Story behind the Artalendar
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Where did this wacky idea come from? Like most inventions, Artalendar was created to solve the inventor's problem.
I have probably used at least one product from each calendar or time management company. Each time some aspect of my life changed - job, hobbies, home responsibilities, etc. - I needed a new calendar that allotted space differently. One job had lots of appointments, so I needed plenty of calendar space. A writing project generated lots of ideas, so I needed plenty of blank space. A project had details to track and no where to put them. And I was always putting sticky notes on pages to fill the gaps or track some idea that didn't have a home.
Exhausting.
A few years ago, I set out to make the perfect "Colleen Calendar"… one that had enough space to track everything I needed from appointments to phone calls to action items. I created it in Excel (yes, it had LOTS of little boxes). And after some tweaking it worked fine…
… until something in my life changed …
… and I tweaked it again… and again…
It worked (sort of), but I got tired of looking at sticky notes and Excel and trying to figure out how to shoehorn in the latest changes.
I went back to a mass-produced boxy calendar. It worked (sort of) until I left my corporate job and started a business. Then I was faced with the calendar/blank space distribution problem again.
By this time I was taking clients for my organizing business, Space Inventors, and witnessing my clients' frustrations with finding the perfect time management solution. They would ask my advice for the best calendar. I didn't have a good answer. I could only commiserate.
Then one day I was sitting at my desk cursing my calendar. I was annoyed at the amount of blank space on my calendar that I couldn't get to because it was allotted to another purpose. And if I tried to repurpose that space, I would just end up with a confused mess and likely miss an appointment or deadline.
That day it dawned on me… the answer wasn't more boxes, but fewer. And no borders between them.
That was August 2005. Work continued on Artalendar throughout the winter as I swapped boxes for clip art and then photos, incorporated time management processes that were working with my clients, and challenged every design option to provide flexible structure for multiple uses. I never lost sight of inventing a product that creative thinkers and eco-conscious consumers could feel good about using.
The result was Artalendar, the calendar that understands you.
Colleen Warmingham
Inventor and designer of Artalendar
Professional organizer and founder of Space Inventors