Journal 21...a planner review!

The good folks over at The Quo Vais Blog sent this planner out late last year and I bet they thought that I forgot about it. No way. However...here's a preface to this post. I am not a daily planner guy in the traditional "write it all down" sense...because of my work, I have to be tied to an electronic calendar. There aren't enough Getting Things Done seminars in the world that could figure out a way for me to accuratly keep two separate calendars matched if one is written with a pen. I simply don't have that functionality. That being said, what I do have is a need to track lots of items. Like: miles and expenses and calls and how many times a day Janet goes to the bathroom. (that would be funny and hurtful, except that I work from home.) Ehh...still funny.

But here I was, saddled with a journal that impressed me from the start. 1. It has some heft to it. It just feels substantial. 2. The paper is magical.

I will let the experts go over the details:

16 months monthly, September 2009 to December 2010
12 months daily, January to December
8 AM to 9 PM schedule
Soft green tinted vellum paper
72g, acid-free and pH neutral paper
Annual planning calendars for 2010 and 2011
Current and following month calendars
Elegant round corners — tear-off corner opens to day in progress
Sewn binding, lays flat when open
Full line per half-hour
Blank space for daily notes
Bound in address book
Refillable

You know what, there isn't one of those things that I disagree with. (and I have a little man crush on a few of those up there.)


So I don't tend to fill it up. I add things daily, but I am not sure I am using this as it is intended. Sure it reminds me of things and tracks items but I see this as a planner for someone who REALLY uses a planner. Like...life starts to crumble if the planner gets lost. Those people are still out there.

The good news is...that it is vacumatic and I love it. (no that's not the good news.) The good news is that it works on this paper. It's true, a journal that you can use your sloppiest fountain pens on. So go nuts! You can make this picture larger and try to figure out what I do during the day, but it's mostly like Nicholas Cage in Windtalkers....some sort of Navajo-like clicky sounds that would be impossible for the enemy to decipher.  (Whew, that took a bit longer to explain that I needed.)

So, pop quiz...you are called to a meeting in D.C. and you have 5 minutes to pack for a day trip. (not tottly unrealistic for me) What do YOU take? Here are the 4 things that I would grab to handle the meeting. Maybe a power cord also, but if I am limited to 4 items I can handle it for a while.

Bottom line, great journal, you can buy it here and I am glad I get the chance to use it.

I didn't have a quote in the journal so I will leave you with this one:

A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.
- Confucius

Planning...get it?

We have a winner (in my best carnival voice)

Jamie at Waterhalo is the winner.  I was going to get creative with cats or a monkey or something to determine the winner randomly,  but some people freak out about stuff like that,  so I picked the most boring option ever.

Jamie,  shoot me an email and we can sort out the details,  congrats.

And how could I not give the bonus prize to A Quiet mind for bringing Buddha into the mix.  I don't need that kind of bad karma on me,  so I will dig into the vault and pass something along to you as well.  Thanks for all the comments!

Seth