. . . letting sequins into my life . . . [RINGO-ISH.org]

Please,ignore my spanish

As you may have read, I bought a bunch of Moleskine notebooks a few weeks ago. Among them I bought a pocket-size ruled notebook, I planned on using it to keep myself organized. I’m the kind of person who needs to have everything on paper, but (I have to admit it) I suck at keeping up with printed organizers and even PDA’s, I even have two Moleskine daily planners (I bought them for two different purposes, don’t give me that look!).

I’m just more of a free writer; some days, I barely have anything to do, some others, I need to write very long lists of pending tasks, for this, I need something I can use my own way, something I can personalize in case I need it.

I started checking various GTD systems, but I find them so rigid, I know I won’t keep up with them. And It wasn’t until I read Gala Darling’s guide to her very own Filofax, I came up with a different idea, that I KNEW would help me organize myself. This is how i did it:

When you open my Moleskine, the first thing you encounter is a manifesto, I wrote to remind myself to stay positive. of course, ‘Letting sequins into my life’ it’s there. On the first two pages, you can see a calendar I printed including just the months from July – December, remember, my planner covers only these months. From the next pages on, I separated my Moleskine into twelve sections (yes, twelve!):

1. Daily – A week in two pages.
2. 2011 – For any upcoming event or information that does not fit in my 2010 planner.
3. Projects – A few pages for project ideas, notes or lists.
4. Manifesting – I also believe in manifesting to make happen.
5. I love – Making ‘I love’ lists or statements has saved me from madness a lot of times.
6. Music – I constantly need places to write songs/bands I discover and I want to download or learn more about.
7. Movies – Also, movies I want to learn more about, watch, or just check facts on.
8. Ideas for articles – Here I write Ideas for new blog posts, or articles on El Espejismo.
9. Lists – I am a list-maker. I need lists all the time.
10. 88 days – Here i keep a list of my goals for the 88 days project.
11. Spending – A detailed section where I revise how much I spend every week and what on.
12. Extra – Notes, songs, scribbles, love letters, etc. Anything goes.

Most of the sections are pretty much self-explanatory, but also, some of them are a little more personal and I designed them to cover a specific need of mine.

• Projects – I don’t know if I’ve ever said this here before, but I tend to get ultra creative at night, when I feel super tired and desperate to go to bed, this is when I think ‘I should paint this, I should do that’ sometimes I do it (like right now, I decided to write this and here you have me), sometimes I feel too tired to start some real action. But when I decide to get my hands on it, it’s normally when my whole week gets messed up as I tend to stay up until I finish what I start (then again, like right now) leaving me too tired to be productive on the next day. Having a place to write all these ideas help me go to bed knowing I can get my hands on it on the next day without the risk of forgetting the super fantastic idea I just had.
• I love – It’s not the first time I write here about how focusing in what I love about my life has saved me from depression, madness and angst. I just write short sentences of love and gratitude, and then I write the date. Even going back to read them makes me feel positive.
• Ideas for articles – If you click on ‘Future posts’ on the column of the right, it will take you to a password protected page, here I keep a list of ideas for future articles and posts, but when I am not in my computer and I have a brilliant idea for an article, I normally have to write it on my cellphone as a reminder. Sometimes I get them and end up forgetting about them. Well, not anymore. Here I can collect all of those without having to run to my laptop in the risk of forgetting.
• Lists – One of my best friends once told me that writing a to-do list gave her an accomplishment feeling; I’ve been there, but in my case, things are a bit different. I am one of those unlucky beings that need to write everything in a sort of step-by-step list that helps me remember what needs to come next. As I’ve said  hundreds of times before ‘Asperger is to blame’. You can imagine my listing section takes over almost as many pages as my ‘Daily planner’ does.
• Extra – This little extra  is one of my favorite sections. I love to write, scribble and sketch, and normally on regular planners I don’t have as much space as I would like for this. This section, being one of the ones I use the most, starts from the last page on, going backwards, which combines it with my 88 days section, this way, I am not limited by the number of lists I can make, and my doodling creativity has no limits as well.

I colour coded all my events, that ways I can tell from the outside what’s coming. At the very end I keep some post-its and colour flags just in case I need them. Also, in the pocket, I have a small address book (Which I am still thinking about, since I rarely use address books), a couple of business cards just so I don’t have to dig through my purse looking for them, and the receipts I have to take care of.

So, how do you organize yourselves?