How Many Planners Should You Have?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- How many planners is too many? How many planners should you have? Today I'm giving my hot take on using multiple planners and when it goes overboard.
• VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Check your voter registration status, find volunteer opportunities and more! votesaveameric...
Postcards To Voters - postcardstovot...
• PROJECT PLANNING FOR PROCRASTINATORS -
Get two months of Skillshare Premium for free with this link (affiliate link) - www.skillshare...
• ORDER MY BOOK! amzn.to/2XIuqgg (affiliate link)
• CHECK OUT MY ART PRINTS! www.etsy.com/s...
• DISCLAIMER
Colorful words may be used. don't be alarmed.
• FIND ME ON ALL THE THINGS
Patreon - / cindyguentertbaldo
Instagram - / llamaletters
Discord - / discord
Facebook Group - / llamaslovelettering
Pinterest - / llamaletters
Website - www.cindyguentertbaldo.com
The Uncurated Life Podcast (iTunes) - apple.co/2qT9q4G
The Uncurated Life Podcast (Google Play) - bit.ly/2r0t9Qb
• OTHER INTERESTING THINGS
2021 Powersheets Review - • My 2021 Powersheets Re...
2021 Powersheets Accessories Review - • My 2021 Powersheets Re...
Postcards To Voters - postcardstovot...
• HAPPY MAIL
Cindy Guentert-Baldo
4225 Solano Ave. #601
Napa, CA 94558
Inquiries - cindy@cindyguentertbaldo.com
• DISCLOSURE
This video is not sponsored.
#multipleplanners #vlogtober #vlogtober2020
![จบจนได้ ! | Black Myth: Wukong #007 [ตอนจบ?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DSqvWndF0sw/mqdefault.jpg)
When your planners cross over from bringing you joy to causing you anxiety...then, you have too many.
I always think it's sad when people post about not being able to get into using their planner and not feeling any love for it. It's time to move on then! :/
Thats where I was a few months ago. I put everything aside besides my passion planner and my journal. It was just overwhelming for me. I felt as if I didnt accomplish anything
Bingo!
i got fb yelled at when I suggested that planner peace absolutely existed and that the problem really was FOMO and a shopping addiction. I see some peoples hauls each month and it is hundreds of dollars and I think to myself there is no way they are using all that.
I totally agree! I make all my planner pages so they are custom to me and cost pennies. I don't buy stickers because there are other things I'd rather spend my money on. I also paper craft which is very commercialized right now. I get a kick out of working with what I have to create the "new trends" and when I buy it's usually clearance stuff. I'm just as happy as everyone else but I have more money in my pockets. :)
Yep! Always seen it as a major FOMO + shopping addiction. Plus a need to control the things in their lives and they think multiple planners will address the problems in their lives.
I agree and have been caught up in Fomo. I had someone on ig tell me I was being negative because I said I started unsubscribe to planner emails. I by no means have the amount of stuff as some but I knew I was moving towards excess.
My husband was washing dishes while I was cooking and listening to this and he said “did she just curse or am I half in the bag? It doesn’t matter, either way I like her.” 🤣
Cindy’s “Ted Talk “ on planners is making me want to reevaluating my planner and bulletin journal life.
This. 100%.
I've been trying to reevaluate my planner/journal situation, especially as it took so long for me to figure out what I'm needing. The issue for me is that, while I love the modularity of the disc system (I use HP), I hate that the sections (weeks or months) don't have blank pages in between to make frankenplanning easier. Because of that, I keep my planners separate (main, work habit, budget, health journal, emotional journal), otherwise I would be down to two planners.
I think the temptation towards more planners is usually indicative of feeling out of control in some way and hoping that if you have a planner for that out-of-control thing, then you’ll be able to control it. At least, for me that’s always been the case. It’s never actually compartmentalizing, even if thats what I try to tell myself. It’s always trying to regain control that I feel I’ve lost.
Yes feeling out of control. I think that's why I've been having so much anxiety about planning and goal-setting for 2021. The perfect planner can't stop bad things from happening and I just have to accept that there may be things that I cannot control that will change the course of my year
Agreed and well said
Wow that’s a great way to describe it!
Yesssss.
My mom always said buying multiple calendars/planners was a symptom of trying to "buy more time". Like if I finally find the perfect system, I magically won't be overwhelmingly busy.
"Planner stacks" have always been a head-scratcher for me, but only because of how I use (depend) on my one planner to keep me straight. Thanks to chronic illness, brain fog, and a super stressful job, I use my planner as a touch stone whenever I have a "what am I doing?" moment. I keep all my work and personal details in there, and I washi and sticker and highlight the fuck out of it when I want to (or not when I don't). I don't get locked in to a design or an aesthetic, and I tweak my system when I need to. Having said that, I do have four journals that I'm actively using for different purposes - health, reading, art, and general. I have to watch how I spend money after watching hauls, unboxings, or reviews on TH-cam. I love to buy journals and notebooks and office/stationary supplies, and I probably have enough to last me years. I know that when I'm stressed, a little mindless online shopping is just the thing to numb me out...and cause much more stress and shame later. As for the "how many is too many" question, I like your response - If your planner stack causes you anxiety and shame and financial strain, you have too many.
I use two. Work and home. The purpose of this separation is two-fold: I prefer the boundary between the two to be set (I also have a 9-5 job m-f outside of the home, which makes it easier to have this boundary) but also because my work planner contains protected health information about my clients and I don’t share its contents with anyone, let alone the internet but still would like a planner where I engage in the hobby/sharing aspect more freely. So one stays at work and is stored following the triple lock rule, and the other comes everywhere with me, is more decorative, and what I use both as a creative outlet and as a tool to schedule my personal life and organize projects unrelated to work. Now, I *own* more planners than that, but those are the two that get used.
Ava Martinez When I work(ed), I kept two planners also. One for work one for life outside of work. Only time anything work related was entered in the outside one was if there was an early morning or late afternoon meeting or if I had to work on a weekend. Then it just said "work". I found I needed a separation between home & work to keep work from overwhelming home.
Now that I'm mostly retired, I want something for planning, finance, meal planning, journaling and just keeping it all together all in one book or binder.
Thank you for sharing that because it helped answer my question of how to maintain two planners (I also have a job with PHI that I want to keep separate from my personal planner.
I don't even have confidential work stuff and I just don't want it bleeding into the rest of my life. Very happy to keep work and home separate.
I need the balance that having a separate work planner provides me. I don’t want work tasks staring back at me in my personal planner when I’m off the clock. And because I work for a company where I frequently work with sensitive/confidential information and projects, I don’t want to carry that info around with me in my non work time and risk losing it.
If you have a planner to plan your planners, then it's too many, I guess
I actually saw someone a while back post a spread on FB where she was planning out her 10+ planners and how she was going to use them. I was overwhelmed just reading it all. 🤣 But she said it worked for her so more power to her.
🙃
As I’m on the cusp of buying my third planner for no apparent reason this video is perfect for me. Thanks for saving me money!
I had four. FOUR. Then wondered why my head was all over the place. I now use 2. One as a formal journal, the other for day-to-day notes.
In the past, I've envied people in the US who have that many planner systems at their disposal. Today, with all the problematic stuff coming up and the crises we're living through, I'm happy I've never invested in one. I know all the Japanese stuff I get every year isn't cheap either but it's what makes me happy and I enjoy using these books a lot.
As you say in the video though, I would consider only one of them an actual planner, everything else is journal, memory-keeping, scrapbooking, you name it.
Thanks for the great video as always Cindy, and for reminding us that consumerism is not the point of planning. 😆
I use just 2 planners. One is for work and one is for my home schedule. Now I do have a journal but I don’t call it a planner.
Legit just clicked off another creator who was spouting that we need 5 planners. I rolled my eyes when she got to #4, and LOLd that this was my next recommended video.
That kind of video is great if it's "I need 5 planners", not telling other people what they need.
I think I know who this was. Doesn’t she sell planner inserts so she has a monetary interest? ;)
I’m wondering if I watched the same one as you. My brain couldn’t handle the level of “accessories” for each planner. If folks can handle that, fantastic! I’m learning that doesn’t work for me, and that’s fine.
I have seen the same video too of the 5 planner that is needed. I don't need 5 planner. I have one planner which is the Fitness Planner in which I need to concentrate to loose weight. I have the faith stickers in which I will add to my Fitness Planner to keep me motivated. I don't need a Faith Planner. The stickers are expensive.
Funny! I was recommended Cindy’s video and that one at the same time. The other video was 1 hour long so I noped that real quick! I know 5 planners aren’t for me so it wasn’t a good use my my time anyway.
I feel like this is every planner’s least favorite question. Lol. Always appreciate your honesty.
I love this video so much! I keep finding myself looking for new planners every time I have something new pop up in my life (which has been VERY often this year) and my sister pointed out that every time I get stressed I try to convince myself I need another planner and I REALLY don't. They just make me feel safe and in control and those feelings have been hard to come by lately.
I can totally relate to this, I think that's why I've had so much anxiety about finding the perfect planner for 2021.
Relate! I've found that if I allow myself to "window shop" without spending money, it still works to calm myself down. I've watched jibun techo videos for the longest time now, and it calms me down, but I am never buying it as I find my current planner to be perfectly fine.
@@annemontgomery3890 I looked jibun techo stuff too!! There's something about really solidly laid out hourlies that really gets me
I really had to drop HP over FOMO, I didn’t use any of it. That’s not my style. I know I’m a pen and highlighter (colors) person
Already purchased my 2021 HP, but after this I'm done w/HP There are so many other planners out there that offer journaling questions, goal-setting prompts, stickers, extra pages to write in,etc. Tired of spending money on HP accessories that are basics already included in other planners
SavedByMySins Same here!
See, HP is perfect for me as I can customize it. I do have a tendency to overspend. But, I'm getting better about that. Other planner either don't have allthe sections i need, or have sections I don't need. Almost zero wasted space (for me) with happy planner. I need daily sheets...but not every day etc. And I can recycle the used pages and repurpose the covers and dividers, and discs into notebooks. I do have to talk myself out of buying happynotes when I'm at michaels. Guided journals aren't a great fit for me. I miss buying journals, but this works much better for me.
@@beckiehubley5798 I decided I needed to start journaling this year when I started to emotionally spin out, and I *thought* the guided journals were a great idea. Turns out, I much rather prefer just having a set space to write, so my white out and stickers have been getting a LOT of use while I use up these pages.
After decades of using just one planner, I joined the planner community in 2016. 🤦🏽♀️ Through the sensory overload that is FB planner groups, YT, and IG, I convinced myself that I needed multiple planners to manage my life like the cool kids. I was up to 6 at one point. I started to dread planning each week. 😬 Thats when I knew that having so many planners wasn’t for me. I’m now down to 2 planners -work and personal/home. My job is such that it warrants its own space rather than cluttering up my personal planner. This system makes me happy and keeps me organized/productive.
I fell down the planner rabbit hole in 2017 and I’m still there but trying to climb out!
I think it really depends on how each person's brain works and their life situation. For me, I keep my work life and home life completely separate, so I can handle 2 planners. I often cross reference items in both planners, like vacation days and overtime days, because it means one part of my life is affecting the other.
I do find that I tend to use planning to procrastinate, so I have to stop myself from buying too many planners in order to avoid actually doing the plans I make. LOL.
Teachers are advised not to use their teacher planner as their personal planners because they are considered public record if it has any student information in them
B Boo exactly! As a teacher I always have a separate work planner so when I count my planners, I really don’t even count that one😉
For me, at first, it was finding a planner that worked for me.... when you showed off the budget mom planner earlier this year, I decided there was finally a planner that had everything I would need. I could plan finances and everything in one planner.... since then, I’ve bought a bullet journal but I think it’s the creative aspect that draws me in.... being able to change how it looks from day to day or week to week is interesting to me. But I keep looking at other planners online and trying to justify spending the money for them when really, I don’t need them. I have what I need.... but I always worry it’s not enough. Like for some reason, I’ll be more organized if I have more when in reality it’s exact opposite because of having to write the same things over and over again
I love your video's of just sitting on your bed and talking. It's like we are hanging out and having coffee as we talk about what ever is going on. (I'm watching this Sunday morning, doing my planner and having coffee).
I use one EC planner, (I bought the planner before the issues started with EC, but could not see "not using it" and wasting the unused parts, they are too damn expensive). It holds my work, the "honey do list" from my husband, my mood tracker, and an area for journaling. I tried doing multiple "planners" at one time and found myself not having the right planner with me when I wanted to quick write something down. This sent my anxiety through the roof because I would put the note on a sticky sheet and worry that I would lose it before I could write it down in the right planner.
Thank you for being so down to earth and always, "Keeping it real"
Kindness is never cheesy and neither is voting. Make sure you vote.
Preach, girl!
"Not planning a f-ing gala" is so right.
It was ME who asked last week on the livestream! I solicited that opinion! And I'm so grateful for, and happy with, your take.
In my youth, I used the free calendars the Hallmark stores gave out if you bought some cards (yes, kids, they used to give away these free tiny things with the months on them, fit in a bag easily). So my first planner was a Franklin planner (pre-Covey), sponsored by my job, and before there was internet or outlook, and just when electronic word processing was becoming a thing. I was a receptionist, and mostly tasks, no projects.
And Franklin was crazy about teaching THERE SHALL BE ONLY ONE and you don't need sticky notes and you can put everything in it. I've realized this concept was created and practiced by businessmen who were not tracking kids' soccer games or meal-planning or stuff like that. I *loved* my Franklin, and went all in. And I was able to do work and personal, but it was a little odd because I didn't want my personal business on the desk for anyone to see.
Then I got chronic pain, and eventually realized I couldn't carry the franklin everywhere. This past year I started a bullet journal and I've decided I love it. Then lockdown happened. I wasn't adjusting to working at home well, and having a hard time tracking my million details. I got an on-sale HP and it's doing me pretty well for work-at-home. I really do not want to mix work and the rest of my life.
And some bit of FOMO and consumerism and definitely ADHD is working here. I'm very attracted to the Live Rich planner you use, Cindy. But I don't think can be functional if I have three places to look at stuff - so I'm just going to keep tweaking how to get all that I need into the bujo.
Lots of things to think about, Cindy. I'm pretty squarely in the "only one planner" camp but when it comes to "how many notebooks/journals/diaries" that's where I have to stop and think hard before I start another. I will also admit to feeling impatience toward a few YTers who seem to hop from planner to planner or from style to style every few weeks. For the most part, their lives really do seem more complicated than mine and I'm going to try to be less judgey about this behavior. It's a creative outlet for them, perhaps more than I realized - not always in an aesthetic way, but in the functional design and re-design of how they use their planners. Great video!
Barbara West , I feel the same way! I have a little shelf that holds the notebooks/diaries/journals I just had to buy because they were cute. I put them there and resist the urge to write in them before the “old” journal is full. They have come in handy as little extra-gifts for birthdays etc, now that the children in my life can write.
It’s a hobby. The only thing that makes me do all the “plans” - is listening to a planner influencer - say if you don’t do what you plan then basically you just have a sticker book. So I hold myself somewhat accountable - As I’ve spent too much money to call my beautiful chunky planner a sticker book!!
I feel like I’m currently in a place where I use too many but I also *sometimes use them for content ie, reviews.... I don’t necessarily use them all.
In 2021 though, I’d really like to find a way to use just one.
I wanted to bring up that aspect of it! like, if you use x number of planners because you use them for reviews and content, but someone sees you and thinks "julie uses all these planners I guess I should too" that's when it's like bro, wait a sec and think about what you are seeing! not that it's wrong to use a bunch for reviews or content, but for people to look deeper than just seeing you use multiple planners.
I have always been a one planner kind of lady and will use notebooks for notes and extra writing space. I’ve always thought I was the outlier in the planner community because I use one planner and it’s a horizontal planner at that!
I totally read "finance" as "fiance" on the thumbnail, and I was thinking there's no way I'd be marrying someone who needed so much hand holding that I had an entire planner devoted to them! (To be fair, I can't function with more than one planner, so it'd be a fail on multiple fronts.)
I debated adding two planners to my “stack” for 2021 but then just said peace out. I work in a call center. I’m not in charge of any projects of supervisory shit. So there went one. Then I had one I was going to use to track my mental health stuff, but the idea of filling that our daily just felt like too much homework. I think I’m good with where I’m at. It’s been working for me since 2017.
I just added a mood tracker and a “line a day” section to my planner so try and track my mental health. Easy to add to my bullet journal or rings/disks and I can just print them out and pop them in a spiral planner if I was using one.
So something really simple like that might help work as a mental health tracker lol
My planner is a $2.98 coil note book from Walmart that fits in my purse. I refuse to spend mega bucks for something that I will never use. I don't need to remind myself when to drink water, or when to do the laundry, I know when the bills need paying, and if something comes up that I find important, I just write it in my note pad with a 'to do by' date. If I want it really stand out I put an exclamation mark beside it; that is my fancy sticker, lol. BUT~~ just because I don't use a planner doesn't mean I don't like to watch planner videos. I actually love to watch them.
Love your honesty here! From now until the end of the 2021, I'm on a no buy as far as stickers are concerned. I think that's the one area for me in the planner community that really triggers my FOMO.
I love your advice at the end that ‘too many planners is when they don’t make you happy.’
I like my one Happy Planner for everything I have going on. I fantasize about having more (one for work, one for personal, one for reading and note taking, etc.), but it never works out.
I buy multiple Happy Planners (on a deep discount) for exciting new discs and covers, and I’m happy with that.
Much love and respect to you, Cindy!
Loved this video Cindy. 'Some rando on the internet...' made me snort my coffee.
Before a year ago I was normally busy and everything went into a Bullet Journal with Deco, pretty much straight-up Ryder Carroll style. But then I got a major new job (tech) and still had a minor contract to track. So yes, now I have a stack, which is:
1) Work: a) HB Cousin (need to track a LOT of stuff) and b) Dump Journal, esp. for Zoom calls.
All very functional, no deco except for highlighting
.
(FYI: I am VERY grateful to have a job during this crazy time. Also keeps me from worrying too much.)
2) Personal: BuJo, mostly for dailies (I use the unsung A5 Midori NB.) This is for home, personal, social (such as it is), no work. I use more deco in the monthly setup (Monthly Log/Habit Tracker, etc.) and only a little deco on dailies.
3) Hobonichi Weeks: Which gives me a minimal weekly of my WHOLE life. I think of it as my 'bridge' planner, to see the flow of my week. I decorate the SHIT out this thing, lots and lots of kits and stickers which makes me very happy.
I have found planner peace.
This was a much needed word. My rule of thumb is if it's taking more time to manage the planners it's officially counter productive. I have come full circle and am very happy with two planners (daily and weekly). I cringe thinking that I made anyone feel like they needed to have 6 planners. Very much agree that some of these aren't even planners, they are notebooks/ journals/ diaries etc.
"...those aren't planners..." I have multiple planners, but they aren't used strictly for planning. I just love all.the.planners! I use multiple HP, Franklin (the bindings, not the pages) and travelers notebooks, and any combo of those. But none of those are my planner. I have multiple roles that don't over lap much at all and they all have their own book: work (white has PII in it so it doesn't leave work), 2 for the books I'm writing, 1 for the convention I run (I guess that is an event planner) 1 health record and 2 spiritual books. But my actual planner is completely home grown because I've done ALL the planner styles and systems out there and none of them worked 100% for me. I have 1 planner to time them all!
The other aspect of planning for me is upcycling. I never pay "full price" for anything, and don't buy new much at all. I make TNs and disc bounds out of ring binders, ring binders out of scrap craft supplies, planners or of purses and even purses out of planners. Its all great fun!
I have my main planner and then my “side piece” for school. This is my last year of school though so I imagine it will go down to 1 when I graduate.
Ngl, I call my "scrapbook" a planner when I talk about my planner system online. Partly because it is a planner. Partly a self marketing technique so people will click on my videos. Lol.
But apart from that, I use 6 planners. I simply don't have enough space in one planner. Social media, school, health and wellness, budget, and catch all. Then a separate hospital planner for symptom and mood tracking. You know what it's like with chronic illness. :/
But I also didn't start with this many. This system has evolved over time. I would never suggest someone new to paper planner have more than maybe a planner and a bujo or even just a bujo. Figure out your planning style, THEN invest.
Also, I started with bujo and had to move to a more traditional planner because I couldn't keep up with creating layouts and the just a list bit wasn't helping me keep track of major things.
This was a very good video. I like your take on it "how much time do you have, subtract one".
i was thinking of you when filming this, no lie. you're someone who has figured out what you need and it works for you!
Over-compartmentalizing things starts to driving me a little too crazy, and I'm doing my best to move away from consumerism, so I'm currently in just one notebook that I use as a bullet journal. It's the only system that lets me plan, journal, and take the amount of notes that I do in one book.
However, I'm also finding that my brain doesn't appreciate so many of my plans, nites, and collections are in a somewhat random order, and I don't like drawing out spreads too much when I need to get down to the actual planning.
My solution to this next year is going to be an A5 Stalogy half year (about 192 pages but hella thin) as a collections and reference notebook, so that I don't have to keep transferring information I sometimes look at for literal years, and the Hobonichi Cousin Avec, for plans, to do lists, and journaling. Both fit comfortably into a single Hobonichi Cousin cover, and the cover itself is easy to decorate if I use a cover on cover, in case I get bored of the color. A bit of an investment up front, but I only have to buy the cover once, ever, until it wears out, the Stalogy once a year at nost, and the Hobonichi Cousin Avec once a year. I've already been in the A5 size for a good while and it tends to be the size that works for me.
I've seen a lot of people doing hauls and such in the last two months or so, and sometimes they openly admit they have at least two to three straight up planners they bought and don't even have a purpose in mind for yet, followed by nervous laughter. They can use their money however they want, of course, I just don't have pockets deep enough and have to cringe just a touch, because it sounds like they have buyer's remorse as opposed to feeling genuinely happy about their purchase.
I think a planner with no purpose is great if it brings joy, but if it has neither joy nor purpose, that might be too far. It's like when I buy an ice cream brand that I know is mediocre, but in the moment I just need something to buy and consume. I don't do it so much noe, but remembering that is a big fat oof.
I am doing something similar but in an A6 set for my daily carry - a Hobonichi Day-Free and one of their plain notebooks. I use a plain Taroko Enigma A5 for journaling but a couple of years ago I downsized to A6 for planning to reduce the size and weight. This will be the first year I've set up a separate "reference" notebook, and I'm already thinking about how best to use it so I can keep the real planning/tracking data for the year in my Day-Free. The basic system is Bullet Journaling.
Spot on! I use to use multiple planners both because it kind of made sense at the time but also because I love to buy planners and it’s also part hobby. I got really overwhelmed over this past summer because of how things were so separated and also the constant flipping between planners and now I am the complete opposite and I smoosh everything into one and have become more consistent with one planner. I feel more organized and on top of things.
I love this video-- here's why-- you aren't telling us the "amount" but I appreciate the conversation about "too much" as well. I'm a hobby one. I have two planners and a bujo. My regular planner, my drawing planner, and my bujo. (I'm trying some new spreads and they intrigue me). It's nice to hear you that you don't judge. It's a hobby, life is good and I hope your planners make you happy! 😁
This is why I love a bullet journal♡ Its my vertical, horizontal, daily, menu, etc...I try a lot of planners & always come back to my bullet journal♡
I finally set up my planner this month. I have 2 different Plum Paper planners in it that started in January and I’ve created several carts for new planners and have stopped myself each time. Luckily, I can make my own stickers so I am going to make date covers and use these planners into 2021.
I just got into this Planner World and it’s community about a month ago. I have to admit, I jumped onto the HP wagon. But it had been so long since anything really caught my attention like their sticker books did. My creative side has taken such a back seat for years. I think it was their vibrancy. I bought a classic vertical and a big teachers kit (60% off) to figure out which layout I prefer. I carry a bujo in my purse. I really need to rein myself in because I now want to explore TN’s. If this is my mid-life crisis coming out, I can live with it. 😬
Sometimes I just want to sit down and sticker the F- out of my planner. This is honestly therapeutic. Thank you for your honest video and encouragement to really be honest with ourselves.
I started out with an 18-month planner (July 2019-Dec 2020), then bought a 12-month planner (Jan-Dec 2020), then in May, I ordered a self-made fitness planner. Now, I barely use those 3 but am using a Daily planner now and I'll go and back-plan/add stuff from my Daily planner to my other 2 main planners. Haven't touched the fitness planner since Aug. 31st. Lol. I needed this video. Cindy, you have saved me $ and time.
Yep yep... I have multiple planners but I only have three for planning and they work beautifully together: one annual goal planner for life used monthly, one personal planner, and one work planner, both used daily on a week on two pages layout. The other “planners” are for record keeping, journaling, and notes.
Somehow, after finding the planner community, I went from scrawling appointments on a wall calendar and keeping to-do's on a notepad to spending hundreds of dollars a year on on planners and notebooks and accessories. But lately I have been re-evaluating and am thinking of going back to a simple calendar and notepad. Mostly because I realized the amount I spend is completely ridiculous and the old way was just as effective for getting things done.
So true! Last year I bought ONE $15 planner from Marshalls and a $20 wall calendar from Costco. When I couldn't find the planner at Marshalls this year my quest began - now I have about $1000 worth of planners and inserts to my credit and feel less together than I did with that one planner and Post-Its :(
Love this video. I've watched it 3 times already and it prioritizes my needs , thanks !!!!!!!!!! I have one planner for daily things. I have a budget book too. Dont need more
Fucking love you ! You explain things so thoroughly, honest, no b.s and there’s always humor in them . Every time I look for a review on planner stuff I check your channel first to see if you have one 😅 .
I am currently using three planners. My main planner is my Erin Condren, and that's where I spend most of my time. I do morning to do lists, and a general idea of what I'm going to do that day in the morning, and update anything extra at night. I have a separate planner to track my exercise -- I'm doing this in a Hobonichi Weeks. It's small. I write down my planned workouts in the morning, and check off what I actually did in the evening. I wanted a specific format that wouldn't fit in to my main planner. I also use a separate weekly book for mood tracking. I have a list of 12 things I'm tracking, and do this in the morning and evening. All together, I am spending maybe 20 minutes a day. So far, I'm enjoying all of this.
Just one for me! I don't have a lot going on to be honest but also don't have a lot of time. I have moved to being more minimalist with the stuff I have and stuff I use in my planners. I am going to try a daily planner this year from ivory paper company. I think that will help me consolidate to one place to have everything!
I use a digital planner, and google calendar. I also use a couple of digital notebooks for Christmas and budget.
I use my Passion Planner Weekly for work/life. I use a Passion Planner Daily to track/plan my meals/ exercise/ health and weight loss .Edited to add the 2020 Power Sheets which have been mocking me for six months. Planning to relate them for 2021. Or, perhaps burn them in a sacrificial ceremony.
I am loving all of your consumerism content! Im very new to the planner/bujo world and have recently figured out that (for now) 1 planner bujo for work and 1 not quite a planner bujo for personal journaling, habit tracking, and artistic expression is my sweet spot. I’d probably have everything together is I had my own business, though. I also can see this changing in the future when we have kids and there are multiple lives to keep track of. I could also see doing a pregnancy specific bujo when the time comes. But at that point, I think it’s just small scrapbooking. 😏
I just wanted to jump in and say that I think you're great! You are well spoken, compassionate, real, and so funny.
I have 3. 1 for work, 1 for personal, and a journal. I think the journal is extra..but long term i think it will be nice to reflect on. I dont journal daily just when something happens worthy to reflect on in the future...I enjoy all your videos💕 keep em coming👍
I have one planner and is in rings. It gives me the flexibility to have everything I need in one place. For me the answer to the question is: I guess it depends how you like to plan, how you define planning and planners and if planners are a tool to organize your life or/and a hobby. For me just because you may use a planner if it isn't being used to plan ahead your day/week/month then it is a notebook with a planner layout. If I bought a hobonichi and I used it to journal every day for me it wouldn't be a planner but a diary so I wouldn't count it in a line up of planners.
maria b I like using a ring binder too. Then I can add or delete pages as needed.
I used to be a hot mess with my planners in the past but I’ve finally found my planner groove. I use three planners. The passion planner daily I use for a blood sugar and food and exercise log. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I take meticulous care of the ‘beetus. I use a regular small passion planner as an actual planner and a third generic budget planner. I love stickers but I don’t use them very much because I need to write my plans down. Stickers take up too much room.
I use two planners. An A5 6 ring and a standard TN (fauxdori).
I use my A5 as a "home" planner, in the sense that it has all my contacts, faith journal section, wo2p and daily inserts that I use interchangeably due to being chronically ill.
Then I use my TN as a weekly planner (hobonichi style insert), a Lists/Projects insert and regular journal insert. Also the size is great if I actually am leaving the house on a trip (once in a blue moon 😂) or to fit in my bag for a hospital appointment etc.
Definitely found my groove!
I recently bought my new planner from Living on a Dime...it has spaces for a daily checklist for cleaning/organizing, enough room to eat in a day, top 3, remember today, appts & notes...I will be eliminating 3 planners
At the beginning it also has a weekly checklist that I made copies for cleaning house,
Monthly bills etc...I can’t wait to start it in 2021!!
I think I have found planner peace!! At least I hope!!
This is a good topic to explore in a hobby that is crazy consumeristic. And I say that as a super consumer! I frankenplan up to 8 Happy Planners each month. Because of how my brain fires, this has been working really well for me for three years now, and yet I would never recommend that someone else do this. I think the line is less a number, and more the effect that number has on you.
Cannot love this enough!!! I especially appreciate the cover of this video with all. of. the. many. different. planners. that there are to just keep adding and adding and adding. Thanks for doing what you're doing, Cindy!!
I feel overwhelmed with more than one thing, because I’m the type of person you likes to use the heck of what I own. I find that the TN is the best planner format for me because I can have one planner, but inside of it I can have diferente notebooks for different things so I can separate some aspects of my life. And I also like the bullet journal aspect of it because with that I get my creative juices flowing and also I’m free do do what’s feels better in the moment. For now my daily is smaller not dated so I use in the days I have important things and for the rest of the days I just use a list of things to do.
I use 2 bullet journals, one for work and one for personal. That way I don’t think too much about work on my days and time off. 😊
Typically a 2 planner girl (personal and work). I incorporated a wellness planner last year and that was cool. I have some other planners I'm using for other things that's throwing me off. So I seeing how I can incorporate that info into my main planner. New and shinny has gotten me a few times 🤷🏿♀️😆. But I always go back walhat works for me and I'm going to try really hard to stick with that next year.
Thank you for keeping it soo real Cindy 💙 I really appreciate your honest thoughts, plus you make me laugh! Happy to see all your content 🤗
I have learned over the last 2 years that I can’t do more than one planner... I just don’t pay attention to most of them if I have extra, and I HATE redundancy and that seems to be what they become... I also just like having everything in one place to look back on and see what my year was like. I can use one planner for journaling, daily planning, tracker, and really everything that I need. We move WAY to often for me to be carrying that many planners around and moving old planners year after year... so no... one planner for me from now on. I am using plum paper daily right now and it’s the best... and then I am using the powersheets to set up my goals, but I don’t use it day to day... I use the monthly check in and the quarterly check in, but not the trending list.
This past week, I got rid of severely planners/notebooks as I was feeling overwhelmed by the stuff. I’m not a “one planner” person, but I am a “as few as possible” gal. I do have a rule: the info (monthly overview, weekly, daily views, lists, etc) only lives in one planner. So, I have a weekly and daily that is portable but a monthly that stays at home and housed in rings with my project planning and master lists. 🙂
2021 is my last year actually purchasing a HP. I will move forward with buying the inserts from cloth and planner yearly and use my discs and covers over. I’m tired of collecting disc and covers. I have 2 I use now work and personal. I’m going to use a digital planner for real estate I started because I refuse to keep getting these covers. If I left my 9-5 I would stay digital for real estate and keep my personal.
"In today's edition of 'nobody asked you'". 😄🤣
So you decided to call me out, huh? 😂🤣I’m so guilty. I fall for the consumerism aspect, but I do love to feel productive and organized. It also is a hobby for me. Great video.
I need to have my schedule in one place. But when it comes to task lists - those can be in multiple notebooks. And I can deal with multiple journals. But my work hours, appointments etc has to be in one book!
I like planning and planners. I also journal. Also really like bujo. So I have determined that the journal and the planner stay separate and my old job made trying a bullet journal impossible because of time to do set up. So I like getting planners that are bijo like. One day maybe next year will go full bujo. Love this channel
I also have a calendar for work but I drive public bus. So it’s one where I wrote my route, hours and the bus number I drove. It lives in my work bag.
Love from India
It's like 1:15 Am in India but I still want to see your video and yes the first
Yessss I think the same thing like why did I buy this additional planner. I got caught in the layouts. One main disc bound planner with a calendar that views my whole life and I have weekly shhets for home/personal and a divider for weekly sheets for business. I have a A5 that I bought to take to meetings well that's still in the plastic. I can't function with more than two planners and a notebook
Hi Cindy I just use my 1 happy planner it's my everything in the kitchen sink planner. I have chronic illness too as well I write down the things that are always set and stone that never change Like health/wellness,birthdays,holidays,apptiments weekly and monthly goals,to-do's list, and reminders
Then theirs a few things I have put in my planner off and on though out the year reading,budgeting,journing,tv and movies,TH-cam their might be more but that's all I can think of at the moment. I use just 1 cause it's not as overwhelming and you can get your money's worth with just using 1 planner for the whole year. I peronaly use the happy planner and I use stickers and colorful pens. Having one planner is easy to keep track of cause I keep it in the same place on my bed and as far as time spent using my planner it doesn't consume me like other planner lady's who have more then one planner. Using my planner within the last year has help me a lot in a lot of ways I wish I bought a happy planner along time ago
I have two, home/school/medical/finance/journal planner and a garden/reference planner
All.of.this. My 6th planner for 2020 arrives tomorrow because I am struggling to find the one that works for me. I loved my daily planners but I was having to track so much stuff, giving myself too many to dos, and spending more time than I wanted to on my planner(s). It was starting to trip my anxiety and didn’t provide the practical planning I needed. I have really high hopes for this new one and if it works, I will be on an academic cycle because I am not buying another planner until I fill one!
I loved this video. I really really loved it. I wish I could give it more likes. It spoke to me. Thanks for making it.
"...and then subtract one" 😂
Honestly though this is such a great rule for so many things! Realistic goal setting, how many tasks you can do in a day, etc!
What an amazing video. You certainly tell it like it is.
I have two planners. One is my daily and family stuff, and I take it with me.
The other study planning (I study online). It stays home. Mainly because it contains all kinds of notes, and long term planning , and I cant afford to lose that one. 😂
But I confess I also enjoy buying stuff for both. It makes me 😁
I have 3 right now. All Happy Planners. I have my main planner. I have a section in it for daily sheets for busy days. I do my best to check it every day and write down all appointments, etc. Then I have a mini on-the-go planner. I mostly try to write all appointments and commitments in it, for making plans/appointents when I'm out. I also keep some note paper for anything I need to remember while I'm out. I'd rather just have one and take it with me, but my main planner is too big. Then I have a creativity planner. Honestly, part of that was wanting another planner to decorate. It started as wellness, and i was wanting a 4th planner, but i have some health issues that made the wellness part more discouraging than helpful. I'm an Artist/storyteller/wanna be writer, so it is nice to have somewhere to schedule activities related to all my projects. I may or may not continue that next July. I also set up a "happy notes" using the cover from an old planner, and repurposing monthly dividers. I love that. I have a morning pages section, a notes section, an art section for planning projects for the ladies art program i co-lead, a section for goals for writing, and will likely add a section for the storytime I do with preschoolers every week. I was wanting a faith planner for scripture writing, but I think another section in my happy notes will work. I have a variety of filler pages for it, and sometimes use a daily page from the productivity expansion pack. I bought 3 of them.
I wish I would have seen this video earlier. A lot of what you said resonates. Love your point of view and opinions.
Thank you for the video, Cindy! Very provocative thoughts.
Now, as for me...
Technically, I have two Happy Planners and some extra pages that, once combined, create a bullet journal, all put together in a single set of classic expander discs.
There's a monthly layout, where I plan my month, keep all my habit trackers and organize my master to do list into three sections (personal, family and work).
There's a vertical layout, where I plan my week and keep exactly one daily page. This is my main schedule. This is were life happens.
And there's a bunch of dividers in the back, with different sections for goals, a future log, notes, project pages and random long-term lists. These function as a bullet journal, without an index or any numbered pages. When something is ready to be dealt with, I just migrate the page to my monthly section in the front of the planner, and that's it.
Last year I bought Powersheets and loved the prep work, defined my goals and then ignored the rest of it. Now, every year I can repeat the prep work on Happy Planner filler paper, stick it in my discs and go to town.
I only keep one month worth of plans in my planner, the rest gets stored away. Everything I need is in one place. Since my planner is my brain's sidekick, I take it with me virtually everywhere I go. I have planner peace.
BUT.
The thing is, I love books, journals and Bibles, including Journaling Bibles and Study Bibles, in many translations. The stack of stuff that I'm working on right now consists of ten Bibles, a devotional, an A4 notebook, an A5 notebook, three books, a Prayer Journal and a "reading planner" of sorts.
It is a lot of stuff, but it makes me happy, so it is not too much. When I feel like something is too much, I purge it from the stack and go on. Sometimes, I spend a week or two just in my main Bible, and afterwards I add back more stuff. Because that's what it is, stuff, I own it, not the other way around.
So, as long as I have a Bible, I'm fine. If I also have a planner, great. If I have a stack of paper to read, study and write, wonderful! I love playing with it, but it is important to remember that, in the end of the day, playing is still playing.
And I do use stickers and washi. A lot.
I needed this video . I brought so many planners this year and I am overwhelmed. I threw some away because I didn't use them.
I use: a medicine planner (to track my meds. daily), a TN wallet for appointments, grocery lists, and menus, a finance planner for bills and savings, and a daily planner where I track habits, daily cleaning and daily items. I use pocket yearly calendars for forward/future tracking of monthly bills and savings. And finally a project planner for quilts and other creative projects. Because I'm heavily into politics, I have a "little" black book for events and phone numbers.
Love this Topic....This was my first year getting back into planning as an adult. I purchased quite a few different layouts & sizes. But I have figured out a system that’s comfortable for me. My magic number is 2-3 planners.
A general or catch all. wellness. And smaller on the go mini HP size.
This was so helpful. I realized that my diary (I'm Australian so Diary) wasn't working for me because I wasn't planning, I needed to wrangle a lot of information- from work, medical appointments, my advocacy work etc etc So my new diary setup is working for me now, rather me feeling like I'm herding cats lol I can also set rest breaks better now, so win all around! Also I'm not a fan of stickers, so I bought some good watercolour pencils, a great choice for me.
I use a daily and a weekly so 2. If you count Google calendar, then 3.
I use 2 - one for work and personal. The work planner is for time tracking my day and project planning ( I’m a researcher), important dates etc. my personal planner is like a journal / memory keeping / personal tracker. I don’t really “plan” anything it...it’s more of a tool to keep track of a variety of things. I also have a notebook, for meeting notes, to do lists etc. This type of system has worked for me for 3 years so I plan on continuing. I change up the planners I use year to year but the system remains the same. A few that didn’t work for me over the years have been passionate planner ( too structured and boring), plum paper daily ( I didn’t need all the room). A few that did work: prism planner from mochithings for personal, nolty listy for work, jibun techo. The notebook is always a grid notebook, this year I consistently used a b6 stalogy, another great notebook is from wonderland222.
Just found this randomly today, and I have to say, that hit home for me--thank you! I love planners and planning, but my anxiety has just been getting worse and worse about all of it. Time to step back and simplify and see where it goes. Thanks!
I use a Dollar General planner. I can't justify multiple planners because I really don't have that much going on, plus the cost. in the end it's all paper.
I have one planner (ECLP Vertical) and this year tried the EC petite daily planner to record my workout and meals but that went out the window when Covid hit. I then tried using it for recording what I ate. I’ve decided that I will use only 2 next year: my ECLP and now a Bloom monthly to keep track of my bills and online orders to track what I purchase.
I have at most 2 planners, a work & personal in one book + a goal planner (not this year), and multiple notebooks. The notebooks may incorporate sections or pages from other planners but they're primarily for taking notes or making lists or brain dumping, not time management.
You are so spot on with this video topic for sure. I have an everyday planner that stays on my desktop that I do a setup for a week on and then just document things from each day on it as I really don't have much to "plan" ahead. I do add all the things to it and even include pictures. My greatest fear in life after my mom passed was knowing so little about her life. We were not very close and I was raised in a home filled with alcohol and abuse were the norm. I do wish I knew more about her and don't want that for my boys. It's why I document my story is many manners creatively.
I do carry a wallet sized tn insert in one of the small billfold sized covers from Michaels where I list things from throughout the day whether a reminder to pay a bill or to remember something I want to do that evening or a reminder of something I want to do or need to do. Most of that is carried over to the everyday planner in the evening. I only use ring bound planners. I also have a planner for hobbies as I love to track what movies I've watched and tidbits of some of my hobbies of which there are many ( play Pokemon Go and geocache amongst just a few). I do listing in tn's and love to document my travels in those as well. I use them for lots of different things that don't really need categorized into one planner method. I do scrapbook in the tn's as well as do traditional scrapbook albums and Project Life monthly spreads.I don't have that much of a life to document daily that I haven't already documented otherwise. I do use a Print Pression Weeks to track my self care as I don't need a full sized planner for subjects like this as it all fits there and I do track and document all the crafty things in my Hobonichi. Math is not my forte so I don't know what the count is haha.
I do spend a lot of time every week doing all these and am not a TH-camr although I will occasionally upload a pic to social media but it's all just fun for me. My day job is somewhat creative. I am a programmer for glass products (windows, tabletops etc) and it is mostly creative work that I do in a couple of different design software programs so my life is based around creative things thankfully so work and home is something enjoyable to me. Thanks for letting me type this much lol.
this was a great video! I have been a "planner" for going on 3 years. I found myself being sucked down the rabbit hole with all the stuff out there - I listened to one of your vlogs - not sure which one but it was what do you really need. So now I have one planner - a dingbats, large size, grid and I make my own calendar (with stickers of course!) each month. I don't need a weekly breakdown as my life is fairly calm. I journal if I need to, make lists, project plans, budgeting, etc. etc. comes out to be basically a chronological order of the month. but I found this works the best for me - I had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted so I created my own. It works - even my husband is impressed. Now he asks me "did you write this down in your book" So to answer your question in a long round about way - one works best for me - although I love all the options out there and want to buy them, when I look at them - they are not exactly what I want - so I live vicariously thru those who have the 7 planners!
My dude, I feel so much of this right now! I went down the HP rabbit hole starting last summer, and I have bought so much stuff because of FOMO and wanting to try new layouts. Then COVID hit, and I didn't really use my planner because I shifted to working from home and it seemed so silly to have a work planner and a personal planner, when my life just got less busy overall.
After an attempt at Frankenplanning last month that didn't go so well (you hit the nail on the head when you said it's a way to justify all the planners you've purchased!), for October I've scaled down to using a bujo setup with HP notebook pages for planning, and I'm continuing to use my HP budget planner because it has been actively helpful in keeping track of our finances. I did order the 2021 HP budget planner because I love the cover, but when I flipped through it in person I realized that the paper quality is not as good as my other HP stuff, and now I'm debating on whether to use it or not. I probably will, but it makes me sad that the change in HP's ownership is affecting their products quality now. However, it's making the decision easier for me to convert to a bullet journal system since I hadn't purchased a 2021 planner yet.
I've made a pact with my bestie who's picked up bullet journaling again that we won't buy new notebooks or bujo supplies until the new year because we have plenty of stuff to get us through until then. It'll also give me time to "practice" setting up my own layouts. So far I'm loving customizing a system to me, rather than trying to force a premade layout. And now there's less white space to make me depressed!
I love your videos so much. I want to say my desire for multiple planners was pure avoidance of actually DOING anything of the things I planned. I planned instead of did. There is no do, only plan. I think Yoda said that. I've since moved to a single planner, which feels manageable and real. By "real" I mean my intention is to DO and not PLAN.
I agree with you. Personally 2 planners is more than enough for me :)
I think sometimes you have to be in a place where you have too many things and have separated out too many aspects of your life to actually realise that you have too many.. I know that I have certainly been there once or twice where things are too overwhelming to keep up with and actually compartmentalising too much just makes me more confused. I do like to compartmentalise a little bit, but also like to keep things really simple.. so I now have a travellers notebook with between 6 and 8 notebooks in it, one for diary, one for brain dump one for things to do, one for work to do, lists yada yada... that way I can get my separation fix, but at the same time it’s all in one place... sometimes I don’t use this notebook or that notebook for a while, and if I go off something I can switch it out for something else that I do want to plan or track... no decorating as I find that overwhelming to be honest... I have designed standard layouts on the computer and made those pretty, make them into notebooks and that gives me my pretty fix (and of course is totally customisable!) works well for me and apart from the original TN cover is really pretty cheap and easy to run with 😊