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?

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), there is a concept called chunking. In chunking, a person takes information and either breaks it down into manageable parts (i.e. focusing on the details, or breaking down the information into smaller pieces so that it makes sense in relation to the big picture), or takes a detail and asks questions to fill in the big picture around that detail. Chunking can be a valuable tool to use when you want to understand the different layers of a project. However, chunking can also be used as a method for organizing how you approach a project.

For instance, I use chunking to break my writing projects into manageable projects that don't leave me feeling overwhelmed, or worse unhappy with my progress. Whether I'm researching for my next book or writing it, or writing a newsletter or article like this one, chunking helps me to not only maintain an awareness of the big picture of my project, but also lets me attend to the details of the project. In chunking, I can measure the actions I've taken against both the big picture and the details and know exactly where I am in my project.

Memory is something we deal with every moment of the day, even when it seems like we’re not actively using it. Right now, I’m using my memory of the keyboard to type the words I’m writing. My brain focuses on the content, but while I’m doing that, I’m also remembering what keys to hit in order to make words appear on the screen in front of me. Of course, while I type, I'm not recalling how to type on a conscious level. It's a part of my implicit memory. Today I'm going to talk about memory recall and how you can use the two types of memory to help yourself stay organized.

Memory plays a big role in our life. It allows us to remember skills that we’ve learned, or retrieve information that is stored in the brain, or recall a precious moment that occurred in the past. Memory also organizes information so that when we retrieve it, we can apply that information in the proper context and use it in the current activity we are involved in. In general, we use short term memory to recall information we’ve learned very recently. Long term memory is used to recall information that we’ve learned anytime in the recent past to childhood. In neuroscience, there are some fascinating studies about the types of memory we have access to as well as how memory contributes to the sense of self a person has.

It's an undated month on one page for Classic sized planners. This one is intended for left-hand binding.
It's just the ODG file. I use it with a mail merge to put the dates in.

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This article, was originally a sub-section of last week's article on Fabric Art Journals. However, I ended up having a lot to say about that (go figure, seeing I'm not an fabric artist) and the thoughts about planning seemed to interfere with the goals of introducing you all to fabric art journals. Therefore, this week we'll take a look at how fabric and fiber artists plan their projects.

Now I know that if I don't write my long-term artistic projects down somewhere and keep them together in my Project Folder system, then when it comes time to "create" I get lost and spend more time looking for all the items I want to use rather than spending that precious free time making art. And that's just from a purely paper-artist standpoint. Fabric artists need to keep their projects in line. Is there an organizational methodology that could work for knitters? What does a knitter who always has a rotation of 3-4 projects going on at one time do to keep all their projects in line? Read on to find out more.

Each morning, before I start my day, before I even look at my planner or eat my breakfast, I meditate. I sit down in a quiet room and stretch my body. Then I regulate my breathing as I take it through a series of breathing exercises. These help to ground and prepare me for my day. Finally, I perform one final meditation exercise to organize my mind for the day ahead. This is similar to hypnosis. Whereas the usual definition of meditation is to empty one's mind, I use this one to vent the mind. Venting basically means getting rid of extraneous information, while also organizing the information I do need for the day ahead.

This article explores how I meditate and how it can help you focus and prepare yourself for your day. Think of it as another tool you can use to help organize yourself and get ready for your day.

I have a friend who uses this spreadsheet to track her knitting yarn stash. The template is pretty self-explanatory and includes an example row.

I'm posting it here with her permission.

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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.

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.