Where have I been?
Publishing another book for a start... "Lies That Poison" came out in September and I was super-busy getting that ready... then The Wrong Kind of Clouds got re-published as "The Call" this week and I was super-busy with that too!
But, back to stationery... I've just about got sorted with what I'm using next year! This post will be about what I'm using as my planner in 2018.
Planner
I have been in my Meadowgate Leather Traveller's Notebook ALL YEAR this year. After all the chopping and changing I used to do when I was in a Filofax, it would appear that I have actually reached Planer Peace! Unsurprisingly, I'm going to be using my TN again next year (if it ain't broke, don't fix it...), but there are a couple of tweaks... (because one aspect wasn't working brilliantly for me).
You may recall that this year, I used a home-made week + notes, which had 8 boxes for the days of the week on the left (the eighth one used for decoration or nothing, most weeks). The right-hand page was used for to-do and notes. This worked just fine for the start of the year when I had lots to do and not many time-specific events in a week, but I wasn't able to time-box the way I need to when things get busy. But that was okay, as I was generally just chunking my way through a list of stuff.
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| Current diary format |
In the second half of the year, life got really busy with time-specific events. I've been doing a LOT of author events across Scotland, plus needed to keep up with some Rotary stuff and of course, things for my parents. The day-box wasn't working so well for me. In fact, I even shifted briefly to a month of vertical week on 2 pages in order to time-box stuff.
Consequently, next year I will be using the Midori undated week on two pages, vertical diaries. One of them covers just over 6 months, so I have two to cover the whole year. This should also lighten the TN a bit as I had the whole year in one booklet this year. As we head towards December, carrying around January to November is a bit of a drag!
I went for the undated version as I preferred the layout, which is 8 columns for the week - seven for the days, plus one that could be used for week-specific notes. There is also space at the bottom for more notes as needed, or decoration (should I feel the desire!). There is enough space at the head of the column to note things like birthdays/ special events etc. The day has timed slots running from 7.30am to 11pm. It would be hard to divide them more finely than 30 minute slots, but for my purposes, that's okay.
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| Next year's diary - Midori undated vertical week |
At the start of the booklet are 4 pages (two double-pages) of the months. I've used a highlighter pen to shade in the weekend days and washi at the foot of a column to block off unused slots (e.g. the 31st when the month only has 30 days). In the first booklet for 2018, I have all the months of 2018. In the second booklet, I have from July 2018 to June 2019 so I can use it for forward planning.
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| Month pages at the start |
The other things in the TN will be cards in the card slots, front and back (as they are now) plus the money insert (as it is now) and a notebook in the back (just used out and about). I'm still working my way through a pack of hateful Moleskine cahiers (never buying them again - I hate them even for notes on the go!).
On my desk, I'm still using an A5 notebook as a scratch-pad. Not really for bullet-journalling, but along those lines - a list of stuff to do and a place to scribble things down. At the end of each week, I review what's in the notebook and throw away spent pages. Since these are not notes for keeping in any way, I'm working my way through some rubbish notebooks I've acquired over the years - mostly spiral bound cheap things.
What's coming up in part 2? What I'll be using as my diary/journal (and it isn't a Ciak this time!).
Oh, and in case you'd like to read my books... here are the links:
Lies That Poison (a psychological thriller)
The Call (police investigation into a missing person)
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