Day Runner Failed to Keep Me Organized (Or Maybe It's Just Mommy Brain)

The brain death began when I was pregnant. I was flying to Boston for the day to meet with an expert testifying in an important case. It wasn't my first trip. I had been working with another partner on this case for more than a year and had made several trips a month to Boston over the course of that year. Um, then I got pregnant and, after a year of traveling to Boston from Dulles Airport outside of D.C., I had my husband drop me off at National one morning to catch a flight.

Yeah, I was at the wrong airport. With no car and no taxis in sight at 6:30am. It only got worse after Hollis was born.

If you're anything like me, you've been completely scatterbrained since having children. When people ask me my age now, I honestly have to stop and think about it. It's a good thing my name is on my driver's license or I might forget that too. So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review the new Day Runner Family Matters planning system, I jumped at the chance. Organize me? Bring it on, baby!

The box I received contained a 2008 soft bound weekly/monthly Family Planner in a tasteful light teal, a ginormous erasable Wall Planner with color coded columns for 5 family members, erasable door reminders, activity folders (again, color coded), and storage cases. (Yep, you guessed it. Color coded.) The one thing I did not receive, was the Monthly Wall Info Center that seems to pull it all together. The Info Center has a place for the calendar, with storage behind the calendar and color coding for each family member. Plus, it's erasable. Brilliant.

I really wish Day Planner had waited to do this campaign until those Info Centers were ready to go. Why? It probably would have been the most useful to me. It would put a calendar, storage, and note capabilities all in one place for me with the color coded system to keep all 4 of us straight. That's a hell of a lot better than the erase board calendar with small bulletin board we have up now.

The over sized erasable Wall Planner I received from Day Planner certainly is nice, but I don't have anywhere to put it. I don't have a bulletin board in my kitchen large enough and, I'm sorry, but I wasn't going to nail or tape the thing to my wall. I just really sure what to do with it. The calendar I received was, again, nice. But without an Info Center to bring it all together, it was just a color coded calendar.

"What did I like?" you're asking yourself. I absolutely loved the erasable door reminders. They hang on the door and have a spot for the erasable marker. I need this. I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten to leave a check out for our cleaners or to bring in more diapers to daycare for the baby. Again, that mommy brain thing is really hampering me.

The door hangers work great on the lever door knobs we have on all our garage and front doors. If, however, you have a door with a round knob or one that opens into a room instead of out into a room (like a bathroom or bedroom), the door hanger will prevent the door from closing unless you move it around. But for doors leading out of your house? Brilliant! It might also have been nice if they'd included a marker for each door hanger (they only included one), but I have this secret addiction to office supplies and I have a bazillion anyway. If you are not similarly addicted, you might want to pick up a few extra dry erase markers.

I also liked the folders and organizers. Of course, this is something you can pick up in any office supply store on your own and put together, but it wouldn't be nicely color coordinated to all of the other Day Runner Family Planner materials.

I also really likes the Weekly/Monthly Family Planner. It's basically a large soft bound calendar, but it's got color coded note spaces for each family member. The best part is the weekly portion of the calendar. Every day has a column in every family member's color for the entire week on a full open page. You can easily see exactly who needs to be where and when for the entire week in one glance. Love it. I'm a wired in Lawyer Geek. I have a Treo. I've had Palms in the past but I am still drawn to being able to see every detail of the week in one glance. I've never had another organizational system that allowed me to do that.

So, Day Runner people, if you're listening? I'd really, really, really like one of those Info Center things. Are they out yet and where can I buy them? My local Office Max didn't have one when I was in there, um..., I'm embarrassed to tell you all how often I buy office supplies, um..., so it was last week, OK?

I also can't forget to explain the title of this post. How did Day Runner fail to keep me organized? I missed my due date for this review. It was supposed to be up 2 days ago. I forgot to put it on my calendar. Doh! We'll chalk this one up to Mommy Brain, OK?