Planner Graveyard

I love planners. I get one every year and try to stay organized. But somehow I never fully utilize them and by the middle of the year I usually quit using them. I’m a daily list maker and love checking things off. I had one for writing, one for household stuff and one for my son’s school. I struggled to keep on top of everything.

 

So I did some research to see how other people stayed organized. When you enter organizing and planners you get tons of hits. There are the expensive refillable planners that some found they could not live without. And the versatility sounded appealing but I didn’t need that much.

 

There are the simple types found in most stores that offer room for appointments by the hour. They didn’t have room for any notes. I had few real appointments and needed a way to keep what I did each day in the same place.

 

I needed something that had room for notes, gave me plenty of room and showed a week at a time. I narrowed it down to The Planner Pad or the Mom Agenda.

http://www.plannerisms.com/p/how-to-find-your-perfect-planner.html

 

I chose the Planner Pad because it offered me room for my entire list making. And its funnel down system would help me stay more organized.

 

 

But it wasn’t pretty or colorful like some of these:

http://www.sugarybrown.com/how-to-decorate-planner/

http://www.belindaselene.com/2014/03/cute-supplies-for-your-planner.htmlLink

http://lovecharmaine.com/my-kate-spade-planner-how-i-organize-decorate/

http://inmyownstyle.com/2014/01/fresh-start-planner-organization-ideas-giveaway.html

 

Using some of their tricks I gathered some washi tape, my new favorite thing,

 

also colorful sharpies, stickers and sticky notes.

Now I could trick it out any way I wanted and I did. I took what was normally unused like the alphabetical contact list and made it my books-to-read list. The Planner Pad also offers several goals pages at the end of the book. I labeled those for current WIP’s. I use the Notes page at the beginning of each month to keep up with my local chapter to-dos.

 

I picked up a small metal frame stand and now my new organizer sits on my desk so I can see what needs to be done each day. So far I’m using it like I wanted and everything is in one place. So we’ll see how I’m doing this time next year. I think I may have found my system.