The Well-Appointed Desk

I have been futzing around with what kind of planner I want to use for 2013. I’ve pretty much been hemming and hawing about this since my Exhaustive Planner/Calendar Round-Up back in August and now I’m feeling the crunch as the clock ticks down to January 1. I even went out and bought something thinking it was the right solution only to realize I was already on the road to planner fail — it was an insert for a binder-style planner like a Filofax or Franklin Covey binder and discovered I did not have the binder anymore.

Luckily, I found Plannerism’s How to Find Your Perfect Planner post. This was a great tool to help me think through my needs and help me narrow down the options to planners that met my personal criteria.

Here’s my preferred qualities:

• Good quality paper: As much as I appreciate the layout and color of Moleskine’s weekly planners, the paper is not durable enough for the array of writing tools I throw at it.
• Week-at-a-glance: can be all on one page with a notes page or actually across two pages. I’m not so booked with meetings everyday that I need a day-at-a-glance but do like to have room to write down important events and any specific to-dos I might have. So, daily would be okay but would prefer the more compact weekly view.
• Lays flat: can be hardbound or softbound. Rings, spiral or binder are okay in a pinch
• Fits comfortably between my keyboard and monitor (under 7″ tall). I usually keep my agenda open on my desk just above my keyboard so that I can glance at it for any upcoming events and also jot down any notes or reminders throughout the day.
• Less-than-black lines: blue, brown, gray… anything but heavy black lines so that my writing comes to the foreground.
• Beautiful typography: this can be a stumbling block. The Rhodia planner has great paper but the typography inside makes me cringe.
• Price: more than $35 for a standalone diary seems like too much. Refills for a planner should less than $30 and since I don’t currently have a binder, I’d have to figure that into the cost of the planner and hope that it is a format I’d be willing to use for years to come to make it worth the investment.

This doesn’t seem like it should be impossible to meet all these standards but it does take some digging.

Notemaker carries a great selection of planners and agendas and is a good place to start narrowing down the possibilities. They stock binders and refills for Filofax which are getting harder and harder to find. They also carry Delfonics, Quo Vadis, O-Check and the charming Frankie Diary. They even have a full assortment of Moleskine planners if all else fails.

Referring back to my earlier post, I’m still considering the Paperblanks planners from Jenni Bick and We Are What We Do Action Diary. I am also intrigued by the Ciak Day Planners which have lovely typography. And I did love my Cavallini planner for two years but wonder if I should try something new.

Have you chosen your planner for 2013 yet? What did you choose and did it meet all your needs?