Office Update: A Fantastically Huge Planning Calendar

Note: This is NOT a sponsored post or review.  This is me just raving about a product that I love.

As a small business owner trying to juggle a day job requiring travel, and all the other requirements of life, scheduling and planning my time well is a struggle.  Especially long-term planning for goals and sub-goals, like around the holiday season.

To plan all this out, you definitely need to see the whole picture. And that’s something I’m not very good at keeping straight in my head.

So when I found out that two handmade business friends, Rachel and Kim, each used the Neu Year Calendar, I knew it was the perfect solution for my long-range planning problems.

The Seize the Year calendar shows the entire year on one large piece of heavy-weight paper (or coated dry-erase paper, you choose). Even better, it’s double-sided – one side shows the calendar in a portrait layout, while the other shows it in landscape.

But my favorite thing is that this calendar isn’t from a mass retailer like Target or Office Max, it’s from a small business.  It’s their only product.   And with that comes fabulous, friendly service.

I chose the uncoated paper version so that I could write on it with pencil or pen.  When it arrived, it was just as awesome as I’d hoped. I had to hang it, and was too busy to build a beautiful frame like Kim did (silly me!).

I bought a lightweight painter’s canvas, painted the edges teal to tie in with my office, and attached the calendar using spray adhesive.  Because the canvas was so light, it was easily hung with Command Velcro Picture Hanging Strips. The only downside is that I didn’t apply the paper to the adhesive well, so there’s some bubbles and some curling edges.

Also, I ended up drawing on it and scribbling on it in pencil and marker, so now it looks a bit messy.  But it definitely gets the job done.

This massive paper calendar fit perfectly in my redesigned office, in the nook where the door opens from the hall into the room.  I can eye it from my desk at all times, which is perfect for keeping long-term deadlines on my radar.

In the process of using it for three months I’ve realized that I’d do better with the dry-erase version, so I just ordered a new, dry-erase one.  I plan to staple it to my canvas over top of the old one.

And guess what? I discovered they’re on sale right now, which is even better!