This article below is the jump start of the Chronodex movement. You can read all the details here, but I strongly suggest you to take a peek at what's going on in these communities:
- Chronodex Facebook Page
- Chronodex Flickr Group
- The Fountain Pen Network thread about Chronodex
- Lifehacker's cover of Chronodex
Finally made up my mind to create my own diary for 2012 a week ago, here I go sharing with you all! But first please give me a little support, my Dad recovered from prostate cancer but at the same time developed Parkinson's disease a few years ago. In the past week he has deteriorated a lot, bed bound finally, no more speech, I'm the last person he can recognize. It is so tough for Mom as a care taker. All I ask for is your sincere prayers, as you download this creation, for my Dad and Mom, so that he can go peacefully proud of his sons, and she can start to explore this new world with us. What a courageous woman she is.
Thanks to my Dad's dedication to Chinese painting and art, I had my implicit training early in life and became a visual person yet unafraid to look deep into the subject matters. For years, I bought diaries but none of them satisfied my visual and creative needs.
Since the beginning of the diary making business, every single diary is made by representing time in fixed grids. To challenge this rigid representation, after exploring in deep thoughts the essence of my own perfect diary, I present to you my Chronodex idea.
Come to think of it, the paper which makes up a diary originated from trees, when the sheets of paper are bound together in the middle, it is almost like foliages stemming from a tree's trunk. Each page is like a branch, each opened page is a week, each day is like a beautiful flower grew from that page, consist of petals of your day's time slices.
You may argue that this format is still slicing time into blocks and far from the fractal nature, but soon as you start using it, you will find that time is no longer rigid, instead you will find fluidity through free notations.
The more important time slices can be drawn larger, activities can be dots or pies (petals if you will) depending on duration or importance, space on a page is no longer limited to grids. Basically you can roam freely and be amazed how beautiful your week can be.
What's more is that your mind gradually deviate from the rigid format a typical diary imposes on you, creactivity soon flourishes. Imagine the effect happening in weeks! And I'm not kidding.
Scription Chronodex Weekly Planner 2012 (Jan - Jun) Download
(just remember to pray for my Dad and Mom, sincerely)
It is done with the Midori Traveler's Notebook size in mind, even if you don't own a Traveler's Notebook, you can still use it without the leather cover.
(UPDATE on 27th December 2012: Jan-Jun 2013 version improved to save you printing ink)
(UPDATE on 20th November 2012: Jan-Jun 2013 version updated)
(UPDATE on 12th June 2012: Added Middle East version coz they start their week on Sunday and their weekend is Friday/Saturday! Never knew about this, so I've added a version free of dates and holidays just for them)
(UPDATE on 9th June 2012: Added Korean version for our Korean friends!)
(UPDATE on 8th June 2012: Just released July - December 2012 weekly diary! Three versions available: Hong Kong holiday, Japanese holiday, free of holidays. Check out the download link below)
(UPDATE on 1st March 2012: Did I tell you Computer Active from UK reported Chronodex a while ago?)
(UPDATE on 10th Jan 2012: Coronado made an easier version for people using ARC/Circa notebooks and have double side printing capable printers, thanks Coronado!)
(UPDATE on 9th Jan 2012: Just released 2 blank Chronodex cores on a blank A4 paper, so that you customize it to anything you want!)
(UPDATE on 8th Jan 2012: Just released a Chronodex Daily GTD in GhostWriter Notes iPad app "paper" format)
(UPDATE on 7th Jan 2012: Just released a Chronodex version with GTD integrated. It is A5 sized per page, printed double page on an A4 paper. Loving it, best printed on cream paper IMHO, check out the download link below)
(UPDATE on 5th Jan 2012: Paul David Krishnan from Malaysia made a version free of dates, portrait mode, dotted grid. Thanks for sharing)
(UPDATE on 31st Dec 2011: Thanks to Lifehacker's report of Chronodex, more people are enjoying this creation! I'm so happy the hard work paid off touching thousands. As of today, 14,400 people downloaded Chronodex! I got a lot of your prayers and believe it or not, my Dad does feel a lot better despite the rapid decline. I'm not religious but I always believe in the power of minds, collective consciousness, Gaia and perhaps in your own religious language it is God's mercy. Mom had a body check and she seems fine despite being tired, I hope I can take the courageous her to travel in 2012. Thank you everybody! From the bottom of my heart)
(UPDATE on 15th Dec 2011: Coronado from Fountain Pen Network made an amazing modification of Chronodex into a portrait mode, half letter size, dotted grid, check the download link below)
(UPDATE on 28th Nov 2011: All PDF files should now be perfect for download and print)
(UPDATE on 23rd Nov 2011: Thanks to fellow Scription reader "nat" who told me that her downloaded PDF has no dates on it, I figured some of you may experience the same, simply because I carelessly didn't include/outline a font called "Eurostile" in the PDF. I am in Shanghai for work until Friday and will be rectifying it whenever time allows. Hopefully I will be able to replace the files in the coming Sunday. In the mean time, no harm to try downloading it to see if it works on your computer.)
- Free of Holiday version Jan-Jun 2013
- Hong Kong Holiday version Jan-Jun 2012
- Hong Kong Holiday version Jul-Dec 2012
- Japanese Holiday version Jan-Jun 2012
- Japanese Holiday version Jul-Dec 2012
- Korean Holiday version Jul-Dec 2012
- Free of Holidays version Jan-Jun 2012
- Free of Holidays version Jul-Dec 2012
- Middle East version without dates or holidays
- Dated, free of Holidays version, modification by Coronado from Fountain Pen Network, portrait mode, dotted grid: PDF
- Dated, free of Holidays version, same modification by Coronado, particularly made for ARC/Circa notebook users, print double sided on Letter size paper, cut the pages in half and bind to your ARC/Circa notebook: PDF
- Undated version, modification by Paul David Krishnan from Malaysia, portrait mode, dotted grid, 4 Chronodex cores on A4 sized paper to be printed and folded in half: PDF
- Blank Chronodex Daily GTD, two A5 pages on one A4 paper: PDF, JPG
- Blank Chronodex Daily GTD in "GhostWriter Notes" iPad app's "paper" format, works for Noteshelf too: JPG
- Blank Chronodex core, two cores on blank A4 paper for any of your customization: PDF, JPG
To grow your own diary, after downloading the PDF version of your choice, print it out double sided (duplex) in landscape mode on A4 papers. Be sure to print it out 100% without scale, left/right binding (try the first few pages on your printer and settings and you'll see what I mean). Check the sequence after the print out.
Next, cut away the left and right portion of the A4 paper according to the cut line.
Now here's the interesting part of the binding. Use a chisel to punch holes on both ends of the spine and stitch the pages up. You can staple them together just the same. This method will get you a bound notebook but ready for a cool bookmark which I will mention in a moment.
To create a bookmark, simple take a piece of hard paper, cut it the way I showed above. Slide it between the papers of the current week, the slide 90 degree up following the spine to have the tab exposed on top of the diary (I hope I'm describing it right). There you go! a bookmark with a tab extruding from the top of your diary.
This cool bookmark invention based on the way you bind your diary is so useful and flexible, you will find it amazing when you reach the 12th week of the year! Tell me about that in a few months.
The last part of my Chronodex journey was to make a cool diary cover. Thanks for my family's tolerance, I had a little free time in broad daylight having fun doing it, 2 cups of coffee, listening to audiobook through my iPhone/Jambox combo.
Small features are infused into the diary, I hope you will enjoy the little tibits, do explore the "Boarding pass to success" idea. If you are interested, I will be sharing the July - December version, which is still in stage zero. Fellow Scription reader Boris from Russia already had a taste of the Chronodex, so go ahead and try yours. Your feedback and comment is what keeps me going, please do pray.
