Monthly Meetings Notebook from Printed Portal

Ever had one of those regular monthly meetings that you needed to keep track of, and usually take notes on a scrap of paper, only to misplace them or discover they had been recycled. Examples of such meetings are local organisations, training /update meetings, team meetings etc etc.

Printed portal have published a new notebook specifically designed to solve this problem.

I wish I had this when I worked at my old firm. We had monthly team meetings where we discussed firm and team matters such as new starters/leavers, socials, training events, networking events, admin/computer issues, tenders and new clients and general firm updates that affected our department.

Not really tied to any particular file or client, any notes from these meetings were scribbled down on a bit of file paper. Each month came and went and I could never remember what had gone previously. My current firm does not adopt the same approach – only partners attend regular meetings. Simply a meetings notebook in a similar style might be more useful for me now.

That aside, let’s have a closer look at this notebook. The monthly notebook runs from September 2012 to August 2013. (so if you are thinking of getting a copy, better pick it up quick). But also for that reason I have not started using it yet. Each month has a block of pages:

the planner/calendar view

the Agenda, Any Other Business and Notes Pages

And finally the action/follow up pages

While I have not started using the notebook yet, I have done a simply pen test with my inky pens… Only the sharpie marker bleed through.

Currently the notebook is only available in Red, but Printed Portal have said if you have a preferred colour to get in touch.

Pinch, Punch, First of the Month

Welcome to August.

I have taken the opportunity this lunch break to review my July to do list. Surprisingly – it all got done.

The monthly to-do is for those slightly larger to do’s that are not allocated to any particular day. In July I decided to tidy up my finances. To dos included getting a credit card, organising my savings, and arranging my mortgage.

I am now pondering my to do list for August.

With a couple of getaways booked in I anticipate that the month of August will be less productive in my free time, so I’ve decided to tackle another area of my life where I have a few key goals. My Career.

Regular readers (and readers of my other blog) will know I am a trainee solicitor. As part of the training we are required to work in different departments for a 6 month period. This month I have to decide what department I want to go to next, and review my progress in my current department before preparing to move on.

So I have now drawn up another list to clip into my Filofax:

Have you drawn up you monthly to-do list yet? What area of your life have you picked “to do”?

Review, Refresh and Renew your Schedule

Gosh, how July has flown by. It has been a rather busy month (with August set to be even busier) and I am rather disappointed that my blogging appears to have taken a back seat.

That is changing now.

I am still playing around with habit tracking and scheduling my time. A couple of months ago I came up with this:

I stuck to the schedule for maybe a month but things changed. I changed the time I commute to work from 7am to 7.30am and I began to use my free time to look for a new flat to move to as my lease is up next month.

Time for a review, refresh and renew! Basically, time to sit down and change my schedule and work out what would work now.

My new schedule:

I have amended this to start the day earlier, fit in my morning routine (shower, breakfast and commute) and change the priorities which divide my time.

I have completed one online course, and the other is mainly audio and proving to be a drag to fit in at work. So online course has been removed in its entirety as has my reading time, which has been shifted to the evening (if and when I have time) rather than a daily goal. According to my habit streak app I only “read part of a book” on 6 days out of 70. Clearly that habit wasn’t working out for me.

Monitoring my habits has actually been a good way to see what is worth sticking to and what I need to take a different approach to. Just because it has not become a habit yet, doesn’t mean it won’t – it just means I am going about it the wrong way… And that it is time to review refresh and renew.

to do lists (and drawing tick boxes) #filofax #icad

Firstly, apologies to those of you who have been looking for notebook content and not index card mania. Bad news… ICAD is continuing until the end of July. Good news there are some notebook related posts in the pipeline.

Lately, I have been a big fan of the Tick box (aka checkbox) when writing my to do list. It is neater than scribbling or crossing out methods that I normally use. why? Because I don’t want to mess up the look of my Filofax, which is where my to do list seems to have migrated of late.

How many to do lists do you have in your Filofax?
(Or if you don’t have a Filofax, how many to-do lists do you maintain?)

I have tried numerous methods when it comes to managing my to-do lists but I always like to try new things. So I swap and change… a lot! Currently my Filofax manages my to-do lists for outside of work and my outlook calendar manages my work related to do list. As you can tell both are calendar based.

My Filofax to-do lists

In answer to the question above I have 4 separate regular to-do lists:

front page

I put my “random-thoughts-which-need-organising” to do list on the inside of the front cover for easy access. I use this when I get a flash of inspiration whether it is something I want to read, research, write about or simply even google.

month to do list

I keep a “things to do in “insert month here” list” which I write on a little square piece of paper that moves with my today marker each week until they are all checked off. Next month (July) I am getting my finances in order and hopefully getting ready to jump onto the property ladder.

diary to do list

Where I either need or want to do an item on a particular day I write this into the main diary area. This is usually phone calls that I need to make, emails I need to send etc.

next year to do list

This goes at the back of the diary for important things you don’t want to forget. More useful towards the end of the year but I have a few items on there already… Such as renew passport.

misc

I will also produce and insert my own separate to-do lists if they relate to a particular event or topic/category such as my #icad entry for today is my July writing schedule:

The card will then get punched and added into the Filofax, either in a particular week (if event related) or in a category in my a-z tabs if topic/category related such as my reading list, writing list and things to do on my blog etc.

There are endless choices. How do you manage to do lists in your Filofax? Or do they not have a place?

How to track your habits! App, Notebook or Filofax?

How do you force yourself to stick to your daily routine, or develop a habit? As a general rule of thumb if you keep doing something often enough it will become second nature. But how do you remind yourself and track your progress?

A couple of years ago I started out using one of my Cath Kidston notebooks as a habit and goals journal. I carried it in my bag during my daily commute. However the problem was – checking off the habit diary needed to be built into part of my morning routine as well and it wasn’t yet – so quite frequently I forgot.

While the notebook was perfect for this use, I kept forgetting about the notebook – so it didn’t really help me develop the habits. The only habit I successfully managed during this period was giving up my Starbucks in the morning. And that had nothing to do with the notebook.

Next was the filofax:

This time I used it for my blogging habits, tucked securely into the “blogging” section of my Filofax. Again I had to remember to look at it, but since looking at my Filofax was already part of the morning routine it was one step closer. I also took the opportunity to sketch out a nice little chart for recording my habits. The downside, I don’t always check my Filofax first thing on a weekend if at all, so on the weekend, things just weren’t getting done.

Last week I decided to try the habit streak app (free version) on my phone – so far it is working well:

It is really simple to use: you type in habits you want to achieve (a really simple initial set up and set a reminder for it to ask you whether this has been done). I have set my reminder for 8am (the is about the time I will have arrived in the office and just made my first cuppa). So each morning I get a simple notification on my phone asking me if I did the items the previous day and I just tick them off.

The app is advertised as recording you streaks (how long you kept it up for) rather than reminding you to do the daily task. But I find that it is a reminder, a reminder to keep yourself in check and record whether you are completing the task (and the streak count allows you to see how well you are doing it).

Downside: I hate cluttering up my phone with apps, I much prefer that my clutter is filed and organised within the cover of my Filofax, however, until the habits form, I might just have to settle for the electronic solution.

J is for… a Job for all notebooks #atozchallenge

Do you dedicate a particular function to your notebooks? I do like to try to. I tend to keep a notebook for each function – why? Because I will know where to find things (and my notebooks do not go to waste).

Usually I try to to buy a notebook without first having some idea in my mind regarding what it will be used for.

From time to time I write about how I use notebooks on the blog. I try to inspire my readers to use notebooks to be more organised and to also use their notebooks for a particular purpose rather than let them go to waste.

Examples include:

- blogging journal
- goals journal
- textbook
- Food diary

I definitely think I want to write more about the jobs each of my notebooks are dedicated too, I don’t do this often enough.

How do you use your notebooks and for what purposes?

B is for…. Blogging #atozchallenge

I have decided to put the third part of my blogging journal how to as part of my a to z blogging challenge.

How to: Organise your blogging (#3 list your blogging goals)

I started this year with aspirations of really overhauling my blogs. That didn’t quite going to plan and later lead to this “revival through a to z challenge”, but this was more due to my long working hours and an addiction to lovefilm rather than an error in the method.

I started by writing my goals for the year in the cover of my blogging journal. A neat concise list. Right there when you open your journal so they can’t be ignored. They keep you on track. This is what you need to do: Clearly list your goals and targets and keep them within easy reach. First blank page of the moleskine monthly journal worked well for me.

Why do it?

Well the targets and goals should give your blogging more of a focus and challenge you as well as help keep you more organised. It will help you work out what you want to do with your blog, where you want to go and what you want to get out of blogging and your goals will reflect this.

For example: a couple of my goals were to write a post a day and do more guest posts. I’ve been back at the blog only a couple of weeks and I am well on my way.

So It is not to late to think about how you want to revive your blog. Write down some goals today.

How to: Organise your Blogging (#2: The Posting Schedule)

As I have previously mentioned I keep a blog journal to keep organised. For the second part of this How To Series I want to take a look at how creating a posting schedule can keep your blogging organised. The blog posts are the most vital part of your blog, without them you are not saying much.

With the Blogging from A-Z Challenge coming up in April I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show my readers how the moleskine monthly can help organise your blogging posting schedule.

As you can see from the pictures above the moleskine monthly sets out on a two page spread the month of April. In each box I have written in the corner the letter of the alphabet allocated to that day in accordance with the challenge schedule. Then in each box I have also written what I hope to write about each day (I’m still brainstorming).

The schedule allows me to see what I need to post when and about what. This is why a notebook like this is great for focused challenges like this one, although it is also perfect for organising the rest of your blog postings during an ordinary month (and beyond).

Take a look at my second example below:

The blogging journal helps me spread out my posts evenly, reminds me of any deadlines for contests or challenges and keeps track of my two blogs and any articles/guest posts that I am writing. If you have a busy writing life – this helps. I also find that it helps inspire you and shows you whether you are being to focused or vague in any particular month. It can help analyse your writing habits – e.g. Do I prefer to write reviews, share wishlist items, or share practical advice. If however, you tend to have regular postings on particular topics such as a weekly interview, or podcast you can plan for the months ahead and find those posts where you still need material. In advance. So you don’t have a last-minute panic.

How you actually organise you posting schedule will depend on the format you use with your blog – but the key points are – get your ideas on paper, book in your regular slots, post regularly and evenly and never miss a deadline again.

Finally Found: Moleskine Monthly Planner

Last year I bought a monthly planner for organising my blogging. Unfortunately shortly after I got distracted and stopped blogging regularly. My new years resolution for 2012 was to get back into blogging so I had been looking high and low for a new monthly planner recently… Without much success until now.

This is my new monthly planner – soft cover and slightly bigger than last time (and more expensive at £16.99). The size is 19x25cm (bigger than a5 but not quite a4) which is slightly irritating. It is a little large to carry around, so it will end up being more of a “desk diary” which isn’t all bad, but I prefer my desk diaries to have hard covers… but I am unbelievably fussy and you can’t win them all. It is a nice notebook and the only actual disappointment is that the paper is a little thin even with biro (but this was the same as last years planner and I forgave this as it kept me organised).

Now that I have got back to it (“it” being the blogging) I hope to finish off my “blogging journal” series over the next few weeks. So until then catch up with the first part of the series if you haven’t already done so.

Iphone App Development… there is a notebook for that

Recently I have been toying with the idea of trying to learn how to build an iphone app. Coding aside one of the things that you need to consider is the User Interface. I started with a large notebook and some quick sketching – this works well. Very well for getting a few rough ideas out of my head and onto paper. However, when it comes to presenting this information as part of a business plan it looks messy.

There are plenty of electronic solutions for this, but I was of course intrigued about what I could find that was paper-based. I could remember the novelty iphone/ipad notebooks that were released, but I was looking for something more aimed at the designer, rather than simply for the novelty factor.

Examples I found include the Iphone App Sketchbook, iphone Sketch Pad, and Pocket Sketches (and for all you Moleskine fans check out the iphone template available at moleskine.com). All very nice looking notebooks and the first 2 are professional looking, with the pocket sketches option more for jotting down ideas. Think I will stick to the doodling for now, but may look into something a bit more professional when I come to presenting the business plan.

Open to suggestions….