It's getting to be that time of year again; time to get your 2010 paper planner, but which planner is right for you? Navigating through the many types of planners to find the perfect match is a lot harder than you would think. You need to choose a format, a size, a color, special features, etc. Lucky for you I'm here to help! I will help guide you to your ideal 2010 paper planner.

1) First you must decide which planner format you need:

• Daily Format: This is 1 page per day format, with hourly appointment times. It's best used if you have a busy daily schedule or need to log your daily activities in detail.
• Weekly Format: 1 week over 2 pages, with a planning section for each day. Perfect for managing a busy work or school week.
• Monthly Format: 1 month over 1 page or 1 month over 2 pages. Ideal for quickly tracking appointments, vacations and special occasions.

2) Next you need to decide the size of your planner. Do you want something that fits into your pocket? Or would you prefer something larger that would sit on your desk? Or something in-between?

3) What kind of binding do you want? Do you prefer a wire-bound, book-bound or a ring-bound binder?

• Wire-bound and book-bound are better options if:

• Ring-bound is better for:

• Loose leaf pages that you would remove and replace at the end of the year.
• Adding additional pages
• Adding additional features like holding business cards, photos, a calculator, etc.

4) Now that you have a format, size and binding in mind, what additional features do you desire? Do you want a durable hard cover or a flexible cover? What color or design do you want for your cover? Do you need sections for taking notes, tracking spending, keeping address information, etc?

Don't go through 2010 with a planner that you're not satisfied with. There are many options available, and if you're still struggling with choosing the perfect planner, one of our qualified customer service representatives will be happy to help - 800-365-9327. After reading my 2010 planner guide let me know which planner you have chosen.

About two months ago, my home computer decided to experience a fatal error, do a system dump and not reload again. It had been acting up for some time, being slow, disagreeable and just cranky in general; popping up with all kinds of sarcastic and cryptic error messages. I thought it was just old and uncooperative. I had been more than understanding; I made sure that I started it up early, giving it plenty of time to load, relax and think about working before I would actually put it through its paces.

So, I found myself facing everyone's worst nightmare... a blank canvas and having to recreate all of my favorites after getting the computer back. Have you ever needed to dig through a pile of papers or sticky notes that were strategically hidden around the office for usernames or passwords? Or have you ever wasted time looking up forgotten web addresses? Fortunately, my system restore issue was less inconvenient because I had just recently started collecting all my website information into one little book. Here are a few things that I found had worked for me:

• Take the time to document your "favorites" and most useful websites that you use. If you don't want to do this on hardcopy, you can also create an account with delicious.com and bookmark your favorite sites online - so that no matter what computer you are using, your favorites and bookmarks will be available to you.

• If you document your username and password, sometimes it's best to write down a hint of what your password is rather than writing both side by side. This way if you ever lose your book, someone won't be able to easily access all of your account information but you will be triggered to remember what your password is.

• Whichever system you document this information in, be sure that it is in as inconspicuous location as possible, but in a place where you won't forget where it is.

• Most important, be sure to backup important files including the "My Pictures" and "My Documents" sections of your computer - just in case your machine decides to act up. I was so happy that I didn't lose my favorite moments as a result of the crash. Even the best computer technicians might not be able to save some of those precious moments if a virus or "fatal error" takes hold of your machine.

One item that is offered by AT-A-GLANCE® is the web address book or password keeper. It has many features that make it handy and useful for this purpose. Check it out and let us know what you think about this idea.

Fall in Upstate New York is bursting with color! The bright yellow, orange and red maple trees blend like a colorful sea along the gentle hills. It's just a great time to live here. Conversation at MWV-Sidney centers on the landscape: "Is this the peak weekend?" "Do you think today's rain will take the leaves off the trees?" "With all the rain this year, the colors won't be as bright, will they?"

So to bring the colors inside, we are sponsoring a photo contest. It's not really a contest, per se, but a chance for amateur photographers to submit their photos to be considered for display in one of the 20 or so poster-sized frames on the building's walls. The posters remind us what makes this area special - not everyone gets to enjoy the symphony of color that surrounds us in October.

For a calendar company, putting beautiful pictures on the wall is what we do. Whether the scenic calendars capture the cleansing spirit of a mountain stream, the vastness of the desert sands, or the escapism of a beach, scenic photos take us to different places, beyond the ordinary of our daily work area. And turning the page each month ... or week... or even every day (as in our desk calendars), allows us to begin the day dream all over again.

World Food Day on October 16th encourages us to reach out to those for whom the most basic right - food - is a daily challenge. The faces of the hungry are not just in Africa, but they are our neighbors as well, right here in America.

At MWV in Sidney, we are looking at our own community's hungry and stepping in to help. In our rural area, there are people with empty cupboards, whose children don't get to make favorite cereal choices in the grocery store. For them, a grocery store visit with money to spend is in itself, a luxury.

For World Food Day, we focused on a particular need just a few miles down the road. An arsonist's fire burned down the Sidney Center Methodist Church and with it, the food pantry that served the needy in our community. While most people immediately thought about the loss of the historic building, organ and stained glass windows, many did not know about the lifeline to the community that was broken. The food bank located in the church made the difference between eating and not eating for the hamlet's very poor. Our employees wanted to help.

And so blue barrels appeared in our cafeteria with signs listing the needs: pasta, peanut butter, jelly, applesauce, spaghetti sauce. Over the next two weeks, we are diligently restocking the basic essentials that formed the core of the food pantry.

In addition to the local food collection efforts by our employees, to raise awareness at a broader level we'll be supporting World Food Day through the online community as well. On Oct 16th, a portion of the proceeds from all orders received on our websites (www.ataglance.com, www.dayrunner.com and www.mead.com/shop) will be donated to the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW) to help feed even more hungry people. And the more people we can feed, the better since this is a growing concern given our current economic situation. 

So what can I do you ask? There are many simple things you can do to make a difference. Give up the $5 you were going to spend on your morning latte and donate it to one of the many food charities. Volunteer at a local food bank or pantry. Buy a bag of groceries and donate to a local food drive. The bottom line is just do something!

With the evening showing this week of the Ken Burns series The National Parks: America's Best Idea, those of us who work making AT-A-GLANCE® products in Upstate New York have had plenty of water cooler talk around the question, "what's your favorite National Park?".

"Yellowstone," said one manager who spent five days backpacking in Yellowstone National Park in August when he took his daughter to college at the University of Wyoming. "Joshua Tree, " said another director with a penchant for California, heading out next week to try Yosemite National Park and enjoy the colors of fall. "Grand Tetons" said another friend who took his family of 5 boys on a whirlwind, 12-day trip to the West visiting Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mount Rushmore, Badlands and other parks. My choice is the iconic beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park, where wide streams slide through rugged mountains, and I saw my first moose in a meadow.

The PBS series has brought these experiences to light, binding us easterners on our quest for the open spaces of the West, despite the considerable distance.

I am restless, yearning to encounter the sweeping park vistas Ken Burns introduces me to each night. No longer are the parks just names on a map, but they are beautiful icons of the American Spirit, filled with stories of people who sacrificed years to protect these areas so they would remain for all to see. I think it's my turn to visit.

Let me know which National Park is your favorite?

I haven't been to the Grand Canyon, put I am a national parks fan. And though I enjoy the pictures from well-photographed national parks such as Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, I have not been to those, either, no, before last summer, my family's park experience had been at the less rugged eastern locales such as The Great Smokey Mountain Park in Tennessee or the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

But last summer we ventured out West and included Arches National Park in Utah on the itinerary. Utah is so proud of the park that it displays the famous Delicate Arch on its license plate. After a brief, very hot hike and short scramble across a rock face, we came to stand next to Delicate Arch and learned that the license plate definitely does not do it justice. Nor do the pictures. You really have to stand next to the arch to appreciate the site, with its surrounding expanse of red rock vistas and glorious deep blue skies. It's memorable.

At Arches, my daughter began her collection of national park patches and enthusiastically talked about her next addition. A few days later we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, where we were guided through the ancient cliff dwellings, climbing rugged ladders, scrambling through holes, gazing near the edge of precipices. What an experience! We had to purchase a beautiful patch to remind us of it.

Back into my ordinary life, I dream I will get the chance to be awed at another national park sometime soon. In fact, I am anxious to watch the Ken Burns PBS special, "The National Parks: Americas Best Idea" starting Sept 29 and see which park piques my interest for planning our next trip. In the meantime, my daughter displays her park patches on her backpack, and I have my National Landmarks wall calendar, so we will both be inspired to create another national park memory.

I'm a "Get to the Point" type of person. My time is precious to me. I have a hard time dealing with what I consider ‘wasted time'. Some people may tell me to stop and smell the roses; well I have smelled the roses and I much prefer completing a project on time or working in my yard or going to the park with my family.

I know I'm not the only person to prefer spending time on a task or hobby, then accomplishing nothing. So I thought I would take you through a typical day and provide a list of "Time Management Tips".

• Plan Your Day: Everyday you should have a "game-plan" of what you are going to accomplish. Your game-plan should be realistic and created at the start of your day or in the evening for the following day. This way, if you accomplish everything in your game-plan, you won't feel like you're wasting time when you smell the roses.

• Prepare The Night Before: Avoid a frantic start to your day by getting things ready the night before. Pick out clothes, pack your lunch, setup the coffee maker, etc. There is no worse way to start your morning than finding out all your pants are dirty or you've made coffee only to find out that you are out of sugar. Start the morning off efficiently.

• Adjust Your Work Hours: If you commute in a heavy traffic region consider adjusting your work hours. By going in early and leaving early or vice-versa you could free up time wasted in congested rush hour traffic. Talk with your boss or HR, many companies are flexible on when you can start and end work.

• Create An Agenda For Meetings: When setting up a meeting, create an agenda of topics to discuss then send it to everyone invited. This way everyone will be prepared for the topics and less likely to forget something, which can cause another meeting. Make sure you stick to the agenda, a "time waster" can quickly derail a meeting by going off on something that is not on the agenda.
• Watch TV On Your Own Time: Don't adjust you're schedule around TV shows. Get a DVR and record your favorite shows, this way you can watch them when you're ready and can fast forward through commercials. You can also watch your TV shows online. Most of the major TV Networks stream their shows soon after the show airs with few or no commercials.

Hopefully these tips help you avoid "wasted time". If you have any additional time saving tips, I'd love to hear them.

I live in New York, but my travels this summer took me to the West  Coast - to the trend setting state of California - to visit family. Working for a company that makes paper-based products, I set off on the trip to determine how many Californians still use paper calendars. One of my first stops was at radio station K-LIFE  (www.klife.org) in the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo. This community Christian station reaches hundreds of thousands of people who live in central California with contemporary Christian music, and it is run by an amazing staff, including general manager Jon Fugler, my brother. 

Though Jon has a lot of good things going for him including a great radio voice and an incredible gift of fund-raising, he is unfortunately a committed BlackBerry user. (When your sister works for a company that makes paper planners, that's a sure point of contention.) He did however introduce me to Matt Williams his programming manager. Matt keeps his days organized with a Day Runner day planner, where, he says, he can quickly use his pencil to enter meetings and appointments, while Jon is still sifting through the screens of his BlackBerry. Matt adds that being able to open the book to the whole month shown at once makes sense in his planning style - on paper, with a pencil! When an appointment time changes, he just erases it and makes the correction.

K-LIFE staff also use the 4 month at a time AT-A-GLANCE erasable wall calendars. One erasable is used for fund raising plans and  another lists promotional giveaways. Based on this cutting edge radio station, paper-based planning is still alive and well in California.

Captain's Log: Star Date July 6, 2009 I never cease to be amazed when I travel far and wide, how often one of our products shows up when I least expect it.  I just returned from a great trip to sunny Florida that included a ferry ride on the Sunny Days Fast Cat out of Key West.  Traveling with friends, we had decided to venture to the Dry Tortugas (about 70 miles west of Key West) for a day of snorkeling and exploring.  The only way to get there is by boat and so we took the Fast Cat, which is high speed catamaran.

The crew of the Fast Cat was great and I had the opportunity to speak with the captain (John) while he was at the helm.  I happened to notice that he had a DayMinder Weekly Planner laying on dashboard (do boats have a dashboard?) next to some of his instruments.  In speaking with John, I asked why he had the planner or how he used it as I wouldn't have expected to find it on a boat.

So interestingly, he and the other captain were required by the United States Coast Guard to keep a daily logbook and the DayMinder planner, with it's open weekly format, is what they used.  They logged in daily weather conditions, how many passengers were on board for each trip out to the Tortugas, any maintenance or checks that they performed, along with notation of any of the mandatory drills ("man" overboard drills and lifeboat drills).  The good news was, we didn't have utilize any of their drill skills as the trip was pretty much smooth sailing both ways...well except for that one big sea turtle in the "road"! Captain John performed some evasive maneuvers and the turtle did too (I think he was saying "dive", "dive", "aahoooga" in his little turtle head!)  So, next time you see the aisle of planners and think they are used in basically the same manner by people in offices or at home, think again - those little unassuming planners really get around to more exotic and interesting places!   Please Share:  What interesting and exotic places have you seen a planner, diary or notebook being used in?

My vacation to-do list keeps growing, and nothing gets checked off. It's not as if I hadn't known for weeks that this trip was coming. Details had mulled around in my head - stop the newspaper, finish work projects, pick up hostess gifts, get my daughter's school supplies... but the tasks kept popping back out of my head before I had them captured on paper.

We (my husband, daughter and I) are taking off this week on a flight from New York to California to pick up a car and then take 13 days to drive the car back to New York. Along the way, we are planning to see family, some famous icons such as Zion National Park and Mount Rushmore, and some more obscure places, such as a Minuteman Missile Site, the Spam Museum and a little know ghost town.

As the day of departure draws closer, it starts to feel stifling, like I can't relax until I get all the details taken care of. So I started carrying around a small, purse sized, flexible cover Black ‘n Red notebook that allows me to jot down the things down I need to be doing. I can whip it out in the car (when I'm not driving, of course), wherever something comes to my mind.

More fun, though, is to use the notebook to plan our stops - hotel phone numbers, admission prices, mileage between stops. Everything related to this trip, from the preparation lists to promotional brochures is in the notebook, even small cards and receipts, held in with the bungee. So easy to carry. Now I just need to be sure to use it. I'll keep you posted!