Posts tagged planner

From our fine readers…

I have received several questions and recommendations from our fine readers so I thought I might start an infrequent post series “From our fine readers”. Shall we begin?

Illustration by Erik Marinovich

Mark recommended a recent story from The Smithsonian Magazine on the history of the @ symbol. Great article about one of my favorite little glyphs.

Nathalie asked if we knew of a weekly planner that started on Sunday instead of Monday. This was a challenge and in the end, I found very few options. My first thought is a blank weekly planner that would allow you to fill in your days and dates as you pleased like the Droplet DIY Planner available as a PDF download from Etsy. The Seeso Better Day Planner is also undated. Thanks to help from Tammy at Notemaker, I found that Filofax sells refill pages that start on Sunday ($10.50 and available for 2012 and 2013). The only size available is the “personal” size which fits into a planner binder that is about 5” x  7 .5”. I found a binder on sale for $16.50 in red or orange called the Domino. Or, if money is no issue, Filofax also has an alligator skin cover that retails for $2300.

Rebekha asked if I’d ever tried the Arwey brand of notebooks and journals. I have not yet treid them but Notebook Stories did a review of some of the Arwey products back in 2010. Paper Love Story also reviewed a couple versions of the Arwey. I hope this helps and maybe Arwey will send me a couple books to test and giveaway (hint, hint).

Original Article

It’s 2013… almost — an exhaustive round-up of planners and calendars

Most calendar and planner manufacturers have already released their 2013 offerings so I thought I might whet your appetite for a new wall calendar, desk calendar or planner.

First from Taschen are a range of designs featuring art, architecture, illustration and more in many different sizes and configurations.

(From left to right: Pin-Ups by Elvgren Weekly tear-off calendar, 8.1 x 13.0 in., 108 pages, $ 19.99; London Diary with spiral binding and elastic ribbon, 6.9 x 8.7 in., 122 pages, $ 15.99; Illustration Now Diary with spiral binding, 6.9 x 8.7 in., 124 pages, $ 15.99; Hiroshige. Famous Views of Edo Wall calendar with spiral binding, 13.5 x 19.3 in., 28 pages, $ 24.99; Paris Wall calendar, 11.8 x 11.8 in., 24 pages, $ 13.99; Fashion Ads of the 20th Century 365 Day-by-Day Hardcover, 6.7 x 8.5 in., 736 pages, $ 29.99)

From Jenni Bick come the Paperblanks line of bound planners and diaries. Diaries are available in sizes from micro 2.5”x3.5”, 3.5” x 5”, 3.5” x 7” slimline, 4” x 5.5”, 5” x 7”, 7” x 9”, 8.25” x 11.75” — pretty much something for everyone in designs that are ornate and rich looking with prices that range from $8.95 for a micro to $29.95 for the Grande Week -on-two-pages.

(From left to right, top to bottom:  Grolier Week at a Time Planner, Grande Features, 8.25” x 11.75”, 160 pages, $29.95 Burgundy Foiled Week at a Time Planner, Midi Horizontal Features 5”x 7”, 160 pages, $16.95; Black Moroccan Week at a Time Planner, Midi Horizontal Features 5”x 7”, 160 pages, $16.95; Karakusa Week at a Time Planner- Slim Features, 3.5” x 7”, 160 pages $14.95)

Jenni Bick is also stocking my favorite Cavallini daily planner, as well as an assortment of the Cavallini vintage-inspired wall calendars.

We Are What We Do have also released their 2013 Action Diaries, available in 6 colors in the A6 size (that’s about 4” x 6” for the Americans) for £6.

There are also options available in an academic calendar year (starting with September and either including 12 or 18 months). Paper Source has a variety of simple academic wall, desk and pocket options.

(From left to right and top to bottom: Academic Booklet Calendar 6” x 7 1/2” $12.95, Academic Date Book 5.5” x 8” $33.95, Metallic Gray My Agenda Academic Planner, 9” x 7” $47.95, Academic Great Big Wall Calendar, 24 3/4” x 19 1/4”, $29.95)

And last but certainly not least (or the only other options because I could have gone on for days with this post), is the classic and ever-present Moleskine. Moleskine also offers academic planners in a variety of configurations and sizes so you can get organized ASAP or you can choose your favorite 2013 planner now before they sell out. European Paper is currently having a sale on the Moleskine Academic planners, just so you know.

Previous reviews of:

• We Are What We Do Action Diary
• Cavallini Daily Planner mentioned here, here, and here.

Original Article

Get those plans in order

I found two simple, undated planners this week. The first is the Seeso Better Day Planner.

The Seeso Better Day Planner is a slim softcover planner with weekly planning on the left hand side of the page and a blank right hand page for notes and sketches. The Better Day ships with 2012 and 2013 sticky calendars that can be added to the book or write in your own dates. Available in four colors, each $14.

Vintage Year is also a simple undated weekly and monthly planner with stickers for highlighting and creating tabs for each month. I particularly like the quote on the cover: “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan A plan backed by actions makes your dreams come true. Greg S. Reid” It appears to be a hardcover volume though the description is not specific. Its 4”x6” in size for $20 from Anthropologie.

Original Article

We Are What We Do (and sometimes even what we give away)

The fine folks at We Are What We Do sent me some of their products to sample. They are a non-profit company whose goal is to fund school and community projects. They sent me a medium-sized Action Notebook, a large-sized Action Notebook, an Action Diary for the 2011/12 Academic Year (almost too late but nice to see the size, format and design) and a set of Action Bookmarks.

The Action Diary is a small pocket-sized book at just 4.125” x 5.875” with a perfect binding and a contrasting (this book had purple) satin ribbon bookmark with a sealed edge.

Inside the book is heavy white stock (my husband says its at least 80lb text but probably more like 100lb text weight). On the lefthand pages are actions in a usable note-taking space and on the righthand page is a week-at-a-glance calendar. In the back of the book is an Action Tracker where you can check off any action you may have undertaken from saying thanks to  taking public transportation. Its inspiring without being too preachy.

In the ink tests, the heavyweight stock held up to all sorts of pens without even a smidgen of showthrough. Only a Sharpie (or in my case, a China-acquired Zebra version of a Sharpie) caused any bleed or showthrough.

From the reverse, only a few specks from the “Sharpie” showed through. Everything else didn’t leave even a visible mark.

The Action Bookmarks is a set of six paper bookmarks with spaces on the back to note comments and a rating on a book before “recycling” it to a friend.

The bookmarks have a die cut notch in the top to hold on to your page. They are inexpensive, colorful and clever. I may have to order several sets to give to all my bookworm friends for the holidays.

The Action Notebooks feature the same heavy-duty paperstock as the diary and “action items” in the form of section dividers. The lines on the paper are 6mm and, after each action item page, the lines change color to coordinate with the divider page. The large notebook is 9.75” x 6.875” and the medium notebook is 6.875” x 5” and each feature a contrasting ribbon bookmark as well.

I am going to give these fabulous notebooks away to a lucky reader (or two). Package one will be the large notebook, package two will be the smaller notebook and bookmarks. Leave a comment below and tell me which notebook you want and what action you plan to take to make your world a better place.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by midnight CST on Monday, July 9, 2012. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winners will be announced on Tuesday. Winners will be select by random number generator. Please include your email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money.

Original Article

Peanuts Moleskine Weekly Planner

If you had asked back in November what planner I would choose as my planner for 2012, I’m pretty sure that the Peanuts Moleskine weekly planner would not have even made it on the list. However, since I waited until the first week of January to actually commit to a planner, my options were not only limited but almost nil. That’s not to say I haven’t ended up being quite pleased with the hand that fate dealt me.

I scoured around looking for a week-at-a-glance planner in a size approximately 5”x8” (give or take) preferably with a hardcover. I am choosy about the fonts used for the dates, the color of the lines or presence or said lines (I tend to avoid them if at all possible) and that left my options fairly limited even before my procrastination.

I finally just had to make a decision and it was getting to be well into the first and then second week of January. Lo and behold, I found the Peanuts large weekly planner with no lines on the date side of the page and then a full lined page for notes each week. Perfect. And somehow, Charlie Brown’s mopey face on the cover was just the sort of humor I needed for work.

But the best surprise was found tucked into the back pocket: a small address book, prefect for keeping all my correspondents information handy.

For every couple letters of the alphabet nicked into tabs is a simple lined page with plenty of room for not just addresses and phone numbers but also an array of additional information as suited to your needs.

Despite my normal reticence to Moleskines somewhat thin paper, this creates a thin volume that doesn’t add a lot of bulk to my day-to-day bag and still leaves plenty of room for meetings, notes and reminders.

I would definitely consider another one of these planners for next, with or without the Peanuts gang gracing the cover.

DIY planner kit

If you have had trouble settling on the perfect planner, why not try droplet’s DIY planner kit.  For $10, you can download the PDF files for letter-size and half-sized templates and either 3-hole punch or bind the pages into a book. The PDF comes with monthly calendar pages, weekly pages, notes pages and a contacts page so that you can build just the sort of planner you need.

I owned the files at one point but in the security debacle of 2010, I lost the files along with everything else I had stored digitally. And just when I was getting itchy to make my own planner!

(via droplet on Etsy)

Original Article

Poketo Undated Clover Planner

Have you ever gotten the urge to get organized in March or July? Most paper planners have start dates of January, though you can get lucky and find one that starts in September for back-to-school or even rarer one that starts in June. But if that itch to get-it-together starts, say, today, what are you to do? That’s where the Clover Planner comes in to save the day. The pages are noted for the days of the week but the month and date are left blank to fill in as needed.

There are also an assortment of other pages to help you stay on top of things like weekly planning pages, cashflow, notes and sketch sections, pockets for photos and cards, and index stickers.

The Clover Planner is available in green or red for $26.

(via Poketo!)

Original Article