Is this the diary that will change my life?

[Gentleness]

(Cross post - I put it in AIBU because this seemed more housey but they recommended here as a fount of knowledge about all things organisational.)

I am fed up of trying and failing to manage a purse size diary, a wall calendar and a A4 notebook I use to make lists, organise priorities etc. Oh - and a large whiteboard in the kitchen which I temporarily can't reach because Someone has dumped stuff in front of it. Oh - and Google calendar to whack stuff straight into from emails etc. Oh - and a printout I use for meal planning. Too many options, not enough motivation to keep them all co-ordinated.

What I want is a diary/notebook combo with plenty of well laid out space but not so huge I can't fit it in my handbag. And someone to tell me about an amazing alternative to a wall calendar, which is the thing that gets filled in least but looks pretty. I'm a visual/chart/spreadsheet/flow-diagram sort of person and great with projects but not with the ongoing keeping track of things.

Is this as good as it looks? Diary made by someone who must think a bit like me.

Anything else out there going to change my life? (apart from cbt).

No

Just no especially looking at the price of them it will fall by the wayside after 2 weeks and will taunt you forever.

Get a £3 academic diary/ jotter from sainsburys and save yourself the angst.

I don't know about the one in your link but this one is pretty niffty and I'm doing well with mine! It was my birthday present!!

Try this [http://www.organised-mum.co.uk/Life-Book-Diary-p-4.html diary]]

diary

Oh Oreos and rainys link looks fab. I'm getting that ASAP!

Hmm - not keen on the sticker things - not sure why. And they look a bit more girly than I am. And I'd prefer being able to break the day up into chunks of time than into chunks for different people - my kids are pretty small still. I am a hard woman to please?

I'd love to find someone who has the organise-us diary and can say how it works. Anyone?

Or anything more plain than OrganisedMum.

Have you seen this?

Filofax Flex.

I got an A5 one last year, and although I have fallen out of the habit of using it properly over the summer I really like it, I had the week to a view diary on the RHS and the notebook on the left, you can have both open at once. It also had a little notebook at the back for shopping lists etc but I keep forgetting to use it. Only niggle for me is that the books haven't got ribbons for pager markers, I sellotaped in some of the hanging up ones that I had cut out of the neck of a dress.

I don't use the stickers. Too faffy.

The per person bit is at the front. The rest is a normal diary.

Me either - they have been donated to DD's potty training chart!

You need something from Organised Mum !!

But don't you think the Organised Mum week to view is a bit cramped? Especially compared to the Organise-us one? This is what worries me - not having space to write what I need, so using a notebook instead and back to the same old problem?

I am so getting one of those diaries! They look great!
Atm, I'm just using a cheap little notebook where I just jot things down.
I write to do lists, shopping lists, menu planning etc but i love the diary. Looks great

I hated my organised mum... Binned it only 4 months in. It was so 'yummy mummy' that I was a bit embarrassed about it. It also doesn't have much space for the actual diary, because it's filled with silly unecessaries.

Oh I am so glad I'm not the only rare soul feeling that way - it seems such a popular choice I was questioning my lack of enthusiasm. I haven't tried it so it is a bit of an imaginary reaction, but it just doesn't look like my kind of thing. I won't use half the pages. I want the Organise-us one with extra blank pages - but I can't find anything so simple. Why is the perfect diary eluding me???? Now I'm even tentatively looking at creating my own on lulu. That is how much it is bugging me .

I'm a bit tempted by the Collins Home and Work diary... Either that or digging out my old Filofax.

Sorry here's the link.

Yeah I saw that and liked it, but I can't find out if it is being repeated for 2013.

I'm pretty sure it is... I think I've seen it somewhere.

It's probably too much... I'm not one for monthly goals and annual goals. And the expenses but never gets used in my diaries. Sigh!

The perfect diary must be out there?!

I use a moleskin week to page diary.

It has the days on the left page, and a ruled plain page on the right. This way I can put in appointments as well as all my to do lists etc.

I hated the OM stuff, really didn't work for me.

Moleskine loveliness here

I use the Collins Home and Work Diary. I like the separate sections as I can separate work, home and volunteering stuff. The appointments section is quite small so if you had a job that required a lot of appointment details you'd struggle but my life is mostly comprised of to do lists so it works for me.

The big drawback is its size. You really do need a sizeable handbag to put it in.

In my dreams there's a diary with space for appointments on the left hand page and space for planning and to do lists on the right hand page. It doesn't seem to exist.