(This is a guest post by Michelle Forman. You can find more from Michelle on Twitter @eatniks.)
I have ADHD – I offer that as both an explanation and a disclaimer. If I had to guess, I’d say there is probably a high concentration of people with ADHD in this hobby as we tend to hyperfocus on things we enjoy and we are on a constant quest to find anything that will help us manage our lives. I should also add that I’m a woman with ADHD who wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood, a common experience for cisgender females who were overlooked as children because we were less likely to exhibit more “typical” physical hyperactivity than our male classmates.
Sorting out ADHD as an adult has been as much a relief as it has been a challenge. Understanding my needs when I was younger and life was less hectic would’ve been hugely helpful. As similar as ADHD symptoms are for those who experience them, there are also a lot of differences. A central part of my experience is a contradiction that is frustrating to me and often confusing to those around me: I have an absolute need and desire for structure in my life but often feel an insurmountable barrier to creating it. Systems and processes make me feel calm and in control; creating and maintaining systems and processes makes me feel anxious and incapable.
As you, my fellow pen and paper addicts, likely understand, I’ve always wanted a planner that I would use and hold and love as the central part of my organizational system. I’ve purchased basic undated planners, detailed guided planners, planners with great paper, planners with cool covers, small ones, big ones, you name it! None have fulfilled their planner destiny and none have made it past one month of use. I wanted something that had structure in the format but wasn’t so rigid that it was complicated to use. And I wanted at least decent paper that allowed me to use pencils, rollerball, and gel pens (I was willing to reserve my fountain pens for daily notetaking in other more suitable notebooks if necessary.) I also wanted something that allowed me to manage me entire life in one place. I’m a working parent which means I’m a professional in a demanding task-oriented job, active in our school community, and general life manager for everyone in my household (I do have an incredible partner but he’s still the COO to me as family CEO). Separating personal and professional in a planner didn’t make sense when they were never separate in my cluttered, always-running brain.
The obvious solution was something like a disc-bound system where I could print my own inserts and develop my own structure, but the thought of creating that was mentally paralyzing. I really started to think I was doomed to a life of searching for my perfect planner and never finding it.
I started to explore customizable planners hoping to find something that wasn’t so intensely customizable that it felt overwhelming but offered the customizations I wanted to make a planner that just might work for me. I suspect most of you are familiar with the world of colorful spiral-bound planners with bold colorful layouts, bright patterned covers, and stylized fonts. While they are Instagram photo-ready, they just aren’t my style and I needed to love the form as much as the function.
Weekly spread.
Then I found Golden Coil. Golden Coil offers customizable layouts in a spiral-bound hardcover book with a more sophisticated, modern, minimalist style. They have a variety of daily and weekly layout options along with task lists, project management pages, meal planning, and many other spreads to choose from. There was a great balance of having enough options to feel like this was custom but not so many options that I felt overwhelmed. And perhaps the best part was that Golden Coil’s website is rather intuitive which meant that creating my planner was not only simple, it was actually really fun.
As you make your way through their customization system, you have options to personalize starting with your Fill Page. You also have the option to skip some of these personalization offerings, something I really appreciated. I’m not an inspirational quote person, for example, so I skipped it. I chose not to upload a contact list, but did take full advantage of uploading custom dates to my calendar. I went into my Google Calendar and created a new “Golden Coil” calendar. I copied any events I wanted printed in my planner from my personal, professional, and family calendars over to my “Golden Coil” calendar. It is then easy to export this new “Golden Coil” Google Calendar as an .ics file and upload to my Golden Coil planner. Having birthdays, holidays, conferences, school closures, and more printed on my monthly and weekly calendars was so helpful! It allowed me to jump right in once my planner arrived without having to spend a lot of time setting it up comparing all of my many digital calendars.
To Do spread.
My planner layout is as follows: At the front of my planner I have the Year At A Glance 1 spread, then for each month I have a monthly calendar followed by a two-page To Do list spread where I list monthly tasks or projects; then I chose the Weekly – Single Page Horizontal 2 spread which allows me to have space for each day of the week on the left plus a weekly task list and space for small notes on the right. During setup, you then move to “Pages” where you add other non-calendar spreads. On the website, be sure to note the new and rather small menu bar on the right that says “Advanced Settings.” There you can organize your additional pages within each month and week. That’s how I added a To Do list spread after each monthly calendar. In the back of my planner, I added a few Brain Dump spreads, some Project Planning 1 spreads, and finished out the book with standard Dot Grid pages.
So how’s it going? My job is extremely task-oriented. I work in public health communications, so my days are mostly responding to journalist inquiries, reviewing and editing copy, posting to social networks, being pulled into meetings for input, etc. I do have some bigger projects, but mostly I have a zillion little things to do every day. I use my weekly spreads to write the most urgent tasks of the day and put other tasks on that week’s to-do list. Projects or more involved tasks are added on my monthly to-do spread. I also put any personal to-dos or reminders on those spreads. There are no other rules. No color codes. My system is simple and straightforward and I love it. The spreads provide the structure I need to keep things organized without more than a second of thought per item. I write with whatever tools I want to use that day or whatever I have handy. (More on that later…) I also like that the weekly to-do list page has a space for notes or ideas, which means I can jot it down without committing to doing it as a task. So far it’s all working great. I started using my Golden Coil planner the first week of August and I’m still using it, which says a lot.
The Golden Coil planner ranges from $62-$79.60 depending on how many pages you use. Add shipping costs and it’s not exactly cheap. At this price I had high expectations for materials and I was not disappointed. The spiral binding is solid and doesn’t flex like some. I chose a linen cover that feels as nice as it looks. And the paper… oh, the paper! I prefer a toothy paper over a smooth one and Golden Coil’s 80# Mohawk paper is exactly that. As I mentioned before, I didn’t expect to be able to use my fountain pens but I was wrong. Some wetter and wider nibs had a bit of ink spread and tiny spots of bleed, but otherwise I have been pleasantly surprised at how well this paper takes fountain pen ink. I mostly use medium nibs (that’s as fine as I go!) for these smaller spaces anyway, and they work beautifully on this paper. Pencil feels great and highlighters, gel, and rollerball all work well. The paper soaked up Sharpie ink but that was the only clear no for this paper that I’ve encountered yet.
I do think Golden Coil would be improved with the option for monthly or section tabs and an included bookmark (you can buy one for an additional $6). I already had some adhesive monthly planner tabs that I added to my planner and I got a three-pack of Avery Write & Erase Spiral Slide-in Bookmark Plastic Dividers that work great but admittedly don’t look great with this sleek, stylish book. Because they are easily and inexpensively remedied, neither of those critiques seemed like reasons to not buy a Golden Coil planner. I do think they are small additions that could really elevate them in the market. I also know that the large spiral – the golden coil – will be a deal breaker for some and I understand that. It does make for a bulky planner and, like any spiral binding, it can sometimes get in the way when writing. At 7 1/4” x 9 3/4” not including the spiral binding which ranges from 7/8 ”-1 1/4”, these planners are definitely not small.
Right now I’m working remotely full-time so my planner lives at home making the bulk less of a problem for me. If I was considering this planner when I was carrying a full bag back and forth, perhaps I would’ve thought twice. I’m glad I was in a position where bulk wasn’t a consideration because I am so glad I got this planner. Now that I’ve allowed myself this distraction today, I see that I still have two tasks listed by today’s date that I still need to finalize.
