The PocketMod

Organizes and holds information for the family to use. Set up, maintain, and fine-tune your system here.
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Harriet
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The PocketMod

Postby Harriet » Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:56 pm

Welcome! Come chat with us in this thread about how we use this remarkably simple "piece-of-paper" tool, either as we've done since its inception in 2005 or with the new apps. I'm going to "un-sticky" the previous thread so it will have moved down the forum, but check it out for others' experiences.

If anyone has success stories with the PocketMod, or tips you think we'd need, applications you especially like, please let us know.


Note that at pocketmod.com you will now find Version 2 beta with new features, such as the ability to type in info before printing. Some mods are auto-dated for you, such as the weeklies.

At the original repocketmod.com there is still the greatest variety of calendar types and writing guides (such as tables) and the do-it-yourself standards such as Daykeeper and To-Do style pages.


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Emptynester
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Re: 2013 with the PocketMod

Postby Emptynester » Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:57 am

I love that you can type on some of the pages on the Beta version. There are still some pages in the old version that I like but Beta wins my vote.

I use the front cover for my personal info - so if I lose it some one will return it - or for ID when I don't have my wallet in my pocket. The back page I use for Emergency Info. Ex. The fact that I am Diabetic and with DH's contact info.

I usually have a weekly calendar as the front inside page. That way I can see where I have to be and when for the week. If the next week is busy - I have that as the 3rd page. Especially if I have something important in the first part of the next week.

For the rest of the pages, I usually have TODO lists. I use a page for each project and then 1 or 2 TOBUY lists. One is grocery and the other is other places I have to be.

IF I don't have any pressing projects (this week it is loading the MH for a two week vacation in the desert and the remodel project) I will use monthly calendars for appointments and blank TODO lists. But I usually just use the MOD if I am doing projects.

Hope that helps any that are thinking of using it. Try it - you will only waste one piece of paper and you can throw it away if it don't work for you.
It’s never too late to be what you might have been.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
― C.S. Lewis

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OKay
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Re: 2013 with the PocketMod

Postby OKay » Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:23 am

I'm thankful for the pocketmod developers who have freely shared this method of using paper. 3 Cheers for Pocketmod!!!

Thank you Harriet and MT for sharing how you use it.

I love the method of folding the paper into 16 usable sections. I don't use the forms and printer, but instead I hand write everything. I usually start with a fresh pocketmod method of folding paper then write on the sections as needed. Some section topics are always needed like buy list & OMM. the rest are filled with individual projects (one project per section).

I've read about studies done that looks how the brain thinks differently when writing vs typing. I think it is true with my brain - I think a little differently when writing things down. When I am pondering a project it helps me to develop the different aspects of it by starting with analog method. It helps me to think a project out by jotting down all the details as they occur to me....usually when I am sleeping, showering or cooking. :D I try to transfer the information from hip pocket method of capture (pocketmod and/or 3x5" card) to OneNote as soon as possible. Paper is easily destroyed/lost but once the information is in OneNote it is safe.

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Nancy
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Re: 2013 with the PocketMod

Postby Nancy » Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:28 am

What I love about these is you can make up a few spares and keep them in the card file.

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Harriet
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Re: 2013 with the PocketMod

Postby Harriet » Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:10 pm

I am of the belief that anything converted to PocketMod becomes at least 37% better than before it was converted.
- boardgaming poster Danjou, January 10, 2013


I've been collecting internet PocketMod knowledge, some new, some that's old and updated, some that's just old and under-appreciated.

A few things have become apparent -
more and more people are discovering or rediscovering PocketMod,
boardgaming hobbyists have embraced PocketMod like no other group, and
there is evidently a toy scooter named "Pocket Mod", so if a link says someone fell off it and got hurt - it's not our kind of PocketMod.

I'm convinced there are SO many applications for PocketMod-style folded paper note-keeping.

Here is a link that discusses designing unique PocketMods and gives links to be able to download a PDF to PocketMod converter and templates that are numbered or unnumbered. (PDF converter is also available at http://www.pocketmod.com in the upper righthand corner. When I get time.... yeah, right... ...

Anyway, simplified, the method would be: make an 8-page document (even with clip art, unusual fonts, whatever), use a document-to-PDF creator to make it a PDF, use the converter on the pocketmod site above to make it into a pocketmod. TaDa, you designed a PocketMod.

More complete, easy-to-read directions for using Word are in this 3-page document that can be printed out for reference. I haven't used the directions, but they look clear. My question would be that I no longer use Word, so will it work the same. This suggests one document-to-PDF converter.

Another document-to-PDF creator, which is the one the inventor of PocketMod recommends is this free one.

Example: here are some folks who made it work for them - The folks at "One Hundred Pushups" (a free plan for slowly building how many push-ups you can do) couldn't figure out how to offer a schedule as a single downloadable file. Then they discovered that the PocketMod was a perfect tool for keeping a handy record of progress. Here's the page where they link to their own new "Hundred Pushups Pocketmod" and give credit to PocketMod.

And here's an old/new, but recently updated (note only 8 planets in their solar system PocketMod) Onion Mountain reference for a BUNCH more ideas using the "PDF to Pocketmod" download, including Power Point/PocketMod, student study guides, etc. I was thinking I might print out their solar system page for my grandsons.

Links to EVEN MORE (ready to print) Onion Mountain teaching/reference helps, especially good for study and memorization, using PocketMod - notice "Spanish Verbs" and "State Capitals". I needed those in high school.

Need to store them with other filing? How to file away 5 PocketMods together in a filing cabinet. If you ever need to hang on to PocketMods but wish you could file them away still folded, with other regularly sized papers, this would work. This is just a matter of Exacto-knifing diagonal cuts into cardstock paper so that the PocketMods fit in like photos in a scrapbook. If you mounted 5 to the rear of a file folder, you could just fold the front of it over and file. Or, use single sheets of file folder paper and keep several per file folder.

For entertaining children, the lifehacker site suggests making a PocketMod in which every page is the "storyboard" mod. The child will have 8 pages of a "book" to write and illustrate. I would think that might be helpful when children have to wait and be quiet, for instance at a doctor's office, on a trip, attending an event, etc.

Would anyone ever need a reusable cover for a PocketMod (or a few PocketMods)? If so, here's a tutorial. I could see decorative Duct Tape to make the cover interesting? Hmmm....maybe for teen girls, anyway.

Would anyone ever want to learn to feed your digital organization to a PocketMod from Google Calendar, Remember the Milk or other online organizer?

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Nancy
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Re: 2013 with the PocketMod

Postby Nancy » Tue May 21, 2013 4:36 pm

:idea: I used a modified pocket mod with 2-3 sheets of papers and staples to take notes in for a book I'm reading to jot down verses and important thoughts & idea I want to remember. :mrgreen: It is also making a great book mark.

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Harriet
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Re: The PocketMod

Postby Harriet » Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:07 am

Making your own pocketmod pages - check this out. 8-)

Here's the link to David Seah's free pre-printed bubble-in task-time-tracker for the pocketmod. (Scroll down to the BLUE links.) If there is a refreshed version with the right year at the top I haven't found it. Really doesn't make much difference, and David is probably thinking of it as his own date of design.

As he says, you use it like stationery. Print it out - I find the "page 3-4" option to be the best for me. (You may like 5-6. I just don't like the "page 1-2" option because that prints the tracker on the outside of the pocketmod, or the "mini-book" option because there's a lot of extra print on the page.) Then when you design a pocketmod, leave page 4 blank and the tracker will show up there. (Page 3 isn't left blank - just will have a light gray overprinted division line around the outer edge that won't bother anything.) Then print the rest of your pocketmod over your "stationary" and you have a bubble-in tracker right there. Cool.

I have a printer that will copy from a hard-copy, so I just keep a hard-copy of the "stationery" and make a copy when I want a tracker. It's quick - I don't need to bother with the download again. If you are keeping a hard-copy, you could correct that year thing, if it bothers you.

This of course brings up many options, if you are so inclined. Take a look at the space in which David's page prints out, and you can see that anything you want to pre-print (or just scotch-tape) into that space can become your own pre-printed "stationary" to add your personal touch/idea to your pocketmod every time you print one.


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