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Post by waffles on May 5, 2021 3:07:03 GMT
I’ve been a scrapbooker (and pea) for 20 years but I’ve been a planner for 40 years (Gosh, I’m old!)
Prior to the last few years, I’ve tried almost every one out there. I am a functional planner first and foremost. But I kept running out of room for all the sections I wanted. And then I fell into the disc world with Happy Planner and Tul discs. While I’d love to do weekly layouts for each section, the only one I usually get to is a weekly memory layout.
What is your planner story?
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Post by refugeepea on May 5, 2021 4:46:52 GMT
I'm inconsistent in planning! My teen years, I had a Franklin planner. With kids, I used the Mom's Busy Planner by Peter Pauper Press. I liked the separate columns for each member in the family. They changed the way it was made, then I think it was discontinued all together. Now, I use an 8.5x11 undated minimalist planner. There have been many years I don't use one too.
I definitely like having a weekly planner that is undated. I also like it to be very basic. I really don't want a section for goals, exercise, shopping, holidays, birthday lists...
I mainly got it because I thought it would be fun to embellish. My life is boring. I'll probably throw it away when it's full.
If I were to use one for it's actual function, I would go with a smaller size.
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Post by scrappyem on May 5, 2021 11:30:32 GMT
I use my iPad for my planner with the Noteshelf app and a undated planner from Holly Pixel. I am not great at keeping up with it every week but I'm always happier when I do it. Occasionally I'll add digital embellishments to make the pages prettier but it's very functional. Mostly my schedule for each day of the week with work stuff and then home stuff like working out or paying bills or whatever. I keep a running task list of other stuff that need to happen that week like grocery shopping. The nice thing about digital is you can add as many sections as you want and easily change things when a meeting reschedules. I really would love to figure out how to make it work better for me.
I love seeing other people's memory planners but I never got into it myself. I tried a few times but didn't have the time to do that plus PL.
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Post by riversong1963 on May 5, 2021 12:33:23 GMT
I have a basic planner (traveler's notebook size), and the extent of my decorating it is to add a sticker for birthdays or special occasions. It's mostly functional. My memory keeping is done in my scrapbooks and art journals.
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Post by hop2 on May 5, 2021 15:46:47 GMT
I can’t functionally plan my way out of a paper bag for more than 2 weeks. I can manage to keep an appointment book for work ( in fact can’t function without it ) but personal functional planning? I can’t seem to do it. We keep a family calendar on our phones but that’s about it.
Memory planning on the other hand I've done for 2 1/2 years without missing anything ( except this past week, I’m slightly behind ) I love it. It’s like a photo diary of the little things in my life and sometimes the milestones too.
I disc plan & print my own pages for both my appointment book & my memory planning. I’d gladly buy an appointment book if only someone would sell the format I need but no one does. Full work week M-F 8-5 on one page landscape. I NEED to see my workweek all at once on that one page so I can lay the book flat and see my week at a glance, then flip to next week when ready.
I print my own for memory planning because I’m a Monday starter and I like the ‘extra’ 8th column on the right page by my Saturday & Sunday, which no one does.
Like scrapping, planning is a huge range of stuff with almost no wrong way to do it!!
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jediannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,836
Jun 30, 2014 3:19:06 GMT
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Post by jediannie on May 5, 2021 16:33:29 GMT
I like the idea of memory planning but I'm just not sure if I need another thing to buy and try and keep up with. I used to have a Franklin planner way back in the mid-90's for work and then got a Palm Pilot and my life was changed forever. Now that we don't have a lot going on I've just been using the iCloud calendar to add family things and use Day One app to keep track of what happened that day. I like the idea of a bullet journal type of planner but haven't really delved into it yet.
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Post by don on May 5, 2021 18:06:25 GMT
I used to buy a new personal planner every year, I never made it to February. I always had a schedule book because of my business, and marked certain up-coming events such as when tabs were due on the vans, or taxes due. I now have a day planner for appointments, but no planning is involved. I just know I have coffee with the old guys on Wednesday morning. I have no need to plan, I have a wife.
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Post by waffles on May 5, 2021 18:20:56 GMT
I like the idea of memory planning but I'm just not sure if I need another thing to buy and try and keep up with. I used to have a Franklin planner way back in the mid-90's for work and then got a Palm Pilot and my life was changed forever. Now that we don't have a lot going on I've just been using the iCloud calendar to add family things and use Day One app to keep track of what happened that day. I like the idea of a bullet journal type of planner but haven't really delved into it yet. Oh yes, can’t leave out the palm pilot! Loved mine!
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jediannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,836
Jun 30, 2014 3:19:06 GMT
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Post by jediannie on May 5, 2021 18:34:59 GMT
Oh yes, can’t leave out the palm pilot! Loved mine! I honestly miss it so much. My husband laughs every time I say I miss my Palm Pilot but the layout and functionality was so good! I know the iPhone does all these things and more but I guess you'll never get over your first love.
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Post by simplyparticular on May 6, 2021 12:05:01 GMT
I've been a planner for many years - still have the ones I used in college and grad school, and have cycled through all the major time management brands in the 90s, 00s, including GTD. Went Palm OS in 2001 and LOVED the desktop app, and how the tasks and calendar showed together. Went iPhone for calendaring in 2010ish, but nothing has digitally handled task management as well as Palm.
Work I've got beat into submission - after several attempts at ring binders, and bound planners, I cobbled together a combo of disc bound note-taking and a ToDoist system to bring together all the tasks coming from Basecamp/Slack/Teams/email. I have to be disciplined, but I have no choice or it gets out of hand very quickly.
We keep the family calendar in iOS, and then plan out tasks/errands on a vertical hourly Happy Planner. I've got 3 out of 4 of us writing in it. The amount of stress that came off my plate when the whole family got I evolved was immense - there really is something to the idea of the planner in the family carrying a lot of mental load.
For my personal tasks and projects, I'm struggling. Especially with everything remote. I recently put a list of open projects in iOS Notes and I'm trying to be diligent about checking it, but something about digital just becomes invisible. But I like that it is searchable.
I do use Day One as a journal and am (slowly) moving notes I made in my various paper planners there so I can reference them for scrapbooking.
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Post by Citygirl on May 14, 2021 17:41:37 GMT
I didn't use a paper planner for a long time once I started using google calendar. Eventually I needed a better place for lists and goal setting so I tried the Get to Work Book & The Rainbow Planner. I loved them both but discovered I don't like spiral or big bulky planners. Someone in another planner thread here mentioned the Commit30 planner and that's what I've been using this year. I love it. This will probably be my go to planner now. The compact size is perfect. I love the flat lay with no spiral. I love the 30 day challenges at the beginning of each month.
I use some stickers but I don't do weekly layouts. I still use google calendar for weekly planning and work schedules....its just easy to share with my husband and is always accessible. I find that my paper planner is a good place for goals & for me to jot down milestones for my daughter or newsworthy stuff that I can refer back to when I'm making scrapbook layouts or filling in her baby book.
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Post by lilacgal on May 14, 2021 21:08:20 GMT
I’m a planner person. As a teacher, I use a planner of some sort every year. A few years ago I finally bought an Erin Condren Teacher Planner after drooling over it for a couple years. It was life changing. I kid you not - life changing. I actually enjoyed sitting down with my planner and doing my lesson plans! The bright colors and texture of the paper won me over. About five or so years ago, I decided to take the leap with an Erin Condren Life Planner. Game changer! I do like their current color scheme a,d have really found my flow with that planner. I usually fall off the planner wagon in the spring due to exhaustion from the musical. I do get back on though by mid May or so when things have calmed down and life is manageable again.
This year I have five planners in my stack. My ECTP for work and ECLP for my personal life. I’m trying out some Happy Planners. I have one as a content planner and another as a budget planner. Finally, I have my MakseLife Companion Notebooks. I love that I don’t have to buy their big planner to do the goal setting and planning in ML. I’m enjoying the variety and that each planner has a specific purpose. I already have my ECTP for next year and my 2022 ECLP should actually arrive tomorrow.
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Post by joblackford on May 15, 2021 2:40:11 GMT
I love my diaries and planners. They help me keep my distractible brain on track.
I have moved away from digital reminders for the most part because it was creating too many opportunities for distraction, picking up my phone all the time, although I set reminders and alarms for things I need to remember. I've tried lots of planners and formats. I currently use dot grid TN sized bullet journals (kept very simple and functional) + a really great tracking insert, which has worked well for the past couple of years. I'm tempted by the Hobonichi weeks even though there's nothing wrong with my current system except that it's a big too big for my purse.
I keep a daily diary in Day One, which I love because it's searchable. I don't add photos to my entries, but I have my Instagram posts pulled in, so in effect I have that as a journal too. I've been dictating and copying old letters and journal entries into Day One too so I don't have to keep all my old paper journals, many of which are not pretty and not easy to reread.
I kept a 5 year diary (although it took 6 years to fill). I love the idea of it, but struggle to enjoy using the same book for multiple years and a lot of them are really ugly. Also I'm wordy... I tried the Erin Condren planners and hated the format and the bulk. I stopped doing PL in 2016 and did daily planning and memory keeping in a Hobonichi Cousin for a couple of years with photos (printed on thin paper) added to most days. I couldn't keep up with that and they got so fat, so I switched to a Jibun Techo in 2018 which would've worked better if I had more appointments and fewer to do lists full of things I keep putting off until tomorrow.
I'm in the process of summarizing and shredding old planners and morning page notebooks full of complaints and nonsense - I don't have the space or energy to keep them all, I'm trying to be more selective about what I hang on to, so that's also influencing how I keep and use current planners - I don't need an entire archive of my to do lists to keep forever! But if I make them too pretty I find it hard to let them go. I like the idea of memory planning but it doesn't suit my current needs.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 26, 2024 6:59:23 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2021 3:42:09 GMT
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Post by simplyparticular on May 21, 2021 0:53:09 GMT
Wow, that Indeme is definitely "inspired" by the Inkwell Press horizontal planner, which has been around at least 5-6 years now. All they did was change hexagons to triangles. I keep a daily diary in Day One, which I love because it's searchable. I don't add photos to my entries, but I have my Instagram posts pulled in, so in effect I have that as a journal too. I've been dictating and copying old letters and journal entries into Day One too so I don't have to keep all my old paper journals, many of which are not pretty and not easy to reread. ... I'm in the process of summarizing and shredding old planners and morning page notebooks full of complaints and nonsense - I don't have the space or energy to keep them all, I'm trying to be more selective about what I hang on to, so that's also influencing how I keep and use current planners - I don't need an entire archive of my to do lists to keep forever! But if I make them too pretty I find it hard to let them go. I like the idea of memory planning but it doesn't suit my current needs. I'm also archiving past planners and journals into Day One. 1 year down, countless more to go but looking forward to making the piles go away. I didn't get into pretty planning much - I blew my budget on fancy leather covers instead. I've got a few favorites I haven't purged even though I'm not using ring planners anymore.
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Post by steakgoddess on May 21, 2021 7:06:00 GMT
I only use a monthly calendar spread to plan out YouTube videos.
I have a few Tul books for work. They aren’t beautiful or fun though. Except when I use washi.
I think because I have so many for work, I don’t enjoy a planner in my regular life. I used to keep one back in the day.
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Post by austnscrapaddict on May 21, 2021 15:32:00 GMT
I'm a planner and am trying to work out a routine to have my planner become my memory keeping avenue. I've run out of space for 12X12 scrapbooks and realize it's more about the creating process rather than looking back at them. But I can't seem to find my avenue for combining both into one hobby.
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Post by scrappydo on May 22, 2021 8:35:16 GMT
Paper and pen has always resulted in me remembering things more easily.... the ToDo apps on the phone / laptop.... easy to add to but don't really get me doing the things!
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Post by joblackford on May 23, 2021 2:28:29 GMT
Paper and pen has always resulted in me remembering things more easily.... the ToDo apps on the phone / laptop.... easy to add to but don't really get me doing the things! Agreed! My phone lists only work if I add really annoying reminder alarms, and then I'm constantly picking up my phone and getting annoyed or distracted (or both if I'm trying to get more important work done).
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Post by nana2callie on Jun 4, 2021 18:10:15 GMT
I want to be a planner, but really struggle with being consistent. I'm interested more in the functional side than the art.
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Post by rymeswithpurple on Jun 5, 2021 1:12:21 GMT
This year and last year, I used an Erin Condren hourly planner. My bosses love their electronic calendar, but I'm a paper planner girl for sure. I use it for work and home (it's just me and my husband, so I keep track of all of my meetings and due dates for work, but also our appointments, when our bills are due, etc.).
However, I'm quickly realizing that I need a daily planner, so I'm probably going to go with the Plum Paper 12-month daily for next year.
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msliz
Drama Llama
The Procrastinator
Posts: 6,419
Jun 26, 2014 21:32:34 GMT
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Post by msliz on Jun 5, 2021 11:37:16 GMT
I have a basic planner (traveler's notebook size), and the extent of my decorating it is to add a sticker for birthdays or special occasions. It's mostly functional. My memory keeping is done in my scrapbooks and art journals. This is me too. Decorated planners look like so much fun, and I even joined a handful of planner groups on facebook, but when I tried actually doing it, it stressed me out, LOL. I suck using it for journal entries too. There's no way I'd be successful sticking photos in it, and I use my scrapbooks for that anyway. I'll stick to using it for appointment reminders and the like.
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amom23
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,328
Jun 27, 2014 12:39:18 GMT
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Post by amom23 on Jun 5, 2021 12:56:26 GMT
While I've tried a few others, I'm an Erin Condren fan. I don't do a lot of extra decorating though beyond some stickers.
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Post by songbird on Jun 9, 2021 13:09:02 GMT
I’m using a Happy Planner this year for the first time, and I like it. I’ve tried and used various ones over the years. Now I have a bunch that I should probably sell off (kikki.k mostly).
I don’t use my planners for memory keeping though.
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Post by kiwikate on Jul 15, 2021 9:59:18 GMT
Just resurrecting this thread as I am feeling like a planner failure. I love Filofax and Kikki K and Cocoa Daisy and all the pretty things, but in reality I crash and burn even if I have spent hours setting it up. I am now trying a combination of notebooks, but still feel like I have missed out on something.....
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 26, 2024 6:59:23 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2021 14:13:26 GMT
I have had a planner since ds was 2 and I was thrown into medical mom life. He would have 4 or more appointments a week on top of in home therapy and private therapy. It was a lot. So 13 years.
I decorate a little here and there for fun but don't go all crazy like the E.C gals. I enjoy watching Sam but could never do that to my planner. Time wasting to me 🤷♀️ And not as functional.
I used to use MAMBI but switched to one I found on Amazon that was basic and solid bound. I felt the MAMBI planners were getting cheaper (material wise) but more pricey to buy. Pages were coming off the rings and the paper was thinner. I also couldn't find a layout design I liked or cover.
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Post by sleepingbooty on Jul 29, 2021 20:04:42 GMT
I felt the MAMBI planners were getting cheaper (material wise) but more pricey to buy. Pages were coming off the rings and the paper was thinner. I also couldn't find a layout design I liked or cover. I've had Happy Planners for a few years now and I don't find the quality has gone down. I'm sorry to hear you've had such a poor experience with them. My main issue with them is that the laminated corners take these little bends around the corners for almost no reason, even when I'm super careful with them. Otherwise, I still love the paper quality of the pages and they definitely don't pop off mine, including my most recent one for 2021. Has anyone seen somebody use disc planners as a substitue for Project Life without the actual planner pages?
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Post by sleepingbooty on Jul 30, 2021 14:03:06 GMT
My WRMK Crop-a-Dile disc power punch has just been delivered and... where has this thing been all along my Happy Planner journey? It's a wonderful tool! I can punch my own thick chipboard covers and whatnot. Send help before I disc punch everything in my home.
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Post by tealpaperowl on Jul 30, 2021 17:17:45 GMT
I'm not consistent but I love a very decorated planner. I had an Erin Condren but her prices are crazy so I get the knock off version from Michaels each year now. I do decorate it heavily with weekly stickers and boxes
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Post by Linda on Jul 31, 2021 4:04:04 GMT
I'm not a paper planner - I've tried, I've tried so many version over the years from knock-off Franklin Covey to print your own to spiral bound to bullet journals...by the time memory journalling seemed to be all the rage I had accepted that paper planning wasn't for me.
For several years, I used Habitica.com (and I still do - mostly to keep track of some longterm projects with multiple steps) but my primary one now is Friday.com coupled with google calender (which is syned to my iphone calender) and Todist.com - it's geared at office workers I think but I find it useful as a homemaker.
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