Changes That I’m Making To My Planner Systems for 2025

Hello and welcome! Congrats on getting through another year! Today, we’re going to talk about some of the changes I want to implement in my planner systems.

As you may know, my online business starts with my planners. I created a YouTube channel all about how I plan and what makes me effective - as an entrepreneur, as a stay at home mom and a human in general.

I use the Cultivate What Matters Goal Planning system (which has changed my life by the way). From doing my prep work for 2025 and giving my future planning needs serious thought, my word of the year is going to be simplify. At first, it was minimize but that doesn’t sound as polished.

I want to simplify my routines, my planning system, my life, my house - basically everything that surrounds me. I want to simplify to bring things back down to basics to make things easier for myself. I want to save time, not feel like time is flying by and I’m not able to catch up. That’s kind of how I felt for 2024. Sometimes I would find myself reacting instead of being proactive, and each month would come and go so quickly I didn’t have time to catch up. I would always be working on “last weeks blog”.

Let’s start with my Franklin Planner:

FRANKLIN PLANNER:

I will still be using a classic - that’s my main planner system. The classic size works well for me. Not run-of-the-mill portable, but definitely necessary. It’s my home-base, and a reference for everything I can think of.

I still enjoy using Franklin Planner inserts. For 2025, they will be the neutral Carrara and the beautiful warm-toned Sandstone (7 Habit) inserts.

I use dividers from DividersRUs, and none of the main staples that I use in my planner will be changing at all. If you follow me on instagram or YouTube, you may know that I change up my binder to a different style and color every single month. I tend to use planning kits and stickers that match with the binder. I love decorating because it keeps my planner fun and fresh and if I love looking at it, I use it more.

As of November 2024, I currently use four top tabs, four bottom tabs and six side tabs. I will be removing the four bottom tabs to simplify my planner a little bit. These four consist of “school”, “finance”, “notes” and “reading”.

I will be incorporating the school information into my main planner calendar and weeklies. The finance section will move into my Budget Mom Book. The notes section will move in with the reference section, and the reading will be broken down into two parts.

I will continue to have a goal for 2025 to read 100 books for the year. My list of books read will be at the back of my Planner Perfect Yearly book (see down below for more on that system). The books to be read will go into my reference section and any books notes will be contained in my common place book which is also part of my Planner Perfect TN system.

My Franklin calendar will remain the same. I only keep one month at a time in my planner due to the limited real estate and monthly switch up. I rotate between different colour inserts as well to ensure I don’t get bored. I keep a future log for the entire year for this reason. The weeklies follow, along with the day on two page.

Some of my sections will get a revamp. I hold a lot of hand-written information in different sections, so I will be going through and determining what is absolutely necessary and what can go. I will probably be re-writing some of the content to condense it and make it neater. I will be keeping the top tabs which outline my brain dump/inbox and my calendar sections, and the six side tabs which house my main planner sections. (Goals, schedule. home, reference, personal and projects, respectively).

Health & Wellness Bullet Journal

I started this in February 2024 partly to satisfy my urge to bullet journal again (that’s how I started this whole planner journey on YouTube). I craved the ability to create my own spreads and not be limited by boxes. But, it was still the same - it took too much time to draw out the calendars and trackers.

Again, I was adding this to my morning routine, and the whole thing was taking far too long. (My morning journaling routine alone takes about 45 minutes, but I usually use this time to multitask and edit videos).

I just find that it’s all become a little tedious. However, there are still some really important things that I like to track. For example, I have a weight tracker and a habit tracker that I would like to keep, so I still need someplace to put that…

Adding In Planner Perfect

This is a new addition as of October. As with other members of Planner Perfects Facebook group, I quickly became obsessed.

What is it? Jenny Penton, the founder of Planner Perfect creates traveller Notebooks - the books that go inside and exquisite leather covers. There are charms and she paints all her own art for her products.

I’m currently subscribed to her accessory monthly subscription which includes three rolls of Washi, four sticker sheets and twelve tip in/journaling cards.

The regular (full) subscription comes with a monthly journal and a monthly plan book. However, I went ahead and custom ordered different books for the months ahead because I really liked the art that was already available (and I knew what I would be getting - it’s kind of a surprise with a subscription box).

Jenny promotes something called scripting which is kind of like planning/journaling/manifesting but it allows you to be more realistic in your daily to-do’s. You’re basically writing out how you want your day to go and what you want to have happen.

You can have up to four books at a time (five or 6 with a hack!), and it’s way more portable than my classic Franklin. For 2025, I will have a yearly book which is going to be my future plan book for on the go. This will be for writing in doctors appointments, or any future commitments. I will have a monthly plan book for the current month, a journal which will be my new reading notebook (i.e. my commonplace book), and my TN from Cocoa Daisy (or another PP journal) for random notes, speculations, grocery lists or anything else.

The yearly book is where the majority of my tracking will go. There are two blank spreads (four pages) right after each month. On these, I will have my habit tracker, biohacking tracker, weight tracker and other medical tracker. I will update those each month. Then, at the back of the book, there are a few extra pages. Here, I will put my cycle tracker, yearly weight graph and my 100 Book Challenge.

As for my line a day (daily success, affirmation, gratitude, and manifestation), I might incorporate into my regular journal, or my Franklin. I will experiment and then continue with what works best.

Hobonichi

The last change I intend to make is to no longer carry a Hobonichi. I used it for 2024 for “memory keeping”. I would write down the highlights from each day, and it was another way for me to use my Once More With Love and CoffeeMonsterzCo munchkin stickers and Washi tape. Again, it was just so time consuming and now is unnecessary because this “memory keeping” business will now take place in my Planner Perfect TN.

I think that sums up all the changes I intend to make for 2024. Like I said, my word of the year is “simplify” and I want to make my life easier. I want to be able to spend more time with my family and enjoy the little things.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!

Sandra