I have fallen down the rabbit hole and not one of my own bunny's making. There are a lot of subcultures on the internet, and I have begun my assimilation into one of them - or more correctly - into another one of them.

It's the sub culture of personalising personal planners.

Not so much the life coaching type of planner, but the Filofax, Rolodex, timetable/diary/journal type of planners. Yes, that diary or compendium or carry-all that many of us have to keep us on track and on task.

These things were HUGE in the 1980s. Not just in popularity but in actual size. People had their whole lives in those things. Some believe that's why the Internet was actually invented so that people who suffered from back problems from carrying these huge tomes around could have a place to store their shit. Nah, I'm kidding, we all know the internet was invented for cat pictures.

My two years of hoarding art supplies finally pays off as if my whole life has been leading me here.

Anyway, fast forward to this century and the advent of personal personalised planners. People pimping their planners out with colours and papers, with charms and artified dividers and that's the rabbit hole I am blogging from right now.

This last weekend I solidified all my resent (obssessive) research on the subject and created my very own personalised Personalised Planner. I glued and stuck and trimmed and cut and had a jolly good old time pimping that cheapo vinyl planner out to a system I think might work for me.

Who doesn't love a white board? here's my DISTILLATION of what I need in a personal planner.

First of all I looked at what I really, actually need help with. What, of all the tools I use online to help keep myself organised, just wasn't working for me. I boiled it down to four main areas:

My blog
My goals
My tasks
Drawing

Yes, yes I do have online tools to help me with these too but once I'm away from the keyboard, they're not visible to me. Sure I can dial them up on my iPhone or the iPad but I still have to think about going there, then taking action on that thought, then remembering once it's closed again and hells-bells, I'm such a "simple peoples", this just isn't working for me. My blog ideas dribble away; my goals get forgotten; my tasks just pile up until they are of avalanche proportions.

So here we go. Back to the pen and planner. Throwing away all the default inserts that come with these things - such as calendars and days of the week and contact lists - and making tools that suit what I need.

My journal is now divided into:

Blog topics ideas and post drafts (this month's schedule and templated pages)
Goal visibility (feeds into the task list)
Task list (bullet journal style)
Drawing (series of watercolour and sketching papers)

I'll see how that works for me over the next few weeks. I'll pop up a list of sites and supplies later this week if you're interested in this rabbit hole too. You'll find when I share these links many videos like this one I completed yesterday. In this video I'm talking to my sister Jo who was the catalyst for my full blown dive into this subculture.

Over the last few years I've had a lot of fun - and received some sweet rewards - backing projects on Kickstarter, Pozible, and Pledgeme.

Dylan playing with the Nesting Twitter Founders dolls from Kickstarter.com

My current state of backing includes a children's book on programming, a video series about an intelligent caveman dealing with the superstitions of his primitive society, and helping a Melbournian artist fly to Finland to participate in an art residency - and all from the comfort of my couch.

It seems my favourite kind of project to fund is the “cool gadget” variety. I’ve backed the Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner, The Choosatron (interactive fiction arcade machine), meMini (wearable camera). While we’re still waiting for the Choosatron and meMini to ship, the Smartphone Film Scanner arrived and works brilliantly.

These organised crowding funding schemes are an easy way to feel good about myself while getting some cool loot for the effort.

My absolute highlight in the world of supporting makers has been backing the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s PledgeMe fund to get them to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I backed them as big as I could and my reward was a video that just blew my tiny mind. As if that wasn’t enough, when I went to see them play here in Auckland before Christmas, they remembered me and were all hugs and handshakes (introducing me as "The" Michelle) after the show which made me feel so special.