At the start of the year, I made a new planner for myself. After using it for a full quarter, I realised it wasn’t really working for me.
For one, I accidentally mis-counted the pages I’d need and filled it with two years’ worth of weekly pages. That made it awfully bulky.
More problematic, though, was that I’d divided the page up into blocks for each day of the week. As I used the book, I found myself scribbling notes from my weekly review in the margins and clipping a to-do list onto the page. What’s the point of having a custom planner if you have to stick notes to it?
So this week, in addition to making a bunch of little books (I’m almost finished everything for the Alternative Press Fair!), I made myself a new diary.
This one’s thinner, and I incorporated my own end-papers this time, made using inks and stamps. I kept the additional sections at the back (Follow-up, Thoughts, Projects), but overhauled the calendar page to work the way that, it turns out, I actually use them.
The original:
This last part usually comes out of a kooky little exercise I do called “Weekly Review at the Imaginary Diner”, where I sit down in a roadside café in my mind and talk with three different experts each week about the things I’m working on or struggling with.
I realise this is all made up, but I find it incredibly helpful and insightful. As in my novel-writing, I’ve come to discover that my subconscious and my imagination are a lot smarter than my day-to-day mind — or at least work more holistically and are less reactive.
The great thing about learning DIY skills is that you can create custom-made tools to suit every single purpose.
The bad thing about learning DIY skills is that you can create custom-made tools to suit every single purpose.
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