Organise or Die

Bit of an ominous Post Title there. I like to be melodramatic. In my Immersion course that I'm doing at St Martins at the moment, a lot of emphasis at the moment is being put on organisation - having lists, priorities, goals, ambitions, and a system in place to record them all so that they can be acheived. I generally use my diary and lists on random bits of paper. But I've been coming across a few things that would make the process entirely more fun, or at least a bit prettier.

First up, these genius Reminder Magnets found via Art At Heart:


Great if you keep bills/random stuff/your entire life stuck to your fridge. Time to bin those awful novelty seaside magnets and put all that important and forgotten stuff under the right magnets! I particularly like the 'fyi' and 'etc' ones the most, as they are the most ambiguous... and thus least useful I suppose, which kind of defeats the object. Whatever, I just like the thought of having a pile of stuff under the title 'etc...' They can be bought from See Jane Work, which is full of other lovely 'I will find a use for this' things like these Day of the Week pegs:


Next, also from Art At Heart (great blog btw, I recommend it), is this rather awesome All in One Wooden Desk Organiser...with iPhone charger! Nifty:

Actual wood with actual charger for actual iPhone. Nice mix of organic and technological. Made to order though... $199. Maybe not eh.

Next is one of my favourites. It's from Erin Vale Design, free printables for Blog Post topics!

Anything DIY is cool in my books. It's a downloadable PDF that you print out and then either just stack up or be a bit adventurous with it - I discovered it via Gingham Cherry and she made this ace little book using it:


Having a blog post schedule is a really good idea and something that I don't adhere to enough. Bloggers like mrYen have got it down to a T - what with his Weekend Goodness and WIP Wednesdays and all that. I don't really have that discipline yet - difficult with a full time job though. But I'm always writing down ideas for blog posts in random places so this is perfect for me, and a step in the right direction! Going to make this this weekend I think, will be nice. The only thing I find is that I have post ideas anywhere - not usually when I'm sitting in front of my computer. So should probably keep them in my bag or something. Although I usually end up noting things down on my phone. Hmmm. When I get an iphone this will all be solved. Atm my 2 year old phone is driving me crazy. Tiiiny screen =/

I saw these in Paperchase and still need to get them. Get The Hint mini sticky notes, I want to use them for bookmarking my magazines etc when I'm in the middle of reading them. And also just for sticking around the house. Or on people's faces.

More fun than actually critically important but still ace. And less than a fiver. Very needed.

On to a much more useful item; a real to-do list. With an octopus. You basically can't get any better. From Shanalogic, the octopus to-do list:

And it's printed on recycled paper! Bonus points all round. I like that it has 'Done' and 'Not yet' boxes... no pressure, like it.

A really good online tool for those who 'don't do paper' is Teux Deux - which is basically To Do in a french accent. How very high brow.


I heard of it a while back now through Swissmiss, who I believe had a part in its creation. This blog explains Teux Deux very well, (which is also where the above image is from), but is beauty is it's simplicity; it's not got loads of gadgety extra bits, it's just a simple list format, with a week to view - type in what you need to get done, and if you don't do it, it gets moved on to the next day. As soon as they do an iphone app, I'll get it. When I have an iphone. Which hopefully will be soooon =/

Last is from See Jane Work again - these cute and slightly sarcastic sticky notes for the office:

I need these a lot at the moment. Especially the 'Do This By' and then the 'Yesterday' box. And Note To Self, that's great. Seriously though, I can see these actually being quite useful around my mac area, being a fan of the overuse of post-its myself. With these I can stick my to-do lists to things like... lightswitches so I remember to do them.
"Blah Blah Blah'. We all need a pile labelled that.

So hopefully one or many of these items will inspire you to get yourself organised a bit. Or just laugh at the lack of organisation you currently have. Either is good. The plan for me next is to develop some kind of planning system for my life. Hopefully using the above things!

Coveting: Everything in Paperchase

Yes, it certainly is dangerous for me to approach Paperchase. I have a major stationery fetish, especially when coupled with bright colours/and/or cute characters. Massive weakness. It's the fresh virginal pages you see, I must possess them all.

Paperchase is of course everyone's favourite stationery shop, and I don't see how it can't be - every season they come out with the most gorgeous designs and it takes a whole lot of will power for me not to buy every single one of the beautiful notebooks that I have no use for, except to sit on my desk or in my handbag, emitting tiny rays of stationery sunshine.

Except I wandered in (was dragged by tractor beam) into the MK store yesterday, thinking I could beef up my christmas list with lovelies. Well I certainly did that. Let's start with the diaries:

Slim Week To View 2010 Diary. Linen Midnight Clematis Design £6

Agenzio A6 2010 Diary. Damask Floral Design £9.50

A5 Day To View 2010 Diary. Pink Botanical Design £6
Love this one, such a pretty design, and that pink is ace. This almost went on my list but it's too fat in my opinion - as it's a day to a page, the actual diary is about 1.5" thick - not that handbag friendly really.

A5 Week To View 2010 Diary. Mirabella Design £7.50

Just a few of the various designs and shapes they currently have. And then I came across....

Week To View. Flexi Sleeve 2010 Diary. Food Friends Design £7

Uh huh. I emitted a tiny squeal and knew it was love. It's totally kitsch and childlike and unbelievably cute - but I just could not resist at all. Even the pages are so much fun, no boring 'straight lines' here, no sir. And to be honest, life can get pretty hectic at the best of times, especially in my case when trying to juggle a 'normal job' (which has it's perks) with freelance stuff, finding new creative work to get involved in and opportunities to give myself, as well as actual life like seeing my friends back in Wolverhampton, getting drunk, and obviously chilling out by watching a good film. Or X Factor. Or I'm a Celebrity. Or Neighbours.* You know. So as life gets crazy, it would be nice to open my diary and have a tiny smile at the absurdity of it.

*I don't actually pencil in diary time for Neighbours and the like. Honestly.

And you know me - food, with actual faces? You had me at smiley coffee cup.

So that's on my list, and I suspect dad has got it for me today in London judging by the 'trying to be sly while getting reminded of the design' phonecall earlier.

Before all this, I was considering getting a filofax/organiser style:

BIRD FOLK FLORAL ORGANISER 10 £20

DAMASK STRIPE ORGANISER 2010 £20

Which, ok, is probably more practical. That was my reasoning. And paperchase have some great designs. And I could be all organisational, like I love being, with a diary bit and a list bit and a phone numbers bit and whatever else. And I'd feel semi important with an organiser. Don't you think? Instant important-ness. 'Sorry, I've got a call on the other line. Oh yes, let me just get out my organiser....'

You know. In my mind.

But the 'food friends' design won me over so normal Rachel is having a normal diary....

Sticky notes! I do not need these. Nope. But I want them.

A7 notebook. The most useless size a notebook could ever be, but I have about 5 this size. So. Cute.

Ok, this is actually useful - it's a 'media case', it's £5, and I want a new digi camera for christmas. See where I'm going here?

Bag bag bag. Useful. Always useful. Always need more bags.

So yes, as we all know, Paperchase is crammed full of not just lovely notebooks but all manner of stationery and accessories you can think of. I can't keep listing stuff I love. There is however, one thing I don't love about Paperchase - their website and online shop, or rather, lack of it. The website has a few items on there, but if you want to buy, it takes you through to their Amazon Shop. Which is fine, it works, you know, job done, but as a consumer who loves to amble my precious time away gawking at everything in the shops, I would quite like to amble precious time away gawking at a beautiful website and online shop, all seamlessly moulded together. Maybe they'll sort it out. It's a minor thing but takes away from the experience, I suppose.

And so I bid you goodnight and good luck not spending anything in Paperchase this christmas.

Next I'll probably end up posting my entire christmas list. There's some good stuff on there!