The Creativity Project: Planners and Systems
Getting ready to start a new year and looking back on what worked.
As the year ends, I, like a lot of people, am going through my systems and plans for the year to see what I want to bring forward into the new year. Which means I’m watching a lot of planner content.
One trend I’ve been noticing is the number of people who are like, “I bought 10 planners and only used three this year.” And in my head, I’m doing the math on how much those ten planners cost and gagging at the wasted money.
And I’m not dogging on anyone who uses ten planners, but I am noticing the cycle of people wanting to slim down on what they own and buy for the next year.
I’m one of those people. For the last few years (until this year), I was a bullet journal person. I would use one or two notebooks a year and I was content. I was terrible about making them look super artsy, but the system worked.
Until it didn’t. I found that if I didn’t draw my weekly spreads ahead of time, I wouldn’t use them because it’s SO much work. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. I literally drew boxes for my weeklies.) Which is when I switched to my Happy Planner mid-year. All hail the mighty clearance because those suckers are spendy.
In fact, I was using two Happy Planners: one for my daily life and one to track my writing better. And it worked. Until it didn’t.
Again, I’m skipping days, not looking at my planner, because juggling two planners, a list pad to track how much I’ve typed up this year, and a common place notebook felt like too much.
It wasn’t, but I’ve grown to dislike the stack of books and notebooks. It feels too messy for what it is. Plus, there is so much unused space in both planners. So much potential that goes to waste.
So, I’m going through and seeing what I currently have hidden in my stash of notebooks to see if I can come up with a better system. Hopefully, I’ll have it planned out and ready to use by the beginning of the year.
What are you using to plan your life? Let me know! I’d love any and all ideas.
