- A super simple tool for time making.
- Vantage point
- Collective Rhythm
- Keeping the important things in sight
- Download the Printable Calendar
A super simple tool for time making.
Spoiler: this is not a productivity tool. I would rather say it’s a creativity tool; Interior Design if you will, of the most intimate kind of space, the inner self.
It’s been a couple of years now, that I have been regularly taking notes about my day. First I began doing this on my phone, then on the blank pages of my workbook. I started mostly out of necessity – too little time, too many things I wanted to do. At the time of writing, I am the mother of a 5yo who would fight sleep with all his might, and we have been running a creative family business for ten years.
Once free from the linear constraints of my phone calendar, where events seemed to get lost, I tried arranging my notes in a circular fashion. Months started to feel more manageable. You must have seen a period tracker: a round calendar beginning from the first day of menstruation.
P.S.: The Ishango Bone, dating back 20.000 years, is believed to be a period tracker, or an agricultural calendar based on the menstrual cycle.
Vantage point
The beauty about a round tracker is, that it is centered on the individual rather than on external events. This makes it useful to any gender and almost any age group.
By making visible the variations and repetitions of our inner self, this type of calendar can help leverage on the small actions that add up in the long run.
It provides a space to reflect on things one intends to do about one’s own life, during a certain period of time, whether it is a creative project or a health routine that needs a bit of structure to be implemented.
Collective Rhythm
Once I started taking notes this way, the circular array made patterns emerge; not only about my own health and energies, but also about important people in my life. Our lives seemed to somehow be dancing together with similar highs and lows.
This helped me put into perspective recurring events, assign priorities, and understand how to navigate my energies by taking it easy on the lows (now that I knew when they were on their way). Most importantly, when energy levels were good I could make room for some key projects, without loosing track of them.
Keeping the important things in sight
I was looking for a calendar which could help me do all of the above for the new year, with benefits from both the circular and the linear scheme.
I could not find it, so I made a super simple one, blank and numberless as I like it: a new home for interesting things to happen. I am sharing it with you here, free to download and print.
It is made out of three pages only: 1) one for the Year, 2) one as an Energy/Creativity Tracker; 3) one for the events of the Month which we need to keep in sight.
1) Year: you can write main goals on the top; smaller steps and important events can go to the bottom part, which is divided into 12 squares, and four columns (seasons).
2) Personal time – Energy/Creativity Tracker: start always on the same day, which can be related to the menstrual cycle or be another relevant event. This is a good place to keep track of anything manageable by individual action (diet, rest, activity).
3) Month: divided into four/five weeks. I divided it in small chunks, as seas are meant to be conquered island after island.
There are no numbers on my calendar, only a few pictograms. I drew them as a reminder for myself to put the entire cycle over the single moment, and not to loose track of the important. Hopefully it can help understand what the important is, too, by reflection and comparison, month by month.
Download the Printable Calendar
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studio elisa. 
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