Pukka Pads: City Range

Pukka Pads – we all know and love the fantastic range of notebooks brought to us by Pukka Pads. As students my classmates and I used them for EVERYTHING (or at least the cheap own-brand knockoffs).

Recently I had heard talk of the new business range from Pukka Pads – so I decided to check it out. Honestly, I was disappointed.

The new range is called the “City Range“:

perfect for businesses and executives seeking design, style and sophistication in quality-writing pads.

Why was I disappointed? Yes they are sleek and sophisticated. Yes, the are great quality products (like all pukka pad products)…. but they are boringly black.

Source: Pukka Pads

Yes I am a professional, but you can have a professional notebook without being black. There is a slight design on the Casebound Notebooks (pictured) which does liven up the notebooks slightly but it still feels very black. If I want black “Black n Red” offer a more tempting range in my opinion.

What I love about Pukka Pads is their quirkiness. Their everyday ranges are great for that and a sound reason for people to choose them. I understand that professionals are unlikely to pick a notebook from their Everyday Range to use in the office (my workplace included) but professional notebooks do not have to be boring. If anyone was going to do a professional notebook with a twist I was sure it would be Pukka Pads. Unfortunately it was not.

City Range: Sleek and Sophisticated, but is not going to be admired in the office, will simply “blend in” and personally I love notebooks as a talking point.

How to: Organise your Blogging (#1: the Journal)

After the interest in my “Goal Journal” Series. This month I decided to start a new “Blog Journal” Series to match.

To help organise your blogging routine I bring you the “Blogging Journal”. As usual the first step for starting a journal of any kind is finding the right notebook. Here I have decided on a Moleskine Monthly Planner.

Why use a notebook at all?

I used to use the fantastic free planners from productive flourishing (great planners and great informative post suggesting the best method to use – well worth a read).

Unfortunately, I found that I wrote my ideas in what ever notebook I was using and the bits of paper would go everywhere. I used to simply keep planner for any given month folded up in the back of whatever diary I was using, but then I would find that inspiration that I never wrote about would be on the previous months planner which would be all tatty and messy by this stage (not to mention tea stained) and possibly discarded.

The solution I thought would be to have a notebook/planner specifically for blogging.All things related to blogging – all in one place.

Why a monthly Moleskine planner?

Once I decided that a notebook was the way forward (besides I am always looking for excuses for a new notebook) –  the next decision was which notebook?

Here I am going to recommend the choice I settled on (after much debate): the Monthly Moleskine Planner. I use an A5 notebook, but Moleskine have a range of monthly planners which could be more suited to your needs/portability issues.

The key use of my blogging journal was for post planning. I do blog on a whim, inspiration finds me and I write. But I am trying to beat the writer’s block, post more regularly and post at intervals (and not have an inspired manic posting week, then silence for a month). The monthly view was the obvious choice to help meet these goals. Rather than a simple monthly planner that just included the month view, the Moleskine has 2 ruled pages for notes in between each month – which had a lot of potential (but more about this in later posts).

It may seem a little late to pick up a 12 month planner, but many places still have them in stock at a reduced price. I got mine half price in Waterstones at the beginning of March (and they still have them in stock now).

Why do you need a blogging journal at all?

You might think that all sounds great (and that’s a nice looking notebook) but why bother? Well, Blogging in a more organised way cannot do you any harm. As I stated earlier I consider erratic posting unhelpful, and want to focus on a number of blogging goals. The blogging journal is a medium to keep track of the goals, my posts (particularly as I have a couple of blogs to keep track of) and to keep a “mind dump” of inspiration. I have found it much more productive to have this contained in my Blogging Journal than in my day book where it has usually ended up. As I would have to flag it on my day book review, but there was nowhere to transfer it to so it was more obvious. Now there is.

Still not convinced you need one? Well call back to see the next post in the series when I begin to show how the blogging journal is used.