Design your 2018 with a luxe-diary
Posted on 03 December 2017
I don’t know about you, but one of my annual essentials is a beautiful written aid that will assist the organisation of my busy life, while providing ample blank space to get creative with scribbles, brainstorms, doodles and musings.
Diary, Journal, Life Designer ... however you refer to your little black book (or consider replacing ‘black’ with pastel or palm leaf for 2018!) you’ll no doubt consider it an invaluable instrument for capturing your comings and goings, engagements, thoughts, hopes, dreams and aspirations. Indeed, the art of journaling is well and truly back in vogue.
Stylishly bound paper featuring the elegant handy work of Amelia Lane, Emma Kate and the like are making the trusted luxe-diary a ‘must have’ accessory by offering a piece of beauty to underpin the day-to-day aspects of your life.
Of course, in this technological age there’s always the option of using an electronic alternative as back-up. But to me there’s something precious about the age-old ritual of putting your favourite pen to fresh sheets of crisp paper. And with my quick-thinking mentality of an-idea-in-an-idea-out, ‘don’t think it, ink it’ has become my journaling mantra!
Selecting the perfect diary to set you up for yet another new year is one treasured practice I’ll never hand over to an app. As January 1 approaches, this process feels like an extra-special treat, as exciting to me as waiting for Santa Claus! Getting my diary home and sitting down, ballpoint raised with fresh new pages in front of me never fails to fill me with exhilaration over the possibilities that lay ahead.
Sure, the neatness might only last a couple of pages before dissolving into a crazy-yet-beautiful hotchpotch of thoughts and ideas and evidence of the chaotic commitments of your daily life. But regardless, the empowering feeling of taking charge as you commit to an organised approach over the next twelve months really does feel good!
Type A’s can chillax as the needs of high-achieving perfectionists the world over are being met by a varied and ever-growing selection of perfect, bound or spiral, 100gsm tomes, helpfully dividing days, weeks, months and years into sensible grids. Our diaries should implore us to consistently rise to every challenge while leaving ourselves the emotional space to draft and to dream.
So, if you’ve been feeling twinges of jealousy over the desk inspo of your friends and colleagues this year, have a stationary fetish, plan to kick goals in 2018, or just want to tote a pretty book around to meetings and luncheons, read on for a round-up of a few of my faves ...
Amelia Paper Lane Life Designer - $45-70
In 2017 I ran with (quite literally in some instances) an Amelia Lane Life Designer. All my personal research on the topic of diaries led me to this one as the ideal complement to a hectic lifestyle. In addition to its Insta-worthy pineapple design for 2018, I was attracted to the meal, water and exercise planner (which could easily be converted to a tool for planning your social media activities). I’ve particularly enjoyed using the month grid which leaves space for your top to-do’s. I love how each day is broken down into appointments, to-do lists, and a consumption tracker, with a larger boxed area at the bottom for notes ... I use this to highlight a top goal, task or event for each day. Last year, I went with a spiral bound version. Personally, I think this works beautifully atop a desk, but I found it a little clunky to carry. For that reason, I’ll be going with the perfect bound version in 2018 (you could also try the compact version if you’re always on the go!) You can buy it here.
Best bits:
- Day to a page layout from January - December 2018
- Daily Meal and Exercise Tracking on the daily page layout
- Monthly Expenses and Budget Tracker
- Monthly Calendar View and Inspirational Quote
- 12 Goal Action Worksheets
- 2018 and 2019 Yearly Planners
- 2018 Vision Board
- Bucket List, Passwords and Logins List
- Notes (lined) pages for brain-storming
- Ideas (blank) pages for sketching
- Hard cover with pocket on back inside cover
- Lay flat book binding
- Packaged in a luxury black gift box with gold foil
Emma Kate Co - Write Your Own Adventure - $54
Emma Kate launched a kick-ass crowd funding campaign for her 2017 edition to get these little gems out, and smashed her target of $10,000 in the process. So impressive was her vision that she found herself with 872 eager backers, pledging an impressive $50,459 between them. If you buy one of these gorgeous grey, black or blush bound beauties, open it up and take a deep breath, knowing it isn't going to restrict you to colouring inside the lines or limit you to living life in half-hour increments. Instead, you’ll be encouraged to embrace the unplanned and leave plenty of space for hopes and dreams. After all, why let the details of the everyday hold you back? The full specs can be found here.
Best bits:
- Yearly, monthly and weekly spreads for January 2018 - December 2018
- A vertical, minimal layout with no time slots, to maximise space for each day
- Space for weekends, allowing equal space as weekdays
- Dot grid pages, for sketching, note taking or bullet journalling
- Words to inspire, with brush lettered typography on every page
- 2018 manifesto - beautiful collisions of words for the year ahead of us
- 3 ribbon dividers, to keep you precisely in place
- An expandable pocket, for receipts, boarding passes and bits collected on the way
- Presented in a foiled, hardcover keepsake box
MiGoals – GET SHIT DONE - $35
This hard-backed companion is focused on structuring your life to track your habits and place you in the best position to reach your goals. It’s a MiGoals diary badged with a subtle 18 deboss, and cool grey colour! It was the purpose-poker and daily to-do list that really sold it to me ... because if I don’t remind myself about my intention to practice yoga every day, meetings take over and in no time my Zen evaporates away. I love that it’s been designed to stop you from comparing yourself to others, and to get YOU living YOUR best life. Buy it here.
Best bits:
- Sections for purpose and vision planning
- 10 x Goal setting templates for a successful 2018
- Quartely reviews section to track your progress
- Week to two-page diary spread with habits tracker ·
- Monthly calendar planner
- Monthly budget section
- Lined note pages
- A5 hardcover notebook
- 100gsm inside pages
- 224 pages
- 2 divider ribbons
Typo
If you’re not too worried about the keep-sake box and are simply looking for a ‘cheapie but a goodie’, I highly recommend you take a peek at Typo’s selection of diaries here.
Daily Greatness (no set start date) - $69
My mustard-coloured Daily Greatness Business Planner is already purchased and poised on my desk, ready and waiting for me to utilise its fabulous range of features to map out the next stage of milestones in my tenille.com.au business plan. It really is the perfect tool for this purpose because it’s been designed specifically to assist with the setting of business goals, time-critical reflection, budget and expense tracking, and even social media strategy planning. Pick one up here.
Amelia Lane 12-Month Planner (no set start date) - $20
Though not an actual 12-month diary, I’m intrigued by this Amelia Lane monthly tracker. I think it would be the ideal solution for social media planning, but could really be used for anything and everything. What’s more, it comes in a myriad of on-trend designs, so there’s a cover pattern to suit any taste. Grab it here!
Leaders in Heels - Make Your Mark - $90
Make your mark is an elegant journal set, including notebook, self-coaching journal and daily planner pad. The aim is to inspire you to ‘create daily habits to nurture and empower the leader inside you.’ Sounds amazing, right? And, as if that wasn’t enough, this American-based retailer even offers free shipping to Australia. Check out the details here.
Best bits
- Handy tips for translating dreams into actionable tasks to include in your monthly, weekly and daily agendas
- A guide for setting yearly goals
- Quarterly and monthly plans
- A quarterly challenge for your larger goals
- Weekly and daily priorities
- Structured meeting agenda pages for your yearly networking plan
Personally, I love a hard cover, hand-lettered diary with gorgeous debossed art and the kind of mantra-filled pages that inject an extra bit of positivity into my life, every single day! Oh, and if it doesn’t come in a box, forget it!
Leave a comment below to let me know your fav diaries or any other suggestions!
Love + light,
Tenille xx
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