Two month calendar format for pocket notebooks
I’m still using Field Notes brand pocket notebooks every day as described in My Notebook System. (I’m also slowly working on an update to that article!)
The notebooks have solved 99.999% of my note-taking and to-do list needs. But I’ve never been happy with my calendar situation until now.
The following is probably the twentieth calendar format I’ve tried in these notebooks and it by far my favorite. Maybe it will work for you too.
It saves quite a bit of space to not separate months and allow them to "share" a week row. I believe it also shows a much more natural flow of days. I’ll even go so far as to say that it improves my ability to plan ahead, particularly when the span of time crosses a month boundary.
As you can see, I like a "Monday start" week layout. This fits how I think of the week conceptually. Besides, it makes semantic sense for the week to end with the weekend, right?
Minor note: I originally put my calendars near the end of my notebooks on the last few pages, but I put it in the middle of this one (you can see the staples in the picture above) and I like it. I think I’ll keep doing that.
The Field Notes notebooks are 140mm tall, which divides into seven days with a nice round 20mm per day. The width of the notebook pages varies (the books are trimmed while folded, so the center is the smallest sheet!) but through trial and error, I settled on 16mm week rows.
Here’s the final dimensions:
That information is all you need to create your own calendar identical to mine. All you need is a ruler and pen or pencil. Note that the calendar is drawn with the notebook rotated so that the fold makes it look like a tiny laptop computer.
My calendar drawing template
I go through a pocket notebook in about 32 days on average, so I want it to make it easy to reproduce this calendar format fairly painlessly.
To that end, I made a cardboard template for the grid and if you’re going to be doing this a lot, I recommend you do the same.
Here’s my template:
As you can see, I carefully cut the template to fit an open notebook. The corners absolutely did not need to be cut in a radius to match the notebook corners. It does nothing to make the template work better. I just did it to be fancy.
There are two pieces of cardboard (recycled from a box) in this template. I cut the top piece by tracing an open notebook and carefully cutting along the traced line. The top piece is glued to a flat bottom piece to make it easier to keep the template from moving around when I press a notebook into it. I used hot glue, but any glue or paste or tape will do.
I made the guide lines by carefully measuring and drawing a grid on an actual notebook, then I put the notebook in the template and transfered the ends of the lines to the edges of the template.
Some calendar details: If you look very closely at the example calendar spread, you might notice that I made the row line in the middle just a bit lower to keep from having to draw across the center staples. (Middle line marked with a "C" on the cardboard template.) The bottom days are all adjusted to allow for this difference. This also works out because the top page of the calendar is also adjusted down to make room for the header row with the days of the week ("Mon", "Tue", "Wed", etc.).
I took my time making the template because I intend to use this for many years. Nevertheless, it didn’t take very long to make.
Creating a calendar with the template takes no more than 8 minutes
To use the template to draw a calendar grid, I just have to insert a notebook and keep it flat while I place a ruler across the grid guide marks and scribe the lines:
Then number the days and indicate where the months start. This part was a lot less tedious than I thought it would be.
How long does it take to make a complete calendar spread? I timed myself making the one you see here and it took 8 minutes. I was in absolutely no hurry. You could probably do it in half that time if you really wanted to.
Here’s my finished calendar:
Does this actually work?
Absolutely! I love having 70 days in my pocket.
Because it’s paper, you can do anything with this calendar:
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Block out vacations or other big plans
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See what date "next Saturday" falls on
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See at a glance if you’re "doing anything on the 19th of next month"
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Schedule an event
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Track habits
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Draw little symbols for the weather
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Cross off the days as they pass to be more mindful about the passage of time
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Trust it (more on this below)
I do a little bit of all of these things. I’m amazed at how often I use the calendar now!
These rectangles aren’t exactly huge. So a fine-tip pen such as the 0.38mm gel ink pens (Pilot Juice) I use are very helpful for adding entries.
By drawing the grid in a light colored ink, I can see where I’ve added entries at a glance.
Lastly, a little philosophical aside. I used to resist keeping a calendar on my person. I thought having constant reminders for upcoming appointments and due-dates would distract me or stress me out. But I’ve been able to reverse my thinking on that. Now I use the calendar for calm and peace. Like the notebook itself, the calendar is now my trusted friend. Trust is important.
Paper notebooks inspire trust. Short of lighting it on fire, it’s pretty hard to make a notebook stop working. It’s easily one of the most reliable pieces of information technology ever created. (Also, they’re really pleasant to hold and flip through.)
If the day is clear and I trust my calendar, then I can reassure myself that I’m not forgetting something important. If I trust that I’m not forgetting something important, then I can fully concentrate on whatever is in front of me, or take some well-deserved Intentional Rest.