In search of a better planner (not calendar)

Yesterday, I raved about my favorite calendar.

Today, I will share the various systems I've tried for planners. Yes, they are different. To me, a calendar is where you keep track of events, and I highly recommend using only one calendar. If it's not listed on the Family Organizer, it's not happening.

A planner is a way to keep track of things to do, and plan out your day. I have tried traditional dated daily planners (Franklin Planner anyone?), dated weekly planners, undated weekly planners, dated monthly planners, and desk blotter monthly calendars. And these systems worked, until they didn't.

Mainly, the shortcomings were that I stopped using the dated planners consistently, either because I had nothing to plan for a few days and then I forgot, or there wasn't enough space to write everything I needed.

Mom's Agenda 2012

I really liked the Mom's Agenda from More Time Moms, and the checklists and reminders pages were cool. Ultimately, the fixed amount of writing space, plus getting caught up in how I was going to "perfectly" use those checklists thwarted me with this planner.  

At a Glance 2020

Then I saw a friend using a monthly planner, and I thought, hey that looks cool, so I bought one. I should have realized the one square per day was not going to work, but I tried this planner for two years!

Finally, in early March 2020, just days before the world shut down, I had the idea to try creating my own planner system using the Moleskine Cahier journal. I may have been inspired by the bullet journal, though I'm not sure exactly what that is, and will have to research further. The basic idea of my do-it-myself planner is I write down the date at the top of a page, and any to-do's for that day. I can also take notes in the planner, phone calls, etc. that I might need for reference. If it's a light day, then I don't write anything, and it's not like there's a blank page. Plus, if it's a busy day, and I have a lot to write, I can use as many pages as needed! Both aspects appeal to me a lot!