Mr. and Mrs. Planner

I was having a discussion with some folks from Philofaxy (the best blog ever, so if you haven't visited, you should) when the topic of how to use your Filofax came up. 

I have a theory.  Your relationship with your planner is like a marriage.  It can last a lifetime (or until the rings break, at least) or it can fall apart rather quickly.

Planners have personalities. 

If your personality does not match your planner, things will never work out.  I like pretty colors, but my planner needs to sort of go with everything.  It doesn't have to match, but in true What Not to Wear style, it needs to coordinate.  It can't be too boring.

Right now, I have a black planner. Not my first color choice, but it has little time swirls all over the cover, giving it texture.  I can't stand a boring black planner, so this works for now.  I really tend to gravitate towards blue planners.  And while many people love leather, I prefer a nonleather planner.  But that means my planners don't last long enough, especially as the only nonleather planners that I find tend to be vinyl. 

How a planner feels also matters.  There needs to be a spark when you hold it.  You should like to touch it.  (Pro tip: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES STROKE YOUR PLANNER WHILE IN PUBLIC.  I am a criminal defense attorney and I've seen people committed for far less!)


Planners need time together with you. 

Your planner needs to be portable enough to fit your life.  And you have to fit your life to your planner.

I use a Franklin Covey compact size.  (It is roughly equivalent to a Filofax personal size, but a bit wider.)  An A5/classic size is too big for me but anything smaller is too small.

Keeping your planner with you is hard work, just like a marriage is hard work.  I choose bags that fit my planner.  My backpack, purse, and messenger bag all have a designated spot for my planner.  At home, I have two places where I am willing to put my planner down - and that's it.  If you like your planner open in front of you all the time, consider getting a recipe stand (like chefs use in kitchens).  The stand will hold your planner open on the counter.

Planners need to communicate with you.

My planner has monthly and weekly pages.  That's enough communication for me.  Daily pages feel like I am being nagged!  And naggy marriages just don't work.

Planners have to be nurtured. 

Write everything down.  Use your planner everyday, in every context, for everything.  Don''t assume you will remember something if you don't write it down.  You won't.

We don't remember any of the things that we have forgotten!

Happy honeymooning.

Etcetera.

The Proper Order of Things in a Paper Planner

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Even though I keep staring at it intently and exclaiming, "Plannerist Upgrado!" while flashing my green quick-dry Pilot G2 Gel Ink Pen (because I'm a leftie, so quick dry ink is important) in the direction of my planner, my FranklinCovey Compact 365 Planner has not magically turned into a soft, buttery leather Filofax.

All those hours of yearning over the Filofax USA site are for naught, as I cannot afford to buy a Filofax without first putting it in my hands and feeling it.  My OCD won't let me. Hanging out with the Philofaxy people online is not helping matters. Visiting the only store in town that sells them and discovering only one ugly, shiny red plastic planner certainly was not satisfying.

In my dreams, the buttery leather planner, in the perfect color (whatever that is...whole 'nother post), fits everything I put in my cheap little planner now. My pesky big brain keeps pointing out that I like Franklin Covey layouts and their paper usually too wide for my dream Filos. Sigh. When I win the lotto, I am flying to a shop that sells nothing but paper planners and hand picking the right one.

In the meantime, reality happens. So I have to make the planner that I already own work. 

I think I am succeeding, too, as I have used the same planner since...wait for it...April 1st. That is a month and a half! (Shush. You know planner fail usually happens at the end of the first month of use.)

Without further lusting over what can never be, here are my tweaks:

Notepaper is the first thing in the planner.  

I actually don't like this particular style of notepaper, so I am considering making my own or splurging on some creamy Filofax paper paper next time, but it does its job. In a rush, I can open straight to notepaper. In this case, it holds my packing list for an upcoming weekend trip. (Note the clever use of "top under" and "bottom under." No one will ever guess that those secret phrases refer to my underthings. Stealth and intrigue, I tell you.)

Tasks go in the front, too.  

I actually rarely use my master task list, but it's a great catch-all for unimportant or "maybe" tasks. I rarely look at it, since more important tasks are assigned to a monthly or weekly task list or written on a certain day. Right now, all it says is "edit novel." Note that no editing has been done on novel since I wrote the romantic story of small town love last November.

P is for Personal. And Projects. I really should customize this tab to say "Projects."  

Projects go right after the master task list. 

Projects are listed on an index and then noted, on the corresponding date that the first task in the project must be done, on the weekly part of my planner.

The reason that all of this goes in the front of the planner is two-fold. First, these are things that I refer to a lot. Second, putting some of this stuff in the front and some in the back means that whatever date it is, January 1st or July 5th or December 10th, there is plenty of cushion on both sides of my weekly lists so that the paper that I write on most, the weekly pages, is sturdy and protected.

I use clear page markers. Before, I didn't mark monthly pages with a Today marker. But I found that I often forget which month it actually is. (See above, putting underthings on packing list.  Also see, having babies made me dumb.)  

Putting a clear marker to mark the monthly pages means I always know when and where I need to be. 

(If the marker is not transparent, you can't see everything. I hate that.  Why have two pages if I can't look at them all at once?)

I really love using a huge, transparent page divider (the same one I use as a hole-punch template) to divide my weekly pages.

Why this and not a normal today marker? I don't use daily pages. So if a day gets really crazy, I can whip out a sticky note, put it on the divider, and add extra stuff. This doesn't happen often, but on the first day of school, when I need to remember backpacks, water bottles, school supplies, carpool rules and times and id numbers, the new schedule, etc., that sticky note is a life saver.  

Finally, the Notes section cushions the back of the planner.  

I use an index page and the A/B, G/H, M/N, and S/T dividers to keep track of on-the-go information, like names and numbers of babysitters, a list of the medications that I take daily, and ideas for my next novel (after I edit this one...sigh).

All I did, really, was change the order of things, but I think this will get me through the hard times, at least until I win that lottery.

Etcetera.

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Partied at: Simple Sundays