HNT...i've stuck with it

January 2005 I made a resolution to get more organized. I have always prided myself in my mental ability to remember dates, meetings, schedules, assignments, tasks, etc. I made it through high school without any form of written planner. In college I at least started using a planner to write my class schedule in but after the first week or two of classes I rarely used it. When assignments were due, I just "knew". I also don't make lists. Never have, still rarely don't. Drives certain people crazy that I don't write things down.

Over the last two years, my roles have changed. I have multiple responsibilities; larger career related roles, numerous separate groups at one church, more personal commitments. It become obvious I had to keep them straight because slowly I began dropping things here and there. It led to undue stress.

I first purchased a nice leather binder with a yearly calendar with two pages per week. I found it at Walmart for $20 and filled it with pages from Franklin Covey. A year later I was actually still using it. In fact, I purchased my 2006 calendar in August or September 2005 because I had dates going into it that far out. I have also started traveling a fair amount for work and have been hauling the same computer/carry-on bag since my senior year of undergrad. It has been extremely useful and has carried my laptop safely accompanied by some pretty robust textbooks through the years. But it is huge and heavy when full.

Now I'm taking the organizing one step further and streamlining. Don't pack as much, have my calendar always accessible (either in paper or electronic format), only take what I'm really going to have time to work on/read when I travel. It's been working so I decided I needed to use a smaller, classier bag to travel with for my computer, binder and light flight or meeting needs.

This is what I settled on....red (think power meeting), classic (think professional and "grown-up") and my computer, binder, keys, wallet and a small novel all fit! I love it!