(Tipmas) Top 5 Reasons why I love my planner
I love filling in a blank slate
For many years, when I worked in a corporate environment, I didn’t keep a planner; I had a calendar, and that was mostly filled with scout meetings and doctor’s appointments for the kids. As a creative entrepreneur, I’ve always joked that I should not be allowed to own a stack of post it notes, because my desk can be, at times, covered in a pretty rainbow of notes, with no rhyme or reason. I’ve been working on my planner game in the past several years; what I’ve learned is that they are as personal and as varied as you can get. You can go very complex and intricate, or very minimalistic and clean. As a creative, I’ve fall somewhere in between.
I’ve tied several brands, and configurations for planners. I have found that what works best for me is something which is, first off, disc bound. I love the flexibility of moving something from one section to another easily, and the bigger sheets give me plenty of space to write. My handwriting has never won any awards, and I need the space to work on. Nothing frustrates me more than writing a note, then coming back to it a week later and not being able to read it. This year, because of budget constraints, I actually bought an 18 month planner from a big box store. If you can swing it, and hack your way through January with printables and such, you can save funds by buying in February.
Recently, I’ve seen some internet postings whether it’s a good idea to keep a planner or not for 2021 - since we’re not going anywhere more exciting than our living room or a bedroom. Here are my top 5 reasons why a planner is more important than ever. You are free to disagree with me, and if you do - I’d love to see other perspectives in the comments.
Dates - I can hear the groans now, but bear with me. First off, I keep my planner calendar synched with my google calendar, so that when I am at the card store, or scheduling a get together with the grandkids, I don’t double book myself. It’s is also a great centralized location (and the word centralized is going to keep coming up in this post for a reason) to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries. I think that 2021 is going to be a year when we have to work harder than ever to keep in touch. A card is such a nice, personal way to say happy birthday to someone - remember when your grandmother used to buy those boxes of all occasion cards? Now I know why, and I keep a list (in the planner) of girlfriends birthdays.
Blog section - I’ll be talking more about this in detail next week, but I have a blog section in the planner. It’s an idea folder, such as when I look something up and discover it would be a good subject of a blog post - but it’s also a detailed break out of what topics to write about when, bounced against project deadlines. One of the biggest issues I have had was putting ‘write blog’ on my to do list, and having no idea what to start with. Today, my weekly breakout goes out through the end of March. I will say here that once this challenge is over, I am pulling back to a weekly blog schedule.
Health section - let’s face it, besides all the “New Year, new You’ posts about to hit us, keeping a personal health tracker has never been more important. Let’s start with an action plan (printed!) as to what you do if you think you have been exposed to Covid. News reports aside, knowing how to treat the virus at home is the most important tool you have to avoiding having to go to the hospital. If you need to order supplies, it’s the best thing you can do for yourself. or your family.
Household reminders and meal plans - no quilter is an island, and my husband disagrees with this one - I keep a meal planning section in my planner, so that I know if I need to put dinner in the over at some point. It works for me, which is the key to this exercise.
Finances - bills to pay (but also bills to send, quotes to follow up with, coupons and rebates to track, upcoming sales for items which you may need or want.
Projects and UFOs
6. Bonus Section - My UFOs and project lists. This section is a legacy section from past years planners, because it has worked so well for me that I used it every year. This is the UFO section from the Quilter’s planner that I received as a gift several years ago, and it’s the best way to visually track the projects yet to be sewn. And yes, I marry that up with the APQ listing…I have more than 12, but I think that will keep me on track for this year. Not all the projects I’ll be working on are shown - many are patterns and items for me which haven’t been scheduled yet. How do you keep track of your list?
