I not only get asked  all the time how I use so many planners but I ask myself this same question. It’s honestly difficult to pass up something beautiful that I see on Instagram and just buy it!! I know that since the beginning of my time using planners I have always used more than one planner but not like I do today. Social media is a huge influence on what I am using and also why I feel the need to use so many things. I get frustrated with myself because I say to myself ‘ Can’t I just love one?’. I am filled with guilt that I have so many that are beautiful and are not being used all the time. I want to use them all and I try and find uses for them all to justify having them. I have the same thoughts that most people in the planner community have. I have times that I feel at a loss and then some times that I feel i’m on top of it!

What I have found since being in the community which was back in 2012 is that I have relaxed a lot more. I don’t have quite as much guilt because I know that it’s my passion and my hobby. I like to change out my planners and they all speak to me in a different way. Some of them are more strict and some are more free flowing. Some allow me to draw and watercolor in them while in others I’m setting a time management plan. In some of them I like to just use stickers and in some of them I like to only use pen. I have found this to be the answer to feeling overwhelmed and guilty.

I of course will use some examples to paint a clear picture of what it is that I mean. I will begin with travelers notebooks. I have them in all kinds of sizes from field note, personal, regular to extra wide and they all speak to me in different ways. When I want to plan on a larger scale and use the planner perfect method for example I will dive right into an extra wide travelers notebook. I love setting the notebook up and the excitement of the journey that it will take me on. It’s that experience that I really enjoy and love. In a regular size midori I tend to try and plan more creatively in it. So I love to make tabs and splash my water colors through out. I like to experiment with all the wonderful printable inserts that can be found on etsy and see what I like and what I don’t like.

I do highly recommend taking notes while using different planners and journals. This is how you will most learn about what you love. In addition to choosing a size I like to use I also have to consider what size depending on where I am in my life. When I worked on the unit as a nurse I had a small planner that I kept in my scrub pocket. It helped me to stay on top of crazy schedules and also keep little cheat sheets for different drips in the back. At this time in my life this is what worked best for me.  I currently work from home and have a toddler and one on the way so I’m not limited to which planner I can use but I like to have something more on the creative side and more portable. I love documenting everything that my daughter does. I love keeping track of the things she likes to do. If she is ill and has a fever I like to write down her symptoms and when I am giving her tylenol. I write down questions about my pregnancy etc so planning has changed with me because life changes all the time.  The planner that I had in college was letter sized and filled with appointments and time trackers and very very regimented. Having options is really wonderful because I can let them change as my life changes and with so much on social media I am able to allow that influence to add to my creativity and make sure that I am making the most of my days.

Since the age of 8 when I first picked up a planner I have learned that ring binders like filofax and franklin covey open up the more strict side of my brain. The cap that I put on with these planners is much more business. I’m more serious and use a lot less creativity with them. This is the place that I keep my information for my online classes as well as a more structured schedule for youtube videos and social media analytics. I like to keep notes from people who ask to do reviews etc and I consider this to be a very professional interaction so it all goes into rings. I struggle with ring sizes from the personal to the a6 to the a5. These are all things I like to change up. I tend to leave the A5 at home and the other sizes I will take with me and throw into my bag. It all depends on how much I am leaving the house and if I need anything for a business meeting.

Allowing myself to feel the freedom of different planners and travelers notebooks and exploring so many different methods keeps me interested in using a planner. It keeps me on my toes and keeps me excited to set up new planners and try new sizes. In my opinion if my planners did not change over the years I would have never grown as a person. I look at my planners as an addition to my life. It adds to my day and doesn’t take away. It keeps my brain sharp and allows me to not only make plans but pull together ideas for what I want out of my life. It’s really very exciting if you look at  it this way!! Do you love all your planners and switching in and out of them?

I recently was asked ‘what’s a great way to get kids into planning?’. I love this question because I had a chance to sit down and think about how I got started as a kid. I was about 8 years old and purchased a Chandlers   planner (sadly they no longer make planners). This was a fantastic planner that came out every new school season and the most difficult choice for me was color selection and my parents knowing my stationary addiction allowed me to always get two! With that said, it brings me to the point that support and sharing with your kids is so incredibly important. Now, my mom was never a scrapbooker and never used a planner or lists or anything. My Dad was more organized and loves pen to paper. He always carried a daily agenda and loved using yellow legal pads for list making. I was never restricted if I wanted to look at his lists or his daily agenda. I do remember that he carried that with him ALL the time. It always would sit on the dash of his car and on his desk. I remember he always referenced it for phone numbers and notes and anything else that ‘grown-ups’ need access to. So I highly highly encourage showing your kids your planners and sharing examples of things to put inside of your planner.

My daughter is 3 and she shows some interest in notebooks and journals but I don’t push it. I think that kids need to naturally stumble upon things and showing them by example I personally feel is the best way to get little ones interested.

The next best thing I can recommend is a space for kids to have all their own. Whether that’s a little table or a space in the kitchen, bedroom, family room, kids need to have their own place. For myself growing up my parents always had a desk for us. To this day I have always always had a desk! Each apartment that I have lived in and each house that I have shared with my husband I have a desk space. It is something that is essential to me. I have to have somewhere where I can sit down and write, draw and color. I have done this for as long as I could remember. I have a hard time writing while lying in bed or sitting on the couch. It happens but usually I like having my designated space, lighting a candle and becoming creative or planning my next day. 

I have a small desk that I purchased for my daughter and put it in the same room as my desk. Whenever I sit at my desk she will wonder on over to her creative space even though most of the time she wants to sit at my desk, it’s an option for her. The desk I purchased was $20 at Ikea and I placed some paints, scissors, markers, pencils and crayons. I tend to stock up on these items whenever it’s back to school shopping. All extra supplies I keep in a cabinet high up and replenish when needed.

I will often times sit with my daughter and show her the journals I have put together. She loves to look at the pictures and point out different family members. I love to remind her of the things we have done. I have not shared too much of my planners because I think it’s something that might come a little later. I  focus on more of the creative process with her right now.  Letting her play with finger paints and use all kinds of bright colors. Gluing down scraps of paper and cutting up magazines, it’s all lots of fun and I use inexpensive composition notebooks and write down dates so that it’s something my daughter can look back on.

When I was first using planners as a kid one of my favorite things to use inside were the pens! I loved using the bic pens with all the different colors. I loved using stickers and markers to decorate the pages and make them my own. I know that some of my girlfriends in school use to clip out magazine articles and glue them into their planner. We use to write notes to each other in our planner as well. Every Sunday night before school would start I had a dedicated pen color for each subject and I would for example, write Math and underline it. I wrote out all of my tests and quizzes to make sure I knew when I needed to study and I was never surprised and  never missed assignments. I use to love sitting at my desk and decorating my weeks. I clearly remember drawing christmas lights and using them as borders in my layouts. I remember purchasing lisa frank stickers and holiday stickers and posting them throughout my pages.

Getting your kids excited about their planners and having them pick out what THEY want. Do they want to color and fill it with stickers? Let them! It’s their own planner let them play and explore and see what works for them. I have my daughters calendar on our kitchen fridge with dates highlighted and share with my daughter important dates. When she comes home from preschool we go through her folder and look through everything she has done and we talk about her assignments and things that are coming up. I am not someone who is a type A personality but I do think it’s important to have some kind of plan. Having some kind of skeleton for what you want out of life is the way that I like to look at it. Things happen and life has it’s bumps but having an idea of what you want out of your day, for myself has helped me get things done and have a successful life.

These are some of my tips to help kids get excited about planning and getting organized. Share your calendar with your kids show them fun activities they can plan out and that way they have things to look forward to! Show them that writing down assignments and tests and quizzes helps them to be prepared ahead of time and nothing feels better than to get a good grade on an assignment! The reward of doing well in school will help them see how great it is to have a planner. Making it fun and something that is their own is usually a good recipe! Don’t push anything on kids just show them the options and allow them to grow into it! Do your kids use planners? Any tips that you recommend?

Journals have been my best friend since I was about 8 years old. I think I just learned early on in life that if I wrote down everything that I was thinking and going through it made it easier. I felt so much better when I was able to share my deepest feelings and get them out of my head and heart.  Why or how this started I couldn’t tell you but I just remember finding notebooks at any store that had carried them and loving to fill them up with Lisa Frank stickers and filling the pages with different colored pen inks.

As the years went on I never gave up on my best friend. I continued to fill up journals and the ones closest to me would even buy me journals. I still remember in high school when my boyfriend’s mom bought me this beautiful floral journal and it was just the perfect size and shape. I loved that journal. I haven’t always had this incredible bond with a journal right off the bat but after a few weeks in my journals they quickly become a part of me and we are usually inseparable. I have journals from vacations when I was a kid and also journals where I had really hard times in my life. I recently found a journal that shared the experience in detail that my family went through when my dad had a terrible accident.

This is a great way for me to seg way into what do I put into my journals…well here we go. When I was younger I would fill my journals with things about my days, the friends I played with, my days in the pool and little wish lists of toys that I really wanted. As I got older more troubling things came my way. In high school maintaining friends and a boyfriend was both exciting and scary. I filled journals about a best friend that I had and how upset she was once I got a boyfriend. She began spreading rumors about me and made me feel just horrible. At the same time I was excited in my relationship. My high school sweetheart and I were together for 5 years. That means that my journals quickly became filled with awkward experiences and things that he said that made my heart just flutter. Reading about those days now is just so sweet. There is nothing better than young love and that feeling that you could never live without that person. I had so many firsts with this person and I loved sharing all of it with my journals. As my high school days came to an end I remember journaling and dreaming about what college would be like. What would my roommate be like and living on my own in the dorms. Many of my journals at this time were filled with mixed emotions. Leaving behind high school friends but at the same time embarking on such an exciting journey. If I were to thumb through those journals right now I remember writing about each of my friends as they each left for school. I was one of the last ones and before each of us left we would all get together and just have a wonderful time together.

Once in college these were some of the most eye-opening and wonderful times of my life. This was truly the turning point for me when I was able to realize who I was as a person and learn what it was that I wanted. My freshman year was very significant. Many ups and downs with my roommate to the emotions that ran through me when I broke up with my high school sweetheart. As I go back on these pages I just cherish them so much more than I did at the time. I think this is where the reward comes in and why I continue to journal. It’s a treasure that you have forever of experiences that can easily be forgotten. If it wasn’t for my journals I would have forgotten so many little memories that I loved in my life. It helps me to really appreciate the life that I have and embrace the good with the bad. If I look back it’s easier to understand why something bad needs to happen in order for the rainbow at the end of the road to appear. Throughout the years I have documented holidays and who was there and what the feelings was to me. Again, this is so cherished because many of my family members have passed away and having these memories of them makes me so happy to look back on.

Towards the end of my college career I spent ALOT of time in my journal. I was using a Miquel Rius notebook and filled it completely front to back. That a good 600 pages. This was the most critical time for me during nursing school. I had dreadful thoughts of not becoming a nurse and I would spend nights filling my journal with prayers and wishes to have the strength to get through school. I also had moments where I could not believe that I was becoming a nurse. I would fill pages of what scenarios looked like once I was on the unit. How would I handle a code or even taking on my first patient load. Many many pages were dedicated and focused on nursing. After passing the boards and becoming  what my dream was my journals quickly became filled with the experiences that I began having. The first body that I had to send to the morgue, what that looked like and how I felt. Some of the codes that I was involved in, the different experiences I had with preceptors and peers on the unit. Interactions with physicians. Unique cases and terrible traumas that I took care of. These are some really precious and treasured journals because this was a time in my life that I really and truly felt like I found my purpose in life. This was my calling and to see it all evolve in my journals fills my heart with so much joy. Soon after the journals began to get filled with relationships. Being that I was now in my mid 20s the thoughts of marriage and children began to fill my thoughts. I wanted a family now that I had my career settled. Boy did I learn ALOT about myself in my journals going through these relationships. I shared within these journals emails and text messages and arguments along with wonderful vacations and places that I was able to travel to. These journals are the really thick journals from Barnes and Noble and I love looking through these journals. I also have a journal that I shared when my husband proposed to me and in that journal I even have little notes that my husband use to leave for me when we were dating and he would have to leave really early in the morning to drive back to work. At the time we only saw each other on the weekends so our time was so precious. I love being able to go back and look at these journals and be immersed in the feelings all over again. I took a journal with me on our honeymoon and share all of our days in Hawaii and places that we were able to see, becoming pregnant and having my first baby, I have documented all of this in journals.

I hope that you are able to see just how meaningful and amazing journals are. I cherish my journals and love looking at them on my shelves. I love running my hands through them and occasionally picking one out to look at. I know what time of my life each journal is from. I had developed such close relationships with each of them that it’s like reconnecting with an old friend every time I go back. Some journals stay closed because even though the journal was a good friend what’s inside is something that I don’t want to visit. It’s something that I am happy is over and stays in the journal.

I can’t even express how many tears and love have gone into these notebooks and how much a part of my life they are. I hope that I am able to inspire you to pick up a journal and start writing. Is something  weighing on your heart? are you excited about something or scared about doing something? Fill your pages with all of this and watch as your life story unfolds in these amazing books we call journals!