249. Planner hacking with Rhodia the MW way
January 20th, 2010 § 15 Comments
After some years of using planners, iCal, and Stickies on my desktop, I’ve finally hit upon what I think is the best method, for me, of staying on top of all the great stuff (and not-so-great stuff) that I get to do in my life. I thought that you might be interested in seeing how it works; let me know if you end up trying it out!
It starts out with the Rhodia 6×9 Weekly Notebook. (Or any other planner with a weekly planner on the left side and a blank page on the right.)
I know that there are so many more tempting notebooks out there. The Moleskine, for example, is very popular, and there are something like five or six versions of them, including the crazy-phantasmagorical multi-colored 12-month box set, which I was very tempted to buy this year, but realized in the end would not serve my purposes. This is the Rhodia 6×9 Weekly Notebook, and you can buy it here: (and no, I’m not being paid to write this — I actually bought THREE PLANNERS this year, and gave away two of them because they just weren’t cutting it for me.)
images taken from here
That strip, by the way, does not appear on the actual notebook; it’s just a piece of cardboard that goes down the middle. This is what my Rhodia notebook looks like:
As you can see, I’ve customized the outside. I’ve also customized the inside — little inspirational things, photos of things I like, and the like. I’ve even used the back of the book, which has some black “address book” pages (no, I don’t use them for their usual purpose), for Susannah Conway’s “Unravelling: 2010″ workbook pages. They keep me focused on my goals for this year, both emotionally, physically, and mentally, and can be found at her delightful, Polaroid-filled website here.
Okay. So what’s the plan for actually, like, using this thing?
I use the right-hand blank page for two purposes: 1.) to keep a running To-Do list for the week (this includes everything, from buying nail polish remover to making my fourth lesson plan of the semester to writing 500 words a day) and 2.) writing daily To-Do lists.
There are a few key elements to making these To-Do lists. The running To-Do list can be as ambitious as you like, but be careful to not overwhelm yourself, because usually putting too many things on your plate will just make you feel like a huge loser in the end when you can’t finish them all. Also, the To-Do list should be very specific. Not “Write” — “500 words.” Put down everything and anything, even the little things, because putting down the little things makes them easy to cross off and is very satisfying.
Okay. Let’s look at the left-hand page.
This is where you make your normal “planner notes.” Birthdays. Meetings. Rhodia separates the day hour-by-hour, so feel free to put in your meeting with your advisor, your boss’s special dinner, or a date with your friend. (Hint: Plan some time for things like “taking a walk” and “relaxing,” otherwise you will go insane.)
How do you figure out what to put in the daily bits? Take a look at your weekly To-Do list, and split it into different parts. Plan out days that seem REASONABLE. I cannot emphasize this enough. Prevent the temptation to become a planning maniac in which you put ten thousand things in one day.
All right! You’re ready to use your plans! Now what?
Follow your plans as best as you can. If you can’t finish something that you’ve planned, put a box around it and move it to the next day. If you realize something doesn’t belong in your schedule anymore, cross it off and move on with your life. When you cross something off on your daily list, cross it off on your weekly list.
Sometimes I also make daily To-Do lists on the right hand side, but that’s because I really like lists. If you do too, this might be something that you’re interested in.
I hope that this has been helpful to you. Let me know if you found this interesting — I know it’s not fashion-related, per se, but I find it easier to make room for fun if I get all of my other stuff out of the way first.
xo, mw
248. In need of a planner like Meggy’s or possibly just her organized brain
January 20th, 2010 § 20 Comments
Rodarte for Target dress (this is what I wore to Eyeliah from Style Symmetry’s virtual birthday!); Zara booties, Vintage green belt; Miss Selfridges tights. In Alfama, the neighborhood in Lisbon I lived in for two weeks. Photos by MTT.
Some scrambled, runny, non-gelatinous thoughts:
+ The woman on the plane next to me was in what looked like 30′s tap shoes and a saucy as hell sweater dress with adorable pom-poms, and had a wavy bob with the most exquisite hair clips–unfortunately, she also coughed the cough of death throughout the entire flight and her scratchy voice frightened me whenever she asked for water. Is it possible for permanent phlegm cobwebs to develop in one’s lungs?
+ I’d like to sleep but I can’t sleep until I finish packing for the eighth time in three weeks.
+ I can’t finish packing because I prefer starting things and not finishing them.
+ Unless it’s dawn and I have no choice but to finish.
+ There’s still three or four hours before dawn.
+ Please, tyrant of a mind, don’t force me to stay up until then. Please?
+ I’d like to learn from Meggy and be more succinct in my posts (but how can I banish the run-on sentence from my writing repertoire?)
+ Our friend Geoff was the best host ever, and oops, we didn’t go a single day in Lisbon without drinking wine or port or both, and when I drink port, I start to fantasize that I’m like one of the awful characters from The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, a movie that I should maybe give a second chance because it annoyed me the first time, or whatever, I’ll just remain annoyed with it.
+ The air in Lisbon was the best air, so were the fish, the miradores, writing monologues in cafes and drinking pingados, and cobbled uphill side streets that I wobbled on like a newborn fawn that never becomes a deer! More soon.
+ I’m excited to catch up on blogs and comments and apologize for being so so lackadaisical lately about commenting and responding to comments.
+ I tentatively put up links to my completely neglected twitter, which so far has zero tweets and may remain that way forever, and to my Chictopia account, which I sort of wish I could delete, but I was emboldened by Meggy’s recent activity on her Chictopia to give it another chance. For no particular reason at all, I became frightened by all of these fashion networking sites, even though I love the girls who post on Chictopia. What do you all think about Chictopia and Twitter? Stay away? Or stay on all day…
Love, Jenny
247. Martin Luther King’s legacy and the strange, impossible place where all our dreams knock knees
January 18th, 2010 § 4 Comments
I leave Lisbon tomorrow and then there are many logistical things to deal with from that point forward. I’m not looking forward to any of it, but for now I’ll revel in today.
Happy MLK Day! There is an extraordinary video at Democracy Now! where you can listen to Martin Luther King give his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. The entire speech is eerily applicable to the state of affairs in the world today, especially when I think about all of the places the US has bombed and the state of US militarism today. The second half of the video replays his last speech, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” given on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.
There’s no question that MLK was a sublime thinker, writer, and speaker, and there’s no doubt that the same things he called for over forty years ago are still urgently needed today. Listen to his speech here, and Stanford’s King Institute website is another great resource that contains tons of archives and transcripts of Martin Luther King’s speeches and letters.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., from “Beyond Vietnam.”
Love, Jenny
246. dream a little dream (or two, or three)
January 18th, 2010 § 12 Comments
Vintage earrings (the Get Up), 30s vintage dress worn as blouse (the Get Up), simple black wool skirt (J Crew), plum colored tights (Tabio), We Who See booties (Urban Outfitters)
I bought a new dress off of Etsy a few days ago, and now I’m relying on Starbucks gift cards and whatever’s left in my sad fridge to get me through the next few weeks. Oh, no pity party here — it’s completely my fault! In the meantime, I’ve been collaborating major Etsy updates, checking books out of the library (thanks, readers!) and cleaning my apartment over and over and over again.
Isn’t wearing simple skirts with fancy dresses great, by the way?
What about my novel/thesis, you ask? It’s in the hands of my thesis advisor at the moment. 100 or so pages of stuff that I just can’t look at right now. What I need is another voice to tell me what needs to be done. What I need is a good knock in the skull. What I need is guidance. I’m meeting D. next week to talk about the thesis, and who knows what he’ll say; if it goes the way I’m hoping it does, he’ll have a lot of constructive suggestions that will make my thesis really gosh-darn good. I hope.
And I’m done with fellowship applications. For now. I might apply to one or two more residencies, but the number of applications I actually had to fill out was very small. Hell-OH, California! I miss you and will see you soon! (I’m going back next week for a little trip; I’ll be moving back around April, too.)
xo, mw
244. sweater dresses, books, and is winter over yet?
January 17th, 2010 § 8 Comments
Vintage boots (The Get Up), vintage sweater dress (The Get Up), bow headband (street stall in Taiwan)
I have such a problem with sweater dresses. When I moved out to Michigan, Effie (from the winsome blog The Snail and the Cyclops) advised me to get used to wearing wool. And I have — sort of. After two years of Michigan winters, I’ve accumulated a small collection of sweater dresses, and all of them still itch me. This is part of the whole shebang, is what I’ve heard — the cold-weather itch. I even have a wool cardigan that I love but that makes me cry after I wear it for more than an hour. But I think that after I move back to California, I’m going to sell my sweater dresses and go back to my shilly-shallying (thanks, Jenny) in silk and cotton and faux fur. O you sweater dresses!
One of my latest reads has been How Fiction Works, by James Wood (New Yorker critic and all around intellectual gadabout), and now I’m at a loss as to what to read next. (I also keep a list of my 2010 reads on my personal website.) Here are some things that I love: Lolita. Infinite Jest. The Sound and the Fury. Wise Blood and O’Connor’s short fiction. Moby Dick. Anything that has to do with the Glass family, but Franny and Zooey really gets to me in particular. Anna Karenina. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Recommendations, please?
xo, mw
