Friday 5 April 2013

Here we go round the Mulberry bush

Choices, choices.
I have before me four different organisers and I’m not sure which one to use. I have:
Red (A6 Mulberry)
Loki (pocket Mulberry)
Pocket Baroque
Personal wine Holborn

Clockwise from top left: Wine Holborn, Red A6 Mulberry, pocket Baroque, Loki (pocket Mulberry)

Logic says I should be in the Holborn. Or the Baroque.
Heart says I should be in one of the Mulberry ones.

What’s wrong with Red? I mean, I’ve been in that longer than any of the others…

Red is heavy and a very stiff binder. She’s short on card slots and pockets so the ones she has are a bit jammed full and it’s difficult to get things in/out of them. I thought she was lighter than the Holborn but I’ve just weighed them (filled) and she’s not.

So why not just move into the Holborn…?

I may well do that. The Holborn has card slots and pockets galore and is a much softer binder. I suppose what’s been holding me back is the rewriting of diary entries (and the aspect ratio of the page always winds me up after a bit), but I have some time this weekend so I could do that. I also hate the filofax diary, but I could just re-write to the end of May or June on the filofax one and get the 18 month Paperchase diary for after that.

What about pocket Baroque and Loki?
Well, Loki has teensy rings and however much I adore him, he’s a bit small. And suffers from the stiffness, lack of pockets and card slots issues that Red has.

Pocket Baroque has some daft pockets, but does at least have pockets (and 4 card slots). And I am hankering after being in something smaller (but, realistically, I possibly carry too much stuff to make that feasible!). I did work out of a pocket Aston for a long time. I’ve also realised that I don’t need to carry all the notes about my goals around with me – I just need to have lists of next-actions lined up for the day/week. Oh, yeah, and the day-per-page diary is just not getting used, so I could abandon it and then I could possibly work out of the Baroque.

I think it’s time to have a play with them all and see where I land up. Advice??

3 comments:

  1. I feel your pain. I just don't know why it's so hard! I have the same problem. I even put all my choices on pieces of paper, threw them in a container, and drew out a paper. My plan was it would be the best 2 out of 3. Whichever one I pulled out 2 times was the one I would use. But when I finally ended up with a winner, I said to myself: "No. I don't want to use that one."

    Good luck!

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    1. I know what you mean! I've sort of moved into the pocket Baroque (partly because I wanted to be using something smaller and partly because I feel I ought to be using it!) - we'll see how it goes...!

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  2. Rather than a big bang approach of ditching one system for another, how about an incremental approach?

    Perhaps you could use Baroque for two weeks with minimal diary, task list and a few notes pages but still carry Red for all the reference stuff you carry. That would give you a feel for going smaller. At the same time you can test out how many pages you actually refer to in Red – that will give you an idea of the pages you can safely leave out.

    If going smaller doesn’t work out, try the same technique of minimal insert in Holby to see if extra pockets makes a difference – could get heavy though if you fill the pockets up! Don't worry too much about the diary layout - hand-draw if necessary - you're just testing out the pockets at this stage.

    Is there a big difference in pockets between Mulberry models as there is in FF? If there’s a different Mulberry model with more pockets and softer leather, it might be worth taking the drastic action of trading in Red?

    If you recoiled in horror at that last suggestion, maybe Red is 'the one' for you! Perhaps you put some plastic pockets on the rings for extra storage or create card or plastic pockets to double up a dividers to minimise bulk.

    Let us know how you get on.

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