PLANNER ENVY.
You know, back in the day, guys used planners. My dad
used Day-Timers for YEARS. He called it his brain. Women tended to use desk
diaries, but the more women came into the business workforce, you saw Day-Timer
offering femmed-up versions and planner purses, etc. I had Day-Timers and
planners long before it became the huge THING it is now. Soccer moms, Sunday
School teachers, people who think they’re really busy but aren’t, teenagers,
have all gotten on the planner bandwagon. There’s been a proliferation of
planners like Erin Condren, Plum Paper, Happy, you name it. If you came across
this post because of the hashtags, then you probably know all the brands better
than I, and all the stickers, pens, tapes, subscriptions, pantookas, and
gorbnobbles available.
Nine tenths of which are solely designed to separate you
from your money.
With the BOOM in planning
popularity, planners are in every shape, form, colour, design, and have gotten
really pricey. Plus, Acco Brands now owns most of the well-known names in
planners except Erin Condren (not including ones like Leuchtturm1917,
etc): Mead, At-a-Glance, Day-Runner,
Calendar Express, Five Star; they’ve even bought up Day-Timer, for fuck’s sake!
Some grand goal-planning for 2019 includes writing more.
In my little box mind, I was thinking on the novel, but writing here and in my
character blog are also writing, yes? I’ve added “W-writing” to my habit tracker
(cue raucous, derisive laughing here). Before you asphyxiate laughing, the
habit tracker is not keeping track of daily habits (except taking blood glucose
readings), but just a general, keeping track of how often I do things.
Speaking of the tracker, I have:
M—Morning
glucose;
P—Post prandial
glucose;
BP—Blood
Pressure (I don’t have an issue with this, but sometimes when I go to a doctor,
it’s slightly elevated, more than likely from just getting out in traffic,
etc.);
A—Art;
W—Writing;
L—Learn: my Irish lessons or any kind of research;
E—Exercise or work out, including my PT exercises;
H—House: work on painting, repair, decluttering, etc.
LV—bLog and/or Video
F—Family
projects like the ass-ton of photos from my mother’s place, or her letters, or
all the stuff from my grandfather’s effects, boxes of books and chotskies to be
sorted, sent to people or donated.
Again, these are not only a reminder to do certain
things, but to keep track of just how often.
At this time I think well, I’m not working anymore, why
do I even need more than a simple little “old man pocket calendar”? I swear, you can’t even find the ones I’m
talking about anymore, they were about 2”x3” and literally fit into a man’s
shirt pocket.
Back to my planner planning. I’ve tried the big Erin
Condren and Plum Paper planners (virtually the same, by the way) and I don’t
think I actually finished a year in either, even though I used them for several
years (I put all my planners from work in the big shred bin when I retired, but
I think I finished out several of those all the way). But those are just too
big to carry around and too much space goes wasted in them for me. If I just
wanted to keep track of appointments, a simple month-at-a-glance would suffice,
but there are other things that go in a planner…isn’t that why they’re called
p-l-a-n-n-e-r-s?
I’ve tried starting DIY planners before and I think I got
rolled up because there were too many future dates for work.
But….I don’t have to bloody include job-related shit in
my planner any longer HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!
I’ve been watching a couple “bullet journalers” on YT and
random others if they pop up and look interesting.
Everyone has such slick, pretty layouts and lettering.
Anything but plain printing or a version of this
ends up looking like a 2nd grader did them.
They have this pretty script lettering, that…yeah.. *eye roll*
Updated:
I was going to use the Lemome bullet planner (the one I
have has been discontinued), but decided to finish out my ‘notebook from hell.’
I got it a couple years ago from Office Depot for about $6, I think. It has
graph-ruled paper in it and is roughly A5 size. It has everything in it: Notes
on my novel, notes on my blog character, designs and plans for things like my
studio and the reno of my pantry, mind maps, DIY calendar pages, to-do lists,
travel plans and lists…you name it. I’ve covered the cover, front, back, and
inside with various stickers. I’d do a flip of it on YT, but it would be the
most boring flip-through video ever.
There are quite a few (about ¼-inch thick) pages left, so
I’d just rather use it for now. When full, it will not be thrown away as it
will still be a valuable reference.
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| Front Cover |
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| Back Cover |
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| Notes for the pantry reno |
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| Year forward |
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| 395th version of the studio/living room plan |
So a whole lot of what I previously wrote might go by the
wayside, just sayin’.
As for updates, I had the ‘dreaded scope’ this past
Monday, nothing alarming, but the doc did take three biopsies; keep your
fingers crossed.
And I’m finally getting the bunion on the right side done. They’ve
been giving me grief for a loooong time. Got the left done probably 15 years
ago, maybe a bit more. They did the big one on the inside, the little one on
the outside and I had a four-inch steel rod in my second toe to straighten it.
This time, just the big one on the inside.
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| Any Questions? |
