
After many revisions, I present my "pocket planner". I hope HN finds it useful - windsurfer
http://github.com/windsurfer/Pocket-To-Do/downloads
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InclinedPlane
FYI, your "action shot"s are not actually action shots, as they don't show
your invention in use, just folded up. I highly suggest actually showing a
real world example in your action shots. This would give people a better idea
about how to use them while simultaneously showing their value.

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ra
Yeah, I'm quite intrigued to see where you're coming from.

Please show us last weeks, for example..

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windsurfer
The idea is to print out a sheet, cut it in half, and fold them in half twice.
You write your weekly plans on the left pane, and your agenda on the right.
The grey area marks roughly when it is dark out. I didn't include between 0000
and 0600 as I figured it took up too much space and isn't useful for an
agenda.

It's an Inkscape SVG, by the way. I'd love to hear about any forks :)

~~~
San
While I like the general idea of your 'schedule as a bar chart' solution, I
see several issues:

1) There is very little space to write down appointments. I'd like to be able
to write down at least a name and a location, even for a 30-minute
appointment.

2) What about moved or cancelled appointments? I'm afraid things will get
messy very soon.

3) How should I handle overlapping appointments?

Maybe I'm not the target audience, but I encounter these things daily.

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Sukotto
For a back-pocket planner, I think it's nice and simple. Clearly it's not
intended to incorporate all the features of a dayrunner or whatever. It's just
a simple todo list + time-blocking.

1) The space is adequate if your appointments tend to be short eg _Bob and
Cathy_ or _lunch_ and not complex like _Bob, Cathy, sys-eng group rep. re:
develop timeline to cost out and deploy new server cluster for foobar project
(see 3/10/2010 emails "foobar server" and 3/5/2010 "how do I price a
webserver?". 6th floor conference room (call in number 1-888-555-1111
p:142678)_

2) The downside of any paper-based time planning is that it gets messy if you
need to change things very often.

3) If you have overlapping appointments very often then I think you need to
fix a more fundamental problem with your scheduling.

Unless you are some sort of genius, it seems really unlikely that you can
seriously pay attention to more than one thing or person at a time. By trying
to split your attention, there's a good chance you are less useful than you
would be if you told one of your appointments to take a hike.

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San
Yes, I agree it would be a nice way to do some personal time boxing ("How do I
divide my free time between projects A, B and C"). But as I already noted in
the parent post, this layout simply does not suit my kind of appointments.

However, I think most people in my situation would be able to use a daily
version of this.

Three bars of six hours each: morning, afternoon and evening, for example. The
additional height would allow me to write down overlapping appointments, and
the extra width gives me room to write down some details. And in case of major
messiness, I need to copy only one day to a new page.

re 1) Your example is ridiculous, but I really do need a first or last name
and a location. Even for 30-minute appointments.

re 2) But there is quite a difference between changing a five into a six, or
somehow moving an appointment in the bar chart.

re 3) I don't actually try to be in two places at the same time. It's usually
just meetings and presentations I want even should attend, but simply overlap
with other appointments. I do still want to know about them, so I can go but
leave early, or drop in at a later time.

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dryicerx
This is really awesome! Glad to see productivity hacks that are not web apps
for a change ;) There's something about actually writing stuff down physically
instead of tapping them on to your phone... hard to describe.

I'll be giving this a go this week (after offsetting the times +6hrs)

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joelanman
yeh it's nice work - I'm really interested in ways that web-based infographics
and usability ideas move into the real world - the Guardian/Observer print
design has some good examples.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/hubmedia/4383021104/>

I did a similar paper-based project a while ago - the business-card yearly
planner:

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelanman/367425390/in/set-7215...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelanman/367425390/in/set-72157594502722552/)

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icco
Cool idea. I'd be interested to see what one looks like after a day of use.

I use just a sheet of paper from my notebook for notes and my phone keeps
track of my agenda, but I could see how this could unify that. I'd need a much
larger ToDo space, but that is what forks are for right? Thanks for this.

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davidw
Here at 73primenumbers.com, we're always on the lookout for this kind of
paper-based innovation!

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pavs
Looks nice.

Something similar that I have used in that past.

[http://davidseah.com/blog/the-printable-ceo-online-
emergent-...](http://davidseah.com/blog/the-printable-ceo-online-emergent-
task-timer/)

<http://davidseah.com/blog/the-printable-ceo-series/>

I think these are a bit more polished with more options.

Edit: Online Flash version: <http://davidseah.com/tools/ett/alpha/>

Now I just use Things for mac. Works for me.

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shadowsun7
I love this, windsurfer. It goes quite well with my existing GTD system, and I
really appreciate that you've made this available. Thank you.

Note: for college students who'd like to use it, consider reading Cal
Newport's GTD for students:

[http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/10/06/monday-master-class-
ge...](http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/10/06/monday-master-class-getting-
things-done-for-college-studentsmade-easy/)

~~~
windsurfer
I'm glad you like it :)

Note: I am a college student

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RodgerTheGreat
Reminds me of the 'PocketMod': <http://repocketmod.com/>

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San
Moleskine has something like this, called the Weekly Notebook. Each spread has
a page for appointments on the left (one week), and room for notes or to-dos
on the right:
[http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/diariesplanners/12_month_...](http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/diariesplanners/12_month_weekly_notebook/12_months__weekly_notebook__black_soft_cover__pocket.php)

It's a very nice product, and it looks a bit more presentable than your
solution. This can be important when you are in a meeting or with a client (or
just to yourself -- using a fancy planner motivates me to keep it neat and up-
to-date).

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JoelMcCracken
This reminds me of my muji chronotebook, which I bought after being referenced
by Jack Cheng.

<http://jackcheng.com/stuff-i-love-muji-chronotebook>

Its really awesome. I find it the perfect balance of flexibility and structure
within a notebook. The way times are laid out are cool, but yet remain
unobtrusive.

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Mystitat
Others have commented on this already, but this reminds me a lot of the charts
I'd make for the first couple weeks of high school when I had new classes and
couldn't remember my schedule. I think this is more suited for that kind of
scheduling than something more corporate. It's just enough space to help you
remember that English is at 10:45.

This would also be a good template for convention-goers to use to plan which
events they'd like to go to. I can easily imagine this being a rip-out page in
a convention pamphlet.

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billclerico
looks awesome. reminds me of marc andreessen's 3x5 index card hack:
[http://lifehacker.com/266387/marc-andreessens-guide-to-
perso...](http://lifehacker.com/266387/marc-andreessens-guide-to-personal-
productivity)

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lotharbot
Seems like the "bars" could be substantially thicker, thereby allowing more
space to write in details of appointments and such.

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Capnemo
Folded in four it is about the size of my iPhone which has calendar app in it

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TrevorBurnham
I think it will be competitive with the iPhone once someone contributes a
patch for MobileMe sync. At least it bypasses AT&T.

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windsurfer
Maybe I'll integrate some social networking features and location awareness. I
could easily capture a percentage of the iPhone's market share with that kind
of innovation.

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phoenix24
this is absolutely priceless; nice job.

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alexkay
Looks good even though most people use A4 paper, start their week on Monday
and have their lunch between 12:00 and 13:00 :)

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rue
Except the Americans. People who simultaneously refer to Saturday and Sunday
as the "weekend" and start their calendar weeks from Sunday are, truly,
exceptional.

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graywh
Some things are allowed to have 2 ends. Why not weeks, too?

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roundsquare
Thats actually what I have always considered it to mean. Like two ends of a
rope.

Of course, thats probably more a function of having everyone around me call
both days weekends and having sunday start off the week. I needed someway to
justify it to myself...

