My Obsession Finding the Perfect Daily Planner
Who doesn’t love leather planners!
Do you plan your appointments, tasks or activities in a certain type of journal, planner or digital app?
I am obsessed with finding the perfect “thing” for my daily planning. I’ve tried all different types, sizes and formats. I keep going back Bullet Journaling. The only problem is the method of Bullet journaling is done in a stapled centre type of booklet and it doesn’t allow for easy future planning. I’ve tried and tried and tried, using digital calendars such as the calendars built into Outlook and Google and I just can’t do it. I need to feel the paper under my hand as I write things out. Task planning is much easier using digital tools, but “I don’t like it”.
Here is my latest experiment. I’d like to introduce you the Arc system. It’s been at Staples for a little while and thought I’d try it out before writing about it. What drew me to this was the ability to add and remove pages without “tearing” anything.
Left setup has large discs, right setup has small discs.
The Arc system can be customized any way you want. The pages can be individually taken out, moved to another area and replaced. The binding is these little discs and I couldn’t get over how affordable this was.
Here are some pictures of the journal and then I bought some larger discs and added paper so you can see the size difference.
Arc Journal – Large Discs
What I found is…. I was able to move the paper from the small discs to the large discs 4 times without the paper being damaged. The key is to only move a few sheets at a time. But… unless you have alot of paper, pockets and inserts, the large discs were too large for me at the moment… the book, although very stable, was ackward to work with because the discs were so large. The smaller journal was better with a full refill set added.
In saying that, I will pickup the hardcover/leather journal which has inside pockets, tabs and on that one, I’ll see if there is a difference in stability. The journal by itself is useable right away. Then you can customize it by adding other things to it and if it starts to get really full, that’s when the larger discs come in handy.
My only “hmmmm” moment was the price of the paper, it’s a high, but it’s a much thicker stock than regular paper. I purchased the Arc hole punch and was able to make my own little index tabs, punched my own paper with pre-printed lines and a book mark. The Arc poly covers I will use for my outdoor sketching journal. Being a poly cover, it won’t get damaged. I wasn’t able to find the dated planner inserts at all, but with the Arc punch, I could make my own.
It’s all about experimenting, trying to find the best type of journal to plan your daily tasks in.
I’d love to know what you use or how you plan your daily tasks or activities.
For me, I just need to stick with ONE system for longer than a week LOL I start out very motivated and then I just forget to use it. (No wonder I missed several appointments for my kids this summer….)
I have always been curious about this one, though. Thanks for the scoop!
Oh boy, can I relate to that! I’ll try something with the intent of using it for one month to get a true sense of how it works, then the next shiny pretty thing comes along and off I go.
I tried the ARC Planner but it wasn’t pretty enough for me hahaha so I tried the Filofax and I love it!
Have a great day!
Marti
Using my own papers and making my own cover, then punching it with the Arc punch has made it pretty. The discs stopping my hands bothers me. It’s strange…I have this obsession that anything I use, must be hand-crafted. It just feels wrong if it’s bought at a store. Colourful pens are fine, but hand-crafted stuff totally Rocks in my world 🙂
Before taking our business online, I loved nice calendars & used different colored pencils. After a few months I got sloppy & grabbed any pen. Then with having to search our calendar, it had to be digital. We are working on an editorial calendar together & about to try a google one so we can include sm postings. It is always a work in progress.
I had to design worksheets for the editorial calendar, again on paper 🙂 I’m not sure why I’m so anti-digital when it comes to scheduling LOL!!!
I use the ARC planner for to do lists. For 2016 I’m looking at Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map.
I was looking at the Desire Map a few days ago. Wish I had the time to go through her program. She’s amazing.
Way back in the 80s and early 90s, my Filofax was my trusted buddy. I do follow a similar system to the Arc for my tax planning and long term projects except, I cheat. A good old ring binder file with paper works for me.
Of course, the file cover has to be attractive and enticing to make me open it. 🙂
you want to talk about colour… you should see my file folders. They are full of tropical colours 😉
Personally I still love writing in journals and use the Flavia insert for my DayTimer. I have all kinds of journals I use for different art classes I do, however, I haven’t tried either ArcPlanner or Filofax. I’d love to use Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map, as I think the creativity she injects into all her programs and projects is wonderful. Glad you found something you are enjoying, regardless of the paper cost, Gisele! My favourite journal project I did was for the Fiction project for the Sketchbook Project which was part art and part writing. It was so very enriching and also very labour intense. Lots of time and love required too!
Did you get a chance to visit the Sketchbook Project in Toronto. I believe it was there a few days ago?
I live with all the planners and see the piles get bigger. You know me it’s Outlook easy to use, reminders in the right sidebar and popups when the appointment or event is near.
I’ve tried using Outlook, but the calendar just doesn’t work for me. I know, I’m an oddball.
I enjoy reading your blogs! I use ical (calendar for my i-phone & i-pad). I also use just a piece of paper or sticky note to write down my action plans. Definitely having a good note book that works for you is way better than just using random paper…. Thank you for sharing your daily planner experiment 🙂
Wouldn’t it be neat if we could have a post it note planner? I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Hi Gisele,
Yes, it is all about finding the RIGHT daily planner for you and your needs 🙂 Excellent post!
Thanks Joan.
Hi Gisele,
The Arc Planner sounds great! I have tried a number of planners including iPhone apps. I keep coming back to a Day Planner and supplement it with Outlook. I love paper under my hand, too. Thank you fir the great review!
Glad you found something that works for you. Then planning things are effortless because the system works 🙂
Today was the day… I tested it for the last few weeks and I found what works for me. It’s called the Passion Planner. It handles time and tasked based, has areas for random scrawling, monthly check-ins for goals and it’s dated! You can get a free download version here: http://www.passionplanner.com/ and also see the bound ones that Angelia has available. She gives back to the community so it just feels good and it’s an extra check mark why I went this route.
Note: I’m NOT getting any compensation for writing about the Passion Planner. Just sharing that my obsession is finally over and I’ve found what works for me.