I have a love/hate relationship with the Facebook memories app; it’s like an extension of my brain that shows me what I was thinking and who I was being over the years through the lens of social media and sometimes who I was being was less than my best self!
Raise your hand if you’ve experienced this too!
According to Facebook every year around the end of November I have posed the same question to my tribe - what planner are you getting and what planner should I get?
Seems like there are a lot of fellow planner junkies out there constantly in search of the perfect planner so that we can finally find #plannerpeace.
To kick of #Planmas2019, I want to share with you my two step process to help you find the perfect planner for 2020.
Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Braindump your answer to this question - What features do you need your planner to have?
Start off by making a list of features that are absolutely essential for you to have in your planner.
An easy way to do this is to think through all the planners you’ve experimented with in the past and make a list of the features you used or didn’t use in each of them.
This year I am trying to simplify my planning process as much as possible so my must-have list is extremely small:
My planner must-haves:
A monthly layout or view
Lots of space for daily to do’s
A schedule layout
Space for notes or post-its on each page
Clean crisp white pages that don’t show bleed through (because I use a sharpie style maker to write)
Some other features that might be important to you:
Goal setting pages
Weekly or monthly review pages
Space for a vision board
Expense trackers
Habit trackers
Birthday or perpetual calendar
Yearly overview
Gratitude pages
Project planning pages
Meal planning pages
Fitness trackers
Something else?
Once you’ve done this, it’s time to move on to Step 2.
Step 2: Find the planner that includes all or almost all of these features.
If you have a lot of must-have features you might have to use more than one planner.
For example you may choose to use one planner for home, and one for work. Or if you have a job and a business, you might have a planner dedicated to each role. Or you might have a fitness planner and an expenses planner or you might decide you want to have a planner for each life area you are working on this year.
Personally I experimented with multiple planners last year and it didn’t work for me so this year I am picking just one planner and sticking with it.
Here’s a list of 7 planners to check out that I’ve either personally used or received rave reviews about:
The Simplified Planner by Emily Ley - this is the one I opted for this year; it came highly recommended and I was sold on the two column format. (More on how I plan to use that in a few days).
Savor Life Planner - I really love this planner but you need to purchase 4 of them because it’s a quarterly layout; if you are a fan of 90 day goal setting then this is probably the best planner for you. Shipping to India is exorbitant though which is why I passed on this for 2020.
Passion Planner - I know so many people who love this planner. I funded the original Kickstarter way back when and I did enjoy using it but with my handwriting it got too cluttered and I didn’t love that it didn’t lay flat; I think they’ve made some great updates to it since then and I might have to come back to it in the future
Happy Planner - I wanted to love this system so much! I spent way too much money on this but everytime I sit down to use my Happy Planner I end up trying to make it look perfect and Instagram worthy instead of focussing on making it functional. This is a great system for anyone who wants the flexibility of adding pages and inserts and moving them around and loves creative planning with stickers and washi tape etc..
Bullet Journal - I have to admit I do love a Bullet Journal and later this week you will see that it plays a prominent role in my tool stack. I think a BuJo is perfect for you if you can’t find a planner that meets ALL your needs and you are willing to spend 20 minutes or so each month setting it up and that you can be consistent about keeping the index up to date etc. I suggest you watch Ryder Caroll’s videos or read his book before you dive into the system.
Michelle Rohr’s Life Binder - Every year Michelle’s releases a super cute version of her Life Binder system. Her system is half planner half workbook but it’s still very functional and I love that you can print only the pages that you really want or need. She’s also got some amazing Digital Planners in her shop if you want to experiment with digital planning and note taking.
Etsy - if you like the idea of putting together your own planner; you can find hundreds of printables and kits on Etsy. You can print out inserts for financial planning, blog planning, social media content, selling or moving houses, pregnancy trackers and planners - you name it. Buy yourself a cute binder from Target or Amazon and get printing.
Hope you enjoyed day 1 of #Planmas2019; every day for the next 25 days I am going to share with you one step out of my own yearly planning process.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 2.
