DIY Planner - Time Management - Comments

Great monthly overview!

GG — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:54:27 -0400

I want to incorporate these into my 2009 planner. Very practical.

I agree

Katrina — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:31:34 -0400

The monthly pages are excellent. They are some of the most practical combined monthly summary and monthly tab pages I've seen here.

Great work Brianna!

Kat

Not yet

ygor — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:41:22 -0400

-----------------------------------
"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

I like!

jonglass — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:18:45 -0400

I like that monthly page! Forget a full-page month-at-a-glance. I think I prefer this! Very nice! Thanks.

-Jon

Looks Great!

nay nay — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:18:14 -0400

Another nice template for the gallery - thank you for sharing with all of us! I really like the Word Art too! :)

Nice work!

nay nay — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:17:14 -0400

I really like this set up! And, thank you for providing the xcel file as well so we can change if needed. Really a nice job!!

***Template updated

EricS — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:46:39 -0400

Updated template to automate entry of dates

suggestions

weemeng — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:04:45 -0400

Was wondering if the program can show the days as vertical columns instead of boxes.

Then have the option to leave the 1st page blank and start the calendar printing on 2nd page onwards. That way, we when we open up a page we immediately see a week's worth of schedule side by side when they are printed on printers that support duplex printing.

Very nice piece of work.

Mid-year change up

mccicc — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:17:41 -0400

Thanks, Doug, for an inspirational post.

This month, I changed my system from a leather Franklin Covey classic binder to a Levenger Junior/Classic binder. The chief reason: the FC binder was getting too darned heavy (nearly 2 1/2 pounds!) and bulky (at least 2 inches thick).

I sprung for a $4.95 2008 Levenger Agenda notebook and circa-punched my "must keep" FC pages. A little messy, but I'll be redoing them soon enough. It was easy to just punch and go. I saved nearly a pound and a half of weight by going back to Circa! Thanks to Doug, I found out that my chief reason for abandoning Circa three years ago -- that the paper size was smaller than 5 1/2w x 8 1/2h -- was now moot. Thank you, Levenger, for switching paper sizes! I was pleased that I could still use my nice leather binder with tab closure. I use a lime green Tombow fountain pen with purple Levenger ink for writing and a Papermate mechanical pencil for my calendar.

Another reason for switching to a "lighter" version was that I will be getting an iPhone G3 in the near future and trading my very old iPod mini and Razor phone in favor of a multi-tasking iPhone. Today was a bust -- too long a line at the Apple store, no phones left at the AT&T store, and finding out that activation was nigh impossible due to server crashes were enough to kill the dream for a few days at least. I'll let them work out the bugs first. I waited a year, so I guess I can wait a bit longer. Plus, it's fun to play with my new planner for a while.

In January, I started using an online to-do list at toodledo.com, primarily because it was found to be best-in-class for use on the iPhone. A pro membership will retain up to two years of to-do data that includes Tasks, Folders, Contexts (GTD!), Priority, Due Date, Repeat, Time Estimates, Completed Dates, etc., etc., and gives me a quick and painless way to do my weekly activity report by exporting the data in a spreadsheet. I don't keep my "hot list" in my planner yet because it's easier to just go to the site since I am at my computer most of the day. But, for travel or days away from the office, it's very easy to print a mini booklet of my tasks.

I've flirted with the idea of going just with a weekly Moleskine agenda with notebook, but the fixed pages just don't cut it for me. I need a paper planner that can include the following sections, along with the monthly and 2-page-per week calendars:

Info -- A list of birthdays, budget and budget codes, and grouped lists of frequently contacted phone numbers for vendors and such.

Messages - This section keeps me sane! A great idea stolen back in the 80s from a co-worker who was really organized. It's also a great reference for when people called and, if I'm keeping up with it, a record of whether I returned the call.

Projects -- Where I plan out my newsletters, publications, and projects prior to putting everything down electronically. No forms yet, but DIYp pages will be added.

Creativity -- This is new, meant to capture my non-work projects, lists of questions to ask when researching a new project, mind maps (my latest obsession), ideas for future creative projects (novels, short stories, designs, garden ideas, etc.), productivity tips, goals, etc. I'd also like to include inspirational material if it doesn't take up too much room.

Notes -- This is also new. Since I don't want to junk up the sections containing my weekly calendars, I figure I need a place the keep random notes of current important things. Today, it has travel plans for a conference I'm attending next week. We'll see if I keep up with this.

Since I work for an academic institution, changing my calendar system at this time of year wasn't painful. I plan on using my iPhone for contacts, podcasts, family photos, music, synching with my Mac iCal, accessing Toodledo when I'm away from my office, and maybe a fun game app or two. I like having paper to write down things on the fly and not have to worry about connecting to a webpage or using up precious battery time. We'll see how the paper planner and the iPhone work together.

Thanks for letting me share.

- Maura

GTD and Covey

Cesare — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:07:53 -0400

Thanks Jon for your feedback.
Some years ago I started reading Covey book first things first that takes a planning driven by values/objetives.
AFter that I read Allen GTD work.
In my opinion the best is the mix of the two approaches: GTD to work "the daily stuff" and Covey to plan your week, month and so on.

Cesare

Its interesting to hear

Bert Smudge — Wed, 9 Jul 2008 21:40:02 -0400

Its interesting to hear about peoples setups. Heres mine;

Blackberry; phone, e-mail, web browser, database of contacts.
Slim leather pocket diary (week on two pages); appointments, commitments, deadlines and odd data
Leather Jotter 5x3 index cards; notes to self and todays list.
Vintage Fountain Pen; usually a Parker and often a 51
Method; Alan Lakein

Keep it simple. Keep it real!!

Master Pages?

Swigbert — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 11:30:24 -0400

I'm new to OO and changing the designs so forgive me if this sounds trivial.

The layout is nearly perfect for what I was looking for, Franklin-Covey modification. Therefore, I would like to make a July section from your April submission. Which page is considered the Master page? Following your instructions I don't see where the change needs to be made for the rest of the pages to be populated for July. I'm sure it is something very simple that I'm over looking. Any assistance would be appreciated.

BTW - I d/l'd the widget kit too.

Thanks!

Landscape template?

clberk — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 05:47:04 -0400

First off, I want to thank you, thank you, thank you for all your work. These templates are wonderful and I love them.

If you are looking to maybe work on a different template (or add a new feature to this one), I would love to be able to print a month calendar on the vertical (landscape orientation), so that the weeks aren't split up. For example, see pages 7-8 in the diyp2_hpda_1up.pdf. I like to print the month on one card (front and back) and with the layout of the current template, I see the first 3 days of the week and then have to flip it over to see the last 4 days. With the landscape orientation, you still have to flip the card over but the weeks aren't broken up, so you see the first 3 weeks of the month on the front side and the last 2 weeks on the second side with the notes. This would allow me to see the entire week at once which would be really helpful.

What you have done is incredible, though. Thank you again!

current work set up

Karen B — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 09:57:03 -0400

I am a new convert to DIY planning, but have always been quite well organised, but last September I started studying for an M.B.A. (part time distance learning) whilst working as a business studies lecturer in an FE college along with the usual busy persons commitments; mother of a nine year old boy, wife, housekeeper etc…
So I decide in needed to get serious about organising my life.
As part of my internet research I came across this website, which is heavenly for a organisation and stationery obsessed person. Then followed my discovery of G.T.D. I invested in a new organiser and have gone for an A5 filofax style (actually bought from a craft suppliers) which I have personalised with stickers, brads and postcards etc. I use many of the pages downloaded from DIY planner but fro my diary I use pages printed from “MSOutlook Calendar” which we use at work for organising meetings etc… I have also started to use the outlook TASK list and now print those off as well.
I have had to invest in a Filofax hole punch to help with filling neatness – but this is working well so far. I only print off a month’s weeks at a time but will reprint a week if major changes happened, otherwise I hand write minor things on the paper copy. It does help that I can access work outlook at home. Now all I need to do is get my records at home up to date and filling organised, this has become somewhat disorganised lately, but with my studies over till September I at least have some breathing space!
My mission for the next academic year is to get some of my students converted to DIY planner and GTD!

HELP does anyone know how to get the days of the week printed on Outlook calendar pages ?

You'll pretty much have to

EricS — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 04:39:45 -0400

You'll pretty much have to select each date box and delete it (or delete the # inside it). This isn't very high tech, as you can see.

D*I*Y Planner - Time Management - Comments