Calendar Crisis!

I've been using the Franklin-Covey Compass system for about four years, after switching over from their larger, ring-bound planners. The Compass uses spiral planners for each month of the year (2 pages per day) in conjunction with a spiral bound 12 month calendar (2 pages per month).

I like the system as it allows me to schedule appointments, maintain a task list, yet still have plenty of room for note-taking. The paper is of good (not great) quality, allowing me to use most of my favorite gel-ink pens. You can use a fountain pen, if you use a fine or extra fine nib. Otherwise, expect some bleed-through.

This post is not exactly a review of the Franklin-Covey Compass system. Actually, I'm writing this to both criticize and praise Franklin-Covey.

First, the criticism: On Monday morning, I pulled down the storage container where each of my monthly refills for the Compass are kept. I was about to put February back in storage and insert March. March . . .March . . . March? Nope, no March. No June, either, though I found I had an extra August and September. No great consolation there.

Thankfully, I still had my 12 month calendar, but I was bummed! A call to Franklin-Covey proved to be fruitful (here's my praise of F-C). They apologized and are shipping me a complete set of the monthly refills for 2009. I should have it in a few days. Good customer service!

In fairness, this is the first time I've ever had a quality control issue with Franklin-Covey, and I've used their planners since 1995. Still, this got me thinking about alternative planners out there. Nrepose just posted a nice review of the Moleskine Daily Planner on his "Unposted" blog. Hmmm. A quick check on Amazon (Yes! On sale!) and I should have one of the Moleskine planners in hand very shortly. Booyah!

I'm not saying that I'm abandoning Franklin-Covey. I like their system and I've worked with it for 14 years with nary a problem. But maybe it's time to try a new system.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Calendar Crisis!