New Binder

I have a smart phone.  I carry it everywhere with me.  I’m 56 years old and my eyes don’t work quite like they used to.  I almost went to the phablet craze when I replaced my humongous Note 8, but chose to go smaller with an S10E.  I know that my smartphone is a tool but can also be a distraction that takes me from being focused.  I almost chose a flip phone just to get away from the distraction, but didn’t want to give up the convenience of audio books, music streaming and maps, so I stayed with a smartphone.

My planner has a similar function as a smartphone in that it is a tool.  I don’t need bells and whistles or pretty patterns.  I want function over form.

However, when form enhances function, I get pretty happy.

I’ve had a number of planner binders over the years.  I started my planning lifestyle with a senior pocket daytimer in 1983.  Over time I moved up to the junior desk daytimer around 1987 or 1988 and kept with that size for a while.  When Franklin came out with their planners, the only size that I considered was the “classic” size which is half-letter pages or 5 1/2″ by 8″.   One of the problems or challenges with the Franklin and Daytimer binders was that they were just so darn big.

Around 15 years ago, when Franklin Covey seemed to have a store in every city in the United States, I stopped in and was perusing their binders and found one they called a spacemaker binder.   It held the same size of classic pages, but the binder itself was about an inch shorter and 3/4 inch narrower.  I bought it and carried it.

Sometime in the past 5 years, while using a bullet journal as my main planner and in the throes of removing clutter from our home, I got rid of that spacemaker binder.   Since I came back to the system about a year ago, I’ve missed it.

Welp, I found a replacement and I think I’m really going to like it.   I found it on ebay and the price was reasonable so I bought it.

Obviously it is older since the binder was made in the USA and the quality seems to be topnotch.

This thing looks to be completely unused and ought to last a long time.  The hardware is heavy and of good quality.  The leather seems to be a little like oil-tanned and is soft yet feels pretty thick and should wear well.  Inside it has something like a cordura nylon behind the couple of flaps.   I think the rings are about 1 1/4 inch and the binder holds all the sections I need and at the moment I have 2 months of daily calendars in it.

I hope to have some future posts with more details about the sections I am using in addition to the daily and monthly calendars.