DIY Planner - A Little Help from My Friends - Comments

for the past four years, I

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:39:14 -0400

for the past four years, I studied architecture. now that I've graduated from undergrad, gone on to a firm (that I love way too much and am way too involved in) and will be attending grad school in the fall, it was time to get real about how architecture can be a way of life, how I can accomplish my 'goals' and yet be artistic and spiritual - fulfilled, we'll say.
the three people I now work with all carry some form of a planner to keep everything together b/c we are a pretty casual, mobile office, but when I discovered that franklin covey et al were exceedingly beyond my price range, I stumbled upon this amazing site!
as an architecture student, I have access to the full adobe suite, and also b/c of architecture, I needed a landscape format, so... I couldn't find what I wanted here and made my own pages up in illustrator and printed them at school. then I have a paper chopping block from portfolio construction for cutting the pages in half, and a gazillion exactos and other tools for cutting and folding divider-folders... so fortunately my pages are relatively custom.
in addition, I have recently discovered collaging in paper and three dimensional collage (sculpture, perhaps...) in steel; and rediscovered my penchant (and need) for journaling...
thus, this is the long way of saying that I need an incredible notebook, that will inspire and organize me just for the very beginning... I am trying to find a way to incorporate all aspects of life into my notebook so that I can be particularly productive, particularly creative, and particularly spontaneous ;)
I appreciate the link and will check it out soon, and have already enjoyed things like the writerly diy planner and the collaging journal websites I've found, but would definitely encourage articles on journaling, art, collaging, and general creativity hacks for the otherwise productive person ;)

altered planning

innowen — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:11:00 -0400

Thanks for reading, anon. Unfortunately, I've never seen Supernatural, although it sounds right up my alley. (I don't have cable tv. so i don't watch any tv). But the journal sounds very much like many of the artist journals that inspire me.

I, and others, have written a lot about using your journals and planners for inspiration. Many of my articles include prompts, and artsy activities to do and add into your planner. You can review all the past creativity/journaling articles from these two links:

Creativity

Journalling

Altering planners is a lot like making an artist journal. Maybe I'll go ahead and write more about altering journals, and premade planners next week. There's a lot of information on how to do this already online (and in the bookstore). If you want to start looking up information, google altered books. And then take out your planner and start remaking pages so they're more personal.

/innowen

[links fixed. Sard 27/7/06]

other types of random inspiration

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 08:15:16 -0400

innowen, in my crazy run away brain, your article got me thinking about a television show in the states called 'supernatural,' on the wb. I happened to catch an episode once, and there is this thing that one of the characters calls a 'notebook.' you'd have to see it to believe it, but what a source of inspiration for those of us who are trying to incorporate journaling, sketching, collaging or scrapbooking into an everyday, useful planner. (anyone out there know what I'm talking about or possibly have images of it to post???)
anywho, with this in mind, I was wondering if you had any advice on using your notebook, rather than other people, as inspirations? for starters, I took amazing images from flickr.com, adjusted them to my liking in photoshop, printed them out and inserted them randomly, through out the calendars, references, thoughts, and sketches sections of my notebook. I am planning soon to add in pages w/ a single quote on them, and also eventually, when I get my act together, some of my own collage pages... but would love any and all advice pertaining to the creative affects and effects my planner and I can have on each other. thanks much for all the great stuff so far!

A Little Help from My Friends

innowen — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 05:00:01 -0400

Writing this column isn't always as easy as it seems. Sometimes I come up with wild and creative ideas; but many times my mind draws a blank and I'm left without ideas. It happens mostly when the unexpected crops up in my life or I lose track of time and cannot think about anything. When this happens, before I turn to the tarot or to my writing books (which are usually not at hand when I go to start brainstorming ideas for the weekly articles), I turn to my friends. Friendstorming, or the art of generating ideas with a little help of your friends has helped me generate ideas in ways that I'm not sure I would've found otherwise.

Our friends are a great source of inspiration. They think out of the box. My friends are creative and wacky and so are their ideas. Remember my idea for creating a pie chart to uncover your idea day? That was generated with help from a friend. We were talking about where the time goes and how little I see of her and from there we came up with the ideas of making pie charts to uncover and reclaim some of my daily time. Next thing you know, I was head down for hours writing and creating pie charts.

They help us loosen up our preconceived notions. Sometimes I get stuck in one mode and have a hard time looking at my projects without prejudice. I'm currently working on my first podcast. I've generated a list of over 100 show topics. Lots of great content to be described and written. But when it came down to giving it a name, I drew a blank. Once again, I turned to my friends for help. Within a few days, I gathered over 20 new names, some of them being completely off the wall but plausible. If it hadn't been for my friends helping lend their unique talent and insight into my idea, I'd have been stuck with "TarotPod".

And boy can they sometimes run with an idea. Even though I don't write humor very often, when I'm friendstorming, we come up with some of the most hilarious ideas for Steve's Friday column. Currently we've been on a pirate kick. The other day, we started talking about how fun it'd be to come up with a version of Getting Things Done, the Y'arrrr Matey Way. Within 5 minutes we had come up with variants of productivity tips as "always keep a map handy" to "walking the plank when things get rough." Steve, if you're reading this... pick up on the hint and write us something about pirate productivity.

Give friendstorming a shot the next time you need ideas. While our brains are capable of generating unlimited ideas, when you combine your knowledge together with a friend's brain, you immediately double the output. You gain their unique insight on problem solving. Thanks to sharing my weekly column with my friends (hey guys!) I've been able to generate more ideas for articles than I thought possible. I've even been able to expand into some topics I've been wanting to expose. Using friendstorming techniques allows you to plug yourself into the unlimited power of group creativity. The next time you're at a loss for words or ideas, call upon your friends for help. I'm sure they'll be happy to offer you all the advice and ideas to get you thinking in new ways. I know mine love knowing what's going on in my head and in my life, even if most of it does focus around writing.

D*I*Y Planner - A Little Help from My Friends - Comments

for the past four years, I

altered planning

other types of random inspiration

A Little Help from My Friends

DIY Planner - A Little Help from My Friends - Comments