Phew. Now that the My Busy Week planner is safely with the printers I can sit back and relax, and have a think about my own stationery and planner needs. I’m going back to University at the end of September, and I want to be as organised as possible, but I also need to minimise the amount of STUFF that I carry to and from campus with me every day.
This is my current system – my own weekly diary and notes pages, printed out and stored in an old plastic binder. Trouble is, I hate this binder because the plastic’s cracked and the pages don’t turn over very neatly, but I don’t know what to replace it with. Cardboard wallets get scruffy very quickly, those plastic pockets with a popper get stuck on the pockets of my rucksack and crumple any papers you try to slide in next to them. Ring binders are too thick, my A5 Filofax is too heavy… but what other options are there?
- I need to carry a diary with me… but I don’t really want to carry an entire year in one go. About three months (or a term at a time) should do.
- I need to be able to keep notes for each module that I do, which are going to be more extensive than I can fit onto the weekly pages I’ve designed.
I also need to be able to keep track of what I’m doing with eternal magpie, Miss Mouse & friends, and my conservation Twitter… but I don’t necessarily need to carry that around with me all the time. In fact, I think I’m going to keep using the Maker’s Business Yearbook for those things. This year I ordered the print-at-home version… and then didn’t print it out. Oops. Next time I think I’ll splash out for the spiral-bound book again, and keep it open at all times on my desk.
But! This still doesn’t solve the problem of what I’m going to carry around with me every day.
- Do I keep my diary pages and try to find a nicer folder to put them into?
- Do I print out lots of additional notes pages (easily customisable but potentially untidy), or do I buy a slim notebook (finite number of pages, but neater) for each module that I take?
I know I don’t want anything hardback (too heavy), or spiral bound (it’ll catch on the pockets inside my bag).
The University’s own bookshop sells these very straightforward Silvine ruled A4 notebooks in blue or red, for the bargain price of 95p each. Ryman have a pack of 10 for £6.49, which is even more bargainous!
(You can also get a pack of forty for £50, but that’s not cheaper, which seems weird. They have an equivalent for about £20 for fifty books in Staples! And even I probably don’t need that many notebooks for a two year part time MA. Probably…)
Ryman sell these A4 notebooks, with either ruled or squared paper, in a choice of ten different colours. They’re £1.99 and very tempting! I thought the squared ones might be a good basis for a bullet journal, but at 10cm the squares might be a little bit too big for that. Silvine have a version with 5mm squares for £1.79, but the paper’s boring old white.
WHSmith have a set of three kraft paper notebooks for £4.99, but each one’s different. (Wide ruled, narrow ruled, and squared.) They’re stitched rather than stapled, and they look like a really nice quality. I might have to get me to a WHSmith and give the paper a bit of a fondle. (That’s normal, right?)
I did look at fancier things, like Moleskine cahier journals (expensive and I don’t like the paper) and the Leuchturm Jottbook (numbered pages and nice smooth paper, extremely tempting), and the one pictured above, which is the Blackwing Summit notebook (to go with my favourite Palomino Blackwing pencil) but I think I’m probably better off going for one of the cheaper options and not blowing a good chunk of my student loan on fancy notebooks. (I know, who even am I?)
The cheapest option possible would be to make my own books out of paper that I have already. I made these tiny ones as gifts to go inside the pockets of my dresses… but I could easily make some that are a little bit bigger! A few years ago I made some stapled sketchbooks by simply folding A3 cartridge paper in half, but that’s a bit extravagant for taking lecture notes. I do have a pad of squared paper, but it’s A4, and I already know that the resulting A5 book would just end up lost in the pockets of my rucksack.
Of course, if you know me, you’ll be aware that I’m fussing about this largely non-important stuff as a way of distracting myself from the fact that I don’t find out my schedule until the week before classes start. So even if I do manage to find myself a lovely new diary (Diary! I haven’t even talked about diaries! The discontinued Moleskine one with a separate little book for each month would have been ideal.) or the perfect notebook, I can’t write anything in them anyway.
So. Calling all fellow stationery addicts! Distract me!
Share your favourite stationery with me, and show me how you stay organised!