On planning & staying organised :: life planner {update}

I read an article, the other week, about how the “baby brain” phenomena is real (duh, says every mother in the world), and it can last up to TEN YEARS. That explains an awful lot, really. My memory is terrible. Random trivia I can remember no worries, but book myself a haircut and if it’s not in the diary within 5 minutes, it isn’t happening.

Planners are huge at the minute. I blame Car for trying to suck me into it (surprising exactly nobody), but for various reasons, I decided against a full-blown planner, instead experimenting with bullet journaling, before settling on a hybrid system using my “filofaux”. I have blogged a couple of times previously about my system, but like all systems, it gets tweaked and evolves to work with, you know, life. I posted a couple of weeks back about my blog planner, and thought over the next few weeks I would share with you more about the other planners I use for various bits and pieces. Today I’m going to share how I am planning my brain, um, days, and give a bit of an update on what my system looks likes now.

The main tweak from the last update has been in the notepad section.

I have started using colour on my days (because I can!), and also adding in a daily Bible verse. I actually started doing this in my old system, but I would madly scribble my list, and squeeze in the verse at the bottom. So I decided to be more conscious and intentional about how this little “extra” fits in my planner, and it’s now the first thing on my daily page, and written in a contrasting colour. Useless fact – I use the verse colour to tick things off, and then that colour progresses to the main list colour the following day. Yes I over think these things. Yes I am a weirdo. Noeither of these things should be news to anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes in these parts! For such a small change, it has really made a big difference to the impact of the verse, and also, surprisingly, to my to-do list. Previously I would have a full page and maybe two lines to add the verse, now, what you see above isn’t uncommon! It also means I am actively seeing the verse, and it’s not just jammed in down the bottom to say that I’ve done it. You know how they say if you go shopping at the supermarket, start in the fruit & veg section and you’ll end up with less crap because you’ve filled more space with the good stuff? I think it’s a similar process at work here…

The other change is one I was discussing with a friend last week, when we were talking about ring binder planners vs diary-and-notebook. She asked how I managed both life and work in the one system. The answer is the above photo – I create a breakout section that lists out just my work tasks and makes them obvious. I do a similar thing for errands and baking days.

My diary remains pretty much unchanged, aside from the notes box – I am using it more consistently for recording plans for baking, priority work tasks and priority errands, which I’m finding is helping me when I’m doing my daily lists in the note book to be able to see a weekly overview of my goals and process actions required. As you can see, I keep the decorating fairly simple, if I bother to do it at all these days! It’s generally just a couple of post-its & washi to add some colour. I am still in love with the Kikki K A5 diary, and have a very pretty deep teal with gold polka dots version sitting on my desk ready for next month.

It’s not the most complex of planners, and not the fanciest or most glamorous, but it works for me, and consistently helps to keep me organised, when a lot of other systems I get bored of or give up on within a few weeks. And really, that’s what a planner is all about – what’s the point in having it look pretty if I’m not going to use it.