May 12, 2008:

Muji Chronotebook is a new dayplanner that uses an analog "clock" metaphor, with each page arranged around a circular center. The left page is AM and the right page is PM.

So, my first reaction was really positive. We desperately need more design that grounds our daily experience in the physical, and this appears to be beautifully expressive of circadian rhythms and the subjective experience of time, but...

... is it really so natural? Looking at the layout, I feel pretty uncomfortable. Sure, our experience of a sequence of days is cyclical, but I think our experience of the flow of a single day is much more linear.

I also wonder about writing around a circle. Maybe this works better for character-based languages, but it seems awkward for, say, english.

(Please note that I haven't actually used the thing. Maybe it's awesome ;)