Huh. Who'd have guessed?
This bolt of enlightenment has come about as a result of doing my monthly review and Q1 review, where I am steadily noting all the things I haven't managed to do from my list of 'next actions' for March and/or Jan-Mar. Partly, this is because I have decided to change the priority of some goals (um, because I wanted to do them more than the other things... like writing book 6 instead of editing book 5; doing anything other than housework). Mostly it is because I have been singularly inept at remembering that I can only spend a minute once.
I hate not being able to tick off things I have achieved, so I am going to try two things for April: allocating time to projects (rather than allocating 'next actions') and returning to time-boxing.
Most of my projects have 'next actions' that are in themselves pretty concrete ("Finish editing book 5") but which can take elastic amounts of time depending on whether my head is in editing mode or not. Some days I can clear the scheduled pages easily; other days it is a real slog. Also, book 6 is bubbling away too vividly to ignore, and if I spend an hour making notes on that, there is an hour less to spend on editing. Likewise, "Tidying the garden" has technically got a concrete end-point (the garden is tidy) but we all know that that scenario is unreachable!
What would be much easier to monitor (and hence feel like I have achieved something) is to allocate time to these projects. Instead of "edit book 5 up to page 300" I will "spend X hours on editing". Similarly, instead of "tidying the border by the lawn" I will "spend Y hours tidying the garden".
The added bonus for this is that it will make me look at how much free time there is in my schedule and be sensible about what I can achieve in it. If there are no free days in a week, it would be impossible to have edited 40 pages of book 5, weeded a large border, planted lots of seeds, finished my report for Rotary, done the housework, read at least one book and written to four friends by the end of it, yet sometimes my weekly 'to do' lists look like that!
Time-boxing has worked well for me (see here) but often ends up failing because I've allocated tasks to the time rather than just allocated the time to a project area. Since I'm ludicrously poor at estimating 'time to completion' on tasks, things have crept into other time-slots and I've ended up feeling over-scheduled, at which point I abandon everything and end up doing nothing.
So, for April, I counted up how many free days I have and converted that into free hours. Then I looked at all my project areas and allocated time to them, rather than tasks.
[Oh, and I made sure that I scheduled time for: catch-up/unexpected things/"mosquito tasks"*]
I have 11 ½ 'free' days in April (yes – this is why you overestimate how much you’re going to get done – you have fewer free days than you think!). Allowing 8 hours per day (possibly an underestimation, but better that way than the other...) that gave me 92 hours to allocate to projects. [I realise this is ignoring evenings which are also technically 'free' and in which I could probably achieve heaps, but I would rather under-allocate and over-achieve than vice versa]
I then started to guesstimate time on an hours per week basis to: Chimwemwe work, writing (encompassing editing and sketching out book 6), writing to friends, running, gardening, housework, reading, and emerging tasks/"mosquito tasks" and quickly clocked up about two hundred hours! Whittling it down to 92 has made me be far more realistic over what I might achieve in April and how many hours per week I will be able to spend on each area!
Having produced my 'hours per project' list for the month, I then spread out the hours per project area over the weeks for April (actually, up to May 4th as I work in Monday to Sunday blocks). I have to say, using a spreadsheet kept me right as I invariably pencilled in more hours than there were free that week and had to start horse-trading with the project areas: a little less of this so I can do a bit more of that...
This up-front effort will hopefully make my weekly/daily scheduling a whole heap easier, as now I just have to time-box the hours for the week into a diary (and use my sand-timers on the day to keep me right). If I manage to achieve a 'next action' I will of course tick that off
on the main lists, but if I don't, at least I will have progressed
towards it.
Thank heavens for Philofaxy, since as I am back to time-boxing, I need a day per page diary, but as I am trialling this method, I only need a month of it, and can just print off the requisite pages from the diary files. Bless you Steve and Ray!
As well as writing down what time I intend to spend on each area, I am also going to note down how much time I did spend on each area so that May's list might be based on a tad more evidence (I am a scientist after all...).
I'll keep you posted as to how it's working (and show you pictures of the system in progress!).
[*"mosquito tasks" are small, irritating things that don't warrant an individual slot for each task, but which can be lumped together into a 'do all those irritating little things in this hour' slot]
Monday, 31 March 2014
Monday, 17 March 2014
In praise of the A5 Domino (2)
In my last post, I wittered on about how many A5 dominos I now have, but what keeps bringing me back to them so often?
1. The price
They are frequently on offer in WH Smiths with either 40% or 50% off. (No affiliation, just always had good service from them. I have bought every single A5 domino I own from them!)
2. The 30mm rings
Huge. Just huge. And since I am generally not hefting these binders about on a daily basis, the fact they have huge rings and are stuffed (and heavy) doesn’t matter.
3. The rigid cover
I may well be using these to make notes whilst out and about (not all that common an occurrence) or whilst balancing the binder on my knee (much more common occurrence!) and the rigid cover makes this an easy task.
4. Pared-down interior
I am largely using these as binders and never as wallets and so the pared-down insides work well. The notepad slot in the back is brilliant.
5. Two pen-loops; both elastic
I surely don’t need to explain any further do I?
6. The fill
Although I bought this to use with home-made contents, I still like the fill it comes with. The one I just bought had an academic diary (July 2014 – December 2015; week to view, vertical) which will be used in 2015; A-Z dividers (okay, I’m more ‘meh’ about this as I have about a zillion sets of these now!); several sheets of coloured paper; some address sheets (okay, fairly ‘meh’ about these too); some ‘to-do’ sheets; a top-opening envelope; a ‘today’ marker’; a note-pad.
The address sheets and dividers are no use to me, but the rest of the fill is pretty good, especially the note-pad, which unlike the atrocious diary paper, handles a fountain pen okay!
For the price (£22) I think this is a great deal!
1. The price
They are frequently on offer in WH Smiths with either 40% or 50% off. (No affiliation, just always had good service from them. I have bought every single A5 domino I own from them!)
2. The 30mm rings
Huge. Just huge. And since I am generally not hefting these binders about on a daily basis, the fact they have huge rings and are stuffed (and heavy) doesn’t matter.
3. The rigid cover
I may well be using these to make notes whilst out and about (not all that common an occurrence) or whilst balancing the binder on my knee (much more common occurrence!) and the rigid cover makes this an easy task.
4. Pared-down interior
I am largely using these as binders and never as wallets and so the pared-down insides work well. The notepad slot in the back is brilliant.
5. Two pen-loops; both elastic
I surely don’t need to explain any further do I?
6. The fill
Although I bought this to use with home-made contents, I still like the fill it comes with. The one I just bought had an academic diary (July 2014 – December 2015; week to view, vertical) which will be used in 2015; A-Z dividers (okay, I’m more ‘meh’ about this as I have about a zillion sets of these now!); several sheets of coloured paper; some address sheets (okay, fairly ‘meh’ about these too); some ‘to-do’ sheets; a top-opening envelope; a ‘today’ marker’; a note-pad.
The address sheets and dividers are no use to me, but the rest of the fill is pretty good, especially the note-pad, which unlike the atrocious diary paper, handles a fountain pen okay!
For the price (£22) I think this is a great deal!
Saturday, 15 March 2014
In praise of the A5 Domino (1)
I'm either addicted, or they are breeding.
I counted how many I have (sad but true). I appear to now possess six of these things (having bought another red one, reduced price, from WH Smiths - £22).
Six???
Indeedy. Four red and two ultraviolet.
Er... why so many? What are they used for?
Two are used as ‘book-o-fax’ binders
One is a letter-writing binder
One is a ‘me’ binder
Two are writing binders: one for admin; the other as a book-planner
Book-o-Fax (2x red)
I have an ever-growing set of book reviews. I only started doing these in 2009 but am now having to move to a second volume (the reason that I needed another new A5 domino from WH Smiths!). I keep a list of all the books read in a particular year (not including things read for work) and also a review of each of them. I use a set of A-Z dividers to sort the reviews by author. This post describes the book-o-fax.
The Letter-Writing binder (red)
I write a lot of letters to friends. I love getting a hand-written letter in the post and I enjoy writing proper letters to people too. In the letter-writing binder, there are envelopes, letters from people in the filopal set-up, notes that I have made on what I have written about to people (so I don’t keep repeating myself!) and in the note-pad slot in the back is a block of writing paper.
The ‘Me’ binder (ultraviolet)
Other than a print-out of an e-book, this is disappointingly rather empty! There are a few notes I made whilst reading through a few ‘change your life’ type books and some things cut from magazines or papers etc., but I really should use this a bit more!
The two writing binders
1. Writing admin (red)
This houses notes for blogs, story/novel plans, notes on agents, which of my books are at what stage, research notes for magazines etc. As I say, general admin. I posted about it here (though the set-up has changed a teensy bit since then).
2. The book-planner (ultraviolet)
I used this one to plan the last novel, but then switched to a bound notebook. I blogged about it here, here and predominantly here. I still hum and haw about using it for book-planning but then I always prefer using a bound planner (even though I know that using a binder is more sensible in so many ways!). I might use this as a book-planner again for book 6 (which is currently getting scribbled about in a Ciak notebook, but once I get more serious about writing it, I might move into the binder). If I don’t use it as a book-planner, I may start to store character notes in it. Every character I write about gets a ‘character dossier’ and I might put them all in one place (either organised by novel or by character name – not quite sure which would be better).
So, that's why I have six of these things! Anyone else have multiple versions of the same binder (domino or other)? What makes you keep buying them? And what do you use them for?
I counted how many I have (sad but true). I appear to now possess six of these things (having bought another red one, reduced price, from WH Smiths - £22).
Six???
Indeedy. Four red and two ultraviolet.
Er... why so many? What are they used for?
Two are used as ‘book-o-fax’ binders
One is a letter-writing binder
One is a ‘me’ binder
Two are writing binders: one for admin; the other as a book-planner
Book-o-Fax (2x red)
I have an ever-growing set of book reviews. I only started doing these in 2009 but am now having to move to a second volume (the reason that I needed another new A5 domino from WH Smiths!). I keep a list of all the books read in a particular year (not including things read for work) and also a review of each of them. I use a set of A-Z dividers to sort the reviews by author. This post describes the book-o-fax.
The Letter-Writing binder (red)
I write a lot of letters to friends. I love getting a hand-written letter in the post and I enjoy writing proper letters to people too. In the letter-writing binder, there are envelopes, letters from people in the filopal set-up, notes that I have made on what I have written about to people (so I don’t keep repeating myself!) and in the note-pad slot in the back is a block of writing paper.
The ‘Me’ binder (ultraviolet)
Other than a print-out of an e-book, this is disappointingly rather empty! There are a few notes I made whilst reading through a few ‘change your life’ type books and some things cut from magazines or papers etc., but I really should use this a bit more!
The two writing binders
1. Writing admin (red)
This houses notes for blogs, story/novel plans, notes on agents, which of my books are at what stage, research notes for magazines etc. As I say, general admin. I posted about it here (though the set-up has changed a teensy bit since then).
2. The book-planner (ultraviolet)
I used this one to plan the last novel, but then switched to a bound notebook. I blogged about it here, here and predominantly here. I still hum and haw about using it for book-planning but then I always prefer using a bound planner (even though I know that using a binder is more sensible in so many ways!). I might use this as a book-planner again for book 6 (which is currently getting scribbled about in a Ciak notebook, but once I get more serious about writing it, I might move into the binder). If I don’t use it as a book-planner, I may start to store character notes in it. Every character I write about gets a ‘character dossier’ and I might put them all in one place (either organised by novel or by character name – not quite sure which would be better).
So, that's why I have six of these things! Anyone else have multiple versions of the same binder (domino or other)? What makes you keep buying them? And what do you use them for?
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Itching to use the Original...
So, here’s the thing... I have a gorgeous A5 Original in green that I’m currently not using, but want to use. It’s too big to carry around and was always purchased with the intention it would be a ‘sitting on my desk’ binder for when I became an unemployed a self-employed writer. The plan would be that all my goals to projects to next actions and all my monthly and weekly plans would go into the A5, leaving a small satellite diary, paper for quick notes, contacts and lists of books/maps in the carry-around, along with money and cards. The satellite diary would only be for checking if I was free/busy and could be as small as week per page or maybe even month per view (gasp – really??). With such a pared-down set-up I might even (even bigger gasp here...) manage to squeeze into 15 mm rings!
But, I have no patience, and the becoming unemployed/self-employed ain’t happening for a while and I really, really want to use the A5. Now.
Hmm. There’s a catch (there’s always a catch...). I also don’t want to rewrite everything into pocket-size (to switch to A5 for planning and pocket for carry-around) because I sense in my bones that it won’t work while I still have to go out to work, not least because there would then be the issue of running three calendars: work, A5 & pocket, and I can be fairly rubbish at synching two sometimes!
Okay, well, then maybe I could not rewrite everything, but move to the half-way place of A5 plus planning on my desk and personal minus planning as my carry-around and switch to the pocket plus A5 set-up when I need to change diary.
But that would then feel like I’m just setting up the A5 desk version for the sake of using the A5 (which, of course, I would be!) and I wouldn’t need all the diary space that I currently have in the personal if planning is in the A5, but as it’s already set up, I would end up using it. So in fact, all that I would have done is to have added another diary on my desk to have to remember to sync with two other diaries... It wouldn’t work.
Ah well. Step away from the green Original. Step away... At least for now.
But, I have no patience, and the becoming unemployed/self-employed ain’t happening for a while and I really, really want to use the A5. Now.
Hmm. There’s a catch (there’s always a catch...). I also don’t want to rewrite everything into pocket-size (to switch to A5 for planning and pocket for carry-around) because I sense in my bones that it won’t work while I still have to go out to work, not least because there would then be the issue of running three calendars: work, A5 & pocket, and I can be fairly rubbish at synching two sometimes!
Okay, well, then maybe I could not rewrite everything, but move to the half-way place of A5 plus planning on my desk and personal minus planning as my carry-around and switch to the pocket plus A5 set-up when I need to change diary.
But that would then feel like I’m just setting up the A5 desk version for the sake of using the A5 (which, of course, I would be!) and I wouldn’t need all the diary space that I currently have in the personal if planning is in the A5, but as it’s already set up, I would end up using it. So in fact, all that I would have done is to have added another diary on my desk to have to remember to sync with two other diaries... It wouldn’t work.
Ah well. Step away from the green Original. Step away... At least for now.
Monday, 3 March 2014
Notes to self...
I have been in and out of filofaxes for years. You’d think I’d have got it sorted by now, but no. I have a complete drawer of the things, yet I still trawl eBay and Adspot on a regular basis.
Anyway, in a (futile) attempt to curb what is surely an addiction, I note the following things:
What are other people’s ‘must have’/’must not have’?
Anyway, in a (futile) attempt to curb what is surely an addiction, I note the following things:
- I need lots of card-slots (preferably ≥4; ideally ≥6)
- I need a zipped pocket to keep other crap in
- I need another pocket to keep paper money in
- The binder has to lie flat as a bat or I will hate it
- I like colour
- I like floppy leather (see flat-as-a-bat point!)
- If I don’t like the filofax I am using, I don’t use it enough, even if all of the above points have been met
What are other people’s ‘must have’/’must not have’?
Saturday, 1 March 2014
All change, again...
I managed about a week and a half in the Holborn but then today I cracked and swapped the Holborn contents with the navy Portland, so now the Portland is the day to day binder and the Holborn has the goals to projects to next-action sheets in it.
I’ve never used the navy Portland as a day to day binder and from the stiffness of the card slots, I don’t think anyone else has (or certainly not used the card slots, at least!).
I weighed the Holborn before I emptied it and it came in at 530g. Once I’d swapped everything into the Portland, I weighed that and was amazed that it also came in at exactly 530g! I would have thought it would be lighter as the Holborn has the extra layers to make all the pockets.
So what was wrong with the Holborn? It is a glorious colour, it has all those card-slots and pockets... why was I itching to be out of it? To be honest, it was the leather. It may well soften up with more use, but it is stiff at the moment and not super-floppy the way the Baroque and Portland binders are. I also don’t like the contrast stitching (never have. Took brown leather polish to the stitching in the brown Holborn I hated it so much...). I know others have Holborns and love them, but I was just not happy.
Instead of immediately fleeing back to the Baroque though, I thought I would have a play with the Portland (variety being the spice and all that). I also realised that although I bought the Holborn for all those pockets, I only used the same number as I do with other binders: the card slots (the Portland has the same number as the Baroque and the Holborn), the zipped pocket for other cards and the vertical pocket for paper money. I didn’t use the two inward-facing vertical pockets in the Holborn, or the outward-facing pocket at the back with the zipped pocket inside. I just used the outward-facing one at the font and the zipped one at the back. Therefore there was no real reason not to have a play with the Portland, even though it has one pocket fewer than the Baroque.
I am (just about!) still avoiding scratching the “let’s shift to a pocket” itch. Maybe at some point, life will change enough to move to an A5 on my desk and a pocket to carry around.
I’ve never used the navy Portland as a day to day binder and from the stiffness of the card slots, I don’t think anyone else has (or certainly not used the card slots, at least!).
I weighed the Holborn before I emptied it and it came in at 530g. Once I’d swapped everything into the Portland, I weighed that and was amazed that it also came in at exactly 530g! I would have thought it would be lighter as the Holborn has the extra layers to make all the pockets.
So what was wrong with the Holborn? It is a glorious colour, it has all those card-slots and pockets... why was I itching to be out of it? To be honest, it was the leather. It may well soften up with more use, but it is stiff at the moment and not super-floppy the way the Baroque and Portland binders are. I also don’t like the contrast stitching (never have. Took brown leather polish to the stitching in the brown Holborn I hated it so much...). I know others have Holborns and love them, but I was just not happy.
Instead of immediately fleeing back to the Baroque though, I thought I would have a play with the Portland (variety being the spice and all that). I also realised that although I bought the Holborn for all those pockets, I only used the same number as I do with other binders: the card slots (the Portland has the same number as the Baroque and the Holborn), the zipped pocket for other cards and the vertical pocket for paper money. I didn’t use the two inward-facing vertical pockets in the Holborn, or the outward-facing pocket at the back with the zipped pocket inside. I just used the outward-facing one at the font and the zipped one at the back. Therefore there was no real reason not to have a play with the Portland, even though it has one pocket fewer than the Baroque.
I am (just about!) still avoiding scratching the “let’s shift to a pocket” itch. Maybe at some point, life will change enough to move to an A5 on my desk and a pocket to carry around.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Shortest filofax change ever?
Following on from my last post, where I started to hum and haw about whether I could use a pocket Holborn, I thought I would switch the contents of my Baroque into my wine Holborn, just to remind myself about the leather and the feel of the thing.
I haven’t quite moved back yet, but I was itching to, only seconds after moving in. Although the leather in the Holborn is beautiful and supple, it isn’t the full-on floppiness of the Baroques!
This might be the quickest in-out (shaking it all about) ever for me! I might not stay in it for an hour, never mind any longer...
I haven’t quite moved back yet, but I was itching to, only seconds after moving in. Although the leather in the Holborn is beautiful and supple, it isn’t the full-on floppiness of the Baroques!
This might be the quickest in-out (shaking it all about) ever for me! I might not stay in it for an hour, never mind any longer...
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Pocket Holborn...?
Oh, Shadow Wolf has gone and done it now...! Between her saying how fabulous her pocket Holborn is, me having looked and looked and looked at the pocket Holborn over time and eBay having a new one for a good price right now... enabling!!
So, in an attempt at sane rationality, I’m going to compare and contrast the Baroque and the Holborn. Hopefully, I will find that the Holborn is no better than the Baroque I already have and so there is no point buying it.
[This is also known as the null-hypothesis and we all know that that’s actually what you’re trying to disprove!]
Shadow Wolf assures me of flattability, so we needn’t compare on those grounds, which leaves pockets, rings and colour.
Pockets:
a) Baroque
There are four card slots plus a curved pocket that can be used for cards.
There is a full-height pocket behind the card-slots, then a zipped pocket, then another full-height pocket behind the zipped one and another full-height pocket behind that.
In the back there is a note-pad pocket.
There is no full-width pocket along the back.
b) Holborn
There are three card-slots and a curved pocket that can be used for cards.
There is an outward-facing full-height pocket behind the card-slots. There is also an inward-facing full-height pocket behind the card-slots.
In the back cover, there is an outward-facing full-height pocket (and I think there is a zipped pocket inside here - Shadow Wolf can you confirm or deny?). There is also an inward facing full-height pocket.
There is a full-width pocket along the back.
Rings:
a) Baroque
19mm
b) Holborn
15mm
Colour:
The Baroque I have is black. If I had a turquoise or pink one, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion! The black is okay – redeemed by the embossing inside, but nonetheless, black.
The Holborn on eBay is wine. The wine-red personal Holborn I have is a gorgeous colour. I could certainly live with it in pocket size.
The crunch is the pocket layout I think. If I work through what I would put where, maybe that would help?
a) Baroque
In the past I have had 4 cards in the card-slots, stamps in the pocket behind, other cards in the zipped pocket, in the full-height pocket behind the zipped one I put vouchers and the other full-height pocket was too tricky to get things in and out of so I didn’t use it. In the notepad pocket in the back I put paper money. Coins went into a zip-loc bag at the back and there was one card-holder on the rings.
b) Holborn
Since I have never held one, I will have to predict how I would use the pockets...
4 cards in the card slots. Other cards in the zipped pocket at the back. Stamps in one of the full-height pockets (probably the front inward-facing one as there is never a rush to get to them!). Vouchers in one of the other full-height ones (probably front outward-facing for easy access).
Paper money and receipts would go in the full-width pocket along the back; coins would go in the zip-loc bag.
Now, this leaves me an inward-facing pocket and an outward-facing pocket still to assign things to! I have a pocket-size address book which I got with the Flex which I could probably slot into the inward-facing pocket at the back, which might (might) free up the rings so that 15mm ones would be okay. The other 15mm ring versions of filofaxes always fail because I have to carry the cards on card-holders on the rings which leaves no space for paper contents.
Hmm... Shadow Wolf – if you’re reading this, will the Holborn work how I think it would??? Because if so, I may just succumb!
So, in an attempt at sane rationality, I’m going to compare and contrast the Baroque and the Holborn. Hopefully, I will find that the Holborn is no better than the Baroque I already have and so there is no point buying it.
[This is also known as the null-hypothesis and we all know that that’s actually what you’re trying to disprove!]
Shadow Wolf assures me of flattability, so we needn’t compare on those grounds, which leaves pockets, rings and colour.
Pockets:
a) Baroque
There are four card slots plus a curved pocket that can be used for cards.
There is a full-height pocket behind the card-slots, then a zipped pocket, then another full-height pocket behind the zipped one and another full-height pocket behind that.
In the back there is a note-pad pocket.
There is no full-width pocket along the back.
b) Holborn
There are three card-slots and a curved pocket that can be used for cards.
There is an outward-facing full-height pocket behind the card-slots. There is also an inward-facing full-height pocket behind the card-slots.
In the back cover, there is an outward-facing full-height pocket (and I think there is a zipped pocket inside here - Shadow Wolf can you confirm or deny?). There is also an inward facing full-height pocket.
There is a full-width pocket along the back.
Rings:
a) Baroque
19mm
b) Holborn
15mm
Colour:
The Baroque I have is black. If I had a turquoise or pink one, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion! The black is okay – redeemed by the embossing inside, but nonetheless, black.
The Holborn on eBay is wine. The wine-red personal Holborn I have is a gorgeous colour. I could certainly live with it in pocket size.
The crunch is the pocket layout I think. If I work through what I would put where, maybe that would help?
a) Baroque
In the past I have had 4 cards in the card-slots, stamps in the pocket behind, other cards in the zipped pocket, in the full-height pocket behind the zipped one I put vouchers and the other full-height pocket was too tricky to get things in and out of so I didn’t use it. In the notepad pocket in the back I put paper money. Coins went into a zip-loc bag at the back and there was one card-holder on the rings.
b) Holborn
Since I have never held one, I will have to predict how I would use the pockets...
4 cards in the card slots. Other cards in the zipped pocket at the back. Stamps in one of the full-height pockets (probably the front inward-facing one as there is never a rush to get to them!). Vouchers in one of the other full-height ones (probably front outward-facing for easy access).
Paper money and receipts would go in the full-width pocket along the back; coins would go in the zip-loc bag.
Now, this leaves me an inward-facing pocket and an outward-facing pocket still to assign things to! I have a pocket-size address book which I got with the Flex which I could probably slot into the inward-facing pocket at the back, which might (might) free up the rings so that 15mm ones would be okay. The other 15mm ring versions of filofaxes always fail because I have to carry the cards on card-holders on the rings which leaves no space for paper contents.
Hmm... Shadow Wolf – if you’re reading this, will the Holborn work how I think it would??? Because if so, I may just succumb!
Review of Air Conqueror A4 airmail paper (30gsm)
I realised that I haven't done any reviews for a while. Let me remedy that!
I have a number of overseas friends that I write to and find it hard to get airmail paper locally. It used to be everywhere – especially in those bargain-basement bookstores that sold filofaxes and paper and notebooks as well as books. I haven’t seen airmail paper on sale in a shop in ages! The last lot I bought was from an online store and was still fairly pricey.
Anyway, I saw this A4 airmail paper on eBay for a good price and got it. I used it for the first time yesterday.
General feeling:
It feels a lot thinner than the Basildon Bond paper that I usually use, but then, online searches for the gsm for that seem to have 70gsm as a consensus, c.f. 30 gsm for the new lot, so there’s no great surprise at that!
Details:
The paper is very thin (unsurprisingly). It’s also pretty heavily watermarked, which once you write on it, isn’t too obvious, but before being written on is quite intrusive. The watermarking says ‘air conqueror’ with a symbol underneath. The colour of the paper is halfway between white and ivory – an off-white (except that phrase makes me think ‘grubby’ rather than the colour it is). In the picture below, it looks darker because I’m deliberately photographing it on a dark background to show the watermark. [click on any picture to enlarge]
The Basildon Bond (70gsm) paper will cope with being written on both sides; this paper wouldn’t have coped with black biro on both sides (which is what I was using). However, if the gsm are correct, it weighs less than half as much so doesn’t matter.
The paper has a fairly ‘grippy’ feel to it (not exactly rough – but not polished like higher weight papers) and one side is smoother than the other. It’s easy to tell which is the writing-surface side.
I did a pen test – not because I wanted to see if there was bleed-through because I knew there would be – but to see how well the paper coped with fountain pens as well as a couple of roller-balls and a biro. The paper was surprisingly nice to write on with fountain pen, given the ‘grippy’ feel to it and there wasn’t a hint of feathering (or whole spiders – unlike the Peter Pauper book!). A couple of ink/nib combinations took longer to dry so left-handers might need to be careful, but otherwise it was a lovely experience writing on it.
Overall:
I’m glad I bought the paper. It was cheaper than the equivalent amount of Basildon Bond (given that this was 50 sheets of A4 paper, rather than A5) and although I can only write on one side, the thinness of the paper makes it still lighter than the same amount of writing on one sheet of Basildon Bond. Also, there’s a nostalgic bit of me that loves the crinkling sound of it!
I have a number of overseas friends that I write to and find it hard to get airmail paper locally. It used to be everywhere – especially in those bargain-basement bookstores that sold filofaxes and paper and notebooks as well as books. I haven’t seen airmail paper on sale in a shop in ages! The last lot I bought was from an online store and was still fairly pricey.
Anyway, I saw this A4 airmail paper on eBay for a good price and got it. I used it for the first time yesterday.
General feeling:
It feels a lot thinner than the Basildon Bond paper that I usually use, but then, online searches for the gsm for that seem to have 70gsm as a consensus, c.f. 30 gsm for the new lot, so there’s no great surprise at that!
Details:
The paper is very thin (unsurprisingly). It’s also pretty heavily watermarked, which once you write on it, isn’t too obvious, but before being written on is quite intrusive. The watermarking says ‘air conqueror’ with a symbol underneath. The colour of the paper is halfway between white and ivory – an off-white (except that phrase makes me think ‘grubby’ rather than the colour it is). In the picture below, it looks darker because I’m deliberately photographing it on a dark background to show the watermark. [click on any picture to enlarge]
 |
| Photographed against a dark background to show the watermark |
The Basildon Bond (70gsm) paper will cope with being written on both sides; this paper wouldn’t have coped with black biro on both sides (which is what I was using). However, if the gsm are correct, it weighs less than half as much so doesn’t matter.
The paper has a fairly ‘grippy’ feel to it (not exactly rough – but not polished like higher weight papers) and one side is smoother than the other. It’s easy to tell which is the writing-surface side.
I did a pen test – not because I wanted to see if there was bleed-through because I knew there would be – but to see how well the paper coped with fountain pens as well as a couple of roller-balls and a biro. The paper was surprisingly nice to write on with fountain pen, given the ‘grippy’ feel to it and there wasn’t a hint of feathering (or whole spiders – unlike the Peter Pauper book!). A couple of ink/nib combinations took longer to dry so left-handers might need to be careful, but otherwise it was a lovely experience writing on it.
 |
| General pen-test |
 |
| Close-up 1 |
 |
| Close-up 2 |
 |
| Reverse (no surprise at the bleed-through!) |
Overall:
I’m glad I bought the paper. It was cheaper than the equivalent amount of Basildon Bond (given that this was 50 sheets of A4 paper, rather than A5) and although I can only write on one side, the thinness of the paper makes it still lighter than the same amount of writing on one sheet of Basildon Bond. Also, there’s a nostalgic bit of me that loves the crinkling sound of it!
Saturday, 15 February 2014
Pockets, pockets, pockets
Well, I gave myself a stern talking to after the last yearning and convinced myself that I should stay in a personal size and that if I really, really needed a change of scenery with it, I should move into the pink one or into a Holborn.
But the pocket “itch” is still there! The thing is, I think I know what the ideal pocket layout would be and I don’t think it exists in any binder.
I want:
Other pockets would be good as long as I can get things in and out of them reasonably easily.
So how do my current stash of pocket-sized binders fare?
You’ll see added to the table an Urban, which I don’t actually have as yet, but am bidding a miniscule amount on, on eBay. It might have the layout and functionality I want (I would need to see how flat-as-a-bat it is if I win it) but will I love it? It’s not leather and it’s a bit dull-looking. I suppose if I win it, I could potentially decorate it so that it looks less drab.
But the pocket “itch” is still there! The thing is, I think I know what the ideal pocket layout would be and I don’t think it exists in any binder.
I want:
- At least 4, easy-to-get-things-in-and-out-of card slots
- At least one other pocket for things like stamps
- A zipped pocket (for the other cards that don’t sit in a card-holder or in the card slots)
- Flat-as-a-bat floppiness
- 19mm rings
- A back pocket that runs across the full width of the binder to put paper money in
Other pockets would be good as long as I can get things in and out of them reasonably easily.
So how do my current stash of pocket-sized binders fare?
|
Model
|
No. card-slots?
|
Other pocket(s)?
|
Zipped pocket?
|
Flat-as-a-bat?
|
19mm rings?
|
Back pocket?
|
|
Aston
|
4
|
1
full-height
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Baroque
|
5
|
3
full-height plus note-pad pocket
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Cavendish
|
4
|
2
full-height
|
yes
(on back)
|
no
|
no
– 15mm
|
yes
|
|
Classic
|
4
|
2
full-height
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Mulberry (Loki)
|
4
|
2
full-height
|
yes
(but v small)
|
mostly
|
no
-15mm
|
no
|
|
Portland
|
4
|
1
full-height
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
– 15mm
|
no
|
|
Urban (possibly)
|
4
|
1
full-height plus note-pad pocket
|
yes
(on back)
|
?
|
yes
|
yes
|
You’ll see added to the table an Urban, which I don’t actually have as yet, but am bidding a miniscule amount on, on eBay. It might have the layout and functionality I want (I would need to see how flat-as-a-bat it is if I win it) but will I love it? It’s not leather and it’s a bit dull-looking. I suppose if I win it, I could potentially decorate it so that it looks less drab.
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