Blah, blah, blog!

OK, so I cheated...

Mindy posted and asked for an update and some photos of my Russell and Hazel binder and I promise I will post some.  Yes, yes, am still using it!  Though, more for a notepad and paper catch all than a calendar (those big rubber bands are fabulous for grabbing scraps of paper!

Let's face it folks, we live in a digital world.  I just don't know if I will ever find the "perfect" planning system that will bridge my love of paper and seeing my plans laid out before my eyes in a tangible way and my reality of the barrage of email and electronic information that never stops.

I love my iPhone.  Love, love, lovey love it!  I live by that thing.  But I have to say, the teeny, tiny calendar inside, makes me work way too hard for previewing what is coming in terms of my schedule and workload.  No Bueno.

But this Bad Boy......with it's big shiny screen and all...looks promising:

Well, hello back!

And, yes, I can write directly on the screen with a stylus or my finger if I do not wish to use the touch screen keyboard or optional docking full keyboard.

Here are just a few reasons I have discovered I now LOVE my iPad:

Pocket Informant is Bigger, Better, and has more features (screen shots taken from Pocket Informant site):

I love that it now feels more like a real planner in my hands, with the addition of tabs.  I have more optional views, GTD, Franklin Covey, and Toodledo task modes, and more task layout options.  I love that it syncs with Google Calendar.  That is huge.  I share calendars with my husband and work groups with the charter school.  I have more colors going on in my calendar than a pride parade, and it really helps to put it all together.

Next comes one of my FAVORITE things....Pulse News Reader!  Don't tell anyone, but I've never really understood RSS feeds, Feedburner or any of those things.  Well, now I don't have to.  Powered by Google Reader, Pulse is an awesome app that allows me to simple use the search box to type "Trader Joes Blog" and Bam!  all of the search results for blogs that are related to Trader Joes pop up.  I am now following "Cooking With Trader Joes.  It works for blogs and newsfeeds.  Beautiful, colorful images and the first few sentences of the most recent stories fill the grid of the Pulse screen so it nice and pretty.  I just scroll through to see what is new and interesting!

 

Another promising app (I'm waiting for my invitation--this app is SO highly anticipated and in such demand they are rolling out their user base by issuing email invitations to users who have downloaded the app).  Flipboard is another media management app.

Here is a review of Flipboard

Things I enjoy right now:

Books!  Love e-books and with the recent addition of the Kindle app and the power of Amazon the iPad has immediate access to a whole new world.  I have to say it is pretty amazing to browse the virtual bookstore, tap the title, download the sample, read the first chapter or two, decide you like it, buy it and own it in 30 seconds.  Wow.

Games

While I have not played Scrabble yet...I dearly loved teaching my son the joys of Solitaire while waiting for a terribly long physician's appointment this afternoon.  Little D loves playing Cooking Mama on the iPad.  Doodle Glow is another winner.  You can't go wrong with the games.

Movies!

I am not a big TV fan.  However I love movies.  I recently initiated a Netflix subscription.  One of the coolest things ever was sitting in our cabin near Yosemite (WiFi access, of course) with everyone sound asleep, and my little iPad perched next to me, with my Bose headphones creating my own personal theater.  I streamed a Netflix presentation of 7 Pounds with Will Smith (great movie) and just thought "wow!"

So that's it.  If you want to know what I think of the iPad, I think it is a fantastic gadget.  It will not replace your laptop, however it has some fabulous functionality.  I believe it is far more than a large iPod Touch.  I do wish it had a USB port, however, I think there are workarounds (emailing docs).  I think the iPad is all about accessing your media and information, not as much about productivity, though I know you can create excel files, Powerpoints, and Word docs with Apple version software.  

I love mine!

...and seriously, I just became a fan on Facebook...

Ok,  so I've teased before.  I've abandoned my beloved Franklin-Covey-Target-Costco-mutant in the past and always, always come back to say "I need you. I can't go on without you".  Right?

Well...ladies I just stumbled upon Mom Agenda and I just spend about 1/2 an hour downloading worksheets that just might save my summer vacation, my sanity, and my mind.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the focus on the "mom" lifestyle (kids, education, what's for dinner, "me" time, personal goals (ha, ha), and the never ending attempt at getting it all together).  If that is SO not your focus right now then you are SO not into reading this blog--see ya;)

So....I'm going to try it.  Tomorrow I'm going to march right down to Bed Bath and Beyond and plunk down my 20% off coupon and buy me one of these nice pink or brown Mom Agendas and attempt to Get It Together Baby!

The new fall Franklin-Covey catalog is out!

My pages don't run out until January, but it is never too late to start planning!  Only a few things in this new catalog made me go "ooohhhh", one of which is this new Kaleidoscope page design.  The print catalog has much yummier images. The border color changes quarterly, and the left facing page has a new layout, while still preserving the traditional "schedule, to do, and contacts" sections.  Korie will be relieved to learn that Kaleidoscope offers the full blank notes right-facing page, after following me down the disastrous Julie Morganstern path for our '08 pages.  Live and learn baby.  Live and learn.

Back in the day, a new Franklin binder would set you back $150 bucks or so with their Nappa, and woven Italian leather offerings.  Franklin must have gone public and hired an army of marketing sell outs somewhere in the late 90's/early 2000's because today their catalog is filled with Chinese-made vinyl and nylon fashion binders for $29.  Take for example, this cutie:

I'd probably love it through the first quarter of '09, then return to my soft leather asparagus green binder or my congac woven leather binder I bought back in '93.  Some women collect purses.  I happen to collect planners.  (Oh, by the way, if you like this looped graphic design, they also offer in in green!)

I'm holding off though.  My tradition is to hit the Franklin store sometime in late November.  It goes right in there with pulling out the Christmas decorations and strolling shops with my peppermint mocha latte in hand.

And you don't mess with tradition.

OMG!!!! Have you SEEN this?

This may just be the most exciting merger since Starbucks opened up in Target stores everywhere...

My constant companion, my memory bank, planning and accountability partner, goal keeper, and sanity manager: My Franklin Planner is about to get so much cuter!

Franklin Covey is partnering with Design-her Gals to offer a 2009 planner with pages featuring super-cute avatars and tons of user-submitted quotes on humor, wisdom, paying it forward, healthy living, courage and more!  Best of all, proceeds will benefit the Gal-to-Gal Foundation which assists women living with stage four breast cancer.

I had posted about Design-her Gals a couple of years ago.  I even subscribed to their Print At Home membership so P could create custom gift tags for her Glam Jam Spa  party two years ago. Think of it as paper dolls for the narcissistic digital age.

I for one, am hoping Franklin-Covey offers customized Design-her Gals pages with my likeness that will change by season.  Can you imagine?  Oh the fun of dressing myself to adorn the pages in haute couture, jewelry, accessories, and even my little Shih Tzu in one hand and my latte in the other (or my iPod, my camera, laptop, or my Franklin).  You've got to love a dressing room where everything always fits and the price tags don't matter.  Go try it right now!

New Year....New Systems...New Challenges...

I'm trying a few new things with the New Year.  I decided to format the routines and chore lists offered by FlyLady to fit my life. Per Korie's example and suggestion, I print the morning, afternoon, and before bed routines to fit the large format page finder from Franklin Covey.  (This is just a fatter version of the free skinny daily page finder that comes with the Franklin pages. The big one sells for $3.95).  I bought two of them and they move with me each day.  The AM/afternoon/before bed routines fit into the front and back of page finder #1 and spill onto the front of page finder #2.  On the back of page finder #2, I print my monthly task list and use it to fill in my daily task lists so I don't forget about the big stuff I want to get done sometime during the month.


I also formatted and printed the weekly and monthly chores and slipped them into color-coded page protectors.  These live in the front of my planner, since the back sections rarely get any play.  I reference them as I create my daily task lists.  I've also noted the zone by week on the calendar grid pages of my planner.



My intention is to use these cheat sheets until it all becomes habit and routine.  For now, this works to help keep me on track.

Yesterday (since we are in Zone 1 this week: kitchen and front porch) I completely tore my refrigerator apart and soaped up every shelf, drawer and wall.  I tossed expired or unhealthy contents and organized by category.  My refrigerator is so shiney and clean...it feels brand new.  I also planned our menus for the week, created a grocery list and went shopping.  We are scrubbed, stocked, and ready for action.

I am back and active with my east coast girls on our Weight Watchers Yahoo group.  I'm using Calorie King's Nutrition Manager program to journal.  I love this program.  I also downloaded the Palm version so I can track on the go. You know how I love my tools....

Finally, I signed up through Big Picture Scrapbooking for Lain Ehmann's LOAD Challenge (LayOut-A-Day).  Here is my 1/1/08 entry:

Super easy when the journaling can be grabbed from old blog posts! I like this challenge, because it is all about productivity! No perfection here, just getting back into the scrappin groove.  Go check out the free class at BPS and join us.

What have you planned to make your life easier?

Flylady meets Franklin-Covey

If Flylady and Franklin were to get together, their offspring would look something like this: Motivated Moms Planning Pages. 

At first glance, I thought the system hokey, but when I stopped to consider what my day really looks like (or rather, should look like), I realized the pre-printed tasks are exactly what I do (or should do) every day.

Go to Motivated Moms and click on order to see the options. For $8 you can download the .pdf files and get a year of planning pages.  Available layout options include Daily Full Page (good to stick on the fridge), Daily Half-Page (for us Franklin Planner-carrying girls), weekly pages and both formats with a daily Bible reading schedule. At the bottom of the order page are three links to see sample pages.  I wish the samples could be viewed side-by-side because I forget how each is formatted and it confuses me.  I do like the version with the "Today's Menu Plan" section (I think it comes with the daily page w/appointment schedule.

Here are three samples:
Full size sample (weekly)
Half-size w/daily Bible schedule (these are to be cut in half after printing)
Full page per day w/Bible schedule  (this one has the menu planning space)

Years ago I found a Palm list program that had all of Flylady's daily chores input.  I broke that Palm and now have a new one.  If anyone knows where I can find that program online, I'd be very grateful. 

We're off to the Orthopedic doctor to check P's sutures and get her casts changed.  She's doing incredibly well. 

Happy Thursday!

Its almost 2008.....do you know where your planner is?

My annual visit to the Franklin store is rooted in tradition.  My late November checklist looks something like this:

___ Host and celebrate Thanksgiving with family
___ Put up holiday decor, lights, tree
___ Cull old toys and books, organize home for the new year
___ Go to Franklin-Covey and dwell in possibility

Go ahead....roll your eyes. It is my tradition and I'm sticking to it.  I'm changing things up a bit this year with the new Julie Morgenstern pages:

The detail is difficult to catch with this photo,but the top of the right facing page has two chunks: one for things to do, the second for calls to make. The bottom right has four columns that I will use to track the daily details by kid (assignments/tests/money due/uniforms/classes/things to pick up at Target, etc).    This layout makes sense for this time in my life.  I'm tracking a ton of small details (and not well) rather than managing big projects.

I'm also going to change it up by reducing the paper load I carry in my planner.  Franklin is famous for their customized planners. You can create a tab for any part of your life. My current planner has big sections behind my main calendars for Menu planning, BFL workout logs and goals--photos too!(that would be Body-For-Life...yeah right), Creative (layout sketches, wish lists, big ideas, Reference(phone, book, and web lists), and School (calendars, rosters). Those back sections make up the bulk of my planner pages, so they will now live in the old binder in my office.  I can grab them and reference them as needed.

Since I'm going small for my daily pages, I needed a slim style binder with minimal bulk. So I went with the Prestigio open binder.  It is puuurrrrty!

It is all about simplifying my life.  Speaking of simplifying...I'm FREE!  Yes, we wrote our little hearts out and the project is now officially in the hands of the administrators and typist.  Yeah!  Monday night I was at school until 12:30 AM (I had been there since 9 AM with a 2 1/2 hour break to get the kids home after school let out).  I got up at 4:45 Tuesday morning to resume my walking routine.  Not the best planning on my part, but after sitting on my ass for 100 hours over 15 days, my body was threatening to cave in on me.

So now, sing it with me....I'm walking....yes indeed.....I'm talking......and with the help of my super-duper-shiny-new planner....I'm planning!

Oops I did it again....

Korie told me that after I completed my Tony Robbins seminar I could go get a new planner.  She thought I would have new focus, new systems, a new drive toward organization and new goals.  Actually, I'll just take any old excuse to hit the Franklin store for new binder fun.  Besides that, this black leather beauty with overflow-containing zipper and cream trim was 1/2 off!  Half!  That's practically free.  I saved so much money, I threw in the cute little Brighton-esque turquoise and silver charm pull.  You know, to break up the black....

Speaking of Franklin and new organization, I'm thrilled to see they will offer the Julie Morganstern daily pages in a punched format for 2008.  Julie Morganstern authored Organizing From the Inside Out and her principles really work for me.  So yay!  Bring on 2008!! OK, maybe not so fast....we still have a lot of 2007 left and it is shaping up to be a fantastic year.

Some updates:

• I'm still walking 3.25 miles five mornings a week.  I'm on the pavement by 5:15 am.  Even I am shocked by this.  Over 8 weeks straight now.

• Fruit and smoothies with flax seed until noon are the new thing around here.  While I'm not doing a full detox program, I am trying to baby step my way into new habits of fruit-only until midday, followed by some sort of salad or veggie based lunch and cutting out any snacks outside of apples, almonds or rice cakes completely.  My goal is still to get to 50% raw.  Some days I do better than others, but I feel good and my two refridgerators runnuth over with a constant cycle of produce.

• P is doing incredibly well on the gluten-free diet.  Really, really well.  While I think a full six months is a fair trial, both T and I think we see an improvement with one month under our belts.  We continue to experiement with gluten free products and it truly has not been that bad.  I still don't love baking (especially in 100 degree August heat) but I am learning.

• The Summer Chore Chart and Schedule has fallen apart.  Bad, bad mommy!  Today is Thursday which is "Beach Day or Find An Adventure Day" and we are hitting the sand, so at least there's that...

• I got news yesterday that our school's API scores are in.  Our huge focus was getting the score to 900.  We scored 888 last school year and we (administrators, staff, parents, students) put a huge push on "Rocking Our Way to 900!" during the May State Standardized Testing period.  Before I go on, let me say a word to you "academic excellence snobs" about how hard it is for a public school in southern California with a very large English Learners population figured into those scores...improving test scores is a challenge!  More than I ever imagined.  Schools just a few miles away score in the 600's to low 700's.  Our school hit 915 this year.  The kids worked so hard and I think we will all be seeing lots of celebration and acknowledgement of their efforts when school resumes in the fall.  I'm so proud of their hard work!

• I still can't figure out how to get the texture and consistency right on the 5 Spice Tofu.  If anyone has any tips for me, I would love to learn.  I'm making a Buddah's Delight tonight.  I made my 5 Spice Tofu last night, but it just isn't like PF Changs does it.  I crave that stuff!

Have a beautiful day.  Off to go get sandy!

Uh oh, this one has my name all over it

But I'm not buying.  Reading and applying the title alone would work wonders for my productivity and effectiveness.

Besides, early morning is the only quiet time I have during my entire day.  When would I blog?

Only a Franklin Girl would understand

It's that time of year again....

Time to refill planner pages.  Time to be tempted into new yummy colors and time to question my loyalty to binder size, page layout and refill style.

If you are a Franklin devotee, you know.  You understand.  Except for you Korie.....you're the only one I know who can work out of the same binder for 13 years and never feel tempted to change.  Freak.

Here is a quick rundown of my idiosyncracy.

1/1/06- I declared that I was taking a year off from Franklin.

1/12/06- I couldn't stand it any longer and I run off to the Franklin store and am giddy with my new asparagus green compact binder and Collages pages.

6/6/06- My husband decides he needs to get back to using a planner.  I volunteer to to to the Franklin store to hook him up.  I come out with his new binder, pages and accessories AND a turquoise ballistic nylon compact binder for me.

6/10/06- Decide the nylon binder is crap and besides, the new Memory Dock Creative Planner Pages will fit if I upgrade to a classic binder.  Exchange the turquoise nylon compact for a turquoise leather classic (killer deal, BTW, clearance section).  At the same time, change pages to Her P.O.V.  (love these)

12/28/06- Realize that I've spent all year looking longingly at my original asparagus green compact binder.  Loved that little thing.  Go to Franklin store and buy Her P.O.V. pages in compact to resume use.

12/29/06- Pencil in my January dates in the new pages and realize how much I'm going to miss the space of classic.  Immediately get on the internet and research my options.

12/30/06- Decide, in the end, that my current turquoise leather Sedona binder in classic is just perfect for me.

Luckily, my classic pages run through June 07.  I do stick with some things.

And that is just this year.  I've been doing this since I got my first Franklin as a college graduation gift in 1992.  Too bad Franklin-Covey doesn't have some kind of rewards program.  I surely would have won a trip to somewhere by now....