Muji Chronotebook

I spotted this gem at ZenHabits.net, in another good post on productivity, A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly.

This zen designed little day planner notebook eliminates the traditional (Western) grid structure and uses a simple clock/mindmap model.

Full review: http://www.jackcheng.com/stuff-i-love-muji-chronotebook

Enter the Chronotebook

The chronotebook was a judges’ prize winner in last year’s Muji Award International Design Competition and is available in Muji stores across the globe. The notebook chucks out the gridularity of the typical day planner and puts an analog clock in the middle of the page.

It’s the simplest manifestation of what a day planner is all about: time on paper. The clocks occupy a small amount of space on the page and rest is completely flexible. You can write in your own dates at the top of each page, and you can treat the rest of the space like a blank page. Here’s are some words from the designer, Wong Kok Kiong:

Because of the numerous hours in a day (and various other constraints), the lines in a diary are typically very narrow. They are also usually equally distributed (somewhat). But our information is a hierarchy. Some are more important to us. Some we feel happier about. We want to highlight stuff that’s important to us. We want to write things that are more important in BIGGERsizes. Our lives cannot be so easily and clearly divided into equal parcels.

I use the clocks in my chronotebook to keep track of appointments, how much time I spend working on things, and when I wake and sleep each day. The free space is great for daily to-dos and interesting quotes or ideas I come across. It’s small enough to fit in my back pocket and it’s the first day planner I’ve consistently used for over a week (going on 2 months now).

The chronotebook teaches us that multifunction is not the same as multipurpose. That there’s a logical, hypothetical way to do something and a simple, flexible way to do the same. When given the choice, I choose the latter. I absolutely swear by my chronotebook and recommend it without reservation (I’ve already bought three more of them).

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Update 10/15: hello kottke.org readers! For those of you wondering how you can get it outside New York, commenter ‘jamaica’ says below that you can call Muji Times Square (212)382-2300 and they’ll ship it to you. The notebook itself costs $4.95.