Growing up, I geeked out over back to school shopping. New binders, notebooks and stationery were an opportunity to get organized and express my personality. But we weren’t quite living in a digital world and I don’t remember there being as many options as today.
1. NeuYear Calendars: Stylish, large format calendars that are great for hanging up on your walls. Available in DryErase and paper format.
2. 7 Day Planner: A weekly calendar from Poketo that’s half planner, half sketchbook. For those of us that need an injection of fun and creativity. (Image from Sweet Paper)
3. Creative’s Outfitter: Behance’s Creative’s Outfitter has a gorgeous selection of notebooks, pads, cards and stickers to break down projects into manageable pieces.
4. Moleskine Collections: You can’t go wrong with this iconic brand of journals, sketchbooks and notepads, but I also love how are they have special collections from Le Petit Prince to Star Wars.
5. Ex Libris Anonymous: I found out about this Portland-based shop at Renegade Craft Fair. They make handmade journals from vintage hardcover books. There’s something fun about your notes/writing in disguise.
6. Scout Books Composition Notebooks: 12 notebooks in 12 different colors. These are ready for an entire year of your amazing ideas.
7. Famous Red Notebook: Best Made Co. makes beautiful things, including this notebook. Pages are covered in a muted grid of dots that makes it ideal for writing, making lists, pictures, maps or diagrams.
8. Rhodia: Another great retailer for meeting books, notebooks and portfolios that makes it that much more enticing to stay organized. (Photo by Ciar Roisin)
9. Qwstion: A line of smart-looking tote, office and weekend bags for men and women. They’re durable, designed to keep you organized and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t constantly get compliments from strangers on them.
10. Bluelounge StudioDesk: When it comes to desks, simple and clutter-free trumps messy. It has a hidden storage compartment for cables and all your other unsightly doodads.
11. Siwa Cushioned Long Wallet: Designed by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, this wallet holds only the essentials. It’s surprisingly strong, soft to the touch and water resistant.
12. The Upcycled Wallet: Holstee’s wallet is upcycled from plastic bags and newspapers on the streets of New Delhi. It holds a credit card, some cash, your ID, transit card and well, that’s about it. Purchase of the black wallet even provides a 10% donation to the Humane Society.
13. Bear Dopp Kit: A really organized person is always ready to travel. This toiletry bag is made from heavy canvas and a brass zipper. A PEVA lined interior also makes it easy to clean in case your toothpaste decides to explode during your travels.
14. Penultimate: Besides the notebook and their signature app, Evernote also has an easy-to-use handwriting iPad app that allows you to lose the paper while maintaining a lifelike pen to paper experience.
15. Thinglist: A much prettier version of notes for you phone that lets you make notes in different categories like ideas, food, books or music. Jot down what you want to remember so you’re sure to check it out later.
16. Mailbox: A mobile app designed to help you reach the promised land of inbox zero. It’s ultra-quick to archive/delete and you can even set reminders to revisit messages at a later date.
17. Asana: A task management mobile/web app for teams. Started by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and engineer Justin Rosenstein, it aims to help you and your team get those big meaningful projects done.
18. WeShould: Organizational tools aren’t just for work. Life is so much more than that! A new app called WeShould helps you schedule plans and reminders with the most important people in your life.
19. Flipboard: Makes a beautiful magazine out of your favorite news sources on iPhone, iPad or Android.
20. Leaf RSS Reader: Delightfully simple interface to read your RSS feeds on a Mac. It’s so fresh and clean.
Are there any organizational favorites you can’t live without? Share them in the comments below!