First Friday

I'm so excited to add a new month to the planner. I'm looking forward to a productive August.

How Much Is Too Much???

Honestly, I don't believe in buying it if you are not going to use it. This is a Gillio, for which I paid A LOT. This is quality that can stand up to much abuse.

If I'm crying about the rings in 6 months, you can chastise me then.

Promotional to Useful

I often get these small promotional calendars in the mail at the start of the year. Sometimes they get stuck on the fridge and ignored. 

When watching a YouTube video, I noticed a vlogger using a project life calendar card to track her no spend March. It occurred to me that these small calendars could similarly be used to track a daily action over a month.

I tore off April and cut it down and clipped it into my planner and used it to track my blogging over the month.  Now that I am using DIYFish planner pages, I have a monthly sheet that is used to track a host of activities, but I still love this solution.

This is a good way to track those resolutions I'm sure many have forgotten. I don't set resolutions but I do choose a focus area or intention. This is my year of discovery and I am determined to discover myself through more consistent writing. I'm finding that the only way I will get to the more consistent writing is to implement some more consistent planning.

Free Planner Pages

I hear a lot of Filofax users complain about how expensive planner paper can get. There are endless comparisons between the different types of paper and what pens work best. Honestly, I love good paper but most of the paper that cycles through my planner will just end up in the trash so I don't bother with quality so much.  And because I change my pens so often, I will drive myself crazy trying to match up the perfect paper with the perfect pen.

All that said, I still need paper.

This is a snapshot of the "next steps" portion of my planner.  This is where I'm tracking all the project steps for myself and for my work group. With all of the projects we have going, the pages in this section will get filled up, marked up and tossed out quite often. As you can tell, this first page is yellow, reminiscent of the yellow legal pads. And that's exactly what it is.

I admit I have a problem...a big problem. I have piles of notepads, notebooks and tablets that I have collected overt the years. And this is just a small portion. What I can say is that these are probably the oldest. Some are even of college vintage. As I caught up on the latest shows on Hulu, many of these have become perfectly sized planner pages.

This is such an easy solution for both my growing collection of paper and having a steady supply of paper for the planner.

So, to all of you struggling with your paper supply, give this a try.  Use it, mark it up and then toss it away. No reason to stress about the cost.

Planner Revamp

One of these days, I will find a planner system that truly works for me.  I try different systems, different page layouts, various sizes and I'm still not settled on the perfect system for me.  This is one of the reasons I really want to delve into doing my own designs. But that is a long term dream that is still in development. While I don't have the perfect pages for me, I do think I'm getting my settled in the general layout of my planner.

This is my very chunky Gillio Medium Compagna.

I found these lovely metals tags by Tim Holtz. I think they give the perfect look to my Gillio beauty. I'm currently using DIYFish for my calendar but this layout I'm using can have any calendar inserted into it which is really important to me since I tend to change calendars several times a year. I've already tried out 3 this year alone.

These two arrow tags mark this week and today. They are on half sheet dividers  that I move each week/day as needed.

My main sections are divided by the wide folder tags. My sections are everyday (for routines, regular occurrences), life (calendar), wishes, notes, and stuff.

The bottom arrow is my "next steps" list. I use it to track what is next on my list and that of my employees.  I'm trying to teach the new engineers in my group to always be thinking of what they have to do next when a project phase is complete.  This seems to be working well so far. I know GTD uses this. Side note: I really need to read that book.  It's been on my shelf a long time.

Within my notes tab, I have six numbered dividers that I use for long term focus area or short term projects. 1 is my home. So many projects coming up. 2 is for my blog and writing. I am thinking about rebranding everything so I have a lot of notes here right now. 3 is for my crafting life. 4 is for work. I'm currently keeping a list of things that I PE stamp and job searching (never stop looking for a better opportunity). 5 is being used right now to manage my move. Once I'm settled, I'll reassign this tab to something else. 6 is all things financial. 

Because I have so much in my planner, I no longer use it as a wallet. It's just too much going on and I could never fit all the pages I need if I also tried to do double duty. 

Moving Down But Up

My responsibilities at work will be decreasing over the next few weeks to months, so I am determined to get back down to one planner. Honestly, I can't bear to put down my Gillio during the day so the best way to be able to pet it is to use it all day.  The planner geeks out there will know exactly what I mean.

Since I need to print more chronodex pages for my time tracking, I also took time to reprint my expenses pages for a full planner refresh. I have paid off a couple of bills recently and printing a new, smaller budget is a big incentive for me.

I have a rather large handwriting and I write down a lot so it's going to take some getting used to. 

I also like carrying a full year calendar at a time.  With just a personal calendar (week + notes) that is possible, but I need daily tracking for work. I plan to keep a week of work pages sandwiched between the weekly personal layout. Once a month, I will purge the work pages and archive using Evernote. I had considered doing that in the past but seeing this video from Carrie Harling finally made the decision firm for me.

I'll update you on my layout when I get it organized.

Peaks, Pits, Praises, Prayers

This stems from an idea I saw on Pinterest. It was a suggested as a daily journal concept, not too far off from the gratitude journals that many like to keep. 

What I appreciate about this is that it gives you an opportunity to pull from the bad things and frame them in a way that forces you to think about them differently. Instead of just being upset about a work situation and attempting to ignore it, I can put it down as something to be prayed about. And I don't have to avoid it because I will be seen as too negative (it has happened to me before).

I have incorporated this into my daily planner.  I typically do this on Sunday afternoon, but during Lent I am attempting to do it daily.

Today's entry...

PEAKS. I had fun finishing some bunting for a friend's baby.

PITS. I had to go to work for a few hours.

PRAISES. Thank God, I was productive at work and didn't have to stay for too long.

PRAYERS. I'm praying for new habits that will help me break though my health plateau.

Retail Therapy

Didn't I just mention how much I hate and love retail therapy???  I am having an especially tough year so I decided to splurge and really treat myself.

Granted, my idea of a treat is much different than most folks. But when something speaks to you, it just speaks.

This is my new Gillio planner, Italian leather at its best. It's the medium Compagna. This feels perfect and smells perfect.

The color contrast is what really sold me on this particular one. I love it so much that I can't keep my hands off of it.  I moved into it immediately. My goal over the next few weeks is to combine my work and personal lives into this one planner.

I currently still have my work life in an A5 Holborn Filofax, but since my work responsibilities are decreasing, I'm going to let me planner usage match. Since the rings on the Gillio are slightly bigger than Filofax, this shouldn't be a problem, but I still need to exercise a bit of restraint.

This makes me so happy, I can almost forget how unhappy I am with some aspects of my life. ALMOST.