The Organicer

The Organicer is described on Kickstarter as an artsy, colourful and well structured smart planner connecting best features of analogue and digital planning. So I was excited to back this project.

The way I had envisioned it was that I could use the organicer planner as a desk diary. Then capture the plan on the app and then use that so I didn’t have to carry the planner with me all the time (freeing up space in my bag for other notebooks).

It arrived just before the beginning of the new year ready for 2019 but I wanted to wait until I had started using it before doing a blog post.

I like the artsy feel – the colours and designs. However, I have found that the habit tracker and goals planner pages while artsy don’t really have enough space. The habit tracker /grid is too small for me to really use which was disappoint.

The Planne

The monthly calendar has a nice artsy design and is a standard 2 page spread grid layout. The monthly calendar is not linked to the app, but it is useful to have to plan out your month.

The weekly overview starts on the first of the month and you have a column for each day. Therefore, January started on the Tuesday. At it runs from there. So rather than have Monday-Sunday week layout it is simply in date order. I found it slightly confusing at the start. However, it does have the day and the date at the top of the column so I am starting to get used to it.

The schedule starts at 6.30am and ends at 9.30 (which is longer than a lot of diaries and planner). I do find this useful as I do often have things going on outside “core hours”. So this suits me.

365 Checklists and Daily Notes

These come at the end of the month after the weekly pages. I find these useful and practical. I have been using the checklists for to-do lists, shopping lists, errands etc, it is nice to have the flexibility and I use it for what I need on a particular day. The “notes” section I am using as a mini journal to record what I do each day.

While the planner layout is not a layout that would be my first choice it has the potential as a paper planner, but as a combination of digital as well? I have been struggling.

The Organicer App

I have an iphone so I have been using the iOS app which is free for those of us who have purchased the notebook.

However, I had got to say I have been very disappointed. I have found the app really struggles to pick up when I have written items in my schedule (weekly pages) and doesn’t even recognise that there is writing there. It manages the checklists and journal notes slightly better. However, it is still awkward and takes a couple of goes to get it. It would be easier and quicker to just take a picture on my phone and use that (which I could do anyway without the organicer). The advantage is, of course, is that it is tagged to a day and therefore easier to find than if I just took a picture. But it should just work. It is incredibly frustrating trying multiple times to get it to work (as it shouldn’t require effort).

It is unfortunate to say that there have been similar (but not the same) products with QR Codes and Apps which work better. So in my mind, the app is capable of being better!

Hopefully, they will continue to work on the app and improve it as the point of this planner is clearly to use the paper planner and app together seamlessly.