What planner for 2013?

I love organisers and planners and usually switch several times a year. Sometimes through boredom, sometimes because something lovely comes along and I want to use it, but mostly it is because my planner does not cope with my ever-changing demanding schedule. I work in a high-stress environment and I literally don’t know what I am doing from hour to hour unless I look in my organiser.

For a post on what I do and how I use my Filofax click here

So, today I cleared out all my old inserts and planners. Do I archive or keep them? Not really. Attendance registers are sent with invoices, bookings are kept on an electronic system so any queries are cleared up at month-end. Notes are often confidential and need to be shredded. All that moves from one planner to another at year end are keycodes, urls and alarm codes which I keep tucked away in a secret place.

I have three choices for next year:

Grey A5 Malden

Pros: can fit everything I need in one place. I don’t have to remember anything. A4’s can be folded or cut in half, articles go in plastic folders, business cards go in a card sleeve, pens, post-its and extras can go in inside zippered pocket. Can print nice free inserts from Philofaxy

Cons: big and heavy, big and heavy, big and heavy. This is almost a dealbreaker for me. I don’t work at a desk so I have to carry it everywhere. Also, I tend to overstuff. Not a good selection of inserts for the time management bit but the Swedish teachers filofax has brilliant inserts from a teaching perspective.

Mulberry Agenda Organiser

Pros: Small but not too small, beautiful quality, looks more beautiful the more I use it and the rings are just indestructible. Mulberry Darwin leather is heavy but because of this smaller size you don’t feel it. The paper was lovely – gorgeous thick and creamy with brown text.

Cons:

can’t take A4 pages unless I fold them and slip them inside the front cover in 4 as in the pic below so all it is good for is my calendar and notes. 

Paper has been changed from cream with brown text to white with grey text. Inserts were very basic and this year they have reduced their selection even further. I like week on two pages vertical layout with time slots but this year they just have horizontal with no time slots. Though this year the paper has lovely watermarks on it.

 

 Plannerisms Planner

 

 

The picture above is from here, where you can buy these lovely planners. Great service and very quick delivery.  Created by Laurie from Plannerisms, these are wonderful planners which have goal setting pages, weekly and monthly sections and are flexible and customizable. I am not sure they will work for my job planner but I will be using one for my personal planner. I don’t usually have one.

Pros: nice cover, nice colours, gorgeous paper and soothing blue text, two ribbon markers, customizable, good price. I am going to use mine for my personal goals this year (more me-time, create good habits like remembering to take my vitamins and floss my teeth, planned treats, planned holidays, writing down birthdays). It is also nice and light and looks like it will take a beating. Also has an elastic strap so it will not get all bent and creased in my bag.

Cons: bound. I tend to have many changes in my schedule and need to swap things around so I always have two sets of inserts and once a week I sit down and write a clean copy of the week ahead – ring binders are almost essential for me. Columns a bit narrow for my hurried scribbles, no time slots. I try to spend as little time customising my work organizer as possible because things change so quickly that it is just a waste of time.