Rollabind/Circa | Active Voice Editorial Consulting

Ultimate Office is Back!

Recently I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the good folks at Ultimate Office, the company behind the Jotz Refillable Notebooks that are the backbone of my freelance writing and editing business.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share with them and with other customers how much I have come to rely on their quality office products. The story of how Ultimate Office is starting up again after being forced to close by the Meltdown of 2008 is inspiring.

Be sure to read to the end of the interview to learn about some great new Rollabind-based products that we can expect to see from the fiendishly creative minds behind Ultimate Office’s signature products! Their gear isn’t for sale yet (we’ll post it here when it happens), but in the meantime you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Welcome back, Ultimate Office! We kept the light on for ya.

The 2010.5 HPDA Calendars are Here

Gearing up for a productive summer? If so, your planning will not be complete until your hPDA sports the latest calendar covering the second half of 2010. As always, the calendar template can be downloaded for free on the Active Voice Downloads page, along with the 2010.0 calendar if you still need one for June. Just click on “See the Templates” –> “Organization and Lists.”

Active Voice offers a wide range of wallpapers and hPDA templates as free .png and scalable-vector .pdf graphics that you can download to your desktop and use in your favorite planner or mobile device. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

And while you’re there, why not take a look at some of the other free templates I offer? I have templates for just about all your note-taking needs — plus some you probably hadn’t even thought of. If you don’t see something you need, or have an idea for improving something, feel free to leave me a comment or contact me.

Tuesday Hack: Circa Notebook Spine Labels

Circa Notebook Spine Labels When I converted my freelance business files to a combination of Rollabind and Levenger’s Circa four years ago, I decided to store my Jotz notebooks disc-down in my filing cabinet, identified by their color-coded finger rings. When it came time to convert my inactive records to Circa, I opted for a hanging folder hack, identified by ordinary hanging-folder tabs.

But what if you store Circa notebooks on a bookshelf, spine out like an ordinary book? Here’s a quick and inexpensive solution that might solve your problem.

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2010.0 hpda calendars are here

With December fast approaching, now is a good time to start printing out your new hPDA calendar templates for the first half of 2010. You can download them for free on the Active Voice Downloads page, along with the 2009.5 calendar template if you still need one. Just click on “See the Templates” –> “Organization and Lists.”

2009.5 hpda calendars now available

A little earlier than usual, the new hPDA calendar templates for the second half of 2009 are now available. You can download them for free on the Active Voice Downloads page, along with the 2009.0 calendar templates. Just click on “See the Templates” –> “Organization and Lists.”

Active Voice offers wallpapers and hPDA templates as free .png and scalable-vector .pdf graphics that you can download to your valium for sale no prescription desktop and use in your favorite planner. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

While you’re there, please take a look at some of the other free templates that I offer. Don’t see something you need? See something that needs improving? Feel free to leave me a comment or contact me.

new hpda template: gas mileage tracker

Summer’s over — and that means campus commutes, after-school activities, and last-minute runs to the office supply store. If you’re about to start college, become a taxi driver for your kids, or take a cross-country business trip, my newest Hipster PDA template, the gas mileage tracker, was made for you.

Based on a design that’s been extensively tested in the field, the gas mileage tracker is a handy form to keep in your back-pocket or briefcase hPDA. Plus, the template’s intuitive design is easy to understand and use in the field.

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tuesday hack: rollabind hanging folders

Rollabind Hanging Folders Regular readers know that my freelance writing business is completely “on the rings.” From creation to disposal, almost every printed document I work with ends up in a Rollabind or Circa notebook. I have Circa notebooks for administrative documents, project files, and permanent archives. For admin files, I use punched poly folders. For project files, I use Jotz Refillable Notebooks.

But for the permanent records — as defined in my PaperJamming schedules — I decided to do something different. I transferred permanent records to their own Rollabind notebooks once they were no longer needed in the admin or project folders, which I stored in plastic file boxes. While this method worked fine, it lacked a certain elegance — that sense of modular panache which Rollabind and Circa users have come to expect from these systems.

What I wanted, in other words, was a Circa-fied approach to hanging folders.

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introducing cardnets

CardNet Blank Frame Shortly after I introduced the latest round of Active Voice productivity templates for the Hipster PDA (hPDA — available as free downloads here), I started to think about what the next round of templates would look like.

I wanted them to be different — not just in terms of content, but also in terms of the way they actually worked.

I took a look at how hPDA cards are designed, and how people use them. Most cards are designed to be used either as stand-alone units or together in sequence. But in life, few good ideas unfold in a steady linear direction over time — they tend to go off in many different directions at once.

So, I asked, what would cards look like that were designed to be used, not in straight lines, but in nonlinear networks? What if they could capture the multidimensional, interrelated nature of our ideas as they happen? CardNets are my answer. Maybe they can be yours, too.

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get ’em while they’re hot

Regular reader Andrea has just alerted me to the fact that Ultimate Office is currently offering its Jotz Spiral Notebooks at a deep discount of $5 each! That includes five PocketFile folders and 60 pages of ruled 80# paper.

While the Spiral is not the same as the late, lamented, and legendary Jotz Refillable Notebook, it has many of the same features that endeared the Refillable to its die-hard fans — extra-thick poly covers, bungee closure, and of course those color-coded finger rings.

Last time I talked with Ultimate Office about the availability of new Refillables, they had given up all hope that their supplier would be able to overcome its manufacturing problems, and were referring people to Levenger’s Circa products. As undeniably great as Circa is, and as grateful as I am that Rollabind is finally bringing a slew of new business products to market, the Jotz Refillable was, IMNSHO, the quintessentially perfect disc notebook.

Which is not to say you shouldn’t grab some Spirals while they last. Thanks for the heads-up, Andrea! And feel free to post a review in the Comments section once you’ve put them through their paces.

my hpda configuration

My first hPDA I discovered Merlin Mann’s hPDA concept around the same time I discovered the Rollabind disc binding system, and for me the benefits of combining them were immediately self-evident. I hacked my first “field-strength” ring-bound hPDA using covers from an old poly folder, a strap made from an elastic hair band, and three small Rollabind rings; it proved to be rugged, reliable, and indispensable.

The only problem I had was that the thin covers allowed the rings to torque sideways when stored in my back pants pocket, flexing the covers and the cards at their weak hole joints. So when Levenger introduced its CircaPDA this past summer — using the same extra-thick clear poly covers as their other Circa notebooks — I quickly retired my original covers and have been proudly packin’ Circa ever since.

Quality-wise, it was like moving up from a kit car to a Lexus. But regardless of the bodywork, it’s what’s under the hood that ultimately counts. Here’s what’s under mine:

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