Planning 2016

2016 is going to be a busy year for me! My first book, The Wrong Kind of Clouds is due out in spring and there will be a lot of things needing to be done relating to that (you can see all my posts about that here). Then I have at least two books to edit and get ready for publishing, and somewhere in all that, I have to write the book that is threatening to eat my brains if I don't get it out of my head and on to paper! Oh, and it seems life doesn't stop, just because you're busy, so there's also all the general 'stuff' that needs doing, in order to live.

Thankfully, I've always been a pretty good planner. Even more usefully, I have a cupboard full of notebooks and paper, because I am an unrepentant stationery buyer and hoarder. My only problem is that I can find it quite hard to start a notebook!

However, one of the delights of this time of the year, is to get out a selection of notebooks from the stash and choose one to use for planning. When I say 'selection' I do of course mean the equivalent of a small stationery store.

So, I merrily pulled out a collection of notebooks and wondered which, if any, would be right for planning such a busy and momentous year.

And that's where the problems started...

In the past, I've tended to use a Filofax for general planning, mostly because of being able to move pages around within the binder. With a Filofax, I can have different sections for different projects and add/remove pages as and when needed. But, I fancied a change. I wanted to have my notes bound together rather than loose-leaf, because this year isn't just any old year getting planned. This is the year I actually get to call myself a published writer!

Most of my notebook stash are bound books and I initially thought that these would be excellent to plan and record 2016. Excellent! A bound summary of the year, tying together the planning and the results.

Two minutes' thought later...

How was I going to do this? Did I put all my goals at the start and then just fill the pages as I went along? Aagh!! I don't have the right character for that! All the notes on a single project, scattered through a book? No. My brain started turning into grey goo at the mere concept.

Could I leave gaps between the different projects so they each had 20 pages or something? Oh, but what if I needed to write more on something and then ran out of pages? Then I'd be back to notes being all over the place.

Then it occurred to me that I could have the flexibility of a binder but keep all my notes for a project bound together, by using a Traveller's Notebook. Then I could have a separate booklet for each project, which would give me the flexibility for adding new notebooks if needed (or abandoning them) but still let me have all my project notes in one place.

Hurrah!!

Except the one I have, is currently used for my wallet and day-to-day diary combined.

Quelle dommage... I would need to buy another...

So, that's what I've done!! More on it once it arrives!