In my previous post, I gave you some information about why I started planning in the first place and I gave you the list of things that I have to work with and plan for.
I have spent a lot of time planning in ring bound systems and I love the flexibility of that. I love the decorating aspect and I love that you can change things up whenever you like. As you’ll discover, I have multiple ring bound planners currently and they are integral to my system.
In the last year, I also discovered bullet journalling and it really appealed to me. As a list maker, it seemed like the ideal solution for my on-the-go planning. It was just a notebook that I could easily fit in my work bag and take with me wherever.
Still, I had 4 other beautiful planners sitting there on the shelf, so I decided to make use of them and create my planning system. Now I use a fusion of both bullet journalling and traditional planning and it’s so comforting to know that everything has a place.
As I mentioned, I have 5 planners now and some get used routinely, some are more reference-type systems and I’ll go through them briefly now. In future posts, I will delve more deeply into each system.
This is my day-to-day planner. I used to separate work and personal and photography and planner paper goods all into separate planners (and I still do to some extent) but for agenda/calendar planning, it made no sense to me to have them all separate.
Let me explain: if I have to go to Sydney for my work, and I also have a flatlay shoot to do, then I need to be able to see quickly and easily whether I’m actually in the right city to do that job. I don’t want to consult multiple calendars and try to coordinate each of my lives. So I use my bullet journal predominantly for my calendar and day-to-day planning.
I will take you through this planner in an upcoming post.
At the moment, I’m also trying to improve my handwriting, especially since I am starting to post my spreads to Instagram and FaceBook. My writing can be ok, but more often it’s quite a mess – when I’m in a meeting or on a call, I typically write very quickly and very messily.
So, I’m currently doing #rockyourhandwriting which is an Instagram challenge with daily prompts for you to handwrite a response. I have printed dot grid paper and popped it in there as I prefer to practice my handwriting that way. It’s small enough that I can take it with me if I think I might have time to do something.
This planner is quite dynamic, I’m not sure I will stay in this for handwriting practice as I may need more space than a personal size gives me. I’ll keep you posted. I’ll also show you inside this planner in a future post.
More on this one later as well.
So that’s my entire planning system and a little bit about why I plan. I hope that gives you some insight into how and why I do what I do. I try to incorporate a little method into the madness. It brings me order, and consequently peace, but it also lets me be as creative as I want to be. There’s ample room for decorating, for practicing my handwriting, for doodling and for working out all (well most) of the kinks in my brain.
As I said, they may not stay as they are, I may modify what I use each one for, as my needs change, but that’s why these systems are so useful – they are not fixed and unchangeable. There is always room to improve and update.
PRO TIP: Styling photos of your planner and planner pages can be very difficult. You can up your photo-game substantially by making sure that the camera/phone is held level. If you struggle to do this (it’s not easy!) then you can deliberately place your planner on an angle in the photo – this makes a huge difference.
If photo-styling tips would be useful to you, please let me know. I would love to share my secrets with you.
Until next time, happy planning!
#PlannerLoversUnite
x desleyjane