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How to Stay Organized with a Moleskine Planner

Contributor
By Eric Mack
eHow Contributing Writer
(0 Ratings)

Over the decades, from Hemingway to today's professionals who want to stay organized, but don't want to be constantly 'plugged in' to a Blackberry or other gadget, the Moleskine has been the way to go. Here's a few techniques for maximizing your own 'little black book.'

From Quick Guide: Daily Planner Basics
Difficulty: Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Moleskine Planner
  • Post-it notes
  1. Step 1

    Pick the Moleskine planner that's right for you - the advantage of the Moleskine over other planners is its compact size and relative durability. Still, some Moleskines are bigger than others; the daily planner offers a full page per day and is more than twice as thick as the weekly planner. Determine what is more important to you - portability or more space to write in. You can find moleskines online or at many retail booksellers.

  2. Step 2

    Once you have your planner in hand, it's time to get organized. You can start by adding your most critical phone numbers to the included mini-rolodex in the back, and noting important dates to know at a glance in the smaller yearly or monthly calendars in the first few pages of the front of the book.

  3. Step 3

    You'll notice a small pocket attached to the back cover of the planner, perfect for storing notes, receipts and other loose but important pieces of paper. I suggest using it to carry around a small cache of sticky notes, which we'll put to use in later steps.

  4. Step 4

    Go ahead and fill in important meetings, deadlines and other events in the appropriate dates and times.

  5. Step 5

    For tasks that need to be accomplished on a specific date, they can be listed in the blank header space at the top of each day page - But often that's not nearly enough space, which is where the sticky notes come in.

  6. Step 6

    Write out your 'rolling to-do list' on a sticky note, and stick it on to the opposing page of the current date so both today's engagements and your to-do list are visible.

  7. Step 7

    Cross accomplished off your to-do list, remove and re-stick it to the next page as the days progress so it's always visible. When it's all crossed-off or too messy, start again with a fresh sticky note from your cache in the back pocket.

Tips & Warnings
  • Highlighters are another great tool for further organizing tasks and engagements in your Moleskine
  • The occasional moleskine will come with a defective spine or glue - try to break-in yours right away to make sure it's up to snuff. You can exchange it easily if it fails early on.
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