43 Folders

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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

DIY paper planner

Carthage: Hannibal's Journal: Personal: Rolling my own paper-based time management system

I like this simple homemade paper planner -- especially the free form lined approach for the pages.

What I recently decided to do is make my own day planner, print it up on my laser-jet, and then take it somewhere to have it spiral bound. Since I'm lazy, I didn't want to have to type the date at the top of 365 pages in Word, so I came up with a way to do it by putting "March, 2006" next to the automatically generated page numbers in the header. I also put all the other formatting for the page in the header as well, so that it's reproduced on each page of the document. Then, I just add 31 page breaks and voila, a DIY day planner for the month of March...

The wide lined column is for writing down the day's tasks. The narrower one is for appointments; I just scribble in the time and a note. The "Contacts" region is where I write reminders to get back to people by phone, email, etc. Finally, the "Notes" region is where I write down stuff like confirmation numbers, tracking numbers, phone numbers, and anything else anyone tells me while I'm on the phone that I need to jot down.

Lifehacker's picture

Interview with a Lifehacker: Merlin...

Interview with a Lifehacker: Merlin Mann...

Merlin Mann is the first geek I knew to read a book called Getting Things Done. About two years ago, he started blogging about it, compiling all the tips and tricks he picked up along the way. He's no......

 
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