Planning decision for 2014

My previous post is kind of an introduction to this one so if you didn’t read it this post may make more sense if you do. You can find the post which lists my criteria here.

I considered the following options:

•         Notebook
•          Bound planner
•          Bound Planner and notebook combination
•          Homemade planner
•          Filofax compact
•          Filofax A5

This was how I started:

System	Pros	Cons	Notes
Notebook	Large page size Lightweight and compact All in one place- unless need 2 Can create own monthly layout Can create own weekly layout (and change if I want to) Squared paper Plenty of room for notes Easy to archive	Time needed to set up monthly pages Time spent on weekly pages- can’t enter information in advance Likely to need more than one notebook per year	Can have exactly the layout I want but requires time investment. Needing more than one will cause a problem – maybe 1 every 6 months so only need to draw out 6 monthly spreads to begin with
Bound Planner	Large page size Lightweight and compact All in one place Monthly and weekly pages Forward planning is easy Perhaps some room for notes Easy to archive	Set monthly and weekly layouts Unlikely to have squared paper Limited if any room for notes	Soooo many planners around but very few with monthly AND weekly layouts (if they have monthly layouts tend to have very limited space
Planner & notebook	Large page size Monthly and weekly pages Forward planning is easy Plenty of room for notes on squared paper Quite easy to archive	Extra weight Not all in one place	Again have to find the right planner to go alongside the notebook
Homemade planner	Tailored page size Tailored monthly and weekly pages As light as I can make it –no extra unused information Squared paper As much notepaper as I want	Time investment Will need to be spiral bound so maybe not as robust	Sounds good but don’t think I have the time to do this in time for 2014. Could use notebook until it was completed but idea of having a partly used notebook and planner not starting at the beginning of the year makes me feel a bit funny (not the good funny…) possibility for 2015 though
Filofax -compact	Tailored monthly and weekly pages As light as I can make it –no extra unused information Squared paper As much notepaper as I want (ring size permitting but can remove and replace throughout the year) Can add in extra pages if needed throughout the year and put them where I want	Small page size Pages sometimes get lost Get obsessed with dividers and moving things around More difficult to archive	As much as I love the Filofax system I spend too much time faffing. If I really settled into a system and felt confident that I would stick to it and not faff and could deal with the page size I would definitely consider this for 2015
Filofax – A5	Large page size All in one place Tailored monthly and weekly pages Squared paper As much notepaper as I want Can add in extra pages if needed throughout the year and put them where I want	Large and heavy Pages sometimes get lost Get obsessed with dividers and moving things around More difficult to archive	As much as I love the Filofax system I spend too much time faffing. If I really settled into a system and felt confident that I would stick to it and not faff and could deal with the weight I would definitely consider this for 2015

All the systems had a number of pros and cons so I had to decide which cons were deal breakers and which pros were essential.

I decided that small page size, heavy weight and time investment were the deal breakers this year.

This left me with the bound planner and maybe the planner and notebook combination.

This meant I had to find a planner which sounds fun and straightforward. WRONG! To begin with it was fun wasting time looking at every planner in TK Maxx, WHSmith, Paperchase, John Lewis, Staples etc.. but when I still couldn't find what I had pictured in my head I started to feel frustrated. I wanted a monthly layout that had enough room to actually write in as well as weekly pages which had room for extra notes. The closest I found was this one in Paperchase. I was about to order it when I thought about Laurie’s Plannerisms planner.

After having a look at the layout I wasn't sure if the weekly layout allowed enough room to write each day as the columns are quite narrow. So, as I am currently using a notebook which allows me to change layouts on a whim I drew out an approximation and used it for a week. It wasn't what I had originally pictured in my mind but it seems to work and having watched the video and seen that it was a similar size to the large Moleskine (which have the perfect proportions for me) and I could in fact fit a cahier in the back pocket (somewhat addressing the 'all in one place' issue) I was sold.

I ordered one on the Collins website and am at this moment waiting for it to arrive (hopefully today or tomorrow).

I will let you know in the New Year if all my research hours have been worthwhile.

Preparing for 2014

There have been no posts for a while as my screen time has been taken up with a project I am working on. It is taking me longer than I thought but when it is completed all will be revealed here. As this is a time sensitive post I am interrupting my ‘other uses for a filofax’ posts to go over my plans for 2014.

Now if you have seen my previous posts you will know that since September I have been using a notebook as my planner. It was developed from the bullet journal idea although, as I don’t believe the bullet journal was meant to encompass forward planning, it hardly resembles the original.

I had originally intended to carry this on for 2014. However, I need some form of forward planning. For 2013 I had drawn out monthly spreads for September to December for my appointments which took up 2 pages per month.

In addition to this I had recently felt the need for weekly spaces. I ended up using a page to roughly plan my week when I was doing my weekly review every Sunday.

If I did this for 2014 I would use 76 pages of my notebook just for the monthly and weekly pages. Apart from the time I would have to invest (madness!), it would take up so many pages of my notebook that I would need more than one for the year. I would then end up either drawing out monthly /weekly pages again or carrying 2 notebooks.

Not going to happen.

Therefore I reviewed my system and worked out why I have loved using it so much.

What the notebook method taught me was that the following works best for me:

•         Large page size
•          Lightweight and compact
•          All in one place
•          Monthly pages with space for to dos
•          Weekly pages with space for to dos, notes and meals
•          Squared paper
•          Notebook for daily planning, idea capture, lists and general scribbling

I like that the notebook means that I don’t have to think about sections and I can use as much or as little space as I want per day so there is no wasted space.

Next I had to work out how I could retain as much of this as possible whilst still being practical.

The options on the table were: carry on using a notebook, find a bound planner, make my own planner or use a filofax. My next post will explain how I made my decision.