For a long time, I was opposed to paper planners. I had tried them but ultimately, I would stop using them at some point throughout the year. Once I got my Samsung tablet, I felt I no longer needed a planner. I used the electronic calendar and planner functions to keep up with appointments and homeschool classes for my son. I could create electronic wish lists to take along with me for all of my shopping needs. It seemed such a waste for me to use a paper planner. However, when it came to my blog, planning of any sort was a struggle for me. I tried productivity apps and online calendars. I found it a bit frustrating to flip back and forth between the tabs. While electronic planners are convenient, I felt I needed something more tangible for me to visualize my goals. Around the same time, the decorative planner craze was taking off. I confess that I looked at those beautiful planners and wanted one. But which one was right for me? Jumping in and buying a planner wasn’t an option. Some of them can be rather pricey. I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake. I also found that many seemed to cater towards everyday household planning, none of which fit with the intention of being able to use my planner for my website, design team projects, and class planning. After a lot of careful consideration, I had narrowed my choices down to two planners: the Get to Work Book and the Erin Condren Planner. My final decision ended up being heavily influenced by a video of Ashley Ann Luz’s Planner. She had a great way of using her planner for her blog, but it still looked beautiful.
So what were the factors that influenced my choice of planner?
Size: To pick the right size planner, determine where you will be working with it the most.
My goal was to use the planner for website and class planning which meant it would be spending most of it’s time on my desk. Smaller size planners are more portable but they don’t always leave a lot of space for someone with messy handwriting (AKA me) to work with. A larger size planner would give me more space to write and would (in theory) be less likely to become lost in crafty messes on my desk.
Color: Do You have a Preference?
Yes, I know that it would be easy to add color to my planner using stickers, markers and tape. However, the idea of a plain black and white planner wasn’t appealing to me. I kind of liked the idea of having the color scheme for each month chosen for me. It was one less thing I had to worry about.
Page Layout: Will a horizontal or vertical page layout work for you? Is there enough space to write notes inside the margins?
After looking at several planners, I discovered I had a preference for the vertical layout. It allowed me to have more blocks within each day. I also liked the margins in the Erin Condren planner. They leave me space to write notes for blog post ideas and craft/scrapbook project plans. Bigger margins also meant that I could add more page decorations without compromising the space needed for planning.
The first few months were a time of experimenting to see what worked in my planner and what didn’t.
My Erin Condren planner arrived just before July. My particular edition covers from July 2015 to December 2016. I had a plan for how I would use my planner, however, I quickly discovered it wasn’t as effective as I had hoped it to be. It also wasn’t meeting my expectations of being beautiful. For the first month, I hand wrote a lot of the headers. I had the right title for each header, but handwriting them was boring. I also hated my messy handwriting. I began stamping to try to add decoration to the pages. However, I lacked a vision for the overall design. So many pretty planners had stamped images inside the blocks which caused problems for me. I needed those blocks to write lists, goals and plan. The inks I chose were either smudging or bleeding though the paper to the other side. I made the mistake of using a pen, which meant it was difficult for me to move around blog posts in my editorial calendar without a lot of scratching out and rewriting. My planner looked ugly and I was frustrated.
How Do I Use My Planner for my Website?
A short time ago, I participated in the True Scrap Planner Love class. It gave me some great ideas for adding more beauty to my planner without losing functionality. The best way to show you how I effectively use my planner for my website and blog is to share a video tour with you. I recorded the video before the month was fully filled out with upcoming plans and goals. After all, I do need to keep a few things secret. However, the video will give you a sense of how each section of my Erin Condren planner is used. You will also be able to see the transition of my planner from hot mess to a tad bit more pretty (I am keeping it real). I am finding the use of a paper planner is more efficient than an electronic one. Generally, the planner sits open next to me as I work in my social media scheduler (viraltag) or work in the editorial calendar within my website (I use a free plug in called wordpress editorial calendar). As I work, I can quickly glance at my planner. Using an electronic planner or productivity app involved flipping from tab to tab, which in some cases caused me to lose my place or train of thought. Having my planner open and on my desk actually helps me to stay focused. The planner is a sort of all in one spot in which I can see upcoming due dates. It gives me a sense of where I can take on projects and when I should say no (I have a tendency of trying to do all of the things be it design teams, personal projects and blog posts). I think that because my planner is a physical entity rather than a virtual one, it makes the amount of time I have more tangible and thus more easy to manage. Defining how and why I wanted to use it made it work for me which means I am less likely to abandon it in the near future. I am looking forward to continuing to use it and watching it bloom into a more visually pleasing planner as a continue to get a better handle on planner decor and design. If you have any questions about how I use my planner, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below or email me at MyScrapbookEvolution(at)gmail.com.
I Was a Planner Flunkie- An article from Simple Scrapper
DIY Bookmarks for Erin Condren Planners (this is the tutorial for the bookmarks seen in the video above)
Follow My Scrapbook Evolution ‘s board Planner Love on Pinterest.