So, I'm addicted to writing and productivity gear. That's part of the reason for this site. I'm constantly trying new notebooks, new covers, new pens, new techniques, new calendars, new journals, new planners. And [cue Steward Smiley self-aware gander into mirror] "that's okay." I have fun, and no one gets hurt. I just make sure my monthly schedule never goes out of sync, since I'm careful to note my appointments and urgent lists in multiple places (iCal/Google Calendar/Backpack and my paper planner). I learned long ago that as long as nothing important slipped through the cracks, I could play to my heart's content. And, since I love to tinker, I do.

But occasionally I notice trends. For example, there's a strange "divergence" happening between my work and my creative gear.

As could be expected, my work gear is definitely more professional --I work in marketing/communications in my day job, so image can certainly be important-- and through my many trials it's more or less solidified into a Circa-based planner based somewhat upon the layout I mentioned in this post, heavily GTD-influenced. What's key to the setup?

• Reliability: My monthly calendar is "synced" every Friday afternoon with my digital one, and periodically during the week. The pen and pencil I currently use for it, a Lamy 2000 fountain pen (with Noodler's Polar Black ink to prevent from freezing) and a Lamy 2000 0.7mm mechanical pencil, never fail me. All my current project dockets are listed, and all my recent notes are present in the Inbox section.
• Omnipresence: I always have it handy. If I'm doing work-related things, it's either in my hand or five seconds away.
• Portability: I have a 17" MacBook Pro at work. It's a great computer for my job, and I love it. But it's not exactly easy to tote around. While my planner isn't exactly light, it's less than half the weight and size, and the zip-around closure keeps out the sub-arctic weather.
• Flexibility: I keep a lot of spare paper and forms in the planner, and the disc-enabled shuffling of sheets of different sizes and shapes makes it easy to re-arrange things on the fly. Plus, I can mix figures with text with doodles with diagrams all on the same page, with an ease that computers still don't facilitate (but rather emulate). Add a selection of DiyP index cards in the card slots, and I'm all set for almost anything.

In a couple of days, I'll post about my current home/creative setup.

In the meantime, what's your current planner setup for work, and why?

Instructables.com bills itself as the world's biggest show and tell. To be sure, a lot of the how-to's lean a little to the ugly side of kludgey, but they really tap into the true DIY spirit. And there's certainly no lack of step-by-step articles for notebook hacks and Hipster PDA variants.

For example, take a look at one that uses our D*I*Y Planner hPDA kit:

http://www.instructables.com/id/My-Hipster-PDA/

Also note the related items at right, and explore from there. You too can have a Moleskine cover made out of a circuit board, suitable for impressing geek friends, scratching the table-top, or --when your loofah is nowhere to be found-- sloughing off dry skin.

Take to the skies with this colorful, flying agenda template. Whether traveling or staying home, this template is sure to make you think of beautiful trips you've taken in the past or are about to take in the future.

Once complete, you will find the entire set here:

http://wordswithin.info/blog?page_id=880

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The second one in this series, Swirly Q is in shades of muted greens and lavendars, complimentary of spring and the glorious summer to come.

To view the entire series, once it's complete, please visit:

http://freshfocus.info/blog?page_id=1072

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This is my Daily Two Pages per day take on Franklin Covey/GTD Mix.
Compact Size 4.25" X 6.75" or 108 X 172mm
I am using precut compact size blank paper from Franklin Covey.
This is done in Microsoft Word 2003.

This is compact size because that is the size that works best for me. Small enough to carry and large enough to write in and see. It's about as heavy as I care to go also.
Open office is not an option for me right now as both download time and space are not available. I wanted to use what was easily available to me and the system I already had.

Back with another one......this time it's Swirly Q!

This is a letter/A4 size template in lavendars and greens. Perfect for spring!

Stay tuned because my GTD Template store will soon have this entire set!

http://wordswithin.info/blog?page_id=880

Thank you!

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On Monday, I attended a free teleconference offered on marketing small businesses by Veronika Noize. She taught us how the questions we ask can provide us some structure throughout the day. I really liked this idea because it helps me avoid distractions such as T.V., email, etc. An example question she offered us was, “What is the highest and best use of my time today?"

The above question, however, is just a start. Some other good questions include, “What do I want to accomplish today?”, or “When will I get a specific task done today?”, or “What is motivating me to work on my business, career, school, etc. today?” These are just a few potential questions that can be used to help organize your thoughts when you plan your day out in your planner.

The templates on here are wonderful, a big thank you to all. However, I wanted a filofax template, 2 Up, in an editable document that I could get creative on. After many trees were slaughtered (what my colleagues must have thought as I held each print up to the window to see if the second page lined up with the first?) I finally got a version to work for me.

This layout is copied from a classic size template already on here. But what I plan to do with this is create many other templates now that I have the position and size correct.

Hope this is useful to the filofax fans on here. After many years of "stealing" free stuff, finally I give back!

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Currently, I'm working on writing up a business plan for Imagine Your Reality, my life coaching business. While I already had an idea of who my target audience is and I want to accomplish with the business, after a long discussion with a good friend (who is also an entrepreneur) I realized that my practice wasn’t as tightly focused as it needed to be. I had taken a shotgun approach to my life coaching, by offering to focus on a variety of areas. My friend pointed out to me that when you take that kind of an approach you don’t really tend to stand out. And standing out was something I wanted to do. Therefore, it was time to sit down and figure out exactly what I wanted my business to go.

It was time to start writing a business plan that could help me organize the material I had already developed into a more cohesive and focused program for building my business. I had come across an excellent template for writing a business plan and decided to use it to help me further flesh out my own plan (See http://www.veronikanoize.com/marketing_plan for the template). As I started reading the template, another thought hit me. I realized I needed to integrate my planner into writing the business plan. I grabbed my planner and blocked time in my day to note when and which sections of this template I would fill out. However, I went one step further. I included a series of bullet point prompts to help me get some quick brainstorming ideas down.