So yesterday was the 3rd of January, and the first Monday of the month, so like a good little geek I shuffled off to the shops to find an agenda to suit the year ahead. (Geek Alert: CODE BLUE)
It had to be bag-sized, and laid out week by week on each 2-page spread. It had to have lots of room for To-Do lists that I never to-do, and preferrably a band around it to hold all the bits of paper that accumulate from To-Do lists written on pages other than in my agenda, as well as flyers for parties that I don’t attend, business cards for people that I don’t call, gym schedules of classes that I never go to, etc.
It had to inspire me for the amazing year ahead, and motivate me to actually do the things on the lists, call the people on the cards to go to the parties on the flyers, and finally (finally) go back to the gym.
Basically it had to be the World’s Most Amazing Agenda. (Geek Alert: CODE YELLOW)
So I shuffled off to the first bookstore with this Amazing Agenda in mind, thinking ahead to when I would head to a pub for a glass of wine, crack it open and start to fill in what amazing things I had in store for myself. (CODE RED! CODE RED!)
First bookstore: no Amazing Agenda. I picked up every one, weighing it in my hands (too heavy to carry around all year?), flipped through it (how were the days laid out? Daily? Weekly? Was there doodle space, and To-Do list space?), and mulled over it (did it inspire me?).
Second bookstore: no Amazing Agenda.
Third bookstore: no Amazing Agenda.
Fourth and final bookstore: no Amazing Agenda.
It was around the second bookstore that I started to notice the hoards of hands around me, all grabbing agendas and flipping through them fruitlessly. They were also on a deep and (apparently) unsatisfying search for The Agenda of 2011, already looking concerned that it was the third day of the new year and they were To-Do-list-less.
They were all women.
In the end, I ordered the same agenda that I’ve had for the past two years online (not too big for the bag, not too small for the receipts and scraps of paper, perfect weekly view and lots of writing space).
But this begs the question: Men, don’t you have places to do and things to see on certain days of the week? How do you keep track of it?
And Amsterdam, why the lack of nice agendas?