I used to be a hardcore paper planner user. In high school, my planner was basically my third hand and ready to jot down a new deadline or appointment. Somewhere along the way, I started telling myself “I don’t need to jot it down; I’ll remember!”
(cue Morgan Freeman narrating: “she did not remember.”)
This series will, hopefully, keep me motivated to stay organized and give y’all some tips and tricks along the way. With that out of the way, here’s my planner:
I got the planner and pen holder from MUJI when I visited New York over winter break. The stickers, aside from the punny CMU sticker, are from RedBubble.
The left-hand page gives a weekly calendar while the right-hand page is gridded and allows for more flexibility. I divided it into quadrants:
The top left has my weekly theme, for lack of a better term. This week’s “hello February.” I usually fill the space in the middle with doodles, but that’s a work in progress. The top right has my “at a glance,” which highlights key events and deadlines for that week. I try to list everything in chronological order, but things move around (which I then use arrows to indicate where the event or deadline would be).
The bottom left has my weekly goals. This includes my to-do list of things that I want to accomplish sometime that week. Some of these goals are school-related (whether it be academics or extracurricular activities), but some of these goals are more personal and geared towards helping me stay mindful. The bottom right, I jot down positive affirmations that I add on to later in the week or reference back to when I notice myself falling into a negative and unproductive thought cycle. Even if I can’t get myself to fully believe in these statements, I find having them on-hand and integrate is helpful.
Are there any fellow paper-planner users out there? Maybe some of you find completely customizing your own bullet journal the way to go, but I personally find it helpful to have a planner that has a little more structure. This is how I’m hoping to keep myself accountable, and hopefully you find something that works for you.
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