Can't Work Without It: My Frankie

Oh, Frankie is so handsome and wise.....I love him so! And apparently, so do a lot of people!

What would we do without our Franklin Covey Day Planners and all of the other fun organizational accessories FC has to offer?

Personally, I've used a Franklin Covey day planner ever since I attended a two day FC time management workshop several years ago. If you have a chance to do so, I highly recommend taking one of their classes. The trainers are professional and knowledgeable and I left with a long list of proactive and tangible things I could do to start managing my time more effectively.

Franklin Covey offers a wide variety of paper-based and electronic organizational tools. In my opinion, nothing really beats the good old fashioned paper day planner. As a friend of mine says, "It will become the control center of your life." FC even lets you build one yourself and add customization in loads of different ways so you can literally make it suit all of your organizational needs. You pick the style of page, the format, the design, additional sections, special forms, etc. Plus, for fashionistas, most of their stuff is really cute (or professional, or sophisticated...whatever you want)! Check out their website to get an idea of their offerings. It's also a wonderful resource, with a list of Recommended Reading that contains links to 30 articles on a variety of subjects including communication, personal effectiveness, time management, and family. Many of these were written by Stephen R. Covey (author of the highly acclaimed book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People")

I know that there are a lot of high tech electronic calendar systems out there but I guess I'm old fashioned. I definitely use Outlook as well, but I consider that a back up. In my Frankie these are the things I couldn't live without: that little plastic pouch at the back for receipts, the "master task list" at the front of every month where you can list personal and business monthly goals, the "key information" section which gives space for making conversation notes and marking follow-up items, and the millions of blank pages I pile up in the back for notes and ideas that come to me in the spur of the moment.

Have an office tool you simply can't work without? Submit it to us via email: Chrissy@officearrow.com. Or share yours in the discussions!