DIY Life

Every so often, someone comes up with something new to do with a Moleskine or similar notebook. Often, these are DIY versions of existing products: "I bought a Moleskine knock-off and it doesn't come with a pocket in back, so I added my own." You know the drill.

Mike Rohde's Planner Hack is that kind of site: it uses a regular Moleskine to make a week-at-a-glance calendar. And to be honest, to me, it initially seemed pointless. Moleskine already makes a week-at-a-glance calendar that won't break the bank, and the process of making one by drawing lines all over the pages and labeling them sounds like a tedious one. Why not just buy the one that's out there? Then I thought about it, and further reading confirmed what I realized.

Earth-shattering epiphanies await you after the break!

In some areas, school has been in full swing for a month; in others, it only started last week. Either way, it's safe to say that plenty of college freshmen are just getting the lay of the land. Some have no idea what their major will be. Others know exactly what they want to do: design stuff.

Core77 has created a guide called Hack 2 School, for all those incoming design majors. It's worth checking out because, while its specific focus is industrial design, it has plenty of useful material for all art and design students, and even some ideas that will be appreciated by college students in general, like those for laundry, living in small spaces, and making good meals with few ingredients.

Messy desks plague most home office - for those of you who are able to confine office type mess to the office. People with no time to tidy up, who end up spending more time looking for things then actually being productive. I think this is a particular problem for DIY types because we see potential in everything. My desk is full of interesting paper scraps that I'm sure I'll find a use for later. I have old magazines and shoe boxes just waiting to be re-purposed. In all of this chaos, my important papers remain unfilled and the backs of them scribbled with little notes, random phone numbers and endless 'to do' items.

When you consider that all this mess is affecting productivity it is time to make a change. This article encourages you to think about what you want from your space. Contemplating the characteristics of your ideal workspace will go a long way in helping you get there. Walking you trough this work space check-up you'll think about the relevance of various things you're keeping around and evaluate the most appropriate place for them.

I feel fresher and more motivated when I am happy with my workspace. I'll share some of my own suggestions after the jump.

I spent three hours staring at my computer screen yesterday, trying to will myself to write an article that refused to be written. It wasn't that I lacked motivation or ideas, I just couldn't get out what I was trying to say, and as a writer there are few things as frustrating as that feeling. In the end, I decided the only way to break through was to just start typing, and what better to write about than getting rid of writer's block while actually getting rid of said writer's block! So, here I go...

Writer's block comes in two varieties: lack of ideas, and lack of impetus. For me, the former is the easiest to overcome -- whenever I'm out of ideas, I simply stop trying to find them. The best ideas, I've found, often come when I least expect them (like when I'm taking a shower, watching a baseball game, or banging on a plastic cylindrical drum). It's always been my experience that ideas will find you whether you're looking for them or not.

Working from home can provide a rewarding and flexible lifestyle. In fact, to most it sounds ideal - no daily commute, no boss to report to, no cubicles filled with annoying co-workers, and you can eat lunch when you want, for as long as you like. You can even take a nap if you want to!

Unfortunately the biggest complaint from people who work at home ... they don't actually get any work done. According to one study, only 14 percent of people who work at home put in a full eight hours ... the rest put in three hours or less.

If you're reading this and you're currently working from home .. well, 'er odds are you probably fall into the three hours or less percentile. If so, here are some suggestions from WIRED on how to change that and successfully get your job done.

1. Switch into work mode.
It's hard to feel like a productive professional with flannel jammies, fuzzy slippers, and bed head. Get up, take a shower, and dress like you're actually going to work (because, hey -- you are). I vouch for this one ... I've done the pj thing and it doesn't work. I now get up everyday at 6am, shower and get dressed immediately.

If you've ever bought a planner, you know that the inexpensive ones often come with badly-designed pages and a bunch of things you don't need, and the ones you can customize tend to be on the pricey side; then it's easy to neglect to use them, because they're inconvenient to lug around. Some people use their PDAs or similar integrated cellphone functions in place of a big brick of paper, but many still prefer to keep track of contacts and appointments with a paper and pen.

In the last few years, there has been a trend in geekland: handmade planners tailored to their owners' needs. The simplest of these is the "Hipster PDA," a stack of index cards secured with a binder clip or elastic band, or kept in a small card carrier, popularized by Merlin Mann on his site 43 Folders. But if you want something more complex, or you would like formal templates for your cards, you should check out the DIY Planner.

The DIY Planner site offers free downloads of printable planner pages, templates for making your own, and a beginner's guide to help you get started. The pages come in various sizes, including 3"x5" and half-letter (the classic size for planners in the US), and you only need to use the ones that work for you. In some formats, there are well over 100 options. Be sure to visit the rest of the site, too: it's full of information about journaling and taking notes, and has an active forum.