An
Organized New Year:
Taking
it One Dayplannner at a Time
Co-
contributed by Paul Milligan
January already! You’ve sworn that you’ll
emerge from the organized chaos that cluttered your mind first
term. No more forgotten mid terms, overlooked bill payments, or
missed dates with your classmate that you’d been pursuing
all term. And while many of your friends may have begun the process
of getting themselves organized for the demands and deadlines
of student life last September, your organizational process may
have been confined to making sure that the Frat always has kegs
ordered well before the weekend, or that the fridge was well stocked
for the next viewing of Ally McBeal.
Before you get too down on yourself, don’t
forget that when it comes to parties, you are quite the little
planner. Now, if only you could bring that same level of organization
and execution to all the other important things in your life,
you would be on the Dean’s list for a whole other reason.
For some people, getting organized is a matter
of transferring all the notes that you jot down here and there
on scraps of paper to a planner with a monthly calendar inside.
For others, it is accomplished by posting a laminated calendar
on the wall. If by chance you are either one of these people,
organization could not come to you more affordably as often calendars
and planners are often given out free by student unions in registration
packages, or complementary by bank or insurance companies.
However, for many investing a bit of cash for a
commercial hard copy day planner or time management system, is
an option. But the price of organization may be hefty. Some planners
and time management systems can run into the hundreds of dollars
meaning even if you’re still as disorganized and forgetful
as ever, at least you’re likely to remember the price!
But you needn’t spend a fortune to get organized,
as there are plenty of options that will get you organized, but
at a fraction of the cost of the higher priced systems. You have
two main options: a loose-leaf system, which allows you to add
refill pages, or the usually cheaper, fixed page system which
you replace each year. The price
compare chart will give you an idea of how much some of the
various options may set you back. In either case to help you keep
your costs down:
-
Determine the features you need. First
of all, many planners offer you pages for everything: tasks,
classes, expenses, important dates, addresses, time zones,
how to say “which way to city hall?” in 20 languages,
or sizing charts for your feline! If you don’t need these
features why pay for them? Some day planners contain so much
information that being organized could end up being a more
elusive task than ever!
-
Don’t get lost in the “craft”
of organizing. Don’t get suckered into buying one
of the daytimers, which require an additional four-year study
plan to understand how to use it. If you have to get into
a colour code system for moving and re-prioritizing your “To
Do List,” you may find that you will spend more time
compiling lists than actually accomplishing things.
-
Ask yourself: "Am I paying for an organizer
or for the thought of being organized?” Prices are
as varied as the organizers themselves, ranging from a few
dollars to $100-200 or more. But more expensive is not necessarily
better, so examine the planners carefully to see what the
real difference between them is. Often times the difference
in the set up is minor, while the price difference can be
significant.
-
Shop around. Most day planners can be
found in office superstores, warehouse clubs or purchased
directly from the company We actually found that some day
planners and accessories could be purchased cheaper at some
office warehouse stores than buying directly from the company
itself - even before shipping.
-
Be careful of costly extra’s. Some
companies may try and sell you on an accompanying seminar
or workshop for an extra charge of course. While some of these
may be useful, you may find that your school’s student
services offer similar free courses or workshops on time management,
organization or procrastination, which may be just as effective.
-
How well is your day planner dressed?
When it comes to day planner costs, it’s often not what’s
on the inside that counts, but what’s on the outside.
Binders for refillable planners can range in price from a
few dollars to several hundred for fine leather ones. We found
one offering from Franklin Covey made of leather from the
Tuscany region of Italy for $210 - a price that lead us to
expect that it would be stocked with some fine wine from the
region as well. What’s important to remember is that
if you shell out this kind of cash for a binder it also becomes
a coveted item for theft as well (meaning you may loose the
personally valuable contents as well).
-
Make your own calendar pages and
reminder notes. if you have a computer and printer. You
can do this in many basic word processing programs, or there
are some free
programs that have downloadable pages which you can print
out. However depending on your printer it may be more costly
to print them out yourself, than to buy a preprinted set of
pages.
-
Tying over: Another option may be to
be to print your own pages out for the first few weeks of
the year and then pick up one of the commercial planners late
in January - sometimes at a 30% - 50% discount as they clear
them out.
-
Plan on line: There are a number of
free sites that let you manage your time in a virtual
day planner. Perhaps the downside to this is that if your
Internet connection is down you could be lost unless you have
a hard copy on hand.
Day Planners are a lot like a membership at the
gym. Whether you spent $3 or $300, your success will ultimately
depend on how often and effectively you make use of it. So choose
a system that is easy to use and that fits within your budget.
It’ll go a long way to keeping you on time and in the money.
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Next
month:
Electronic organizers: Will they burn
a hole in your wallet?
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