Mal Paper

So, I have been using a productivity planning tool for a while now. It's from Mal Paper, and is called a Daily Goal Setter. It's an A5 softcover book, as shown below. I had it for ages before I opened it, and then again had it for ages before I used it. 

I actually started using it because the hand-drawn checklists that I was inspired to do by Bhavna, this person on LinkedIn, whilst thought-provoking, was becoming a drag, and I really wasn't finding it that insightful or prompting. You can see a summary I did after a few months of it below and then a later example of a weekly checklist below that. Yes there is something to be said for writing up your own in this manner, but I found that too much of a drag, and it ended up being a tick and flick exercise.

But, I did find the idea of having a tool to help me plan and reflect useful, so I went back to Mal Paper. I loved the feel of the book; the leather cover, the thick glossy paper, the various sections laid out for goal setting, planning etc. Plus the opportunity for reflection, and a bit of inspiration with quotes from various historical people. I had been using a simple notebook and filling up the 13 lines on each page with daily to-do's, but this was so much more than that. Finish off a day, then a week, then a month, really gave me a sense of accomplishment, and helped me focus. Here is an example of the daily sheets below:

My only complaint about Mal Paper is that there aren't enough weeks to go with the number of days provided. It looks like this is meant to be a 6-month thing, and perhaps me doing the weekend in one sheet instead of two is not helping, but I'll need to be mindful of that going forward. I may even count all of it up front next time and give feedback to the makers.

As I have been on this To-Do List holy grail journey for so long, I have tried EVERYTHING. I have bought that many fucking projects on Kickstarter it isn't funny. And you know what? They are all shit. So I don't need bells, whistles, AI and all the rest of it, I just need a nice simple notebook, that prompts me, lets me write, and gives me the opportunity to reflect. Still, in finding Mal Paper, I also ordered another similar goal-setting book from a joint called Panda Planner. Theirs looked nice too. So before I ordered another Mal, I thought I'd best look at Panda, and was actually quite willing to give it a go for 6 months, and see how the two compare. But upon looking at it more closely, I wasn't sure, so decided to do a comparison:

So there you go. At the end of it, I just like the way the Mal book feels far more, and feel Panda is too focussed on categorising things, such that there is not enough space to get one's thoughts down on paper. So I ended up going with Mal again. This time I got a bundle, which includes a year of the planner (2 books). I also tried something different, called My Five Year Story. 

This one is really interesting. Each page has space - about 5 lines - for jotting down thoughts, events, happenings - on the same day, but over five years. So when I started it was October 17 2025. So each day I will write down, on a new page, what happens that day. Then, on October 17 2026, I will eventually get back to the same page as Day #1 again, and write that day's stuff down. Over five years, it really gives a chance to reflect on one's journey, on a daily basis. They also have a habit tracker book, which is currently sold out, but one I want to try too. So for now at least, I feel that my To-Do Crusade is over. I am using Mal, I am using my Excel timesheet, I am somewhat using Microsoft To-Do, and between all of it, I think I am on track. Of course, what this newly found planning ability is not doing is helping me manage my weaknesses, especially my tendency to anger, which is currently a problem. I hope I get another opportunity to recover from this. I don't deserve it, but I hope I do.