ARC Update

Since my new ARC system seems to be keeping me organized longer than any other book or app, I thought I’d document what I’ve been up to so far.

Here is the second cover I’ve used. I started with the red leather because it was on sale. It was so friggin heavy though! I had originally bought this butterfly one to store all of my extra ARC stuff, but ended up switching. It was a good choice.

I saw a video (that I can’t find right now) from this awesome ARC blog about how this lady liked the colors she could see through the butterflies so I stuck a divider folder by Staples that was for a three-hole punch mega-hole-punched by my ARC puncher. Punch…
The little tab marked with the stickers “discover memories” is used not only to find what week I’m on, but to remind me to use all my time to making as many new married memories as I can. The tab is a top loading sleeve by ARC.

I tried so many different kinds of monthly calendars and while it meant using less pages in the book (space-saver), it also meant less room to write more things on certain busy days into those teeny squares. As I started writing more and more things, events and ideas down all in one place, I found that the weekly way works for me. I keep about 6-8 weeks in at a time. My clear page is a good week grabber as well as a good in-your-face post-it to-do list. How many words are you allowed to hyphenate in one sentence?

Along with a fabulous picture of me and The Beast on our 1st meet-aversary 6 years ago, there are the tabs: My Info (a page of emergency information), Notes, Lists and Folders.

The first section of Notes is just a quick place to scribble. I used pages from Staples ARC.

The next tab is Lists. This is my favorite tab these days. I always knew I loved lists, but never had a place that I could really get them all together to be functional. And so many! Some are things I want to do to the backyard, things I want to do to the living room, reception ideas or like this one, my list for our next camping trip.

Ooooh, folders! Good for organizing upcoming things or receipts. Just for whatever!

Finally there is a good ol’ zipper pouch. In here I have little post-its and stickers. I’ve been quite disappointed by those little bookmarks with post-its on it. They ALWAYS fall off. Anyway, I love decorating my days of the week with little stickers. Another reason I like the big weekly pages.

I just realized today how organized I am these days. Makes me kind of proud that I’m starting out my marriage trying to get everything in order so we can just enjoy each other. Go me. If anyone asked me why don’t I just use my iPhone or iPad as an organizer, I don’t think I could explain it well. There is just something about writing on paper and crossing things off. I might consider in the future (also once we get a PC) about getting the iPad mini or a Kindle so I can put it INSIDE the ARC, which they have cases for already I believe. We’ll see. 😀