Do you use a paper based planner?
I had always used paper planners. I "invested" in a pocket size slimline Filofax executive (black leather!) sophomore year of high school and filled it with novelty papers by morning glory (ok, and some regular filofax stuff too). There were even sticker photos from those sticker photo machines. And multicolored gel pens. It was pretty amazing. I continued using the filofax in college, mostly the month view for due dates, exams, and appointments and ruled pages for to-do lists.
For three years after graduation, I had a full time desk job where I had a desk calendar for my appointments and a color coded spreadsheet to track next action items on my (many) projects. The colors denoted what type of task it was and what stage the project was in. I came up with the system by myself and only later came across David Allan's Getting Things Done. If only I had come across it earlier, it would have saved me a lot of experimentation. The rest of my life was not terribly complicated and a notepad and iCal sufficed.
I started graduate school this past August (ok, I'll be honest, it’s law school- don't hate!). Since I am now physically attached to my laptop (no paper notebooks for me!) and have an iPhone to boot (I’m a bit of a gadget geek), it seemed obvious that I should switch to a computer based system. I researched far and wide and tried out many programs. I came up with Things as my best option (and iCal). Half a semester in, I couldn't take it anymore. Things is a wonderful GTD app. But ongoing schoolwork does not lend itself to GTD very well. I have specific tasks to do (reading, outlining) and they all need to be done on specific days. I cannot not do them. Not even if my 6 year old cat gets cancer and dies. The reading still gets done. Such is law school. So I ended up with my life in three places - schoolwork in a small notebook, appointments and events on iCal, and the rest of my life in Things. Mostly I relied on memory. Don’t ask me how I made it to the end of the semester. All I know is that I had exhausted my computer based options (that would sync with my iphone - a major requirement for me).
Since school ended, I’ve been contemplating how to proceed. I take planners very seriously (as you can probably tell by now). After much thinking and debating, I came with a plan. I am very excited about it, and I'd love to share it with you fine people.
I bought a filofax finsbury personal size - in purple! First, I took out all the preprinted tabs and replaced them with with blank ones. I’m going to print titles for them on my label maker as soon as I am confident that I am happy with the setup (and as soon as I get clear tape - the white on "cream" would clash!). The first section is my “Inbox.” It will be where I jot down random notes and reminders as they come to mind. I’ll go through it daily (probably right when I get home) and transfer information or take actions as necessary. The next section is the monthly view calendar. Here I record major happenings (Exams, birthdays), and also make annotations of a personal nature - like whether I wore contacts that day (to keep track of # of times I wear them). Next is a section for my daily tasks and to-do items. Here I will record appointments, events, homework assignments and miscellaneous to-do items that need to happen then. I plan to get lined daily pages to use during the school semester so there is plenty of room for everything (and so it doesn’t get visually cluttered). During school vacations, I have much less going on, so I will use the week on two pages view that came with the planner. Next is the projects section, which is the heart of the GTD part of the system. The first page lists my current projects - as per GTD, they are not in any particular order. They include specific projects like “preparing for spring semester” as well as ongoing things like “finances.” Following that are the “To do” pages - the ones with the adorable check boxes at the end. One page per project, until it is completed or the page runs out. The last section is just lavender note paper for all the remaining list making and note writing that one inevitable has to do, and which my previous system did not account for. Currently, the only thing in it is a general shopping list.
So that is my set up. This time I am confident that I have thought of everything. But all I really know is that I think I have adequately solved the major organizing problems that I was having this past fall. So we shall see what new issues pop up this spring!
So do you use a paper planner? Please tell me about your system! I would so love to hear it :)
