Planner Planner

I remember receiving my first planner as a freshman in high school. One was provided to each student by the school & I honestly wasn't sure what to think. Every teacher encouraged the use of it and even gave a few pointers on how to use it. By Christmas break, I had realized it was a game-changer in my academic career.

I tend to forget things easily... and quickly, so having a booklet I could write in homework due, upcoming quizzes, exams, and even sporting events was so helpful. I was able to prep & stay on top of the next event in my life. Year after year I became more excited to check out the new agenda for the school year. I believe I was only disappointed once, in my senior year. Regardless, of the disappointment, I continued using it because the one thing a planner taught me was that I am a list maker & I like to 'check' tasks off when I'm done.

After high school, came college and to be honest, I don't remember if they gifted students with agendas...I didn't write it down.

I think that was when I started buying them from Walmart & Staples.

It wasn't until about 2015 that learned about Erin Condren.

Do you know when Mario eats the mushroom & doubles in size? That's what it felt like!

The Life Planner by Erin Condren made my whole year! I was able to do so much with it that I never thought to do before.

Here are a few things:

• Tracked books to be read & other hobbies

• Grocery lists

• Maintained my personal schedule

• Work-related tasks

• Tracked personal health-related issues (narcolepsy symptoms)

• Mini photos added to the weekly spread (memory keepsake)

It really was a lifesaver and I'm so thankful it was brought into my life. for the next four years, every winter I would head over to erincondren.com & pick out my planner for the next year! It was a fun process, but for some reason, last year I decided to shop elsewhere. I had come across the Start Planner & truly thought it would be better.

I would describe Erin Condren's Life Planner as fun & customizable.

This planner is similar to the life planner, however, it is more clean & professional. In my opinion, it has a lot more to offer but, it was just too busy!

I originally purchased it as my work planner but quickly realized there wasn't enough retail space to record the notes & tasks for work. I decided to panic order a new book from Erin Condren & to make the Start Planner my personal planner so it wasn't a waste of money.

Why I didn't just stick to what I knew worked, I will never know.

I wanted a daily planner and the only one offered at the time was quarterly inserts for a binder.

2020 has been a crap year & I have learned:

• I don't like binders because the rings make it hard to write on the left side.

• I don't like taking the daily inserts out just to write on them because I forget to put them back in.

• I like to have an entire year together at all times because I flip back a lot for work.

• I don't like daily planners.

• I don't care for the Start Planner.

• I'm going to order the Erin Condren Life Planner for 2021!

I hate to diss on the Start Planner because it does offer a lot of great content! I just found it harder to use & constantly ran out of space when I needed it most. I plan to actually use a few features from the Start Planner in my upcoming 2021 planner.

When I get my new planner & get back into the groove of things I plan to write a few monthly "Plan with me" posts.

A few things I want to track this upcoming year are:

• Finances/Budgets

• Reading

• Journaling

• Vitamin intake

• Water intake

• Meal planning

• Christmas gift ideas

I also plan to order a separate planner for my career as well.

Do you currently use a planner? If so, which one do you use? There are so many to choose from!

What are a few things you track? I would love to hear all about them on my Instagram @always_willow

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Always,

Erikka