I Must Get Round To It

I'm kind of obsessed about being organized. Notice I didn't say I am organized, I just like the idea. Throughout the years, I've had dozens of paper-based organizers (Dayrunners, Daytimers, Filofaxes, etc.), and more than a few PDA's (let's see - 5 Palm OS, 3 Windows Mobile/Windows CE, at least a few others). This is all in addition to carrying my laptop most days. Until a few weeks ago, my daily bag was a 2.400 cubic-inch backpack that usually held:

-My laptop
-Laptop A/C adapter, mini-USB hub, keyboard pad, mouse, 3 flash drives, assorted cables
-Nintendo DS, carrying case, A/C adapter, earbuds, 14 games
-Sony PSP, carrying case, memory sticks, A/C adapter, USB cable, earbuds
-Three games cases with ~30 PSP games
-Full-size iPod
-iPod shuffle
-iPod dock cable
-Dayrunner
-Windows Mobile HPC w/ integrated GPS, sync cable
-Noise-reducing headphones
Digital camera, extra memory cards, spare batteries
-Notebook
-Several textbooks
-Several novels
-Several magazines
-Misc. unfiled bills, work forms, etc.
-Multitool
-Lighters & matches
-Small first-aid kit/travel-size toiletries, etc.

Needless to say, this was getting a bit out of hand. I didn't use half that stuff on a monthly basis, much less daily - I just liked to have it just in case. I decided to seriously slim down what I carried on a daily basis, and to make the stuff I did carry more useful (who needs two games systems and 40+ games with them? I haven't even played the damn things in months!). For a long time I had been drooling over Maxpedition's line of bags (I also have a bit of a problem with getting the latest & greatest bags to haul my gadgets around), but I just couldn't justify spending the money on one, even though I had heard great things. Then, one of the members of a forum I frequent mentioned that a friend had a store that was going out of business, and he could get us Maxpedition stuff at a healthy discount. Since my tax return had just come in, I decided to splurge and ordered a Jumbo Versipack. The bag is great (I'll do a write-up on it soon), but this meant that I was going to be going from 2,400 cubic inches of space to carry my junk to a paltry 340 cubic inches. Clearly, some difficult decisions were going to have to be made...

One of the things I decided to start with was my Dayrunner - for the past few years, I have been using this model:


It's nice and all, but it has several problems: The PDA pocket was designed for a different model PDA than mine, and the PDA routinely tries to fly out when I open it; It's too big; and, probably most importantly, I never, ever use it. I just get a wild hair up my ass every couple of years, go out and blow $40 on up-to-date calendars and refills for it, then it sits in my bag for another two years. I decided to see if I could come up with something better.

I started looking around for a pocket-sized organizer that would do only what I needed - I liked the Levenger notebooks and the Filofax organizers, but they were too pricey (at least $20 to start, and that's before you buy any custom refills). I also don't really care for pre-designed systems - I always feel obligated to fill everything out, then I don't use half of it. I decided to try to come up with something on my own.

While emptying out the aforementioned backpack, I came across a blank Moleskine notebook. I bought it for some forgotten purpose, but I liked the size and it seemed durable. I went to the local drugstore and bought some stick-on tabs and page markers, and on the way out I noticed they had a few sheets of adhesive letters in a clearance bin, so I grabbed those too. Later that night I got on the Internet to see if I could get any ideas for my new organizer, and I was shocked - there's a whole cult based around customized homemade organizers. PigPog, 43 Folders, Pocketmod, Getting Things Done... there is a crazy amount of people hacking their own organizers, and almost all of 'em prefer paper. I read for a couple of days and decided to give it a shot. My version is most closely based on one that I saw at Creating Passionate Users.

As I mentioned before, I started with a Moleskine-style notebook - I don't even know if mine is "authentic" or a knockoff, as I removed the wrapper long ago. The UPC in the back cover says "made for Barnes & Noble", so I think it's a knockoff. Regardless, the genuine article should be available at your local bookstore for around $10. This might seem like a lot for a notebook, but they're hardbound and have a nifty elastic closure, so drop a sawbuck on one, ya cheap bastard.

I bought a set of Post-It flags, a set of Avery Write-On tabs (#16143), and the aforementioned set of Pioneer 3-D black letters. About $4-$5 for this stuff. It seems the preferred Moleskine for this project is the top-hinged "Reporter" model, but I prefer the traditional opening style. I did like the pocket that the Reporter models had inside the back cover, though, so I decided to make my own: I scavenged a folder from my old Dayrunner, along with some scissors and a bottle of contact cement that my employer apparently bought sometime around the Spanish-American War:



I cut the folder to size, applied the contact cement, and secured it with some binder clips while it dried:



Next, I decided to make a phone index for my organizer. This is not for every phone number I have - I have my cell phone, Windows HPC, and iPod that all have my computer's contacts synced to them. I just wanted crucial numbers (family, a few co-workers, etc.) in case I'm ever in a situation where my phone's battery is dead/my HPC is broken/my iPod gets lost/etc. and I need an actual hard copy. Maybe 20-25 numbers total, so it's not a big deal to hand-write them. I took the Avery tabs and diveded up the rear section of the notebook, and used the stick-on letters for the tabs:


A few randomly-placed paper clips allow me to secure business cards, receipts, etc.

Next, I took the Post-It flags and came up with a system using the colors that were available. I wrote a legend on the first page of the notebook:


(Sorry for the blurry pic). Basically, my system breaks down like this:

Blue tab = today
Red tab = yearly calendar
Green tab = upcoming appointments
Orange tab = To do
Yellow tab = Notes/Misc.

You can kind of see that I also wrote "Please return to" with my contact info on the inside cover.

I also found a website that offered an appropriately-sized printable yearly calendar, so I printed one out and glued it in the back cover:


You can also see how the pocket in the rear holds extra tabs & flags. Here is the overall footprint of the finished product:


Overall, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's a much less "rigid" structure than one's I've used in the past, shich is a good thing for me. I'm only locked into using the last twenty pages or so of the notebook for a specific purpose, so it should last me a good long time. The tabs & flags remove cleanly from the pages, so I can use them again later. The notebook is small enough that it fits in the tiny outer pocket of my bag, where my old one took up 60% of the available space in the main compartment. It's also small enough to carry in my pocket by itself, increasing the likelihood that I'll actually have it on me and use it. I'll try it out for a while and report any major revisions...