Time managment (analog style)

I like the Internet. A lot. Technology and I get along well most of the time. I built my current computer, I get all of my news through RSS feeds, and synchronization gets me excited. It seems obvious then that I would use some sort of digital planner. Not anymore.

At the beginning of Fall quarter I tried a number of different daily planning methods. I used the recently-shutdown iwantsandy.com for a while as well as Remember the Milk. They were both services that I enjoyed, but in the end they just fell short.

It took me a few weeks, but the problem finally dawned on me. I don’t consider my phone an organization device. Shocking, I know. When I had to remember something I was more likely to jot it down in the corner of a notebook than send off a text message. Once I got the revelations out of the way the next logical step was to find something pen and paper based that would work as my external short term memory.

Daily planners at the bookstores were not so much expensive as they were clunky. The benefit of using my phone was that it is small. If fits in my pocket and leaves room for whatever else I’m carrying. Don’t get me wrong; a nice moleskin notebook would be wonderful, but smaller is better.

I eventually stumbled upon PocketMod. The idea is fairly simple. A single piece of paper is cut and folded in such as way that is creates an eight page booklet, front and back included. The entire folded PocketMod is about the size of my wallet and thinner than a credit card. I can slip it into my back pocket and not notice it.

I print out a new one every two weeks and use almost no ink and only one page of paper.

The best feature of the PocketMod — the feature that led me to actually try it out — is the Web site. It presents a wonderful, flash based page that allows you to drap and drop pages to be printed. The whole thing, front page included, is customizable. I flirted with a few layouts, but settled on a two week planner face to face, a month calender, a finance and shopping list, two lined sheets and the cover.

Since I started using my PocketMod on a regular basis I have been extremely pleased. I am a big fan of technology, don’t get my wrong, but sometimes a pen and paper just does it better.

Tags: College, Personal