There comes a time in all of our lives when nothing seems to make sense and at the same time... somehow it still does.
Do allow me to elaborate.
While the aesthetics of Traveler´s Notebook do tickle my visual senses, the very narrowness makes me feel subconsciously limited. There always is the option to tilt the notebook to its side and enjoy the width of a4, while taking positives from the very portability of a regular size notebook (11 cm´s). But that just feels... wrong. Or is it just not being accustomed? Food for thought, right there.
Another narrowness lurks upon the paper of personal sized planners. They are only 9,5 cm´s wide. There are those who write comfortably to personal sized paper and given the right tip or nib, suitably dry enough of an ink etc... so can I but it is not enjoyable. I now journal and take notes also on a4 size and see how big thoughts just flow to a bigger paper. Preferably with at least medium nib and wetter inks. I love the feeling of pen flying atop a paper freely, spewing out ideas and answers from your subconscious mind.Why would anybody volunteer to smaller ideas?
Yet the physical aspects of this life come into account as well. When one needs to carry many,many many kinds of different information with oneself, I have found that the ringed option still becomes more of a practical solution. There is the option to remove used pages off and load only so much that you absolutely need to the rings.
While I do have and adore a Franklin Covey Classic binder, as well as a Filofax a5 Balmoral, the issue of weight paired with genetically useless joints come into play. A planner to me is something that holds my Life. Not an easy nor a light task to take upon, I reckon. There needs to be space to monthly, weekly, daily planning, to lists, projects, slots for different people that need be taken into account etc. A pocket size would be ideal in terms of carrying but entirely impossible in terms of paper size. A personal? The narrowness of the paper drives me mental!
So what is a gal to do? Well, I´ll tell you what is a gal to do. Wider papers to a personal size. 2 cm´s wider, to be exact. And it works.
I used rings from a personal binder (a general sumthnsumthn brand from a grocery store. Even that cheap plastic binder had better rings than the rings that my Malden from Filofax had... Those were useless and needed to be binned.) to the task and an old suede jacket. Actually the binder was made eons ago already, to a writing project but when life got so much more hectic, I needed to let the writing project be for a while and so the soft suede binder with its 11,5 cm´s papers were forgotten...for awhile. Only to be realized once more as it ascended from the shelves like a bold, immortal phoenix, laughing at the face of personal paper and its limited petty little nature.
And this is how it became my everyday planner. Because I no longer can function nor think without Chronodexes, I naturally needed to print a week on two pages worth of chronodexes and see if it works. It all comes down to these circles of sanity to me. If chronodexes won´t work with a system- we can´t talk. Bye. If they will, everything is possible! This now is third week in a row and I can say that this works. This indeed works! What I have is Mo-Wed on the other page and Thu-Sun on the other. To the in-between I put an original personal sized paper. In this it actually is quite useful because it won´t "block" completely to other side of the week.
I had to be a bit of a bore and slap generously post-its to the pages, I did smudge some words but I didn´t want to risk some crafty geek digging out people´s names and their contact information so I spread the joy of stationary about. I could have printed out a random week and I could have filled a "pretense layout" but who has time or patience for that!
As you see, I took these pictures early this morning so only the Monday is entirely filled, despite the fact that the whole week is already planned in terms of appointments.
I use colour coding. I think visually. Colour coding allows me to take a glance of a week or a day and immediatelyI know what is about to take place.What we have here in our Staples is a collection of Mark-It dots. They don´t always get used evenly. Shuuuuuure, I could order on line but I also could do so many other things. I also have these nifty coloured pens that, when wiggled about, make these uncanny dots. So see if I care. BUT this morning it hit me! No, not caring- don´t be silly. But this idea that what if.... What if I coloured the Mark-Its with Sharpies to create the needed coloured dots. Radical, I know but oh well, stranger things have taken place in this world than people colouring sticky little pieces of paper.
Isn´t it incredible how terrifyingly crafty ideas one comes up with when procrastinating paperwork...
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| I know there is angels in the sticky tape on the picture above. I found it last Holiday season and it is so strong that no force known to human kind can rip that thing off once it is laid down. So when ever there needs to be a pocket in any papery thing- it is doomed to have a jolly group of angels keeping it put. I could have covered this with a more respectable washi but this too falls under the category of "see if I care". |
So I then tried the white dots with pink sharpie. Perfection. Our cats now have dots dedicated only to themselves.
I also tried black atop of red dots. Turns out that the strongest black tint was found in felt-tipped calligraphy marker. Great! Paperwork now has dots mirroring the colour of my cheery soul.
And thus, a package of Mark-It dots morphed into a much more versatile version if itself.
I also tried pink atop of yellow dots. Nope. This resembled too much of the brownish sienna dots already existing. Besides, yellow dots actually are one of the most used ones. But it was fun to try.
I have received a few messages asking how I track on monthly basis and I still am writing about it this month, as promised. But right now there is somewhat more acute situations in our home-front so I shall have to tackle those hurdles first.
My very best to all!
