Fractured Ink: Writing In Life's Chaos (audio)

Clever Fox Planner Pro versus the Kindle Scribe.

• Diana Dirkby

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The URL links are my Amazon Affiliate Links, which take you straight to the product. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Clever Fox Planner Pro Second Edition https://amzn.to/4aVpl7Z
Clever Fox Budget Planner https://amzn.to/3ZWnmex
Kindle Colorsoft Made Easy 2026 by Alex Proctor https://amzn.to/4aQ5qbr
My books:
The Overlife: A Tale of Schizophrenia https://amzn.to/3OisOFM
Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies https://amzn.to/3MqbKNG

My website: https://dianadirkbywrites.com

Planning only works when it’s easy to keep. We dive into the Clever Fox Planner Pro Second Edition to show how a well-designed paper system can cut through app fatigue and help you move from big vision to calm weekly focus. Along the way, we compare that tactile flow with a Kindle Scribe setup, including what a recent Scribe guide gets right about organizing a growing notebook library—and what it misses for first-time users.

We start with the foundation pages—self-discovery, daily rituals, and long-horizon vision—that anchor priorities in values and time. From there we translate ideals into action: one-year goals with clear reasoning, then three-month targets and a simple mind map to surface dependencies. Monthly calendars set direction and keep skills, connections, and habits in view. Monthly reviews close the feedback loop so you adjust with data, not guilt. Finally, the weekly spread brings it all together: a single main goal, tight priorities, split work and personal to-dos, habit tracking, and a brief end-of-week check to lock in learning.

If you’ve tried to force everything into one device, we make the case for a hybrid stack. Let paper hold strategy and attention—vision, quarters, weekly focus—while your Kindle Scribe handles searchable notes, drafts, and reference material. We also share candid thoughts on a new Kindle Scribe ColorSoft book: helpful for library organization once you’re familiar with the device, less so for hardware differences or true beginner steps. Whether you’re team paper or team digital, you’ll leave with a structure you can copy today—and a simple way to make progress feel steady, not frantic.

Subscribe for more thoughtful workflows, share this with a friend who’s stuck in planning limbo, and leave a quick review to tell us your paper vs digital setup.

#planner #cleverfox  #cleverfoxplanner #kindlescribe #kindlescribecolorsoft #budgetplanner #weeklyplanner 

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, I hope you're all doing well and uh enjoying Valentine's Day. So uh today this is part two of uh a two-part podcast. Um the preceding episode was uh part one, and the theme is why budgets and weekly planners on paper still have their place in the digital world. And last time I spoke about budget planners from from Clever Fox, because that's my favorite planner people. Okay, so here is my budget planner, and today I want to talk in some detail about their weekly planner. Okay, so this is another episode of two podcasts actually. Uh combined them for this episode: Fractured Ink, Writing in Life's Chaos, and Products for Writing from Home. I'm Diana Dirkby, I am a mathematician, and I write fiction novels. In the last episode, we spoke at length about the virtues of planning your budget on paper, preferably with a high quality planner, and went into detail about the Clever Fox budget planner, which is high quality. Today I want to introduce you to the Clever Fox Planner Pro 2nd edition. By contrast, I have just read a book titled Kindle Scribe Color Soft Made Easy by Alex Proctor, which explores a strategy to replace paper with a Kindle Scribe. The book is somewhat disappointing because it does not highlight the differences between the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft and the older Kindle Scribe, which I had hoped to learn about. It also lacks enough instructions for first-time users on how to operate the Kindle Scribe ColorSoft. However, Proctor's advice on keeping your Kindle Notebook Library organized and functional over time is worth noting. For that reason, I recommend the book once you're familiar with using the scribe. So let's focus now on the Clever Fox Planner Pro Second Edition. So let me hold it up again. It's hardback and colorful and rather large. It's roughly 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches long and quite heavy. It's attractive with a hardcover. Like the budget planner, the book includes a guide on how to use it. So you'll find inside this little guide on how to use each part. I will base my description of the planner on that. My goal is to reach my audio only audience, so there will be no photos. If you click on my Amazon affiliate link for the planner in this episode's description, you'll see a great visual. As an Amazon associate, using my affiliate links, I earn from qualifying purchases. Okay, so let's go through what this planner, how this planner is mapped out. The first section covers awareness, self-discovery, and daily rituals. This part of the questions will help you build a foundation for a vision of your ideal life, guiding you to discover who you are and what you want from life. You will uncover your strengths, passions, and what excites you about getting out of bed. The daily ritual section encourages you to reflect on the positive things in your life. The next section is vision of life. What do you want your life to be like in 1, 5, 10, and 20 years? How old will you be? Implementing age-based deadlines is a great way to set your priorities. Make sure to return to these pages for a boost of motivation whenever you feel like you're falling off track. Section three is most important one-year goals. Yearly goals are achievable objectives. List your top one-year goals in each category along with the reasoning behind them. Ensure your goals are clear and realistic. Next comes the three-month goals and mind map. According to studies, setting three-month goals increases the chances of reaching yearly goals. Once you know what you want to accomplish in a year, break your year into quarters and set smaller three-month goals. This tactic allows you to pursue your goals without feeling overwhelmed. Try not to work on more than three to five goals at a time so you can focus better. For the best results, we recommend the S M A R T, which spells smart, obviously. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goal approach. The mind map is there for you to brainstorm, subdivide tasks, and add plans, not in the planner. Section five is the monthly calendar. Each monthly calendar has space for your most important goals for the month. Write down things that would make your month great, such as skills to learn, places to go, people to see, habits to adopt, and things to avoid. Use the notes section to jot down your tasks, to-dos, and reminders. Section six is monthly review. At the end of the month, reflect on your progress toward your quarterly goals. Evaluate what you've learned and your work-life balance. Consider what you could do differently next month. Section seven is weekly plan. So it's not section one, it's section seven. It's interesting that the planner is presented in that way. Section seven is weekly plan. Use it to record important tasks and appointments, set daily goals, and prioritize what you want to focus on. Use the page to define your main goal for the week, establish weekly priorities, and create separate personal work to-do lists. You can also track habits, plan your to-dos for a balanced lifestyle, jot down three things you're excited about, and review your progress at the end of the week. Finally comes section eight, notes and memos. Use these grid pages at the end of the book to set your goals, create mind maps, take notes, and more. And you can also look forward to the coming year and uh get another Clever Fox uh planner for the year and use it better because uh you've had the experience of using it once, so the next year obviously um you'll be better at using it than in the first year. Now, the problem, uh, so you know, I love my Kindle Scribe. Uh, I haven't yet invested in the uh Kindle Scribe Color Soft, and I believe the Kindle Scribe Without Front Light is yet to come out. But I'm pretty sure I will, just not now, because uh my Kindle Scribe is sufficient for the uses um I'm putting it to, which is money to help me write my fiction novels. But it can do so much more, obviously. If I had tried to create a planner like Clever Foxes on my Kindle Scribe by myself, I would have failed. My advice is to invest in both a Kindle Scribe, older model, color soft, or without front light, and Clever Fox's planners, if you want to set up a planner on your scribe that works well and mimics Clever Fox. Alex Proctor's book would be helpful here, which is why I recommend it, even though I was disappointed that it didn't tell me anything really about the Kindle ColourSoft, just about uh how to organize your library notes, and for that it's it's very good. Okay, so for my part, I am choosing the Kindle Scribe and Clever Fox planners, and I explained some of my reasoning for this in the last episode. One complements the other, and there's still a lot to be said for paper planners, even in our digital world. If you're team paper, drop me a message and tell me your favorite setup. If you're all digital, I'm curious what keeps you there. Until next time, plan intentionally, whether it's on paper or pixels, take care and thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and comment on my videos. I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day.