Hi y'all. it was brought to my attention (thanks Jane!) that comments had been turned off.
See, I told you earlier that I may have to remember how to do this again! So, after an hour of searching all over the blogger site and googling it, I finally figured it out. One simple dumb check box was marked wrong. Sigh. But it's all good now. I swear this has happened before, and I had to post this exact same kind of post before. Maybe someday I'll learn from my mistakes?
So, I have discovered that "planner peace" is not necessarily finding one perfect planner. It's finding what makes you happy and productive, even if that means changing planner several times a year. I started this year with a simple Moleskine weekly planner that I kept in my purse, ...
and an A5 planner with Franklin Covey Day-on-2-Pages inserts.
The Moleskine was fine at first, and I did use it for forward planning, but the monthly views are on one page, and the boxes were very small. So, I couldn't use it for writing down all our bills due dates plus other events going on. So I started carrying a second small cheap planner with a larger monthly view just for bills. But I wasn't happy with the situation. Also, I got to where I stopped using the right side of the weekly view for tasks, and just used it for the menu planning and grocery lists which was fine really, but overall, the system felt clunky.
The A5 planner mostly stayed at home. It's huge and heavy, and I just didn't want to carry it around. It had my daily pages in it, so I could get more detailed in my tasks, as well as the extra page for writing down notes from phone calls, anything noteable about the day and some journaling. However, I had bought the Seasons pack of inserts, which are pretty, and I do love the layout of them, but I prefer to color code things pertaining to different family members, and the background images on the pages were making it hard for me to read anything that wasn't written in a bold black ink. I already wear trifocals, I didn't need anything making it more difficult, especially since I sleep days and a lot of what I do is done in a dimmer light.
Then one day I found a dot grid journal at WalMart,and decided to try bullet journaling again. Since all I used my moleskine for was the grocery list and menu planning, I could just switch that to my bullet journal, and try to get back to just using one book again.
This worked okay for a while, but it's mid-year, which means new planners are being released... pretty, yummy planners. And I'm so weak! So, I took the plunge and bought a 2018 mini flagship Day Designer (A5 size) on clearance for half price.
It was still only May, so I felt like it was a good deal. I really wanted a pre-made, pre-dated daily planner again, but on nice white paper in a layout that worked for me, and the Day Designer had that. I used just that for planning for over a month, and my bullet journal became just a journal with the occasional grocery list added in.
But the A5 size and with it being super thick due to being a daily planner, carrying it with me everywhere was not great. It's seriously heavy.
I considered trying my moleskine weekly to carry with me in my purse, but then I saw the new Lilly Pulitzer agendas!
So, yeah I bought yet another weekly planner, but I got the medium size, and it's a 17 month one, so it'll go all the way through til December 2019 - so even if I get tired of it, I can go back to it whenever I want for a long time to come.
It's about as tall as the A5 Day Designer, but narrower, more like the size of the Moleskine or bullet journal.
And it's MUCH lighter than the Day Designer. The only problem is that it doesn't start until August. Fortunately, it has a nice size notes section in the front, so I did a bullet journal type layout for the rest of June and July, and can use that for forward planning before August.
So that mostly stays in my purse, but I will do weekly planning in it when August gets here, just so I have a good overview of what's coming up, and what I can get done on each day.
The Day Designer stays on my desk at home on days I work, and on my night stand on my days off. There's plenty of room for quick notes from a phone call, noting appointments on the timetable, and tasks that need to get done.
There's even a Top 3 at the top, which I use a lot. I use the Due box quite often to remind me to pay a certain bill if it's not an auto draft. I'll write those in at the beginning of each month for each day something is due that I have to actually pay so I don't forget. The other boxes at the top often don't get used, but it's a good place for motivational stickers or other decoration, or just leave blank.
And that's about it for what I use for planning or journaling. I do also have a travel planner actually, but it's huge and bulky - not really made for traveling - more like just for recording our trips so I can look back on them instead of hunting through my journals for the pages I did for certain trips. I keep it in a leather traveler's notebook type cover that I made. I have a lot of pics of it, so I think I'll do a separate post on just my travel journal.
So, there we go! Two posts in the same week! I think that's a record for me in the last 3-4 years or so. And I do already have my next post figured out, so I could make it and set it to post the next day - GASP! So, hey thank y'all for checking back in on this lonely old blog. I really do hope I can get back into this regularly. I have always loved it, and journaling on a blog is a lot easier to store than volumes of paper journals!... but I'll keep my paper ones anyway. Can't beat the feel of a notebook in your hands, you know? But blogging is really close, and I get to share it with you all!
Until next time, have a great week, or month or year!
Patty
See, I told you earlier that I may have to remember how to do this again! So, after an hour of searching all over the blogger site and googling it, I finally figured it out. One simple dumb check box was marked wrong. Sigh. But it's all good now. I swear this has happened before, and I had to post this exact same kind of post before. Maybe someday I'll learn from my mistakes?
So, I have discovered that "planner peace" is not necessarily finding one perfect planner. It's finding what makes you happy and productive, even if that means changing planner several times a year. I started this year with a simple Moleskine weekly planner that I kept in my purse, ...
and an A5 planner with Franklin Covey Day-on-2-Pages inserts.
The Moleskine was fine at first, and I did use it for forward planning, but the monthly views are on one page, and the boxes were very small. So, I couldn't use it for writing down all our bills due dates plus other events going on. So I started carrying a second small cheap planner with a larger monthly view just for bills. But I wasn't happy with the situation. Also, I got to where I stopped using the right side of the weekly view for tasks, and just used it for the menu planning and grocery lists which was fine really, but overall, the system felt clunky.
The A5 planner mostly stayed at home. It's huge and heavy, and I just didn't want to carry it around. It had my daily pages in it, so I could get more detailed in my tasks, as well as the extra page for writing down notes from phone calls, anything noteable about the day and some journaling. However, I had bought the Seasons pack of inserts, which are pretty, and I do love the layout of them, but I prefer to color code things pertaining to different family members, and the background images on the pages were making it hard for me to read anything that wasn't written in a bold black ink. I already wear trifocals, I didn't need anything making it more difficult, especially since I sleep days and a lot of what I do is done in a dimmer light.
Then one day I found a dot grid journal at WalMart,and decided to try bullet journaling again. Since all I used my moleskine for was the grocery list and menu planning, I could just switch that to my bullet journal, and try to get back to just using one book again.
This worked okay for a while, but it's mid-year, which means new planners are being released... pretty, yummy planners. And I'm so weak! So, I took the plunge and bought a 2018 mini flagship Day Designer (A5 size) on clearance for half price.
It was still only May, so I felt like it was a good deal. I really wanted a pre-made, pre-dated daily planner again, but on nice white paper in a layout that worked for me, and the Day Designer had that. I used just that for planning for over a month, and my bullet journal became just a journal with the occasional grocery list added in.
But the A5 size and with it being super thick due to being a daily planner, carrying it with me everywhere was not great. It's seriously heavy.
I considered trying my moleskine weekly to carry with me in my purse, but then I saw the new Lilly Pulitzer agendas!
So, yeah I bought yet another weekly planner, but I got the medium size, and it's a 17 month one, so it'll go all the way through til December 2019 - so even if I get tired of it, I can go back to it whenever I want for a long time to come.
It's about as tall as the A5 Day Designer, but narrower, more like the size of the Moleskine or bullet journal.
And it's MUCH lighter than the Day Designer. The only problem is that it doesn't start until August. Fortunately, it has a nice size notes section in the front, so I did a bullet journal type layout for the rest of June and July, and can use that for forward planning before August.
So that mostly stays in my purse, but I will do weekly planning in it when August gets here, just so I have a good overview of what's coming up, and what I can get done on each day.
The Day Designer stays on my desk at home on days I work, and on my night stand on my days off. There's plenty of room for quick notes from a phone call, noting appointments on the timetable, and tasks that need to get done.
There's even a Top 3 at the top, which I use a lot. I use the Due box quite often to remind me to pay a certain bill if it's not an auto draft. I'll write those in at the beginning of each month for each day something is due that I have to actually pay so I don't forget. The other boxes at the top often don't get used, but it's a good place for motivational stickers or other decoration, or just leave blank.
And that's about it for what I use for planning or journaling. I do also have a travel planner actually, but it's huge and bulky - not really made for traveling - more like just for recording our trips so I can look back on them instead of hunting through my journals for the pages I did for certain trips. I keep it in a leather traveler's notebook type cover that I made. I have a lot of pics of it, so I think I'll do a separate post on just my travel journal.
So, there we go! Two posts in the same week! I think that's a record for me in the last 3-4 years or so. And I do already have my next post figured out, so I could make it and set it to post the next day - GASP! So, hey thank y'all for checking back in on this lonely old blog. I really do hope I can get back into this regularly. I have always loved it, and journaling on a blog is a lot easier to store than volumes of paper journals!... but I'll keep my paper ones anyway. Can't beat the feel of a notebook in your hands, you know? But blogging is really close, and I get to share it with you all!
Until next time, have a great week, or month or year!
Patty
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I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty