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A Journey of Planners

by Angela Yee

One of the disadvantages of loving organizing is that any time a new organizational product comes along, you want to try it out.

That, plus my quest for the ideal organizational system has caused me to explore numerous planning systems. But I rationalize that life is always changing anyway, and we must be flexible with what life throws our way.
So, here is a summary of the organizational systems I have started using since my sister introduced me to the concept of writing down homework on a to-do list.

Before 7th Grade: My memory
I relied on my memory for everything I had to do. This mostly worked since life was simple: school, homework and chores. My mom managed my schedule, which was mostly church events and piano lessons once a week. If life got complicated, I just forgot things or tried to wing it.

7th Grade: Scratch paper

I folded a piece of paper into fourths, clipped it to the inside of my folder, and jotted down assignments.

8th Grade: Wirebound store-bought agenda

I actually spent money (gasp!) and bought a planner from the local office store. This helped me with schedules and tasks. I went through variations of the wirebound agendas until I hit college...

Freshman Year, College: DayTimers

A friend introduced me to DayTimers. I spent hours drooling over the catalogs. Like my friend, I got a wirebound system. Eventually I saved up money to replace my vinyl cover with a real leather one. I was moving up in the organizational world!

After College: DayRunner

I liked the DayRunner binder because it had a Velcro fastener that made things very easy to open and close.

Daytimers and Franklin Covey: 8.5 x 5.5 size and 8.5 x 11 size

Over time I experimented with ring bound binders in the portable and desktop size. The desktop ended up being too big to lug around. The portable worked but I always needed to carry an extra bag.

DayTimers Jotter Ring Notebook

I loved the small size of the jotter notebook (see penny for scale), since it folded up and fit in my purse. The rings allowed me to interchange sheets easily. Since I write small, the tiny space was not a problem.

Pocket-It

I wanted something even smaller so I tried a system called Pocket-It (which is now out of business). It used a regular letter-sized sheet of paper, folded into sixths, and inserted into a plastic holder. The holder also held 3x5 cards.

Rollabind

I discovered a new system that I have fallen in love with, called Rollabind. (Levenger also sells the system under the name Circa.) Rollabind is a system that has many interchangeable sizes of papers and accessories. What is neat is that I can take a small business-card sized card and insert it into the full-sized 8.5x11 binder. I can also buy standard dividers, papers, or plastic files from the local office supply store and punch them. Below are plastic index dividers that I punched and use to hold my projects.

Circa

The latest addition to my library is the Circa index card organizer (Action Folio) sold by Levenger. Because I have so many old business cards lying around, I put one task on a card and insert it in a pocket. These pockets are meant to hold 3x5 cards but I find that I like using the business cards because I can fit more than one in a pocket. I also have a section for blank paper so I can take notes.

Whichever task I am doing, I pull it out and put in on my computer right in front of me so that if I get sidetracked I can look and remember what I am supposed to be doing.

One page holds all my tasks for the day. The photo above shows my weekly spread, for what needs to be done for each day of the week. I also have one page per project I am working on so I can keep all my cards together.

I also use the Levenger Card Bleachers to pull out all the tasks I am working at once to keep everything in front of me.

Keep trying different systems until you find one that works for you! And don't be afraid to change it if your life changes and your organizational needs change. Flexibility contributes to the success of every organized person!

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