How to Stay Organized with a Moleskine Planner
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.'
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Instructions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Go ahead and fill in important meetings, deadlines and other events in the appropriate dates and times.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
