# Ode to the personal organizer (ie, a Day Timer)



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I have decided I _love_ my Day Runner. 
Mine is a half-sized three ring notebook (5x8 or thereabouts). I have a quilted cover I made for it with a couple of pen slots and it's organized with exactly the dividers I need.

When I was in college, I carried a Day Runner. A basic WalMart version--calendar, address book, etc. But in the years since having kids, I got out of the habit. "No need," I told myself, "What do _I_ have to organize?" (though I was always forgetting things, losing things, and being late for events)

This year, though, I started subbing at several schools in the area. I decided I needed to carry one for no other reason than to have a calendar. So I made up a pretty basic version, and made a cover I liked.
Then I made a financial section so I could keep track of the bills. Then I put a section in for my store operation, so I could keep track of fabric I had on order, what I needed to order, etc. Obviously I needed an address book section... A section for each organization I belong to... And so on and so forth.

Within a month I had a book that I couldn't live without! lol

Friday, I happened to be in a town checking out a friend's new shop when her fabric rep came in to get her Spring order. She's also _my_ fabric rep, so we all sat down to do our orders in the back room. (That way the rep wouldn't have to come the extra 35 miles, 12 of which are dirt roads, to come out to my house).

Because of my Day Runner, I had a list of all the fabrics I was currently low on, what I was wanting to order, what my customer ID #s were with all of my distributors including this one, where my finances stood so I knew what invoices would be coming due and when, etc, etc. 

In short, I was just as ready at the drop of a hat as I would have been sitting in my shop with my paperwork sitting around. 


Has anyone else discovered the indispensibility of their personal organizer?


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

Way to go, Erin! I have never gotten the knack of making mine work for me. Maybe I need to cart it around for a while and see what winds up inside it before I decide how to set it up?


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