My day to day diary for 2019

In my last post, I said how I was staying in my Field Notes sized TN from Meadowgate Leather as my everyday carry. I only need a month to view calendar while out and about, but I need a larger diary to plan my days, so am finishing up using my standard sized TN diary (that I've used all year) until the end of December.

For 2019, I'm staying in the Field Notes sized TN and using the A5 Everyday Diary from Box Clever Press.

I can spend a ridiculous amount of time choosing a diary (often time I can't really spare, but hey ho). To work well for me, I need a diary that:

• is about A5 size
• has a week to a view with the days in vertical columns (so I can time-box)
• has equal sized columns for Saturday and Sunday (my life isn't less busy, just because it's a weekend!)
• has the week starting on a Monday (who in their right minds splits the weekend so that it bookends the week? It's a weekend)
• has space to list tasks for the week
• preferably also has space to list Most Important Tasks for each day
• would help me with planning my week/month/year
• preferably is pretty/attractive because I have neither the time nor talent to do it myself but like the look of them
• will lie flat on the desk
• preferably has 2 ribbon markers, but at least one

Not much to ask for, is it?? You can see why I can end up trawling shops and the internet for yonks, trying to find this mythical beast.

Well, this year I have struck gold!! I've got the 2019 A5 Everyday Diary from Box Clever Press.

It's a planning diary and has some great features. At the start, there's space to write down plans and dreams for the year, and break these down into monthly chunks.

2019 calendar on the left; plans and goals on the right

space for monthly notes

There are also pages to help break down big projects into achievable chunks.

For those of you who like them there are month to view pages. I'll probably record my running and my word counts on these pages, because I don't really use monthly pages for much. These come after the previous month's weekly pages.

After the monthly spread, there is a space for monthly goals and a page to record monthly expenditure. I probably won't use the expenditure page as it's intended. I'm more likely to list the 'to do' for the month and use the 'Paid' column to check off when the task has been done.

But... the meat and drink of the diary is this... the week to view. This feels about as perfect as it can be, for me.

Vertical layout? Check.
Equal billing for Saturday and Sunday? Check.
Monday start to the week? Check.
Space for the week's to do? Check.
Space for noting progress on goals and plans? Check.
Pretty/attractive? Check.
Two ribbon markers? Check.
Space to note the day's Most Important Tasks? Check.

The day column is split into three boxes, but otherwise is unstructured. I'll probably list my three MITs in the top box and use the middle box to time-box my morning and the bottom box to time-box my afternoon. I don't really ever plan evenings, but if I am doing anything that I want to note, I could use some of the bottom box. But you could also use it to note what three different people are doing, or notes for three different projects etc.

And the price point is very competitive... £10.99 including P+P. They do a range of diaries, so why not check them out?

Are there any negatives? Well, it currently doesn't lie spectacularly flat, but it will. 😃

Anyone else found their perfect diary?