I have a thing for planners.
I get weak in the knees when I see a pretty planner, journal, or calendar, and I am more than a bit obsessive about keeping my life organized on paper.
On paper – you hear that? Not on my phone. Not on my computer. I keep my life organized with a good ol’ planner and a pen.
I tried for a while to keep my schedule in my phone or on my computer, and I just get frustrated and miss the physical act of writing things down, crossing them off, and seeing it all laid out in a nice pretty way.
Maybe it’s a problem. But if being addicted to my planner is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
Oh, and did I mention? I have two planners.
I know, I know. We’ve already established that I’m crazy. Stop looking at me like that.
*** UPDATE: I don’t use two planners anymore! Click here to see how I solved all of my planner problems and now only use one planner for everything – and I won’t ever buy another planner again!
(This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.)
I’m currently infatuated with the idea of a bullet journal. They’re gorgeous, so functional, and look like so much fun. The only problem? I know if I start using a bullet journal, it will consume me. I’ll spend hours every night making it perfect and I’ll neglect to actually accomplish anything because I’ll be too busy making lists of the things I need to accomplish.
Does that make sense to anyone but me?
So, since I can’t allow myself to have a bullet journal (maybe one day I’ll be mature enough to handle it!), I’ve taken to borrowing bits and pieces from the bullet journal philosophy to use in my own planners. It satisfies my urge to organize all the things and makes my planners a little more personalized and useful for my individual needs. I thought I would spill some of my planner organization techniques today so you can see how neurotic I am it might be helpful to you if you’re looking to get more organized!
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I have one planner that I use exclusively at work, and another that I use exclusively at home. This helps me to mentally separate the two a bit (which isn’t easy when you’re a teacher) and helps my planner not be completely overloaded with all of my to-dos from both locations.
Let’s talk about my work planner first (It’s from Rifle Paper Co.).
My work planner is all about efficiency. I need to be able to glance in the planner, see what is coming up and what I need to accomplish, and move on with my life. I need it to be simple, clean, and uncluttered. I color-code everything in my life, so in my planner, I use a black pen for all things that I need to remember or do at work, a pink pen for all personal reminders, and a green pen for when myself or my staff will be out.
There’s nothing more to this planner than lists, a calendar, and to-dos. Clean. Organized. Simple. It helps me keep my mind clear at work, and I don’t get caught up making it too pretty because there’s not much to it. I’ve tried many different methods for organizing my work life, and this is by far the most effective for me. At work, my mind often gets cluttered and overwhelmed, so keeping my planner as simple and clean as possible makes a major difference for my sanity levels.
My home planner? That’s another story.
My home planner is all about color-coding, note-taking, and trying new things. I got this awesome goal-oriented planner from Target this year, and I’m loving it but I haven’t quite landed on what’s the most effective way for me to use it. I adore the weekly layouts with the goals, reminders, and to-do lists, but I don’t really need to make a list of people to call/email each week, so I often find myself scratching that out to make my own individual to-do lists. I don’t mind the chaos in this planner, because when I’m working at home I’m using the creative side of my brain which is naturally a bit more scattered!
One thing I’ve implemented in this planner that I’m really loving is the daily tracker. I see this over and over in bullet journals and I really, truly love the idea. Each week in this little “don’t forget” square, I make a grid with all of the things I want to make sure to do every day. Some of them are big and important like working on the blog, posting to Instagram, or making sure to spend quality time with Corey, and others are as small as remembering to give my husband a really good kiss every day. You know, the important things in life.
I’ve taken all sorts of liberties with customizing this planner – I even cross out the date each Sunday and write the date for the Sunday prior, because I have a hard time mentally getting past the idea that week start on Sunday, so it bothered me to have the first day on my week be Monday. So, I fixed that!
I’ve also borrowed from the bullet journal ideas of incorporating your thoughts, emotions, and experiences into the planner. I try to write down a bit each day about how I’m feeling, what I’m thinking, and what I accomplished that day. I just recently started playing around with this, and I find that I’m able to focus much more on work when I can quickly jot down “I’m feeling so overwhelmed today!” and move on, rather than stewing about how I feel overwhelmed and not actually accomplishing anything. It’s still a work in progress, but so far it’s working for me.
Another feature of this planner I love is the monthly goals page. It’s a great way for me to see everything I’m trying to accomplish that month at a glance and I check in with this page frequently throughout the month to see how I’m doing in my progress towards my goals. I also have started to write down quotes, thoughts, and memories from the month.
I’ll admit – I’m still a bit infatuated with the idea of a bullet journal and I won’t deny that I might decide some day that I need to give it a shot. But for now, it’s really working for me to borrow some of the ideas and make them my own, and I love that reading up on bullet journals has made me unafraid to “mess up” my planner and make it exactly what I need. It’s also been very freeing this year to start using two planners – I operate so differently between work at home (work is very structured, systematic, and chaotic, whereas at home it’s more about staying creative, working on writing, and organizing our day-to-day) that it really only makes sense to treat my planning for the two things differently!
How do you organize your life? Please tell me I’m not the only one who still compulsively needs to write everything down?!
Liz Angelene Verano says
Awesome article, Amanda, thanks!
I love the idea of a bullet journal and have always been planning to do one ever since I’ve read this article about how to comprehensively start your very own bullet journal: https://www.process.st/bullet-journal/ but haven’t gotten around it yet. Your article just reinforced this idea to actually set aside a time and do it since I already have the materials needed.
Thank you for putting up the idea of creating separate journals for work and home organizations. I am a working mom and the idea of having a well-balanced time between work, family, and me-time is really attractive. I will work on it ASAP! Thank you for giving me new ideas on how to improve productivity. 🙂
Nadia says
Ooh so nice to read because you’ve normalised this “strange obsession” I have with my planners! I love all things paper and stationary and like you I’ve tried ever so hard to use my phone or laptop to journal my thoughts, work life and day to day organisation of my life – it’s not in anyway satisfying to me. I relish the textile life – I love making my planners individual – I have three! Personal – keeping my day to day planned; work and study.Personal in my bag every day with a small pencil case and I’m happy.
Great post for the planner lovers! x
Amanda says
Not strange at all, Nadia – there are plenty of us out there. 🙂
Jodi says
I am so like you! I have to write stuff down and I would love to try the bullet idea too, but I agree, I want it to be perfect. I am in the works of trying to create my own and I love your ideas how you incorparted the parts that you like from bullet journal too. I am working on making a new organizer out of a mini 3-ring binder. I am hoping that will help me, since I too can’t find a planner that I love.
Amanda says
Love it! I may end up making my own for next year – it’s so hard to find the perfect organizer.
Kimberly B Stone says
Oh honey. Never apologize for loving planners. Haven’t been without one form or another of a notebook or notebook/planner since I could write. When I was a little bitty girl the dime stores had little hand sized black notebooks with rings and looseleaf paper. I called them my Spy Notebooks. Today I have an A5 Finsbury Filofax in Cherry Red. I call it my Mind Palace. (Sherlock.) And it’s beautiful and not as used as it could and should be.
I think for a person like me, a planner will always be a work in progress. My family is just my darling mom (81 and beautiful), myself and a spoiled kitty. I can do just one planner. BUT – I have appalling ADD and I’m trying to find ways to overcome that with pages, notes, memos, etc. made in the weird way that my brain works.
I like your planner ideas, your blog, and your smile. I’ll check back with you and your two planners to find more good ideas. Until then, all the best.
Amanda says
Love this comment, Kimberly! So nice to know I’m not the only planner maniac! 🙂
jillianhoover says
I love this! I am a mental health therapist and omg yes sometimes the spill over is just too much. I enter important dates for my family in the shared Google calendar (it is easy to have Hubby not say “I missed that” if it is on his calendar too) but I looooooove pen and paper. I bought a similar planner to your target one this year as well for the school year, but it is more of a landscape layout, so shorter and wider. It’s amazing….has the to-do lists, remember to call and remember to buy. This is helpful for me because I also shop year round for the holidays, and am always looking for a steal. I use this gorgeous planner for work because I have all of these to do things on my plate, and it has an hourly page so I have 12 hours I can plan. I’m still on the search for the perfect home planner and am honestly at the point of just making one in a small binder. Commercial home planners/journals have space for way more kids than we need, and for activities we don’t do/need to do.
Amanda says
Agreed, Jillian! I have thought about making my own planner too…it’s so hard to find one that meets every single need!
Roxy says
I love what you write and I can totally relate. I have a “big” obsession with planners and find myself overthinking my use of them so I don’t buy. I have notebooks and ring binders that I have abandoned because I can’t find something I love which is why I think I overthink things. I recently purchased the day designer – landscape format to use for my home chores, just so I could buy a pretty planner. I have a passion planner compact I use for personal and just started using my personalized may design for work. I get why so many have so many :). Thanks for sharing you planners and concepts behind it. I feel better.
Amanda says
I’m so with you, Roxy! I almost bought a new planner the other day at Home Goods just because it was too cute to pass up…I definitely have a problem, haha.
Sarah says
I’ve been using a paper planner this year for the first time in at least a decade and I seriously LOVE it. I just don’t get the same results from online or app-based planning, I think because I can’t just keep that open in front of me. At home, I can leave my planner sitting on the counter so I don’t forget.
There are certain things I do online though. I use my work-based Outlook calendar for both work and personal, so I don’t really use my paper planner for appointments. It’s more for daily lists, notes, tasks, to-dos and long range stuff.
I use the Get to Work Book by Elisejoy. It’s pretty close to perfect, but not 100% there. I’m actually considering just making my own planner pages next year and getting them bound. That way I could make it perfect for me!
Amanda says
I’ll have to look into that one…I’m thinking about making my own next year too!
Shoshanah says
I have an Erin condren planner and absolutely love it.
Amanda says
I think I would LOVE one of those! I haven’t splurged on it yet, but I think that would be a perfect option for me.
Scraps says
So not the only one! I adore my paper planners (yep, plural) and got so fed up with not finding what I needed readily available that I designed my own a few years ago. This year I added a second planner for one of my business projects. I do some minor decorating in my custom planner, but mostly it’s function-first with my to-do lists, blog posts, and menu on each weekly spread.
Amanda says
So glad I’m not alone! I’m a bit obsessive!