The Perfect Planner 2: Forging It

In part 1 I made the case for unformatted notebooks as planners. The first challenge was to find one that rang bells in terms of appearance and size: not too small and not too big, neither too cheap nor too pricey. Now the second, greater challenge is how to make it work for you. The ruling principle is this: the planner should be a means of recording and planning your days...also a way of compelling yourself to take action--if you set something down, you will do it.

A few suggested caveats,

1) Don't confuse your planner with a journal, as you'll see done in this hourly planner:




2) Don't confuse your planner with a diary, as you'll see done here:



3) Don't confuse your planner with a creative log like this:



4) Do feel free to use a pencil and a ruler to format the pages however you please--as this creative planner did:




The MacRath Solution:

There were three areas I needed to track in a 240-page notebook that had to last me a year.
1) Acts/Appointments
2) Physical: Gym/Additional home exercise/Nutrition
3) Writing: to-do's including composition, networking, reading, reviewing, blogging, etc.

I also hoped to add a few lines per day for two motivational notes: an intention that I visualized as being achieved...and a perception, or lightbulb, for the day.

Strategies
1) I divided each notebook page into halves, horizontally--giving me two days per page, each page consisting of 11 lines.
2) Thus, I worked in four-page batches with a full half-page left after the 7th day. I would use this free half-page to list the things I needed to accomplish in the week.
3) Between the 11-line days, I allowed two lines apiece for notes on Intention and Perception.
4) The master stroke, for me, was dividing the 11-line days into three equal vertical columns, one for each of my chosen areas. 

I have enough pages left over at the back end for important addresses and notes. Plus, there's a Moleskine-style pouch on the inside of the back cover.

After decades of trying one planner after another, I've become a happy camper. And you can be one too if you stop forcing your style to fit someone else's format.

The Perfect Planner 1: Finding It

You could spend the whole month of December looking for a planner that's made for you--and fail. In fact, you could spend a lifetime pursuing the same quest in vain. The burgeoning planner industry plays to averages and numbers, rather than personal needs. In your search you will find a bewildering number of styles, designs and sizes:









In my lifetime, I have tried almost every style, at prices ranging from a $5 to $75.  The fact that I kept changing shows my dissatisfaction with the industry options I found. I kept looking for something tailored to my needs::
--I have very few formal appointments.
--I don't want a highly regimented planner like Franklin Covey (7 Habits) or DayTimer.
--I don't want to waste my time or tough on extras and accessories.
--Rather than a journal, log or appointment book, I need a planner that's in equal part: organizer, tracker, motivator and ferocious daily nag, An ongoing reminder to: Don't dream about it, do it!


The closest I came to a MacRath-style planner was a pocket-size number from Moleskine, 3"x5" for $18.



Pros:
--Portable size.
--Design: two-page weekly spreads. Left: seven sections for daily to-do's. Right: a ruled blank page for notes, weekly overall intentions, motivational notes, etc.
--Superb Moleskine quality.

Cons:
--The too easy to lose size for a man on the go. In one month two of these fell from the pocket of my cargo pants or the side pocket of my backpack.
--Plenty of room on the right side, but not enough room in the dailies.
--Cost: I'll spend $18-$25 for a Moleskine writing notebook. But not for a third planner that wasn't made for me.
--The design fails to satisfy my unique need for a turbo-charged blend of planning, tracking and nudging.

I found the perfect planner while rummaging through Barnes and Noble.
:

Piccadilly rivals Moleskine quality...at a fraction of the cost. I bought the above notebook on sale for $5.88...at least $25 cheaper than I would have paid for Moleskine.
Size: 5"x8"...still portable but not something I'm likely to lose.
Pages: 120 ruled sheets or 240 pages.
Potential: 2 days per page would last a year...with plenty of room at the back for my more stylized needs: notating monthly recharge dates of electronic devices...recording incidents at work with dates, times, detailed notes...logging a job search or ebook promotional campaign...
Strategy: the world was my oyster for those two days per page. I'd been freed. Now, unbound, I had only to decide the right--the MacRathian--way.
Colors: For those who lack the stones to tote a coral-colored notebook, you'll find other colors here:
http://tinyurl.com/mpcpbx7

Next week, in part 2, I'll tell you in detail how I transformed my Piccadilly into my own perfect planner.

Stay tuned!