Midori style notebooks

The other leather came yesterday and today I made the notebook cover for the 9cm x 14cm notebooks (Field Notes; Clairefontaine).
Here they are together (new one at the top; A6 at the bottom):

And here they are open:

And with the other notebook showing (each has one lined and one squared book inside; the A6 notebooks are the ones from Papelote, bought at The Journal Shop):

Aren't they lovely?? I'm really pleased with them!

Making my Midori-style cover

Well, the leather came, the mini-punch came and the elastic came! So on Thursday, I made myself a Midori-style notebook cover.

I wasn’t feeling confident enough to cut a larger piece of leather to size, so I bought some pieces from eBay that were already the correct size for what I wanted. I didn’t want a notebook cover the size/dimensions of the real Midori, but one for A6, so I bought some leather that was 25cm x 15cm. Folded in half around A6 notebooks this would be about the right size (A6 being 10.5cm x 14.8cm; the 25cm would cover the width of the notebooks plus their thicknesses). The leather I bought was 1.8mm thick (the Midori notebooks are 2mm thick leather apparently) and is burgundy, with suede on the inside (it’s gorgeous!).

Let me walk you through making it.

Tools needed:
Leather
Punch
Elastic
Scissors
Small hammer
Board
Needle and thread

The way this style of notebook cover works is to have elastic thread in the middle of the leather cover into which the notebooks are slotted. I wanted to have two notebooks in the cover so I made two small holes (using the punch) at the top and the bottom of the ‘spine’ of the cover, a centimetre apart and 6mm from the edge. I also punched a single hole in the dead centre of the leather:

I then put a single thread of elastic through the holes at the top and bottom so that on the inside it looks like this:

...and on the outside looks like this:

The hole in the very middle is for the elastic band to hold the booklet closed. I knotted a piece of elastic at the right length then looped a small piece of cotton thread through the elastic loop, threaded the cotton onto a needle and used the cotton thread to pull the elastic through the central hole.

I was amazed at how easy all of this was (and have to thank Ray Blake for the inspiration! See his post here. In fact, read all of his blog because he’s great!).

So this is what it (sort of) looks like:

Open, with Clairefontaine A6 notebook showing

Open: Clairefontaine on L, Field Notes on R

Why ‘sort of’?

Well, because the notebooks I have put into it are the wrong size for the size of cover! I bought a couple of Clairefontaine “A6” notebooks from Bureau Direct (which aren’t A6, but are the exact same size as Field Notes books (9cm x 14cm). Both of them are shown in the cover. I have also bought (from The Journal Shop) some Papelote mini notebooks. I’m going to make another (smaller) leather cover for the Clairefontaine and Field Notes books and when the Papelote books come from The Journal Shop, I will put them in this cover.

The notebooks will be used as a general ‘clearing my mind’ notebooks – you know… where you have a zillion things running around your head and you need to just get them out before you can make sense of them and focus. Once they are out, I can sort them into proper to-do lists and so on, without having cluttered up my Mulberry. [Actually, I am having a little bit of a wobble with the Mulberry, but that’s for another time!]

What do people think?

eBay sources I used:
Leather came from: Leather4Craft
Mini punch came from: Silvercoasts
1mm elastic cord came from: k2-accessories

Catching the Midori bug

Do I need another notebook?
Um. No.
Do I have umpteen unused notebooks in a drawer of my desk?
Um. Yes.
Have I been hankering after a Midori for ages and ages?
Um. No.

So why have I just ordered a piece of leather and some elastic cord, to make my own Midori-style notebook?

I blame Ray Blake. I do. It’s all his fault. What, with his easy to make inserts. And then an easy to make Midori-style notebook. He just shouldn’t be so talented! Or have such a brilliant blog! (Go check it out once you’ve read this!)

Anyway, I am not making a full-size Midori notebook (the aspect ratio doesn’t appeal and anyway, I wanted something small). I am going to try and make something closer to the passport size one (suitable for taking both passport-size Midori inserts and also Field Notes) – about 10-12cm x 15cm (about 4.5” x 6”).

Keep you posted.

To Plan or Not to Plan

To plan, or not to plan: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?

[with apologies to Shakespeare!]

For the first time in a long while, I didn’t plan this week. I normally sit down at the weekend and plan the week ahead, and also sit down each morning and confirm my day. This week I did neither. It wasn’t a conscious decision not to, I just didn’t do it. And did I suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as a consequence?

Er.

Yes.

I know there are two camps: one camp says to plan things or you’ll drift aimlessly and get sod-all done; the other camp says don’t plan, be free and enjoy yourself. To be honest, I find getting the right balance between those positions really difficult. Sometimes I plan myself almost to death and stop enjoying life as it feels it’s just a series of tick-boxes to get through, at which point I stop planning and end up doing sod-all. Or doing stuff that’s not important. Then I get annoyed that I’ve done sod-all and plan things to death again!

So how did this (unplanned) week pan out?

On my DPP pages, I have boxes to remind me to do yoga each day and to clear the ‘hot-spots’ of clutter. I also have check-boxes for fruit and vegetables, and water Intake.
In my weekly to-do list I had these items:

• Blog post for Chimwemwe
• Philofaxy article
• Edit February Focus
• Write next 2 scenes of book #4
• 3 runs
• Read a book
• 2 blog posts on PPI
• Read the screenplay books
• Birthday (x)
• Birthday (y)

This week:

• I have done no yoga
• the house looks like bombs have gone off in several places
• I didn’t edit the February Focus newsletter (though mostly because I hadn’t been sent it!)
• I haven’t been running
• I haven’t read any books never mind a fiction and two screenplay books
• I did no blog-posts for Paper, Pens and Ink
• I missed two people’s birthdays
• I have no idea if I’ve hit my fruit, vegetable and fluid intake targets.

I did manage to:

• do a couple of quick blog posts for Chimwemwe
• do the article for Philofaxy (which you can read here)
• write the next four scenes of my novel

But, I knew I had to do all those other things – they were already on my weekly list after all – so what happened?

I had a busy Sunday last week and never managed to get around to planning the week ahead (where I normally allocate things from my weekly list to the daily sheets).
On Monday and Tuesday, I went down the rabbit-hole, writing, and didn’t even emerge for a run! And those of you who know me, know that that’s a serious down-the-rabbit-hole moment! It was bright and sunny all week and PERFECT running weather!
Wednesday to Friday I was back at work and ended up working late each day, then the evenings seemed to fill up with things that had appeared since I drew up the weekly list and which were much more important to do.

At the moment, I feel annoyed with myself that I didn’t do most of the things I was supposed to be doing, but I also know I can’t quite blame it on the fact I didn’t plan, as even if I had transferred the weekly list onto the days, I would still have had to do all the ‘extra’ things that popped up in the week.

I think I need to split my task-list into ‘must do’ and ‘want to do’ so that I don’t feel bad if the ‘want to do’ list has unticked things at the end of the week.

How do others deal with tasks that pop up out of nowhere? What do you do to keep your week on track? How do you
‘take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?’?

Indie and I are back!

Hello everyone! Muli bwanji?*
Indie and I are back! We got back to Scotland at lunchtime yesterday after a bit of a punishing 30 hour journey. It’s nice to be home though Heathrow appears to be staffed by horrible, rude, inept, jobsworth staff. I was ashamed to be British when I arrived, Heathrow was so awful.

Anyway, how did Indie get on? Well I’m sad to say there are no pictures of him out and about with me because it’s the rainy season in Malawi at the moment and BOY it was rainy! Far too rainy to have him out in it while I faffed about taking pictures of him. But apart from that, he worked pretty well. In the end, I didn’t use him much for note-taking as we were using the Whitelines Link paper (more on that in another post) to take meeting notes, but I did jot things down in him and I did use the diary pages. He was also superb for holding money and cards and for my cheat-sheets for Chichewa. I had given him a bit of leather-treatment before we went and I’m glad I did as otherwise he would have suffered a bit in the climate, which was very humid, warm and rainy.

He’ll certainly be with me on my next trip out there and since that will be after all the rains, I will try and take pictures.

*this means: How are you? in Chichewa. The response (assuming you are well!) is Ndili bwino, kaya inu? (which means: I am and well, and you?) or Ndili bwino, zikomo (which means: I am well, thank you).

Indie and I are off to Malawi!

Heavens, it’s rolled around quickly, but I am off to Malawi again. [And I have a head torch. And it flashes. Yes! – tell me in the comments if you know where that’s from!]

Anyway, away I will be and Indie is coming with me! He’s now almost all set up for the travels to act as my wallet and my organiser. I will be putting the few cards I take with me in the card slots, but otherwise, he’s all set.

Indie - my beloved Mulberry agenda

First up: my basic Chichewa phrase sheets. I am SO bad at Chichewa (though at least I try! None of my colleagues have ever bothered in the four years we’ve been going out to Malawi). I can manage muli bwanji and on a good day, trot out ndili bwino, kaya inu? in response. On a really good day, I can even manage mwaswera bwanji (late afternoon) or ndaswera bwino, kaya inu? in response. Maybe I’ll manage to learn a bit more this time…?

Then I have my flight itinerary (folded and punched, with the edge trimmed slightly to fit – another joy of the binder being A6!). This is followed by a series of packing sheets (printed on index cards, cut in half – the card is sturdier than paper).

Reverse of my flight itinerary (can't show you the front!) and one of the packing lists

Then I have a diary for the time I’m away – appointments on one side (from the A4 two pages per day file from Philofaxy) and notepaper for the other side. Again, the delight of A6 is I can just print four to a page, slice and punch. Perfect.

2DPP from Philofaxy (just the date part) plus notepaper

After that, some straight notepaper, printed on Clairefontaine cream paper, for extra notes during the trip.

At the back (though they will get moved to the front to make writing on the paper easier…) are two plastic document wallets (A6), punched to hang on the rings. One of them has Malawian kwacha in it (don’t be fooled by the 500 or 1000 into thinking that there is loads of money there – there are 600 kwacha to the pound!); the other has Bank of England notes, ready to swap at the bureau de change.

In the zipped pocket at the back I’ll pop a data stick or two and any other cards I need.

So, that’s him all set to go. I think his rugged Indiana Jones’ notebook look will work well in Malawi! What do people think?

As I will be away from Friday, tionana! I’ll be back blogging after the 18^th.

Stickers have arrived!

[Warning: picture heavy!]

Well, my diary is now looking MUCH more decorated, thanks to the arrival of a heap of stickers from Etsy (shop = rikyandnina).

Lovely parcel, wrapped with the Union Jack flag bag:

 

This is what my diary looks like now…

As well as adding stickers (at the end of the day…) I have also been adding a couple of cartoons or drawings (nothing fancy… I am a scientist, remember!).

The stickers I ordered were some cartoon rabbits (because they made me laugh), some pandas and cats (because they made me laugh), some colourful ones (because they had diary tabs) and some washi tape that looks like stamps (because it looks like stamps).

Picture time!

The rabbits:

The pandas:

The cats:

The colourful ones:

The washi stamps:

[Apologies for all the crooked/poor quality pictures!!]

I’m fairly pleased with it all. There are more than enough stickers to be able to choose one that sums the day up and I may even keep my diary at the end of the year (I normally toss them as they are usually dull and only have planning in them).

Time-boxing

I always have to have a daily diary which has time slots because I tend to use time-boxing for my to-do. Apart from the day that I ricked my back and couldn’t do anything at all for more than five minutes, I usually do a task to completion then tick it off my to-do list. [See here for a nice article on time-boxing]

At the start of the day, I look at my to-do list and then allocate when I am going to do it. Sometimes it’s as loosely allocated as ‘morning’, ‘afternoon’, ‘evening’, but more often it has a specific time blocked out for the task.

Now I know that there are conflicting schools of thought on this – some think you should time-box and some think it’s the worst thing in the world. I think it depends on how your brain works and that there probably isn’t a one-size fits all in any realm of life, never mind time-management. If it works for you, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t.

And to be honest, although I normally time-box it doesn’t always work for me! Here’s some of the reasons why it does; and why it doesn’t.

Why time-boxing does work for me:

1. It holds me to a timetable and I get things done

I can be prone to procrastinating and getting distracted by almost anything, depending on the day and on my mood. I have a 30 minute sand-timer and when I really, really need to get on with something and can feel the twitchiness in me start up, I time-box something into every half-hour (including breaks) and use my sand-timer. Works (almost) every time.

2. It reminds me how many hours there are in a day

When introducing something new (for example, I’ve been trying to incorporate yoga and some strength training etc. into my daily schedule) it makes me more aware that, since all of my time was allocated to something before I introduced the new thing, some of that something has to go – whether that’s watching TV, reading blogs, whatever. It reminds me that there are only 24 hours in a day, however much there is on my list to do and that unless I decide what I’m not doing, I won’t be able to fit in the things I have decided I am doing.

3. It makes me work out where my day has gone

Some weeks I wonder what on earth I have done and then I can look back through my time-boxed, ticked lists and think, “Oh. That’s what I did.”

4. It stops me from over-loading my day

There are times when I see a blank, unboxed day and I think I am Wonderwoman and write a massive to-do list. Unless I time-box it, there is every possibility that my optimism will hugely outweigh my ability and the laws of physics. Time-boxing makes me actually think how long it will actually take to re-paint the house and that half an hour quite probably isn’t enough!

Why time-boxing doesn’t work for me:

1. I can feel too restricted...

…and then I rebel and go ‘sod it all’ and do nothing. Sad but true! If I feel too much like I’m working to a timetable, all the time, it makes me mutiny.

2. Unless I time-box all day it can all go a bit wrong

This can be a major issue for me as I often only time-box the ‘working’ day (whether this is actually at paid work or my writing days) but then assume I will shoe-horn loads of things into the evening. If I don’t time-box the evening, then I forget that in order to do the ‘extra’ I have to remove something else. I should really have the whole day planned out, including the evening, but if I do that, then I end up rebelling (see no. 1 above!).

3. It can be inflexible

If I’ve time-boxed the whole day and then something pops up unexpectedly, then there isn’t enough fluidity in the system to cope. That’s partly why I only schedule my day on the actual day, so that if that day has already gone awry, I can adapt and if the day before went other than planned, I can incorporate that into the new day.

4. My estimates for how long everything takes can be wrong

For example, I always think it will take me half an hour to stretch and shower after a run. It never does. It always takes nearer to 45 minutes (despite the fact I know this, I’m not very good at remembering it when I’m planning the day!). In the same vein, I can expand a task to fill the time I allocated it. Or feel frustrated when the time I allocated has come and gone and I am nowhere near finishing it. Getting the ‘guesstimate’ right comes with practice though (and is helped by noting how long things actually took).

Overall, I work better with time-boxing than not. What do others do?