New work diary for 2014 (designed by me!)

[First of all, apologies for no posts for such a long time! Life got busy here and then my DH was involved in an accident (stupid driver on the wrong side of the road...) which demanded my attention more than my blog did (I'm sure you all understand!). He's okay; just very battered and bruised!]

Anyway, I've always struggled to find a diary format for my work diary that really works completely for me. I like an A5 vertical week to view format; as it is a work diary I'm not all that fussed about weekend and evening stuff (just a note to remind me they are there!); and I like a space for weekly notes/to-do. Some of the Quo Vadis range come close but aren't quite right. Oh, and I'm not bothered by the mini calendars you get at the top of a page in a week to view – they just take up valuable real estate!

Last year I designed my own version which worked very well and this year I have just made a couple of minor modifications. I used Word, the source files for the dates from Philofaxy, and the mail-merge function in Word, then I booklet-printed it. I'm just holding off punching the holes in it as I am considering whether to stay in the A5 Mulberry at work or move to an A5 Filofax (and the hole-spacing is different).

So this is it! (click to enlarge)

Homemade work diary

The dates for the week are across the top of the weeks, there's no little monthly calendar, there is a space for “This week” (generally used to note which week of semester it is), then the days run vertically, with a space underneath the day/date for noting things like birthdays. Since it is a work diary, the times just run from 9.00am to 6.00pm with a small space for the evening (to note anything coming up, but not needed for planning). The weekend days are combined into one column and are used just for noting events and on the right-hand-side there is a space for notes/to-do. It's also just printed on standard printer-paper but it's fairly fountain-pen friendly - another bonus!

I realise this isn't a format that will work for everyone. It possibly only works for me, but it does absolutely everything I need it to do and nothing more. I'm really pleased with it!

What do others think?