Tags
agenda, bujo, bullet journal, foxyfix, Organization, organized, Planner
Although it seems pretty obvious how to get your day organized, many people seem to struggle with this trivial thing. It always amazes me how people never have time to do such and such. If you start your day knowing what your priorities are, you will likely focus on accomplishing those tasks. I have been using a planner since grade 6. At that time, the planners were provided by the school. During high school, we had weeks on 2 pages planners with each day separated in 4 blocks for the 4 courses we had during the day plus an additional block for evening/night planning. Let’s face it, planning when your entire life revolves around school it’s fairly easy. When it comes to what they call “real life” might be less trivial…
To be honest with you, I struggled a lot those past years finding the right planner for me. Most of them didn’t have enough space for me to write whatever I had to write, but I don’t know how, I found they wasted so much paper! monthly section, yearly section, weekly section, daily section, important tasks, notes, appointment… I fell like these planners for grown-ups were A) boring and B) not functional at all. Then, I found the Erin Condren planners, there is an entire facebook community for these planners.
I’ll be honest with you, they are very cute and somewhat functional, but! If you live in Canada, be ready to pay an additional 25$ when it gets delivered for custom. Also, it didn’t really solve the problem for the lack of space.
Last year, I discovered the Bullet Journal. (heaven sound)
This is a highly customizable system you can build into basically any notebook you have. I had a pink Leutchtturm 1917 last year, but for this year, I moved to a traveler’s notebook system.
The traveler’s notebook system offers a flexibility a hardbound notebook doesn’t offer. I recently purchased a Foxyfix cover to hold up all the inserts I want to use on a daily basis. These products are made in the US and are highly customizable too. I purchased the espresso leather with pink elastic, I wanted something that could match pretty much anything, wouldn’t get damaged or dirty like white or any other light color. The leather is really soft and feels nice when you touch it. It reminds me a bit the leather of the Michael Kors wallets…
I still wanted to use a regular calendar for long term planning instead of the Calendex or any other fancy techniques promoted by the bullet journal community, it didn’t work well for me. This is why my first insert in my traveler’s notebook is a 2 years calendar where I put all the upcoming appointments, I also keep track of the income and any bills to pay.
Then, on a weekly basis, I plan my week with the high priorities, appointment, calls to place and so on. This is my second insert. I also like to plan the meals for the week, this way, I don’t run all over the place when I shop for grocery.
And finally, each day gets a special page where I write down every morning the tasks I want to accomplish this day, how I fell during the day, anything that pisses me off, the daily page is somewhere between a planner and a journal.
I find that writing everything down helps a lot to get things done. If I think during the day: “tonight, I will organize my wardrobe….” If I don’t write it down, when I arrive from work I am like: “I am too tired, let’s do this tomorrow…” If it’s written, I am like, ok! one last task! Let’s get this s* done!
What do you think? Do you commit more when you have a plan/schedule?