Hey friends! Today, I’m going to tackle the ever elusive “Planner Peace” idea. I’ve watched a video on YouTube recently, where there was a woman talking about all the planners she used one year (there were A LOT!) and none of them made her happy. She would use one for a few weeks, and then switch back to another one, or even buy a new system. I could see how this would amount to a huge stress headache.
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You are not getting your stuff done, and not staying organized because you are too busy changing your planner.
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You’re constantly stressed because all of your information is shared between a hundred different planners.
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You never seem to be happy with just one thing.
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You are buying tons of planners and this can get VERY costly.
Even one of my favorite Youtubers; Alaina, from the Organized Money talks about how you need to change your system so it works for you. Every time she releases a video, it seems she is doing something different or using a different planner for something else. If you watch Youtubers that do this, it could potentially make you feel the same - you might like what someone is doing, so you do it too, but then, they change their system and it is very confusing.
Planner companies don’t make it easy on us. They have multiple releases throughout the year. They usually have 2 releases per year; the calendar year, running January to December and the academic year, running September to August. The problem arises when these companies come out with brand new designs. For instance, someone like me plans January to December. Then, when the Academic season comes, I want to buy a new planner in July/August, even though I don’t NEED one. Perhaps this is how Frankenplanning came into being. (For those of you who don’t know what Frankenplanning is, check out my blog here: https://sandradahl.ca/planning/blog-post-title-four-ngkld-ErzkL-d3bsk-V6wom-9cjd7-cwaft
Basically, if you start the year in January, and use a different planner to plan multiple facets of your life (i.e. home, business, etc), you might start off with a planner or two. Then when July comes, you might find a few more that you like, so you buy them as well. Then, you need to justify all the planners you bought, so you come up with a separate use for all of them. Some people use a catch-all planner, to plan for all the other planners. (I tried this out for 2021 with an hourly Happy Planner, but won’t be doing it again). It is too repetitive and it felt more like daily planning to me.
I can’t give you the secret to actually finding Planner Peace, because everyone is different and we all have different needs and things going on in our lives. What I suggest is this: (Write notes as you go!)
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Write down everything that is important to you in your life. This could be:
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Your Business
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Work
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Family
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School
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Health (Mental/Emotional/Fitness)
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Goals
2. Do some thinking as to HOW you like to plan.
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Daily
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Weekly
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Do you prefer a monthly layout so you can see the entire month at a glance?
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Do you like more free-form, maybe just a book to write your tasks down for the day?
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If you have lots of available time, create your own bullet journal and add anything you want to completely customize.
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Structured: Happy Planner has great layouts, like the dashboard (i find that extremely useful for home/mom life)
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What kind of paper do you like to write on?
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What kind of coils do you like? There are coiled, rings, disc-bound or bound (book form)
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Are you artistic, or do you like functional planning more?
3. Do your research
There are so many companies out there now. There are big brand names, like Happy Planner, Franklin Covey, Day-Timer, Day-Runner, Passion Planner, Erin Condren, Makse-Life, and tons more. Most of these companies have different choices within their own range. (I.e. Franklin Covey offers Daily, Weekly and Monthly planning, and Erin Condren & Happy Planner offer different layouts like hourly, horizontal and vertical, etc…)
With all the choices on the market, it’s easy to wonder if you have made the right decision. The best advice I can give you that works for me is to STICK with your planner for at least the year. This way, at least you get the use out of your planner for the year, and you don’t have to waste time searching for a new planner throughout the year. It also prevents you from wasting time switching all your data over to a new planner. (It is VERY time consuming). You can focus on doing the tasks at hand instead of worrying about switching your planner.
I hope this blog helps you find planner peace!
Happy Planning!
xoxo SAN
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