Trust Your Planner with Your Vacation Planning | Giftie Etcetera: Trust Your Planner with Your Vacation Planning

Friday, July 1, 2016

Trust Your Planner with Your Vacation Planning

Do you bring your planner on your summer vacations? Is it too much to pack? Does it stay at home? You think you don't need a plan because it's vacation?

Big mistake!



planning, planner, vacation plans, vacation planner



This week, I spent hours trying to recreate my planner in a smaller vacation planner. My bright idea was to use a book of large sticky notes with tabs, so that I could spread out the notes for written planning but carry them together in a small notebook on a road trip or summer cruise.

Bad, horrible, no good idea!

Why didn't I trust my planner?


I've been using my planner in a consistent way for a long time. My blog (go ahead and explore) shows so many details about how I plan.

And since I use a fairly small planner and a flexible but needs-based planning style, I can carry my plans anywhere while planning for all aspects of vacation planning.


The small notebook was just a complete mess. I couldn't keep track of my thoughts.

So I scratched the temporary planner idea and reverted to what I normally do.


I used my planner exactly like I always have used it.


Need a shopping list before the trip?

Put it in the shopping list section. (For me, that's part of my dashboard.)

Need to know what to pack for the day trip to the beach during the vacation?

Put it on that day's prep list. (In the photo, the upper left hand corner of the right page.)

Need to make a packing list?

That goes in your Projects section.

Scheduling?

On your monthly calendar for travel dates and important times, like your flight time. On your daily plan for your less critical times - and the times on your monthly - like the time of your dinner reservation or Fast Pass. (In the photo, the upper right hand corner of the left page.)


After all, vacation plans are not really different than planning for the work week or the first week of school.


Confused about where I am putting stuff and why?

Read the two previous posts about the daily plan and about lists!

Finally, get a bigger bag to carry your planner on vacation. It's totally worth it!


Etcetera.


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3 comments:

Anna said...

I have a need to constantly trouble shoot and improve, and I think it's something like that for you. You wanted to see if there was a better way to do it. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn't. I've had similar feelings about my planner, but even if I'm not using it much on vacation, there's likely to be something I need that I didn't anticipate ahead of time. Good to have it all in one place!

Mrs. DiBacco said...

Thank you for posting this!! I'm learning that I have to do plan the way I think...I used to beat myself up because I wanted to pretty plan but I couldn't see through the pretty. I thought there was something wrong with me. I realize now that there isn't. My compromise is to use the Franklin Planner Blooms pages which meet my need for pretty and it's the tried and true layout that my brain requires. I love all of your tips and tricks!!

Jaime Barfield said...

I always take my planner on vacation because I usually schedule and pay for some things ahead of time (like tours, etc) and I want to have my planner with me so that I will have my confirmation and the schedule written down.