Subscribe (RSS)
Subscribe (Email)Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 Last week I wrote in some depth about my interest in the analog task management system created by Bill Westerman, for use in his Miquelrius notebook. In that post, I pondered the idea of ditching my Clié N610C in favor of a Moleskine for my personal agenda and task management.
Late last week I picked up a new, ruled Pocket Moleskine notebook, a set of 4 ultra-fine 0.38mm Uniball Signo RT Gel pens and a package of 3M sturdy tabs (686-RYB) to create a custom weekly planner. Over the weekend, I planned out the page format, determined how many pages I'd need through December 2006 and began drawing up my custom planner, pictured below:
You may want to visit the Flickr page (click the image) and check out the notations I've placed on the image there, complete with detailed descriptions of each area of the planner.
Planner Formatting
On the ruled Pocket Moleskine, I found I could divide the page vertically into 3 sections of 7 lines each, with room at the top of the page for the month on the top left of the page and week number on the top right of the page. I've even kicked around the idea of using this space up top for inspiring quotes.
Next I added the days and dates to each section of the two-page spread, dividing the 6th block on the lower right page in half with a vertical rule for Saturday and Sunday. The Uniball Signo 0.38mm pen worked very well, as the thin line dried quickly and didn't bleed through the Moleskine paper stock.
I continued with this format for 31 two-page spreads, through December 31, 2006. Pocket Moleskines have 192 pages, so it's possible to do an entire year and have several pages left over for notes (one distinct advantage over a stock Moleskine Weekly planner).
In the remaining back section after December 31st, I separated sections with the sturdy 3M tabs for 5 next-action lists where I can capture tasks to be completed. The toughest decision was the allotment of pages for each action list before starting the next (I chose 6),though I can always move the tabs around if need be.
I've decided on a 6 month test to see how my system works, before I decide to either create a new book for 2007 myself, or buy one of the flexible covered Moleskine Pocket Weekly planners from Modo & Modo.
Symbols and Use
Once the planner was created I started populating it with activities and tasks for each day of the week. I made use of the space to the right of each day for recurring or regular events, and the bulk of the 7-line sections for activities or tasks.
Inspired by Bill Westerman's symbols, I created a similar set, with a circle as an open action, checked circle for completed action, slashed circle for deferred (with an added arrow symbol to indicate where it was deferred to) and a dash for items which are informational rather than actionable. As I use this system I suspect a working set of symbols will emerge and become more refined.
Initial Impressions
After using the new custom planner concept for about a week, I'm appreciating the full week across two pages. I can now see how my entire week is shaping up with a single glance. I can have much more detail for each day or even each entry. With the Palm, I could see a full week, but it was either filled with very tiny type, or the type was large but clipped off, requiring additional taps to see an entry.
I like having my planner open at my desk while I work — I can glance down between tasks and be reminded of what's to come, or recall an item I need to add to the agenda. I never need to worry about the pages blinking off to save battery life. The quick "wake from sleep" mode (cover closed) is wonderful! :-)
I'm also finding a small book handy for storing small bits of information, such as a business card, a post-it note or whatever. Because the Moleskine has an elastic strap, stuff stays inside. If I'm concerned about something staying put, I can store it in the Moleskine's inside back cover pocket.
My capture of thoughts has increased since switching to a Moleskine planner. This is a good thing, because I'm now capturing ideas that were formerly floating away when faced with entering text using Graffiti on the Palm — even though I'm pretty quick and accurate with Graffiti 1.
I'm not as worried about the Moleskine as I was with a Palm. I can drop it, slide it in my back pocket and sit on it, or toss it across the room without the screen cracking, or resetting the device. As an added bonus, the Moleskine is thin, and the width and height are less of an issue than I'd suspected.
Conclusion
Overall, I am very pleased with the new system. It seems to fit my needs well, feels good to use, lets me experience the tactile sensations of pen on paper, and frees me to enjoy the process again.
I'll of course revisit my system in several months, to share how things are going, and what I've learned through this process. I do hope my notes and images are helpful to others considering a PDA to paper switch, and those keen on customizing a Moleskine as a planning tool.
Update 2006-12-15
Wow. As of today, my Flickr photo, Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner with notations has been viewed 17,339 times, and is marked as a favorite by 154 people! I had no idea that my little Moleskine hack would be so interesting to so many people. Now I'm extra glad I posted it. :-)Related Links:
PlannerHack.com
Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner @ Flickr
Back to paper by Arioch
From digital back to analog by Bill Westerman
Going Retro - Back to paper note taking by Christian Lindholm
Mike Rohde's Custom Moleskine Planner (Moleskinerie)
Creating a Custom Moleskine Planner (PDA 24/7)
Moleskinery Geekness by Felyne
Being More Efficient (Part I) by Kevin Friese
Reader Comments (38)
I gave up on the Palm for everything except contacts back in the new year, and started using a Moleskine Pocket Weekly, and I haven't regretted it once. I can scribble everything down that I want, move things about (admittedly it can get a bit messy), use colour coding, all without having to think about what the best way to represent something is, or how best to use the software, or what compromise will I have to make because the software doesn't do such and such.
I don't have a particular system for marking different types of event like you have, but I have found it incredibly useful to print off next action lists, project plans, etc, from the DIY planner HipsterPDA version, and print these on Post-it notes which I then stick in various places in the diary -- the end papers, the current week, the yearly planner. Wherever I can refer to them easily, basically. Not only is this an incredibly flexible way of combining hard and soft landscape items into something the size of a Moleskine, the post-its also offer a handy way of creating additional bookmarks!
The address book at the back of the diary I use as a capture tool (I also tend to keep an A6 squared ClaireFontaine book in my back pocket). When I have finished the thin address book, I intend to guillotine the edges from a standard Cahier and use that instead -- once its size has been cut down a little, it should fit into the back pocket just as the address book does.
Excellent moleskine modification! I too have been going back and forth between analog and digital during the last year. Like you, I have been using PDAs for many years - since the mid-90s, but I've been gradually getting fed up with them. I think a lot of it is to do with the PDA marketplace, and the attitudes of the main Palm and Pocket PC companies. Nothing NEW has really been invented during recent years. PDAs have just gotten faster, thinner, or smaller, etc., but nothing major has been added to really, really enhance the PIM use. Certainly not enough to take my attention away from paper systems. Anyway, sorry to rant on about that! :)
I'm currently using a Pocket Moleskine Week-View diary, along with a Nano, like yourself, for contacts. I printed and laminated a few pictures of my family, which are inserted into the back pocket, along with a double-sided laminated card (specifically sized to fit the pocket) with essential information on it, such as; Insurance details for car and home, utilities account numbers and phone numbers, my eye prescription incase my glasses ever break, my drivers and passport numbers, and frequently used friends/family numbers and email addresses. I created a laminated card so that it can easily be transferred to any other moleskine that I use. In case any of you are wondering, the 'sensitive' information on this laminated card, I have encrypted so if it were ever lost, it would pretty much be useless.
I also use a Large Grided moleskine for work, with the original Fisher Space Pen (thin nib), which is good for quick sketch mock-ups.
I think I will be sticking with this 'format' for the moment, as it really is a relaxing method of organising one's life. Like many say, no stressing about charging, breaking screens, constant tweaking, etc...
One last point, BACKUP. I've seen many discussions where PDA users dismiss ever using a paper-based system, because there's no way of backing up the information. All I can say to that is that I used a paper diary for many, many years, before using a PDA. And not once, did I ever need to back it up. So, in this day and age, why should I have to back it up now? I think people are sometimes 'pushed' into thinking that they need to back up their information, when really, they don't. There really is NO difference between then and now. I guess everyone is different.
Anyway, great blog, Mike. I throughly enjoy reading it!
All the best,Barry
Super cool adaption, I am creating mine as we speak. Thanks for the idea and pointers!
Barry, the lack of the new in the PDA world may have had some impact on me, though mainly it was other PDA issues that brought me to a paper solution. Your laminated card idea is very interesting � I've taken to carrying various cards in my M pocket and it works well. As for your note on backup, I think for the most part, if you don't LOSE your book, you're OK. This is maybe the biggest drawback to a paper system, in that there is only one instance of your book and once you lose it you can't just restore from a backup or sync. I have a good friend who experienced this. I think backup is an attraction for many techies who know all too well about losing data.
Andy, thanks!
Don, Thanks for your very kind words! I'm quite pleased to hear that my journey and experiment are useful to you � I'd hope this experiment might help some other prople with their situations. :-)
Felyne, Glad you like the Moleskine idea, and I hope the format works for you. Yeah, trackbacks don't work for me as they've become a huge spam issue. I've killed them on the blog and my life is much easier now. Too bad, because trackbacks were a great idea.
Thanks for taking the time to share. I might try something similar with one of my moleskines.
So, I went to this place and got this small notebook that is not a moleskine, but will let me try this new experience. Here is the picture (as you already know): http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlad_campos/154706085/in/photostream/And BTW, you are free to use it in your blog if you what ;-)
But help me with this. What exactly defines a moleskine? I'll try to find one here in Brazil, but I need to know what to look for. Could you help me with this?
I am going to try it with the new 18 Month Planner/Notepads though. I will have to shift to week at-a-glance instead of day at-a-glance, but that should not be difficult.
BTW, you are using arrows for deferred items. Do you have a standard deferred place or is the arrow head symbolic of where the deferred place is located (a la later date, different person).
Great write up.Michael
I still use a PDA to track my lists to save constant re-writing but your mod and the links to Bill westermans blog have inspired me to make more use on paper and (in my case) pencil.
Day at a glance would be good for work purposes � that's how I work now using iCal on the Mac, in fact. However, my little Moleskine planner is for my personal schedule only, so seeing a week at once is better for my purposes.
On deferred items: the arrow is first symbolic that the task is moving somewhere else; however I have at times pointed to the next day (below) or say on a Saturday to Sunday or Sunday to next week. But primarilly it's symbolic first, specific (optionally) second.
John! Thanks for the comment. I can certainly understand using a digital task method � I do this for work, but since home stuff is not as heavy-duty, I find in-place tasks on the weekly agenda and in the back of the Moleskine work pretty well.
I still kind of use the Cli� for reading blogs, but nowhere as much as I used to (especially now that summer is here).
I am trying to decide myself, as I have been using a Palm since the Palm III (currently own a Tungsten T3). But I constantly find myself making paper lists and only referring to the Palm for the calendar.
Has anyone considered using a NoteTaker notebook for their digital notebook. One the analog side, I still can't decide between a MiquelRuis and a Moleskine. From what I can see, the MiquelRuis is glue-bound where the Moleskine is stitch-bound - has that figured into anyone's decision?
I picked up a several sets of Moleskine Cahirs (7x10-ish) for notes on specific projects & proposals, but it is the daily/ weekly/ monthly/ yearly planning that makes me a bit crazy. I have used the Miquelruis (300 pg) years ago for lists - starting from one side for business and flipping the book over for personal, eventually meeting somewhere in the middle.
I still can't quite figure out if a separate calendar/planner book is necessary or more tonnage.
Moleskines are thinnner, have harder rigid covers, paper can be plain, ruled, squared, they have a elastic strap, bookmark and back pocket. They are a little smaller, and also come on small and large sizes. They also seem pretty tough.
As for whether to cary a little book -- I think for notes at least it helps to have something to capture detailed stuff with, unless you're really, really fast with Grafitti. :-)
Nice idea. A couple of mods for those power analog users:
1. BACKUP - While many do not see the need to, if this is used for mission-critical business ideas and tasking, one may want to consider once per month taking your book down to KINKO's and scanning the month (or quarter) to a CD-ROM and storing the CD-ROM off-site. At least this way if your book is lost or stolen or burned, you won't lose much data and can pick up where you left off.
2. CALLS - Keep a 4x6 card loose as a bookmark for the day you're on and on it put phone numbers and names for calls that need to be made that day. You can make quick 2 minute calls easily from the card throughout the day.
3. FREQUENTLY CALLED NUMBERS - Laminate at KINKOS, an insert for your back pocket of the Moleskine, a list of frequently called numbers.
Hope this helps!
Adam Boettiger
I'm still keeping my calendar in a digital PDA, though, since I'd forget about many things without the reminder alarms.
http://www.shopmiquelrius.com
Richard, I use the Mac and my nano for important reminders too, though I find reviewing my paper book a week at a time, I recall events more easily. But I can see this as a good reason to have some kind of "alarm" device for many people.
Kiryan, thank you for the Miquelrius resource online -- I will check it out. :-)
Here's what may be the first BUG in your system, or challenge to address...
In GTD much focus is made on creating a collector bucket.
I find I need a ton of space for my collector bucket - more than the six pages that you created. I wonder if it might be a better suggestion rather than putting the entire year into it, to just divide 192 by half and then use half of it for a collector and the other half for calendaring, just buying a new book when it runs out?
Now that "m realizing how handy this extra space is, I would do the same thing for 2007 -- use only 6 months for the calendar and leave the rest for lists and capture pages, since that works so well.
Here's some more feedback on the collector issue and an alternate layout to try...
1. The idea of using only half of the 192 pages for calendaring and the second half for the collector sections is smart and works. To me it does not matter if I can't fit the entire year in one book. If I wanted to do that I would be using a pre-printed planner. To try to cram an entire year into one book defeats the purpose of why you're using this technique in the first place. Run out of space after 5 months? Order another book and shelve the old one.
2. One thing you may want to experiment with is the layout. If you start out week by week (as opposed to creating all of your weeks the first day) that gives you the option to mod your layout on the fly, week to week without getting locked into how you set it up the first day.
For example, I tried your 7-day layout the first week but found that there really was not enough space for me with 3 days to a page for both dated tasks and calendaring as well as notes. Sometimes, rather than hunt around the back of the book for a phone number, I like to just put it on the page along with some background notes.
So this week I'm trying a different layout. I can do this because I did not ink out a 7-day layout all through my book the first day, just one week at a time. This week I'm trying a two-day format:
The left-side page vertically divided in half with two days. The right-side with a full page reserved only for notes. I find that there are some times when I either have ideas related to the tasks that day or want to jot down notes I can refer to later about the task or additional reference information that I really don't want to have to hunt for in the back of the book in a reference section.
While the Two-Day & Notes format does mean that you can't look at a full week at a time, it does allow for quite a bit more creative flow, new ideas and reference information/documentation.
Monday | Notes-------|Tuesday|
3. You mention using your iPOD Nano for storing information. Do you have a blog entry somewhere on how to use an iPOD as a digital voice recorder, or have you ever tried using a good DVR in lieu of the iPOD for capturing thoughts and tasks? There are some good ones on the market.
Thanks for the good stuff.
/AB
I wish I did not have plans this afternoon. I would be at the nearest Barnes and Noble getting a Moleskine. Now the decision to go custom or standard?
I will let you know how it goes, thanks for energizing my already profound love of lists and planning!
However, I've discovered that the larger sized Post-it notes fit perfectly inside, and are almost the size of a page. I am using them all the time for shopping lists and quick notes, and also as a way to keep phone contacts and important info in the book without using up the few blank "note" pages provided. It also lets me rewrite easily and keep things up to date.
I bought an 18 month Weekly Planner, but it doesn't come with the small 28 page address book that the Daily and Weekly Diaries do. Does anyone have one they are not using, and are willing to part with?
Maybe the solution is to explore some formats first and once you settle on one, draw up the book for 3 or 6 months. That gives you time to shake out the system and find what works and what doesn't for the next book you create.
I really like the idea of some spages between weeks for notes, or even making the book empty at the front and having he calendar in the back. I'll have to try that in January.
As for my nano, I use it only for access to my address book and for occasional alarms on the go. I haven't checked into a voice input for the nano, nor a voice recorder, but that's not a bad idea. However, I am a writer and am at the Mac most of the day, so a voice capture device might not get enough use. :-)
Michelle, thanks for the notes and I'm glad you were inspired! Keep me posted on how things go for you.
Christine, great suggestion. I've been using slightly smaller post-it index cards and they work well too. Having the flexibility to move those notes (or even tear them up) is a great benefit.
That stuff didn't work for me. I habitually plan far, far more in each day than I can actually get done. So it's of no value to me to write most of my TODO items under a date. Here's what does work for me.
I have a big TODO list in a text file on my laptop. Each TODO item is one line in the file. They're organised by project, and the Next Action is the topmost line under each project heading, and the action after that is the 2nd from top line, and so on.
This text file also has dates - Monday through Sunday, a week at a time (separated by a line of dashes). When I want to do something on a particular day, I move that TODO item underneath that date. It ensures that things which need to be done on a particular day get noticed.
Each TODO item line starts with two spaces and a dash. When I've done the item, I change the first space to a "c". So it looks like:
I keep those completed TODO items around in the file for a few days so I can remember what I have done recently. After a while I delete them, to avoid cluttering up my file with completed items.I also have other codes: 'x' means "cancelled" as in I decided not to do that task, and 'w' means "work in progress" as in I started to do it, but haven't finished it yet.
The use of a single text file works for me. The main problems that I see with paper-based systems are that it takes a lot of time to transcribe uncompleted tasks from one page to another. I have at present over 300 uncompleted tasks and it's just not feasible to rewrite them. The text file means I can have as many as I like without ever having to rewrite. I might reorder tasks, and indeed do so frequently, but that's just a few keystrokes using vim under linux.
Finally, my TODO list file is automatically backed up every night, so if my laptop breaks or is stolen I haven't lost more than a day's changes to that file. And the file is automatically committed into a versioning system each night, so I can get back snapshots from previous days if I should need to remember what I was working on some day in the past.
First, after creating 2-page weekly layouts through December 2006, I made 2-page monthly layouts for the next 6 months, giving each day a line (i.e. I wrote the month & year at the top, drew a horizontal line across both pages, then for January wrote "Mon 1" on the first line, "Tue 2" on the next, etc). That way I can make note of upcoming events and do a bit more long-range planning.
Second, I printed a 2006 calendar on a notecard using the "D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition 3.0" file (my HP 2175 printer allows for 3x5 notecard printing), trimmed the bottom "notes" section from the card, and taped it into the front cover of my moleskin. It might be possible to adapt some other hipster printouts and use them too, but I haven't pursued that yet.
Thanks.
The only concern I have is the long term planning as you only have a few weeks to go. As the large notebook has 31 lines per page, it is easy to have a month on one page (one line for a day) or even two month per page at the beginning of the notebook for long term planning. Here I can keep track of birthdays as well which can beeasily transfered into the diary once the following weeks are drawn up.Pretty much the same as Jon above explained.I think I will give this a try soon.
Thanks for your post.Marcus
This is similar to what I do using the Moleskine Pocket Weekly Diary. Here's another thing you could try: use 3x5 Post-It notes for next action lists. Use one Post-It note for each context, and store spare sheets in the pocket. That way you don't have to worry about running out of pages or figuring out how to allocate them. When I run out of space on a Post-It, I usually just copy the incomplete actions onto a new sheet.
Evan
So I had a good reason to go out and finally get a couple moleskines.I look forward to using it schedule everything. I bought the non-ruled one as well for ideas, random thoughts and drawings.
Being a Mac loyalist I decided to put a Mac sticker on one of my Moleskines to distiguish it from the other.The Macskine hipster PDA is born.here's a picture of it:http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelb1/251863546/in/photostream/
Mike, glad to offer this idea up to everyone. I find it works really well for my needs. I love the Apple sticker! :-)
I also realized that because I made my own planner I could add different pages and have notes/to-dos and such that the standard Moleskine weekly just won't allow for.
It was really the realization that someone could make a customized planner to fit themselves, rather than fitting themselves to the planner... if you see my meaning. :-)