I’m uncertain as to when I first encountered the Dodo-pad but suspect it might have been around the mid-90s as I began to do more and more Christmas shopping by mail order.
The witty copy and jaunty illustrations amused me. But I wasn’t convinced the Dodo-pad was for me. How would I manage to fit my life into its rather busy pages? Wouldn’t all the text and pictorial nonsense get in the way of recording the important things in my life?
So I noted it as a possible gift for someone else, at some later point which never came, and carried on without it by my side. All the different bits of my life in separate sections at that point. I was, indeed, a Filofax user.
So roll on a decade and more, and I’m no longer using a Filofax. Instead, I’m organising my life with a combination of Wunderlist, iPhone notes, notebooks which I scribble anything in as it occurs to me and refer to as daybooks, and various diaries both digital and analogue.
Then I saw things differently
And then it came to pass that the many charms of the Dodo-pad won me over. I kept stumbling across them everywhere but still clung to my original thought that they just weren’t for me.
Then after Cybher, I made the decision that led to my change of heart. I decided to start using one. Just because it was to hand, and I was almost at the end of my current daybook, and it was exciting new stationery.
To my delight and surprise, I found it fits in perfectly with how I like to organise my life. The columns lend themselves well to recording a combination of appointments, vital tasks and blog posts. I find the (sort of) blank facing page ideal for making notes. As each set of pages cover a week it’s an incentive to tidy up my job list every 7 days. The tear-off corner means I can find my place in an instant and seems terribly sophisticated. The paper feels nice and sticky notes attach well. The spiral binding means I can shove bits and pieces in the back, and front without breaking the spine. The illustrations are a delightful inspiration rather than an annoying distraction. *pauses to breathe*
If I get any more enthusiastic I’ll start insisting that we stock this wonderfully realised range. Who could guess that something so frivolous looking could be so practical!