Well, from paper and card that would end up in the trash otherwise
by Michael Smith
About every turn of the year we get the same kind of little DIY projects in the various green publications and the Green (Living) Review shall not lag behind in that either.
I know I am a couple of days behind as some others have covered this issue already at the turn of the year but we have, in a way, we have dealt with this before with the “hipster PDA” and I am not going to say much more here, really, with the exception that, with a paper trimmer, aka a guillotine, you can make your own 3x5 cards and sheets rather than buying them.
Here you can make use of all those cereal cartons and those from tea and tea bags, etc., as well as envelopes and such like.
The “hipster PDA” is, to a degree, little different to a planner/agenda but can be used in the same way and instead of using bigger pages this collection of, theoretically, 3x5 index cards and index card sized sheets can be used for a lot more.
I use mine, primarily, as a contact list and a collection of notes that I need for this or that project as my DIY planner is a printout from iScrybe and my notebook, so to speak, are folded notelets that come from the same online source. Both of those are printed on previously on side printed paper, often from physical spam letters that are being received here at a regular basis delivered by the mail carrier and no amount of requests not to have that stuff delivered has had any result. Royal Mail, the British postal carrier, in fact gets paid for stuffing those letter addressed to no one bar “The Occupier” through one's letterbox and they will not heed requests not too do so. That, at least, is my experience. But I digressed a little.
So, I just put all that paper, and the paper press releases that are still given out at events and/or that are sent to me b y mail – though rarer and rarer nowadays – to a another use, one that saves me a good deal and, with those calendar planners and such being that small they are, in fact, always with me, unlike my Filofax was or is.
I must say that, and this will be until some manufacturer of such devices can persuade me that they actually work and are worth carrying, I do not carry an electronic PDA and neither a cell phone that can do all them things. Electronic PDAs, from what I have seen so far, are not reliable enough for my liking and certainly not rugged enough to withstand the rigors they would be put through with me. So, it is open/pencil and paper for me.
That is the reason I also have the penchant for recycling paper into notebooks and such. By now I have about a year's supply of 3x5 index cards (and sheets) from a variety of sources and also made a number of larger notebooks from rescued paper.
The design of the “hipster PDA”, the basics to is, is a lot older than people might assume and this GTD system was developed somewhat over a hundred years back and it is still, much like the Filofax, as useful as ever.
While some people like to refer to me as a Luddite when I talk about using pen or even pencil and paper in preference to a pocket PC or similar gadget and when I extol the virtues of pen and paper over such electronic device. Who has ever heard of a paper-based system crashing? Or it needing batteries? The worst that can happen – aside from it catching fire, I mean – is for my pen to run out (so I carry at least one backup). Nothing else, really, can have an impact on that level.
Now that I have extolled the virtues of a paper-based planner/agenda let's have a look at the options open to us on the DIY section, especially as regards to recycling paper for use with such a planner.
The size of the paper is up to you and most paper trimmers will accommodate a number of sizes quite happily. Which size if right for you have to decide yourself.
My favorite size is 3x5 index card size – especially as the “hipster PDA” pocket one was designed around it. Personally I do use the “hipster” a little different to the way some GTD gurus and websites advocate and promote it.
To me it is a loose collection of notes, planner sheets, contact details and such that I need for that week or so and I can change the contents as and how I like, unlike the DIY planner described recently on another green publication.
I must say, though, that I do use the iScribe planner and the notelets printed from iScribe much more than I do use the “hipster”, simply because the way the iScribe planner folds up pocket size and can be carried in the special leather pouch/holster that I made for it and some of the note pages makes it so convenient. Not that the “hipster” is not a convenient size, but... it is a little different and does not always manage to come along.
The “hipster”, on the other hand, tends to come along a lot more often that dos the good ol' Filofax, for example. The latter, as useful as it is, is too bulky and hence too heavy at times.
While some people – and a recent article in a different place by a different author did just that – advocate the making of a DIY Planner in a larger format and then binding it by means of sewing it together or such, the “hipster” - and no, I did not design it, I just improve upon by recycling – is a loose leaf operation and it is as the term suggests loose leaves. However, those loose leaves are just what makes it is that versatile and adaptable for each and every different day.
There are templates for the “hipster” pages available on some place on the Internet and you can find them all by simply putting “hipster PDA” into any search engine. That is why I will not even try to attempt to tell you how to make any of them.
There are planner ones and a number of others that you can produce by downloading them and using your printer to produce. Some will have to be printed on a letter size page or on A4 while some are single sheets that can be printed directly to 3x5 card on your printer.
I personally use some templates but in the main just have data – such as individual contacts – printed or written (yes, by hand with open) on the cards that I have recycled from a variety of sources, from letters on above 80gsm paper to thin card from packaging.
Initially when I started using the “hipster PDA” I, in fact, went out and bought some 3x5 blank cards. But as they are so easy to make with the aid of a paper trimmer from this or that paper stock that was used before I would not go down the purchase road again.
The great thing about using such recycling planners is that they are a great conversation piece and a means of broadcasting the message about sustainability.
While you can just use the cards, clipped together, as they should be, by a small Bulldog clip, without any kind of cover you could, obviously, also make a cover for it. I have done so by recycling the plastic cover of a notebook by cutting it to size and using two slabs as front and back of the “hipster”. The front has imprinted the title “hipster PDA” by means of a labeling machine and also my name and email address (in case of loss). This also gives a cover page that is then noticeable to be the front cover.
Material for the making of the 3x5 index cards can be legion – I tend to use anything from strong paper (anything above 90gsm) up to board from tea cartons and those from cereals – as long as one has a paper trimmer about.
Cutting paper and board with just a ruler and an X-acto knife is not a good idea in this case, as one normally lacks the accuracy. Hence I would recommend the investment in a paper trimmer and from the right sources such a tool is not expensive and will repay the outlay soon. Even with a paper trimmer, aka guillotine, the paper is not always 100% equal in size; there will always be some small variations, though not that that matters, in my opinion.
Such a guillotine is also very useful for other projects and I can but recommend highly the purchase of one. Once you have one of them I am sure you will find many other recycling projects to use this for, such as making of rescued paper notebooks and such like.
Rescued paper notebooks can be produced from a variety of paper sources such as envelopes and what-have-you and can then be bound in a variety of ways. Most useful recycling projects to go with the recycled planner, agenda and such like. Why pay for those things when you can make them and do a small part in saving the planet as well. A complete win-win situation.
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
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Make your own year planner and agenda from trash
