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Does anyone out there use a physical planner to keep track of your day? I used one throughout college to keep track of my assignments but since then I've always used a digital planner (Google Calendar). And once I got Lee on board with Google Calendar it made things a whole lot easier because we could keep track of each other's activities as well. This is especially helpful since we both have had times where we forget to tell the other person about an important event. Oops.
This year, I wanted to try something a little different. I've seen people post about their cute physical planners and I've gotten a little jealous. I like the convenience of a digital calendar, but I felt like writing things down helps keep me on track a bit better. The problem then became, which of the many planners should I choose from? No planner is going to have everything I want (and nothing I don't). I know a lot of people are using a bullet journal to make their own planner, but I know myself well enough to know that would add more stress and not less. Eventually I landed on the Living Well Planner. I've been using it for about 2.5 months now so here's my review.
What is it?
Living Well Spending Less is a blog which according to their site has a mission "to eliminate overwhelm in the lives of women everywhere by simplifying the necessary in order to make room for the essential." This planner contains the necessary planning aspects of a calendar, but also really focuses on setting and meeting goals. Here's what the planner does according to the website.
- Identify your biggest long-term goals and priorities, then provide a comprehensive framework for breaking them down into manageable bites.
- Gain an overview of your year at a glance, so that you can plan out the big picture & avoid the tyranny of the urgent.
- Set monthly and weekly goals in order to move you closer to your long term plans.
- Establish a monthly cash flow budget so that you can tell your money where to go.
- Plan your meals and your shopping list, right on the same page as your weekly schedule so that you can see your whole week at a glance.
- Keep track of expenses, birthday, important phone numbers, and even prayer requests all in one place.
- Become more purposeful with your time by eliminating overwhelm, getting all those details out of your head and into one place.
They also send you a series of emails when you order the planner to show you how to use it.
The good
Like I mentioned before, I really like the focus on goal planning and not just activity planning. I made quite a few goals this year, and I really wanted something to help me accomplish them. The planner has a place for long-term goals, monthly goals, steps for accomplishing goals, and planning specific projects. These have all been very helpful for me to keep track of what I want to accomplish and how I'll go about it. There are also separate sticky pads for weekly and daily to-dos towards each goal. To make things even more fun and organized, I use these multi-color pens to write everything out.
There's the normal monthly calendar and a weekly calendar as well, with each day broken down into 1 hour blocks. The "Must Do" section is also really helpful because it provides a quick look at the essential tasks for each day. I also really like that there's a place to write out your meal plan and grocery list for each week. I have found meal planning to be essential to our family's sanity and budget.
Another plus for this planner is that it's undated. It takes a bit of time, but you fill in the months and dates for the calendars. This means you can start the planner at any time and it doesn't have to be used within a certain year!
The bad
The biggest critique I have of this planner is the size. It's huge. The pages are 7.5x9.5 inches. I'm not sure how much it weighs, but I wouldn't exactly call it super portable. Because of this I don't always carry it around with me. Since I still have my Google calendar this isn't a huge deal, but it sure would be nice to be able to fit it into a reasonably sized purse.
Another drawback are there are several pages I don't use or don't know how to use. I don't use the Monthly Budget or Monthly Expenses pages because I do all of my budgeting through a spreadsheet and Mint. Another page that I haven't used but probably should is the Thoughts & Thanks page. I like the idea of keeping track of the things and people I'm thankful for I just haven't done it yet. I also got some sticker sheets which I think are fun, but I haven't gotten in the habit of using yet.
One thing I wish the planner had is some way of habit tracking. Keeping track of books I've read, days I've worked out, money saved, etc, all in one place would be a good visual reminder of my progress on some of my goals. One final problem is pretty minor. The weeks start on Monday. It's not a huge deal, but I sometimes forget and I write things down on the wrong day.
My conclusions
I really do like this planner. And I've seen a definite difference in the days/weeks I use it like I should and when I don't. It's a little piece of accountability which is helping me reach my goals. If there was a way to make it smaller and customize it to fit exactly what I need then I think this would be the perfect way to organize my life. I will hopefully continue to use it throughout the year and I'll be able to really see how well it helped my meet my goals.
What do you use to plan out your life and keep track of your goals? Have you found a planner or some other method(s) which fit all your needs?
Some of the links in the post above are Amazon referral links. I may receive money or products from them, but it's at no cost to you.
The author, Eryn Lynum, was given a jar of 936 pennies on the day of their baby dedication at church. Each of the 936 pennies represents one week out of the 18 years that child will hopefully live in their home. Each week, she would take one penny out as a reminder to use that time wisely. The purpose of the book, 936 Pennies, was to help parents see how to invest the time a child lives in your home in an intentional way so that when they leave the home, they are prepared to live their lives according to the god-honoring example set during each of those weeks.
