Comments on: Goodbye Planner Pad Organizer, I Hardly Knew Ye

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:03:39 +0000

Just had a very poor experience with their customer service – so dont expect too much help there

By: rickyspears

rickyspears — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:48:28 +0000

Elisabeth – I’m glad it works for you! It might work better for me know since I’m working with much shorter task lists than I used to. I’m currently keeping my task list in a draft mail in Gmail, so I still don’t think the Planner Pad is for me, but it was a great learning experiment.

By: Elisabeth Kuhn

Elisabeth Kuhn — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:40:18 +0000

I used to use the Planner Pad for years, and loved it. Why did I stop (temporarily). It was so BIG, yes, even the personal one weighs quite a bit and requires a rather big purse, and I had some back problems, so I was trying to lighten my load by using a much smaller calendar.

But I miss it, and I was just thinking of going back to it

I tend to like pen and paper planning, and I found it easy to add sticky notes if I did need extra space.

And the Planner Pad has been the only one that really worked for me — perfectly.

By: rickyspears

rickyspears — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:25:29 +0000

Jessi – I’m glad to hear the the Planner Pad is working well for you! I thought about using the desk edition (17″x22″), which probably would have worked well for me, but it just isn’t portable at all.

If you wouldn’t mind, I would love to hear more about how you shortened your next actions to fit in the 1-7/8″ by coordinating them with your “Action Support” file.

By: Jessi G.

Jessi G. — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:53 +0000

I’ve had really good luck with Planner Pad and GTD (since 2006), and just got my 3rd one in the mail today (new toy!). But then, I really prefer keeping my system very much on paper, as I have yet to splurge on a PDA and so need something portable. I do use the 7 columns as contexts–Agendas, Office, Computer, Projects (mini-projects or things my employees are working on), Waiting For, Home and Errands, as well as the built-in “Calls” column. I conquered the 1 7/8″ problem by making judicious use of my “Action Support” file folder in my workbag. (I even used the personal size in 2006 which is even narrower!) But if you have lots of next actions, need lots of detail associated with your next actions, and your NA’s don’t divide somewhat evenly into contexts, then the planner pad just isn’t going to work. But I love mine. The pages in the back are terrific for keeping track of my 10,000 and 20,000 ft+ levels and goals, as well as several types of Someday/Maybe lists. I’m headed back to graduate school in the fall–we’ll see if it still works when I’m not chained to a desk all day.

By: An Analysis of a Single System « The 2Time Mgt Blog

An Analysis of a Single System « The 2Time Mgt Blog — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:08:57 +0000

[...] See Goodbye Planner Organizer, I Hardly Knew Ye. [...]

By: rickyspears

rickyspears — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:07:33 +0000

Brad – Every time that I’ve reverted back to paper in the past, my productivity seemed to increase, at least initially. I guess that with each new try I’m finding out more about how I work and paper systems, or at least this one, is just too far from digital ease that it’s no longer a viable option.

I was thinking that you had blogged about the Planner Pad at one time. It was almost a year ago, here:
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2006/08/the-planner-pad-organizer/

By: Brad Isaac

Brad Isaac — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:22:22 +0000

Ricky,

I appreciate your review. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a planner pad but never made the leap. Like you, I’ve tried different organizers and software over the years. Sometimes I just lose a day, other times, I’ve lost months!

Overall, I decided since I’m so digitally connected a paper system would no longer work for me.

By: Matthew Cornell

Matthew Cornell — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 03:08:54 +0000

Thanks for sharing your story. Planner Pad comes up regularly!