Looking for a custom acrylic dry-erase calendar!

December 27, 2020 5:54 PM

I'm looking for recommendations and/or experience with acrylic dry-erase calendars with a few specific (but modest) requirements!

[posted for a friend]

I'm looking for something specifically to help me with productivity, visual time management/planning, and accomplishment tracking.

I'm a writer, and being able to track deadlines, working days etc. in a visual format is super helpful for me. I was initially just going to get a whiteboard calendar, but then came across some clear, personalized acrylic calendars in Etsy that looked about a thousand times better. I'm curious, though, if they are actually good (easy to read, easy to write on/erase, hold up over time etc.) and what the best source for one would be.

Most of the examples I have seen for personalized calendars are for family calendars, chore-charts for kids, and wedding planning. These tend to both be busier than I want and the aesthetic/font is not what I am looking for.

I'm looking for an acrylic calendar that:

1) has a personalized name option
2) is formatted as a 1-month calendar, with reasonably large day-blocks for several items
3) space on one side of the calendar for notes
4) Has good typography and/or font choices

Is anyone using a calendar that they like that meets these? Either off-the-shelf or a custom order?

posted by Jairus to Shopping (4 answers total)

I'm a patent attorney, and most of my activities happen on a 3-month schedule. So I bought 3 2x3 whiteboards and used thin automotive striping tape to grid them off into 35 (5x7) boxes. Every month, I take the old board down, erase and write up the next month, and rotate the boards on my wall. It's worked great for ~12 years.
posted by spacewrench at 6:33 PM on December 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Adding on to spacewrench's thoughts - washi tape will work, too, especially if you want lines you won't accidentally erase, but aren't 100% sure of your design. (I keep wishing they made that blue, easy-remove masking tape in very, very narrow...)

Also... one more trick. You *can* use permanent marker (Sharpie brand, for certain) on a whiteboard. It'll stay when you use an eraser for the whiteboard marker. That's even faster than using tape, and a great way to test layouts til you know exactly what design you need. When you want to remove the permanent marker, just write over it with whiteboard marker. (I promise, it sounds utterly ridiculous... but it works. (You can apparently use rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, or nail polish remover, too - I've never tried those, but it sounds reasonable, and probably is the reason the whiteboard marker works to remove it.)
posted by stormyteal at 6:49 PM on December 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Or you could print out possible arrangements on paper and hang them behind clear acrylic. Lots of printables to try.
posted by clew at 7:22 PM on December 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Here is the poster’s question -

Is anyone using a calendar that they like that meets these? Either off-the-shelf or a custom order?
posted by amanda at 7:12 AM on December 28, 2020