In college I was a devout planner user. I used a very simple planner provided by my university and colorful ballpoint pens to make sure I stayed on track with every avenue of life. It was organized, color-coded, and helped to maintain my sanity because my chaos was cleverly curated in those pages. Along with working all of my adult life, I was also in school up until I was pregnant with my daughter. After two bachelor's programs and a master's program I moved from school to married life to family life.
My last transition sent me into a tailspin. I basically flew by the seat of my pants, working things out as I went along. Now I had a tiny human to work into my life and I let go of all the systems I had created, including the planner I religiously used upon starting college.
Fast forward four years later and I was still having trouble feeling organized and was still feeling overwhelmed. I missed myself and I missed feeling put together. My husband kept trying to get me on board with his systems, but I kept pushing back. Going back to my previous post, I kept trying out all these different ways to "find" or rather center myself by finding an activity that could satisfy my creativity and push me to begin to streamline all the thoughts running around in my head. I'm so distracted most of the time because I'm always thinking about the next thing I have to do.
Then I discovered Bullet Journals last year. I thought I had found my solution. I think it such a non-linear way. If could take a picture of my thought process, it would appear similar to the image you see when you open up your junk drawer. You know that drawer that everyone has that's the catch all for everything you think doesn't have a place. You swear you know exactly what's in there, and as you search for one thing, you get distracted by discovering the item you were looking for, but couldn't find, from two weeks ago. Then proceed to forget the original item for which you were searching. That's what my thought process can sometimes feel like. So the bullet journal seemed like a wonderful solution to organizing all the squirrels in my head.
It's essentially a blank journal that allows you to exercise your creativity to keep yourself organized in a stream of consciousness type format. You may have a weekly spread on one page and a running list of books you plan to read on the next. Then you pick right back up on the following page with your next weekly spread. If you watch the video from the link above, it does a good job of explaining the purpose and functionality of a bullet journal. I ended up moving away from it because I was fighting the artist in me to make these elaborate spreads, but didn't always have the time to do so. I ultimately decided this option didn't work for my lifestyle. It's great for creative folks who crave constant change and want a planner/journal combination.
I decided a planner that was already formatted for me, but with room to add my own flair would be the best option. I had purchased a planner, created by Brit + Co, for Target. It was the perfect set up. It's undated, has plenty of room to write, and has a section for notes. It includes a monthly spread and a weekly spread.
Because this planner was a temporary item for Target, I searched eBay to find some more blank ones, already committing myself to plan for the next two years with this format. Afterward a friend of mind introduced me to Inkwell Press LiveWELL Planners and I couldn't believe what I was missing out on! It offers space for planning yearly goals and connects them so that you are conscious of tracking and thinking about your goals on a monthly basis. They offer vertical and horizontal layouts, tabbed pages, and a pocket in the back to hold stickers, notes, or whatever you want to keep with your planner.
There are a number of other leading planners out there that people are just devoted to: Erin Condren, Simplified Planner, The Happy Planner, and Living Well Spending Less to name a few. Check them out and comment below as to which looks like the best fit for you and why. If you're already an avid planner user, comment with which one you use and why you love it so much. It would be nice to get a variety of opinions to help each other out! This post is so much longer than I had planned it to be so come back for next week's post where I'll cover the ins and outs of using a planner and planner accessories (squeals with joy)!
6 comments:
I use a couple planners - 1) I use a Classic Happy Planner. It's a weekly vertical format where I can capture all the to-dos for my week in the various aspects of my life: work, school, personal; 2) I use a bullet journal for my daily to-dos (transferred from my Happy Planner) and time tracking to make sure my time is spent efficiently. I'm not artistic so it's pretty simple (though colorful). I've used this system since the beginning of August and it's worked well. Before that I just used a plain ol' bullet journal but I find the two-planner system works better for me.
Thanks for sharing your planner system Crystal!
Thanks for sharing Kathy! I'm a fan of a vertical format as well. I really like your idea of using a bullet journal to track efficiency and your running task list. I may have to implement that as well!
For other readers who are thinking of trying a planner for the first time, can you share your pros and cons of the Happy Planner?
I used simplified the last few years and this year on a whim (stupified grad school brain?) went with Passion Planner. It’s a good concept... if I felt like I had more time for dreaming I would love the thought clouds and end of the month reflections but full time school, full time work, and a horse ain’t nobody got time for that. I also went bigger since there was more to keep track of but I don’t love it. Going back to simplified next year because my life needs to be simplified right now.
Glad to see you did some exploring. I'm not familiar with the Passion Planner, so this is good insight for other readers! I also appreciate a less bulky planner since I carry it with me just about everywhere. Best of luck in your grad adventures!
Here are my pros and cons for the Happy Planner.
Pros: it's tidy and simple (the set up I purchased anyway, which doesn't have any particular theme); leading into my next pro, they're SUPER customizable. Because they use a disc-bound system, you can easily add and remove sections as needed. I have additional sections for budgeting and project planning. I know a lot of people who use the wellness inserts, too. They sell a hole punch for their system, so you can even make your own inserts.
Con: the disc-bound system. While I'm a fan of the flexibility, the discs are bulky and when I get to certain days I have to pull the pages out to write in those areas. This leads to wear on the tabs that hold the pages in place. I haven't lost any yet, but since I have project pages I'll be moving from week-to-week, I anticipate this will be an issue later.
I'm a fan overall, and plan to use this system until the end of 2019.
Thanks for this helpful information! I'm sure those of us considering disc planners appreciate the insight. I know I do with Inkwell Press introducing their disc planners this year. I've read through the FB groups that the Happy Planner punch also works for the Inkwell system if anyone is considering trying out that one.
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