different color highlighters is very appealing, but in my day to day life, I know I’d get frustrated by having no way to erase them when meetings were rescheduled! I do like the way these planners prompt you to slot your to-do list items into blocks of time– I think it’s a key part of being organized, as you have to allow yourself time to actually do things!
The planners below– the Spark Notebook, the Basics Notebook and the Passion Planner were featured at Cool Material along with some other ideas for notebooks to get you organized. The Spark Notebook has a pretty minimalist layout for its weekly view. The Basics Notebook adds more hourly time slots and other page layouts to prompt various kinds of planning and logging. The Passion Planner seems to be the most elaborate of all, with hourly, daily, weekly monthly and annual planning and space for you to reflect on goals, gratitude and steps for improvement.
None of these seems like quite the right fit for me… but they’ve given me ideas about what kinds of layouts I might wish for in my own planner, customized to my own life… perhaps a subject for a future post! I’d love to hear more about what planner systems readers are using– please chime in with a comment!
See more at: 7 Notebooks That Will Help You Get Organized in 2016 | Cool Material
Wow, I was just going back and forth on this and I decided to replace my simpler Shinola Runwell planner with a Passion Planner. I didnt buy it before for the same reasons you were hesitant. I didn’t want to have all these sections that didn’t fit my life. But as I was trying to wrap my head around all the goals I had and marking up my planner with it, I ended up with something really similar to the Passion Planner layout. Of course, the Passion Planner did it better. Its coming in the mail now, so I don’t know if it’ll work out, but I’m excited.
Ditto… WOW.
This was something to think about. But with my personal experience, over some 40-odd years, I’ve typically veered to the BLANK page journals and notebooks to serve as the ultimate ‘canvas’ for my creative juices (as an artist and writer), with lined journals coming in a near second (and I’m pretty picky about those, too – lines to the edges, no margins or other markings, must be French or College ruled, no excessive decorations, etc.).
Call it OCD, ‘set in my ways’, whatever, when I have picked up a planner that appealed to me (initially), I wound up just getting RESENTFUL about all those ‘dedicated’ spaces (do I HAVE to put a ‘to do’ list THERE? What if I’m not doing anything between 4am and noon, is all that going to be empty space? etc).
I will admit to trying the ‘dot grid’ format, and LOVE IT… most of my notebooks now are in that simply because they allow me to use the notebook anyway I want: journal or sketchbook OR PLANNER….
However, it was nice seeing some change-ups happening in the planner, exemplified by those you’ve shared with us here. It may be time to try a planner again… ;-)
Hi! I wanted to invite you to our planner themed link up: The Planner Experience where we share…the links to planner posts we have written! :)
http://www.plannerfun.com/2016/02/the-planner-experience-link-up-party-004.html
Becky, Your INSERTS (available for download from your blog) ARE FANTASTIC – I couldbe convinced to try the planner thing again, after all, just based on seeing the myriad of unique and custom inserts that can be had! Freedom for (from?) the ‘traditional’ planner! ;-)
A planner is a tool. And really, it is nothing more than that. If you aren’t going to ‘plan’ with it, why not just use a notebook? I use a Franklin planner and have done so for years. It works for me. But there are times when you just need a notebook instead of a planner. That is where my pocket notebook comes in. I even have the notebook prepped and fashioned in a way so that I can take pages from the notebook and put them into then planner for posterity. My poor daughter is going to have to go through all of my planners at my passing, just to keep from being embarrassed. (insert maniacal laugh here. :) )
I use a Hobonichi Techo for my planner, and I think it is The One. :) A major reason for that is because it is basically everything I’ve always looked for in a planner, but with better paper that I love. I basically only have two requirements: I need a monthly spread and then separate daily spreads (I don’t like planners that cram every day of the week into one page via thin rows or columns). I use the monthly spread to write down appointments (in pencil if I think they may change) and the daily pages for to-do lists.
I have been a completely DIY planner for a few years. With the exception of last year, my planners have been built in XL moleskine cahiers. I make a layout each week. Usually I am thinking about what is in store for that week and then I draw what will fit. Sometimes I make something just because I think it will be aesthetically pleasing. I also have some specific sections that are included and I have fine tuned. Like a list page for movies, gift buying for others, big ideas of places of I want to go or see. It turns into a book that isn’t just about forward planning but a record of what I have done, what I will do, and what I want to do. You can see my blog for pictures…it is outdated. But I have pages on tumblr and instagram that are more current photos.