I’ve been using an “everbook” for almost a year now. This tool keeps me organized and on top of all my projects.
More on the concept is available at https://everbookforever.com/. It is really just a notebook. You use standard letter size printer paper. Half sheets for blank pages, and a full sheet folded in half to make “bundles“. So for example, in my Everbook I have an “Inbox” bundle, “Projects” bundle, “Tickler” bundle, etc. My Projects and Tickler bundles then in turn also have bundles inside of them.
The flexibility of this tool is amazing. Because the components (paper) are so common, there is no impedance to keeping around blank sheets, reusing sheets, or throwing sheets away. Sheets and bundles can be moved around and rearranged as needed. You don’t have to flip through a bound notebook to try and find a to-do list, reminder, or note. Those all are instantly available.
Dec 2024 – Update 5 Years Later
I’ve been using my Everbook for more than five years now, and I still love it. Some of my bundles have changed, but it’s still the same basic system.
I no longer have a Tickler calendar in my Everbook, I use Google Calendar and Todoist for those things, and I really always have. The tickler was kind of nice for the seasonal things that needed to be done, that are harder to schedule recurrently with something like Todoist, but that just wasn’t enough to keep me using it. I also go many days without opening the Everbook at all, and so would sometimes miss things that were only in the Tickler. The Google Calendar and Todoist apps are much better for me at not losing those tasks and commitments.
I also no longer have an “Inbox” in my Everbook, that has moved to an actual box in the house, where anybody can add items to it. Again, sometimes not consistently opening the Everbook would mean things were missed, and there are many things in my life that don’t fit in a folded paper that I need to deal with.
I have added bundles for Checklists, Journal Prompts, and Journals. I don’t consistently write anything like a journal, but I do try to write something every day, and sometimes a Journal page is just what is needed to organize thoughts.
Projects
I constantly struggle with what a “project” is. In the pictures above you can see I had a “Family” bundle in my Projects bundle. That doesn’t go there. There are times when there are distinct tasks needing to be done that might fall into some category like “Family”, but it really isn’t a project. Likewise, is “Car Maintenance” a project? Is it perhaps a project per vehicle? Is it not a project at all, but tasks added to the calendar when they need to be completed? I really don’t know. I have not yet found a good system for projects/tasks like that.
That’s all for now!