Planning Planners
a good way to not get things done
You know what I did last weekend? Helped Abe dig a ditch across our driveway so we could put in basically a French drain. Tube in the ground. Because our south paddock (and general property), which is uphill, was flooding so badly that we needed to direct the water to a better place than the base of the log cabin. (Gotta protect our foundation, I guess.) My mom and her sister Karen helped and were essential to making it a one-day project (so that Karen could eventually leave). It’s working!! The whole area is draining faster than only from evaporation. What a relief.
I found the Traveler’s Company Notebooks on JetPens and they changed my life. Well, my planner life. It is just what I have been looking for. Very modular. It’s basically a cover with elastic bands inside to hold different notebooks for different purposes. I have . . . a bunch. Let’s start with the cover, though.
Instead of the leather cover that Traveler’s Company itself sells, I wanted a canvas. I ended up on Etsy and got mine from Veyrona in France. She does a single embossed word on the front and since I didn’t just want to put my name, I had her put “curiouser,” as in “Curiouser and curiouser,” from Alice in Wonderland. My only nitpick I wish the pen holder was a little bigger or stretch because I have this amazing pen and it barely fits, to the point I don’t bother. I also needed a better way to keep it open to my weekly page so I made that “We’re all mad here” elastic bookmark (elastic on the inside).
I got this weekly planner for my day-to-day tasks. But I didn’t take a picture of it for some reason. And that is the only actual planner I bought from Traveler’s Company. Mostly I make my own. Since I am using the purchased planner in an A5 Slim size (which is actually delightful), I do have to make my planners for that size (11cm wide and 22cm tall, about), rather than half letter (5.5cm wide and 8.5 inches tall).
For tracking my freelance work, I have a table of contents (in an actual table) where I track if I am done, title (because it is usually book-related), the type of work (proofreading, design, etc.), client, and if it has been paid. For each project, I then have a place to track when it comes in, when it is due, and when I send an invoice. There’s also a checklist area and notes area. I don’t always use these but they are super useful when I need them.
I have a calendar for planning social media, including Substack, but I have been terrible at using it. I draw a little ghost on days I forget to post anything and that is most days. Shoot. Funniest part? I have Tuesday scheduled as my day to post to Substack.
My project planner, I have had a hard time deciding the distinction. But I think I just realized these are “long-term” projects. Simpler contents page tracks if it is done, the description/title, and the category of work (a comic, a calendar, a game, etc.). The planners are all kind of based on eachother so there’s the similar checklist and notes area but this has a place to indicate what type of work it is and what the result will be (bound pages, loose pages, or digital) along with when I start and end.
Art planner is for individual works. On the contents, I track same things: done?, title, what it is for (sale, me, home, gift, etc.), and how much time I spent. As you can see in my comment on the image, I am terrible at tracking my time. I really do need to be better.
I already made a new one because the old one was not great. It was the first of all the planners I made and you can see the cover color is printed so it is rubbing off! I make notes as I use it what I want to fix and the only thing other than a smaller table of contents was something to indicate the stage of the design.
This is the newest design. I love it!! I was taking notes for books in my general notebook but this is so much better. It is for taking notes when reading nonfiction books and for writing my favorite quotes from fiction books. I forgot a pic of the TOC, but it tracks the page the notes are on, the title, author, and topic. And I added a rating column with a little check box to indicate if I want to buy it or if I have bought it.
This was my first go at a simple book for notes. I already almost filled it so I have made some changes for the next version. The grid is much too dark (75% black down to 25%). I also need to add page numbers and in the back, I added a table of contents (for 68 pages) where I can track the page number, subject (class name, who I am meeting with, etc.), additional tags (education, teaching, business plan), and type of notes (static list: class, business, crafts, creation, general). I might change it again, though so it is a TOC on the left simply by page and then Groups on the right to act more like an index by type (class, business, craft, etc.)
At the back, I have some fun ephemera holders. The folder holds my stickers and my notes about my current freelance work. There’s a tiny ruler in the zip pouch. And Traveler’s Company sells a sticker book! It’s like wax paper or something so you can store stickers in there, and pre-cut washi tape, so you can quickly add them to your pages.
All this and I have overfilled my original cover. So I am making a second cover. The Curiouser planner will be for all the tracking notebooks (craft patterns, art projects, general notes). And my new planner (pics to come) will hold my day-to-day working planners: weekly, freelance, social media calendar, and general notes.
My kid’s comic class has started. Next up for me at Jansen? Another curio class on making bones (May 17). Same day Abe’s Fundamentals of Photography class starts. Then feathers and fur curious on May 24, along with Abe’s class on taking better cellphone pics. On May 31, it’s making eyes for curios, and June 7 for plant curious.
June 24 to 26, I am teaching at the kids’ summer art camp! I’ll be doing a daily class on drawing animals, with different kids each day.
Then we get to the new stuff. Embroidered Watercolor Poppies on July 9 at the same time as Abe’s still photography. (Can you tell we are commuting together?) July 23, I’m teaching pieced block stamps like my bloberry totes and Abe’s teaching photography of moving subjects. August 6, I’m teaching inking with a nib and Abe’s teaching how to take pictures of people. Finally, August 20, I’m teaching how to embroider photos and Abe’s teaching macro photography.
I’ll post the photos for these projects soon.
False Knees! Sounds like a fake recommendation, but it is a beautiful series of bird comics by Joshua Barkman. I got Abe a crow sticker that says, “I’ll burn this city down.” And me a chickadee sticker. And two books, Woven and Life after Life. His longer form stories are just wonderful. He plans them out and then draws them over the course of a month, releasing them as he completes the pages. They are just so sweet and life-affirming, on top of being stunning eye candy!
I hope your day gets better from here!
-Angela
P.S. Wally loves his bed. I can’t stop taking photos to send to Abe.
