Life on the Road

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I got away from using a “Day Timer” type planner when I got out of the workplace, and I had never really warmed up to gadgets like the Palm Pilot.

Over the last few years (okay, decade or so) I have used several online calendaring applications, Outlook’s calendar, and who know what else.

But I found I really prefer to have a paper book, with easy pages to keep notes of other things, too – like a hard copy address book, so that when my hard drive crashes I’m not stranded!

Anyhow, last year I bought this: Yearbook for the Home Keeper.

I really like a lot of things about it – weekly calendar pages, address book, website notes / passwords pages, even Bible verses and such!

But it does seem to have a lot of pages I don’t use.  Some are for things I would like to try, but others I just can’t see myself using – grocery lists which seem awkward to get to when I need them, etc.

So I wondered what else was out there.

I’m not sure I’m up for the cost of getting started anew with a Day Timer or one of those monsters. 

The Yearbook goes in a 3-ring notebook, which is nice – although maybe a bit big, if I ever wanted to take it anywhere…

I asked around, and got some suggestions, including MomAgenda,  Mom’s Plan-It Engagement Calendar, and even a Boynton planner!

As I compared, I was able to clarify some of the things that mattered most – and least – to me about the planners.

I was looking at the nifty Comparison Chart over at Families With Purpose (a site worthy of your attention in its own right!), and started thinking about her categories, plus the other issues I ran across:

• Day-at-a-Glance vs. Week-at-a-Glance – I am definately a weekly person.  Monthly calendars don’t have enough room to write, and with a daily I don’t get enough of an overview.
• Horizontal vs. Vertical format – who cares?
• 17 month?  Cute Graphics?  Yeah, whatever…
• Spiral Bound vs. Book Bound vs. Punched – This turnedout to be one of my biggest issues, when I noticed the handy “take your info with you to next year” booklet that one of the planners included.  I realized then that I was hooked on hole-punched – which allows me to take whatever I want into next year (address book, birthday list, pantry list, WHATEVER!)
• Secular vs. Christian – They’re almost all secular.  Boynton would at least be funny.  But my Yearbook has Scripture verses, neat inspirational messages…  I think I prefer that.  A lot.

So what did I choose?

The Amy Knapp Family Planner, Christian, 7-hole-punched version.  She also does them spiral bound, has a secular version, and even had a digital product!

I picked up a 7-ring binder on eBay for cheap, and now I’m just waiting for them to arrive…