I never used to be much of a planner. I either had a j.o.b. or I was a stay at home mom, and my brain was capable of holding whatever was required within it without needing elaborate planning systems. These days, however, I *need* to plan or my life gets away from me, and no one likes a runaway life.
I’m not into pretty planning. I get the appeal, and you won’t believe how much money I spent on planning supplies when pretty planning was trending, but it just didn’t work for me. I don’t have the time to add that to my already full roster of things to do, so I do planning in a fairly utilitarian way with *maybe* a touch of washi tape, and some color coding.
I love making lists of the things I have to do and then crossing things off as I complete them. I get an almost perverse sense of satisfaction from doing this, and nothing gives me a rush quite like a completely crossed off to do list.
Of course, I rarely have a completely crossed off to do list because I tend to pack a lot on my lists. I don’t stress about incompletes – i just move them to the next days lists, and I have a good sense of priorities, so I tend to tackle the most important things first in any given day.
I love lists so much I make multiples. Every Sunday evening, I sit down and make a ‘week list’ of everything i want to accomplish over the course of the week. I transfer that list into my ‘weekly planner’, which is a page I glue into my Sweet Trash Journal. Then, day by day, I make the ‘day list’ from the master ‘week list’, tweaking and adjusting as the week progresses. If I get even a few things on the list done, I get a happy. It’s worth celebrating. If I run out of time to do something on the list, oh well. I just move it to the next days list.
Some items get moved often. Dishes, for example, or laundry, because ain’t nobody got time for that. Self-care goes *first*. Journal. Eat. Spiritual work. I admit to occasionally skipping those in favour of diving straight into work, but when I do that, I end up feeling like crap, so I try to avoid it. Serving from an empty well is a bad idea, and my work requires a nice, juicy FULL well to serve from, so yes. Journal. Eat. Spiritual work. That soak in the tub where I do my best thinking. Those plans with friends (or lovers) that feed my soul. That gorgeous meal I plan to cook tonight. All priorities. Then, the work stuff, which feeds my face & pays my rent & gives my life a sense of meaning.
When things are really crazy, I use a weekly planner page from a Moleskine extra large planner glued into my Sweet Trash Journal to record important time-sensitive items, PLUS I use a Moleskine Large weekly planner and a Moleskine Large Daily planner as well. Yes, that’s three planners. It works, though, and it keeps me fairly well on track.
Here! I have a video for you! Here’s how Effy Plans!
Not everyone is going to need quite so extensive a planning system, but I tend to have a LOT of what I like to call ‘ducks to wrangle’ as in ‘ducks in a row’. My ducks tend to wander all over the place if I don’t wrangle them, so this is how I do it.
xo
Effy
P.S. The video above is available as a larger workshop in which I present my Sweet Trash Journal practice. That’s available for free, here.
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Just finished watching your planning video and I’m already tired! LOL It was interesting and fun to watch though. You are such a busy woman and very creative. I enjoyed the music in the background too. It was not overpowering but light and fun. Do you have a YouTube channel? Thanks for sharing.
The music in the background was just stuff I was listening to while doing a live stream. :) It was on Spotify. I’m glad you liked it. xo
Found your YouTube channel <3
I have tons of unused planners in my drawers. I buy two or three every year and never use them. I guess I`m not the lists and planner type :-)
Thank you Effy for sharing how you get your ‘ducks in a row’ system. Being newly ‘retire’, I’m looking for a system that will ensure that I don’t waste away my days. Definitely a planning system is it. I really like your sweet trash journal idea! I think I might go that route myself. Can you tell me where you get your notebooks? I’m in Canada too.
I get mine at Staples. They’re the Staples eco brand.
Thank you Effy!
OHMYGOD!!! First of all I don’t BEGIN to know how to thank you for this, and I wanted to tell you that I have been planning a blog post — which I NOW don’t have to write, I will simply refer them to this one of YOURS!!! — about how I’ve spent SO much money (for me) on fancy planning systems AND NEVER USE THEM. I always default to the Moleskine Page a Day journal which I love BUT I EVEN POOP OUT ON THAT! I taught journal classes for 40 years and never figured out a way to really put the planners IN the journals EVEN THOUGH I had my students put everything under the SUN in them. YOU HAVE THE ANSWER and I know I am going to watch this video several times. Oh HONEY you have saved me because as you know I bought this giant journal which I am now using and a dear friend bought me one of the “Great Big Giant Notebooks” with 800!!!! pages so I will be in each one of them for awhille so I want to put my Daily Planning Pages IN my journal as you have showed me how to do. I have 2 questions if you don’t mind? FIRST of all where do you get the EX-LG weekly Moleskine planners? And next, I got how and why you use them in your sweet trash journal, and I understand why you would also want the Page-a-Day Moleskine journal, I just couldn’t figure out why you also used another smaller weekly journal? I feel like maybe I missed something but what you did in your STJ was so fabulous I couldn’t figure out why you’d need another weekly planner? Okay, so sorry to have GONE ON so! I am now off to watch today’s BHD — I can’t wait — but I can’t wait to hear your answers to these 2 questions if you have the time…. :) <3
The weekly in my STJ is a life documentation thing. The one in my Jonelifish is much more utilitarian. It’s also *portable* and goes with me in my purse whenever i leave the house, so I can leave my very private STJ at home, but still have a glimpse at what I’m doing that week.
I get my planners from Book Depository because free shipping. If they don’t have them, I order from Amazon.
http://bookdepository.com
http://amazon.com
Yay! xo
Plannerphile here! Present and accounted for… LOL I love the pretty planner pages, have spent a gazillion dollars on all the little fu-fu things to put in them and never hardly do all that!! Started in a cheapo planner from Staples, moved to TNs when they were the hot topic, and then from there to Hobonichi. I. Love. My. Hobo!!! LOL I tried using the Hobonichi Cousin as a “one book”, but I work outside of the house and having work things and personal things in one book creeped me out. So now I use three… Thanks for sharing your method!
I don’t do pretty planning either. I am happy with my bullet journal in a composition notebook. I have a pretty quiet life. I am a fifteen year cancer survivor and significantly disabled. I only get out of my apartment for doctor’s appointments so I have no social life. I use my journal to keep track of what I am working on and what I have completed. This is important for me to keep moving forward. BC my schedule would have looked like yours. AC is a whole different way of living. Bullet journaling is a great task master. thanks as always for sharing.