planner

Ecosystem Advisor

gwen — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

I have been through many a planner in my life, from the small plastic-covered one with creepy kitten pictures, to one made of fake leather with a magnetic clasp. I prefer to keep it pretty simple when it comes to planners. But I’m also very picky about the amount of space I need to write down notes, not to mention the question of having a daily, weekly, or monthly view. Plus, it needs to be relatively light and easy to carry with me.

The sweet thing about Ecosystem books is that you can customize your purchase. There are four kinds of notebooks available: the Author (ruled journal), Architect (grid journal), Advisor (the planner), and Artist (blank journal). You also get to choose the cover (hard or flexible), the size, and even the color (with sassy names like lagoon and kiwi), since as the website says, "one color does not fit all." I have the onyx-colored Advisor, which has monthly and two weekly view options.

The price range is from $9.95 to $18.95, which is on par with Moleskin, the other company a lot of people go to when trying to find a quality notebook. However, the key difference and the reason you should consider going the Ecosystem route is that you are doing a great service to the environment. The Ecosystem books are 100% post-consumer recycled paper. If you go to the website, you can enter in a specialized pin code on the back page of your book and it will tell you exactly when it was made and where each part of the planner, from binding to the elastic band was assembled, the ecosystem attribute of each place, and even how many people are employed there!

Last year Ecosystem’s style of production saved 3,046 full-grown trees and over a million gallons of water. Furthermore, they are made in the United States, which helps the economy and saves on the energy it would take to transport them farther.

You can also check on their website to see how and where you can recycle your book when you are finished with it. There is also a lost and found, in case you misplace your Ecosystem book and want to see if anyone found it (and had the presence of mind to go on the website). Probably unlikely, but a cute idea!

As an avid writer of to-do lists and random bits of information that I must either jot down or forget, I like a good amount of space available for notes. On the left side of my Advisor pages was the week, with space for notes each day. On the right side was just a ruled page for notes. I really dug this set-up. It didn't make me feel overwhelmed like the monthly view does and I found it really helpful to still have a lot of space to write all the things I needed to get done. Other then that, the Advisor is pretty no-frills. But just knowing I was using something that was a benefit to the environment made me feel happy in the heart.

The only other bonuses are a small paper pocket in the back to keep perhaps coupons or receipts in. Plus of course, the random information always included in planners, the time zones, measurement conversions, international dialing codes. I am still convinced one day I will actually utilize these. Until then, at least I know I am not hurting the environment by having these extra pages!

Written by: Lesley Kartali, December 20th 2010

A Woman's Agenda 2011: Celebrating Movers and Shakers

beth — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Karen Helm

Second Story Press

Whenever I walk into an office supply store, my heart bursts into song. Traipsing rapturously down the aisles of Staples or Office Depot, it's all I can do not to spin like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Five subject notebooks and highlighter markers, White-Out and staples and hanging file folders, colorful Post-its of differing size: these are a few of my favorite things.

As someone with a fetishistic love of organization, I appreciate a good annual planner. While I generally keep my schedule and to do lists updated using a variety of paperless tools—such as Outlook's calendar feature and Google Docs—there are benefits to having a hard copy version of my schedule: at a glance, I can see everything on my plate without needing to pull out my laptop. It also allows me to step out of the weeds of my day-to-day commitments and reflect about my workload and my year. Finally, because I'm shortly going to be spending the next two years volunteering abroad, I want to have a tangible, coherent vision of what's happening in my life next, during months of transition where I will feel lost and out of control for long stretches of time—and possibly with minimal technology available.

A lot to ask of a planner, I know. Still, A Woman's Agenda 2011 seems a good fit for my needs. Solidly spiral bound and measuring roughly five inches by eight inches, the calendar is hefty enough to accommodate the details of my schedule I need while still being small enough to fit in a purse or messenger bag—and feel manageable. Each month has two blank pages for notes; each week has space for an hour-by-hour breakdown of your schedule. Unfortunately, the weekends get short shrift, with fewer lines allotted for tasks on Saturday and Sunday.

This oversight is compensated for, to an extent, by the inspiration that dots the pages of this calendar: every month has a feminist luminary. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and American politician Shirley Chisholm both receive two-page profiles, as do several Canadian women like women's hockey team captain Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Every week also has an inspiring quote, presumably by the woman profiled at the start of the month (those these are unattributed, so this is an assumption). Finally, there is a list of feminist websites to visit for further inspiration and community.

While A Woman's Agenda 2011 is flawed, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Snag one for the on-the-go feminists in your life, as they start to reflect on what they'll accomplish in the coming year.

Written by: Catherine Nicotera, November 15th 2010

Botanical 2011 Monthly & Weekly Planning Calendar

mandy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Posh

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Upon returning to the United States after living for two years abroad, my partner was particularly giddy about one specific purchase: a cell phone. In the time we'd been in India, smartphones had become commonplace, and my Applephile other half was overjoyed at the idea of being able to sync his Macbook and iPod with a mobile device. Although he valiantly fought for an iPhone, the more cost efficient two-for-one sale on the Droid won out. For my part, I don't give two flips about technosyncage, and I'm not entirely convinced my semi-functional PC can handle that kind of software. I just wanted to be able to easily check my email.

Although I'm moving in the direction of a paperless lifestyle (the Droid is facilitating my newly blossoming love of apps), the process is slow-going. And now that the end of the year is drawing near, I find myself on a search for the perfect new year planner. I'm not high maintenance, but I do have two uncompromising needs: 1) monthly and weekly planning sections and 2) enough space to write in each. Although it sounds like a simple enough request, many planners fail in at least one of these regards, but the Posh Botanical 2011 Monthly & Weekly Planning Calendar has what it takes—and more.

Let me start with the basics. This desk planner is 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches and comes in four different retro chic designs: Botanical, Flowers & Stars, Circles & Squiggles, and Asters. All have a feminine sensibility without going over the precipice to infantile, a risk one runs with cutesy product aesthetic. An elastic band wraps around the outside of the planner to hold the cover closed, and a single ribbon allows you to easily keep your place. It's utilitarian in form and function.

Once you crack the slick and sturdy cover, you come directly to twelve pages of monthly calendars. This is where I keep track of important dates, like birthdays and holidays, that I need to prepare for in advance. Gift buying shouldn't be a last minute affair, but it ends up as one when you're only going week-by-week. Posh has also helpfully included major U.S. and international holidays, as well as religious celebrations from Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. So, while you won't find the dates for Durga Puja, you will find Ramadan, and I can live with that.

Just past this monthly section are the two-page spreads of fifty-two weeks broken up into an equally spaced seven days. I appreciate that Saturday and Sunday don't get the short end of the stick, as some other planners are apt to extend the size allotted for traditional work week days at the expense of the two on the weekend. But since I work on several projects outside of my proper 9 to 5, I don't want those days relegated to secondary status by giving them a decreased size. I want them to have equal spacial importance. Posh comes through again!

The handful of back pages in the Posh Botanical 2011 Monthly & Weekly Planning Calendar get a little hit or miss, which is to say that they've covered all the bases and not everyone will need everything found here. There are one-page 2010 and 2012 year-long reference calendars, as well as a two-page "2012 Looking Ahead" spread. Six pages are provided for "Names & Addresses," which even I prefer my cell phone to hold, and inclusion of "Emergency Numbers" seems terribly outdated, especially when situated opposite a page for jotting down "Web Sites." Three pages for "Notes" brings up the rear.

I plan to wear this desk planner out next year, and maybe with a little more cajoling, I'll consider making the tech savvier, eco-switch come the year of the Mayan apocalypse. Perhaps by then my PC will have seen its end-of-days and a sync won't seem so scary.

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, October 22nd 2010

2010 Slingshot Organizer

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0000

By Slingshot Collective

AK Press

It warms my heart that the Slingshot Collective is still producing this legendary anarchistic day planner. Although this is the sixteenth year that the Slingshot organizer is in print, I am pretty sure that the first time I ever saw one was after the 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. Unfortunately I didn’t go to the protests (because I was in high school and my parents wouldn’t let me). Luckily, my boyfriend at the time brought one back for me as a protest souvenir. While I would have preferred to have been in Seattle getting tear-gassed with the White Overalls and Sea Turtle Defenders, it made me feel a little less left out. I am pretty sure that I had a Slingshot Organizer every year after that until the last couple of years.

There is something comforting to once again hold the classic pocket-sized Slingshot in my hands again. I love how almost everything is written and illustrated by hand. I also love that there are reminders of radical activist history, a menstrual calendar, a list of info-shops across the world, and an address book in the back.

The cover this year features a giant mushroom in a forest with a group of people overturning and destroying a car in the background. One improvement from past years is that the cover now comes slightly laminated. I remember in the early years when we would all laminate them ourselves using clear packing tape in order to preserve their utility. 2010 Slingshot Organizers come in about a dozen colors ranging from Smash the Pumpkin State (orange) to Food Not Lawns (light green). Proceeds from the sale of the organizers all go towards making sure that the Slingshot newspaper stays in production. I highly recommend the slingshot organizer, whether this is your first or your sixteenth.

Written by: Liz Simmons, January 28th 2010

2010 Slingshot Desk Organizer

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:08:00 +0000

By Slingshot Collective

AK Press

I am an INFJ, which means that among my other characteristics is the somewhat innate desire to plan. Since discovering them several years ago at the Lucy Parsons Center, I have been hooked on Slingshot planners. They’re an affordable, radical way to keep my Type A tendencies balanced with my subversive sensibilities.

In addition to radical historic dates and holiday listings, Slingshot planners contain a multitude of information and artwork, including unusual and beautiful drawings, quotes, and tips on every page. For the third week of June, for example, I am told to “exploit code, not people,” “learn hexadecimal,” and directed to hackbloc.org, a website that is the homepage of Hack This Zine and offers an IndyMedia feed and hactivist information about Tor, for starters. A section of November dates include drawings of a still and admonish, “Fuck Corporate Beer! Brew it Yerself.”

Each planner is handmade, and since I'm running two businesses of my own this year, I need more space to write than ever before. A previous supporter of the pocket planner, I took it up a notch for 2010. Thankfully, both editions carry the same basics: a measurements conversation chart (perfect for my expat self), a global radical contact list, and blank recycled paper in the back for additional notes, doodles, conspiracies, and action plans.

One page encourages activists and organizers—with graphics of a gourd and street sign, respectively—to “squash patriarchy” and “stop driving.” (Every Slingshot shipment to a distributor is taken to the post office on bicycle, after all.) I have stopped driving in the past year, despite the fact that my 1987 Mercedes is parked in a garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Until my partner and I move back to the States, I join forty percent of my current home’s population and get everywhere on my Danish bicycle.

Their yearly section on dealing with police is also invaluable information—from what to do about cop harassment to how to avoid problems for non-citizens. I happen to be hitched to one of those for the rest of my foreseeable future. Gotta know our rights, and so do you!

The Slingshot reading list, dubbed “Discover the Romance of,” offers suggestions from Bayard Rustin and Susan Sontag to Diablo Cody and George Orwell to fiction titles for children and young adults.

Best of all, Slingshot planners are full of pro-lady health tips. Included every year is a menstrual calendar, and this year, the booklet closes with acupressure points. Two full pages explain the subversive nature of great sex, complete with tips for navigating personal boundaries and why laughing is important during intimacy.

My large desk organizer came with a pre-laminated cover to withstand inevitable wear and tear. It offers important reminders as I put my personal and professional commitments in order: The revolution will not be spontaneous. Better get ready to pencil it in.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, November 28th 2009

2009 Slingshot Organizer

admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:01:00 +0000

By Slingshot Collective

It all started for me in 2007. That was the first time I put my daily activities in order with the help of the Slingshot Organizer. We're coming up on year three of my making use of this invaluable resource (produced thanks to the efforts of Berkeley, California's Slingshot Collective volunteers), and I cannot imagine going a day without it. The Slingshot Organizer has become an integral part of my life, and I anticipate the release of each new one with the glee of a child counting down the days to her birthday.

My first organizer was their squat perfect-bound day planner, described in a number of places as “pocket-sized.” I'd say you could wedge it in to the back pocket of your pants, or perhaps a jacket pocket. Most t-shirt pockets are going to be too small, though. Per advice offered on the Slingshot website, I plastered the front and back covers with clear packing tape to protect them. For the rest of the year I filled it full with every one of my many obligations. There were so many of them, in fact, that in 2008, I upgraded to the larger spiral-bound day planner. Before I continue, please know that, while this review is based on the spiral-bound day planner, I think they're both great, so buy yours based on your own needs.

Day planning pages are divided with Monday through Thursday on the left page, and Friday through Sunday on the right. Some pages have image themes, and if you look closely you'll find nifty hints and inventions doodled in the margins of certain days. My favorite suggestion involved a charcoal grill, a hairdryer and some bricks to create a fire-free BBQ grill; use caution. Every day includes important dates from traditional, radical, and anarchist histories; for example, on my birth date (6 September) in 1974, “Housing occupations and barricades in Rome lead to legalized squatting.” There are also mentions of holidays both religious (Kwanzaa, Easter, etc.) and secular (Buy Nothing Day).

Every organizer is the same, but different; that is, there are certain elements repeated that nonetheless vary from year to year. Right at the beginning there's something that you won't see in any of the day planners you'd find at your local corporate office supply superstore: a menstrual calendar. That's right, folks. Monitor your menses at the same time you're scheduling your next monthly mountaineering meeting!

Items specific to the 2009 Edition include Critical Mass riding guidelines, “Basic Sewing Stitches,” “Self-Defense Tips,” “How To Start a Food Not Bombs Group,” and my personal favorite, “Know Your Trannies.” Other features are a worldwide radical contact list, an annual reading list, a measurement conversions table, a phone directory, as well as blank pages just itching to be filled. The Slingshot Organizer is chock full of so much radical advice and knowledge that you'll wanna keep it—and learn from it—long after the planner's year has passed.

Written by: M. Brianna Stallings, December 27th 2008