March Madness (part 2)

Now that I’ve confessed to all of the insanity of my March planning, I thought it was only fair that I share with you the flip-throughs of the planners I used.

You’ll see in this video the evolution (or de-evolution?) of my planning through the month, which I think was influenced by some vacation time and a busy work schedule. I’m still getting used to the empty nest mama life, too.

For April, I’m hoping to settle back into my beloved Matilda. (fingers crossed)

Stay tuned for a video of my April setup!

A Day in the life … of my planner

Thought I’d bring you along on a normal workday and see how I use my planner throughout the day. You’ll learn something new… I’m not a morning person!

How I use a bullet journal for work

Here’s an overview of my “bullet journaling” method for work. I use Outlook for my calendar so I only need something to track tasks and meeting notes. Here’s how I do it.

August Planner Setup

Hi, everyone – I have been rummaging in my personal ring binders and pulled out a classic to use for a while. Also talking through my August planner setup.

A new contender for 2022?

I’ve been trying out a new planner for potential use in 2022. I’m still not sure how I feel about it or if it will work for me. But I wanted to share my initial thoughts with you all.

Let me know what you think!

December Planner Setup

I’m still contemplating what I’m going to do for 2022 in my planner, but for right now I’m happily at home in my A6 rings. In this video, you’ll get a glimpse of my latest acquisition – a new dark teal Moterm ring binder. It’s simply lovely.

Hope you enjoy the video!

October Planner Check In

Come see how things are going for me using the Hobonichi A6 for October and what I’m thinking I’ll do for November. How is the Hobonichi A6 working for me? Are rings in my future? (again)

It’s always good to be organized – especially when you’re a planner junkie

I’m one of those people who loves a planner – if you follow any of my Pinterest posts you may have seen that I have a “planner junkie” board.

From as far back in my adult life as I can remember, maybe even back into high school, I’ve loved to have a calendar/planner to track things in. I’ve tried going digital over the years – had a Palm Pilot when they first came out and all that jazz (being the techy that I am, I had to give it a whirl) but I came to the realization long ago that I just have to have paper.

I think it has to do with my kinesthetic tendencies, but I love to write things down, make lists, cross the lists off, and see the progress I made on various projects in my life.

I’ve done the Franklin Covey bit, even dabbled with a European planner (which I loved in concept, but it was not practical for me).

Since I work from home and 95% of my work life is digital I’ve struggled with figuring out how to make a planner work for me in recent years. I knew in my gut I needed one for my sanity and productivity, but it didn’t really make sense to write down my work schedule when it changes so rapidly with meetings moving daily and my work task list didn’t really need to be merged with my family to-do list.

What I’ve been doing is keeping them separate – I use an Arc notebook for my work to-do’s and then have been using an Erin Condren planner for the past three years. I love the layout and the bright, cheerful colors. However, I have been struggling with the layout of the pages – trying to figure out how to make the Morning-Day-Night format work for me. I don’t really divide my days up that way since 70% of my day is devoted to my online work schedule.

And then I discovered the multitudes of Erin Condren fan groups on Facebook and the Erin Condren videos on YouTube. Which led me to the realization that this was my planner (duh) and I could make it whatever I want.

Enter my latent scrapbooking tendencies, my crafty tools and color printer and now I’ve become a customizing planner fool.

Planner junkie?

For real.

So, now I’m happily prettifying my already pretty planner. And you know what? I’m finding that by doing something as simple as putting new word stickers over the “Morning-Day-Night” headings has reinvigorated my planning/organization genes. And I am LOVING that I’m once again keeping everything in one place… where I can find it easily.

Still not moving my work stuff out of it’s current home, but I like the separation of church and state, so to speak.

I’ve learned how to overcome some of the things that used to drive me nuts about the planner – like not being able to add in kids’ schedules and important papers (like instructions for doctor’s appts, etc.) – DIY “coil clips” to the rescue.

I’ve figured out how to make my own stickers, too, using my old Xyron Sticker maker and my color printer. I just resize whatever I want to be a sticker to 1.5” wide (which just happens to be the width of the day boxes as well as the width of the sticker maker) and run it through to make my own stickers.

Lots of folks use washi tape to decorate the pages, but I find it’s just distracting. I like small bits of color and art added here and there but I want to keep the planner true to it’s purpose: organizing my life.

I like keeping our menu plans in here – adding my to-do’s (now that I have nice lined stickers) and highlighting important things with colorful stickers.

Here are some of my favorite toys, I mean, tools, for decorating my planner:

I keep all my tools in a handy tote I had from my scrapbooking days – no longer gathering dust but back in use:

And some of my favorite Facebook Groups and Blogs where I’ve been finding inspiration:

This is a GREAT article/video on using an Erin Condren planner – and one that got me really going on the whole concept of making my own boxes for the days.
My Erin Condren Simple (FB group)
Erin Condren Fans (FB group- fancier pages and lots of “loot”)
Plum Paper Central (another FB group – this one for a competing planner, but good ideas)
Great source for print-yourself stickers.
A good video showing how to make your own DIY “coil clips” to insert other papers (like kids’ schedules) into your planner) – another lifesaver for me.

So, what do you do to keep your life organized? Are you a digital person? Is it all on your phone or tablet? Or are you a paper person like me? What type of planner do you use?