More About Planners

I am pretty excited about my new planner, not only because of the countless reasons I mentioned in my last post. I am excited because next month, I will be starting my practice (3 clinics, in 3 different cities, 5 days a week) full blast. December, I suspect, would be like a “soft opening” because of the holidays. People are usually not too keen on having themselves checked during the holidays because they tend to be more concerned with parties, and shopping, and reunions, etc. Most aches and pains can wait until the turn of the year. Plus, I’m a fledgling so I am just being realistic; referrals and patients are not going to come pouring in. So new year, new planner, new chapter in my life.

I dream of filling up my planner with meetings, lectures, me-time projects, and patient appointments. Actually, I still have not decided regarding the last one; don’t patient stuff – appointments for BMA, chemotherapy protocols and schedules – merit a separate notebook?

I do have a few more spare pocket notebooks in my closet, not to mention an A5 binder, an A4 2009 notebook that I intend to recycle, and a Franklin Covey (yes, Franklin!) - a hand-me-down, albeit unused, from hubby. That last one I’m pretty excited about though I have not the slightest inkling what to do with it. It’s A5 and has this gorgeous dark brown leather cover, with two pages per day. The left side has a space for a prioritized daily task list (quite a mouthful), a daily tracker (for email, expenses, etc), and the appointment schedule (with a couple of lines for each hour, from 8 am to 8 pm… especially made for the workaholic). The right side is a beautiful expanse of a lined page for daily notes - scribbles, meeting agendas, mind-mapping and what-not. Plus, there’s a quote for each day, mostly related to work and productivity. It’s 2009 and I do want to recycle it for 2010. I just don’t know exactly what to do with it. Do I use it for patients’ notes? I have their clinic medical records for that purpose. Besides, it cannot be easy lugging around this huge binder from one clinic/city to another, regardless of whether I drive or take the bus.

Oh, let me not forget about the spare filofax in my drawer. It’s smaller than the Franklin, only about 5 x 7 inches. I have a couple of packs of loose page refills (lined, for notes). But the filofax’s one-page-per-week layout does not appeal to me. I am a vertical writer. As a student, I loved lengthwise pad paper. I’d often fold a paper in half and write in columns. When I need to use a whole page, my writing barely reaches the right side of the paper.

I do not know of a single friend (real friend, not a Facebook friend) who shares my silly passion for all things paper, notebook, and stationery. Which is why I love wasting precious time surfing blogs such as http://notebookaddict.com, http://unclutterer.com, or http://officesupplygeek.com plus many, many other sites. Though miles apart, people who loiter around these sites and I are kindred spirits. We go through life one (or a few) notebooks at a time.

The Perfect Planner

Yehey! Today I have crossed out most of the urgent and/or important tasks on my to-do list. Some of them were musts that have been bugging me for days, even weeks (BIR, printing jobs,birthday presents for my sister, etc.). Others were errands – stuff related to the kids’ school activities, things to buy for an uncle, etc.

But the real highlight of my day was (okay, brace yourself… here comes the geekiness) having chanced upon the most perfect planner!

For more than two weeks, I have had this nagging, almost irrational urge to start hacking my spare notebook into a 2010 planner. It’s a black, pocket-size, lined Scribe notebook (a Moleskine knock-off) that has been sitting in the darkest corner of my closet for months. Inspired by things I’ve stumbled upon during hours of mindless web surfing, I wanted to turn it into a year of 2-pages-a-week planner with lots of spare pages for to-do lists, notes, and scribbles. More pressing demands (like sleep, for instance) have been keeping me from diving in.

I have made a few visits to my favorite bookstore and somehow the planners that were available then did not suit my needs. They were either too small, or too bulky, or downright unattractive, or too expensive. And none of them had enough space (at the end of the year) for notes. Once, I managed to gather enough courage to check out those red Moleskine 18-month planners but I can never make myself spend that much money for a notebook, no matter how fancy it is.

But today… ahhh. I cannot hide this silly grin on my face. I went to National Bookstore for some laminating jobs and found this:

It’s black, covered with decent-looking faux leather. It’s the right size – handy yet has enough space for each day for important dates, meetings, and tasks.

The paper quality is good enough for me as I only use ball-point pens or a mechanical pencil for writing. The bonus part was the second half of the planner which comprised of pages and pages of lined notes. I plan to split these into two parts using sticky tabs – To-do Lists and Notes/Important Things to Remember.

I am optimistic that these notes would be enough to last me through the year as I have a separate Hipster PDA for (3 x 5 index cards held together by a carabiner) that I use for special lists and MITs.

And here’s the best part: it’s very cheap. Only 79 pesos (or about one and a half dollars) and it’s locally made! It’s such a great steal… makes me look forward to a great year ahead.

Enlightenment

I feel great, not to mention, grateful after I have made my entry for the day in my gratitude journal. Which is good ‘cause if not, what’s the point, right? It’s remarkable how very much different I am feeling right now compared to the past three days. The glaring difference is that I was able to accomplish today what has been sitting on my to-do list for the longest time.

I bought the ‘good’ coffee (as Ina Garten would say) that I have been planning to splurge on for the longest time. Got myself prepaid internet cards. Went to the library and sat there reading for 5 hours or so instead of moping around the house as I have done early this week. Gave Mommy a call just to say hi, tried to catch up on each other and let her know I thought of her. Best of all, I finally mustered the courage and energy to hand in the draft of my research paper to my consultant. I have been working my butt off, albeit on and off, on that project for more than a year - sweat, blood, and tears - but never got around to finishing off what I started. Finally, a few days ago I got the huge push that I needed: a deadline. Next week. So I thank the Lord I caught my boss in time. Now I just have to wait for her feedback (hmmm… bite nails, pull hair) with the least anxiety possible. After that, some revisions, a re-check, submission to the society and section, and voila! Paper done! Yipeee!

Anyway, this kind of enlightenment (the kind I got today about the futility of procrastination, among others) has been coming at me countless times for years. Perhaps now, I should grow up, truly learn from the experience and CHANGE FOR THE BETTER. Which reminds me of this song that has been going on in my head for the past twenty-four hours: “I’m gonna make a changefor once in my life. It’s gonna feel real good. I’m gonna make a difference, gonna make it right”. Sigh. Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. Say hi to Daddy for me. Don’t forget to give him a moonwalk, okay. I just know he’d be thrilled (pun intended)!

By the way, the Brazilian coffee I bought is great! (Sip, sip).

I love my life. I love my family. I love myself.

I better start saying this to myself every single day.

My Own Non-Moleskine Notebook PDA, Finally!

It’s been 24 hours and I am still absolutely thrilled with my new notebook! Not the notebook notebook that I am typing on right now. Notebook as in paper, pages, pen… that kind of notebook. I managed to buy one last night from Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street. Small, burgundy, roughly 4 x 6 inches. I know it’s not a Moleskine. It’s not real leather. But hey, it looked sturdy enough and it cost me only 220 pesos =) That’s a real steal… enough to make me very, very happy. Besides, no matter what other people say, I can never get myself to buy a Moleskine. Even if I had the money in my wallet, I just couldn’t/wouldn’t. There are more than enough good-enough, pretty enough substitutes out there. Kuripot talaga, hehe.

Using post-its, I split it into four sections: calendar (one week per page), next actions, projects, and notes. I haven’t had the chance to cross out any of my next actions/to-do’s yet BUT I am really pleased with the way it looked and I have a good feeling about it. I think the notebook PDA is going to do its job for me. Now, the rest is up to me.