planning a project with Staedtler triplus fineliners

I'm a planaholic. There, I said it. When it comes to university projects, my birthday and study schedule, I like to plan everything down to a T. I know that things don't always go as planned but to have a structure in my mind means that my level of stress lessens and that I'm not rushing around last minute to get everything done.

This year, I have a project that has its own dedicated six-week block and I have to come up with an idea myself and then implement it. That is, I can do the project on any subject that I wish and over the Christmas holidays, I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do. Having already been in touch with a potential tutor at university, I have a vague idea of the direction I want to go in so I decided to plan out the six week block and also hone my idea.

With the aid of these Staedtler Triplus Fineliner pens, I have drawn up a mind-map of potential ideas and also made a rough timetable for the project itself.

Thirty different colours mean that colour coding is never an issue as it is near impossible to run out of colours and that I can utilise each colour and their shades without worrying about a lack of shades to choose from. In the mind map below, you can see that I've made each sub-area have a colour scheme. So in the top left, it is green, bottom left is blue, top right is pink and bottom right is red/orange. The colours go from dark to light in terms of shade. So the further you deviate from the centre of the mind map, the lighter the shade.

For the schedule, I really want to finish the project within four weeks rather than the six as it means that I can have a slightly longer summer holiday (I'd only get ten days otherwise!). I've colour coded each stage of the project - blue is data collection, orange is data collation, green is the essay and pink is the poster I have to produce. 

On Tuesday, I will be talking about these pens in more detail and will also be giving five sets away so sit tight!

Staedtler fineliners are pens that I've used throughout high school and university and though I do rave about Muji gel pens a lot, these fineliners are the ones that originally made me fall in love with adding colour to my notes and schoolwork. Fine nibs ensure that my work stays neat and on point whilst keeping that artistic feel and fineliners from Staedtler are always highly pigmented so you never have to worry about your work looking washed out.

You may have also seen this picture on my Instagram (paperl0vestory), and in it, I used the Staedtler Triplus fineliners too!

NB: this post was a collaboration with Staedtler. All content and views are still my own.

review: less thingz planner

Sometimes, it's nice to try a product that's different to anything you've ever used before and that's why I decided to give the 2015 DAYZ planner by Less Thingz a chance. I'm aware of other desk diaries on the market and they all look similar - they either lie flat on the desk or are spiral bound, propped up by it's clever triangular prism shape.

Anyway, DAYZ by Less Thingz props up but does so via some clever folding but more on that later on in the post. First things first, design. The planner comes in a variety of colours and mine is dark grey with a red elastic - the red giving it that pop the minimalistic grey so desperately needs. I love how minimal the design is so far and am impressed with the quality - the grey card is very thick and the diary paper is pretty thick card too - I'd wager a guess that its at least 100gsm.

The diary comes with a card that essentially tells you, in a pictorial format, how to use the planner. It's all in German, as that's where the company is based but luckily, there's Google Translate to the rescue.

If you unfold the diary completely, it is basically several pieces of card subtly glued together and then folded at regular intervals. I have to admit that the design makes it quite fiddly to deal with - it took me quite some time before I got used to it! There is a weekly planner and also a yearly one that has all the German holidays on - not too useful for the rest of us, I guess!

The fact that there are two pieces of elastic confused me at first and it also means that one can sometimes get in the way once the planner is propped up. Maybe I'm just being dense but I can't figure out how to make it look neat!

The card is a lovely cream colour with the text in black with some red denoting the start of a new month and weekends.

I do love the concept of a foldable desk diary but having to undo the elastic on a fortnightly basis (or more often if things need to written in, in advance) would drive me crazy but we'll see how it goes. The quality is amazing - the card used is thick and takes fountain pen very well and I do like the dotted paper utilised. The font is minimalist (just how I like things) and the cream paper adds a nice, luxurious touch.

NB: Although I received these products as review samples, I have reviewed them just as I would have if I had paid for them.

my week #142

So, this is my first week in my new bound planner. When I last used a bound planner, I never envisaged ever picking one up again but that was before I discovered that there were some cute, minimalistic Korean ones out there that might work better for me than my Moleskine did. That's not to say I won't ever try a Moleskine again - I might (never say never and all other similar clichés would come in handy right now) but I'm really loving this planner by Seeso.

The paper is amazing - thick enough so that there is no show through but also thin enough to stop the planner from being as heavy as a thousand tonnes! The extra space also means I can write in more rubbish than ever before and that's exactly what I've done...

How was your first week in January? Did you set any resolutions?

happy new year & 2014 review & 2015 resolutions

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R !

I hope you are all having a lovely festive period so far where your days are filled with too much food and laughter! Here is my 2014 review :)

2014 Review

I started 2014 in Hong Kong and landed back on UK soil on the 1st of January. I had a truly amazing time - seeing family and friends was lovely and the weather wasn't half bad either (during the day at least; it was freezing during the night!).

In April, I saw McBusted at the O2 with my sister and all of my teenage dreams came true. Two of my favourite bands from my teenage years together on one stage?!

In July, I finished my first year of medical school which was actually two years crammed into one. Unbelievably (at least to me), I passed with flying colours and actually enjoyed every moment of it. At the same time, I also acquired a summer job where I met some awesome people too - waitressing is hard work but it isn't dissimilar to what I'll be doing in a few years' time as a junior doctor (fingers crossed all exams go well!) - being perpetually on my feet, juggling a few tasks at the same time and providing excellent customer service are definitely transferable skills.

During 2014, I made some amazing new friends through starting a new course at university. Although my old friends are still amazing, I think I've added to my list of 'friends who I just about count as family now'.

2015 Resolutions

1) Relax more and stop being such a workaholic.

I can see the contrast between myself now and myself back in my first degree: in my first degree, I avoided work at all costs and in this one, I can't stop working. This is definitely a sign that I'm doing the right thing by being on this course but also means that I need to be careful in order to maintain a good work-life balance.

2) Spend more time with friends and widen my friendship circle.

During my first placement this autumn, I didn't see many of my closer friends as they were at different hospitals or were on a general practice placement. This meant that I missed them a whole lot but it also meant I made a lot of new friends and as a result, have widened my friendship circle considerably.

These are my only two resolutions for 2015 because I feel that too many will detract my focus from working to achieve these goals. This year, I've really valued the things in my life that money can't buy (friendship, success and hard work) and I hope to carry those on into 2015.

Once again, happy new year and I wish you all good health, a prosperous year and an amazing 2015 where you make many, many happy memories.