Just Curious - Planners

How many are you are into the "Planner" craze?

Everywhere I look it seems to be it's own phenomenon and I just don't get it.
Don't get me wrong, the pages I see are pretty and I even follow a few planner peeps on IG because of how cute and creative they are w/ their planners but I just don't get it.

After the year is over you keep it? If you didn't it would be such a waste of supplies but keeping an old planner, to me, is like keeping and old calendar: useless.

I guess part of the reason I don't get it is my life isn't all that busy... I mean I am a busy person, but for the most part my life is pretty routine so there isn't much I need to write down.

Any thoughts for or against planners?
I'd love to discuss!

The planner craze really exploded this past year. I did dabble in it and couldn't understand how some women keep three and four planners. I get that they use them as mini scrapbooks to keep up on the day to day, kind of like a December Daily but all year. I did purchase another planner because Simple Stories made super cute ones (they're on sale, btw 30% off until Sunday) and I'm having fun with it. I like it because it's undated so you can start when you want. I started mine in December. I haven't posted any pages from it like some others have, but it helps me stay organized other than just using the calendar in my phone.

Yes it did! And I see that 3 of the coupons/deals mentioned on Scrapbook.com right now involves planner stuff!

Yep! With the way the planners went gang-busters last year, it was a no-brainer.

I bought some of the planner items to use on regular los since some of the stuff was super cute!

As far as old calendars go, I've kept a couple. They are fun to look back on especially my kids' 1st and 2nd year calendars.

But yeah, I'm not really a planner person. I kind of think if you have to carry around a planner to remind you of things then you have too many things on your plate!!!

I bought a Midori Travelers Notebook this summer to use as a planner and trip planner--it was awesome for planning our summer vacation! I printed out calendar pages to finish out the year. It's been nice having a paper calendar, but I'm not so good at keeping it 100% current--and I have no desire to go all out decorating it..,but that didn't stop me from buying some stamps regarding everything things and exercise.

I never ever thought I would get back to using a paper calendar again after years of putting everything into my phone, but I have since discovered that after so much time the things I put into my phone's calendar disappear--I know my annual eye exam is in May, but the exact date of my previous year's exam was gone when I went looking for it one day. There were several A5 planners that I looked into for 2016, but I'm sticking with my TN since I already have two covers.

I don't even use my phone planner... I don't keep any kinda notes anywhere for anything. Just the occasional "shopping list"... I guess I'm just not the proper demographic and that's why I don't get it!

I look at Heidi Swapp planners and think how adorable! But I use a large open calendar to keep track of life, both at home and at school. I'm such a visual person, everything has to be in my face almost. I bought an expensive leather planner two years ago and I barely used it. I am sick about it. I need to give it to someone so it will be used.

I'm not a planner person either and if I was I certainly would not decorate it!! Unless of course that was my scrap album for the year but heck I want a scrap album to be more interesting than what I plan on doing or did. I really do need to start writing down what I need/have to do, heck I can leave a room and have no clue why!!! I have been out of egg since Christmas but can't remember to buy they when I go out.... NO PLAN. I had plans for today but it all changed at the last minute, which seems to be how all my days go. I never plan times to do certain things as it changes so fast I can't keep up!!

As I tell my sister, " don't plan my life, it just happens" !

I don't get it either. They are super cute for sure but don't seem all that practical. it's all I can do to type drs apps and kids school stuff in my phone

I go to the office supply store and buy a large desk calendar to keep track of where I was. The only decorations are the coffee spills I have accumulated. I have all my calendars from decades ago. I don't know why. They are just basic desk calendars for the past 6 years, and At-A-Glance appointment books for ages before.
In 2016 I am going back to the appointment book. One important thing I track are my medical trips for tax purposes.
There are even days when I actually look at my calendar, to see what I missed.

For years I had a planner/calendar because my work hours varied and then the kids' activities all needed keeping track of. Before cell phones. Now that cell phones have the capability of noting appointments it still doesn't appeal to me to note appointment schedules in it.
So, yes, I love this new creation of "playing" in a planner! This will be my first year, moving up from the small yearly, cheap, calendars from office supply, to something like the ones being offered here.
I have always kept them as a record/memory of the events of my life, but now I plan to go all out with journaling in it and making actual mini scrap events in it. I most likely will not keep a separate journal now.
I'm for the tiny memory making this offers and encourages.

I use the Microsoft calendar in Windows and it syncs with my phone. Birthdays pop up on my computer screen a week in advance. It works for me.

I used to print out calendars and with the cities of where we were on road trips and then put them on the title pages for the scrapbook albums and that really worked well.

If I did planners it would be more of a hind-sight thing of where we were and what we did that would be decorated and used in the scrapbook.

Remember when we could just remember stuff?

You know Don, it does seem that there was a time when I could remember stuff. Not anymore!

• don1 Said:

I don't remember that at all...let me check if I wrote it down in my planner....
Wait, I don't remember where I put my planner!

Well Doreena, just so you know, it gets worse.

Don speaks the truth!

I can't really say that I'm either for or against planners. I DO get where some people need them because they need to juggle a very hectic schedule, or they have to write down everything or whatever. Technically I do have a "planner" that I am required by law to keep every year, but it is a "lesson planner" so it doesn't work with a normal calendar. And since I have to keep one for each child, I just type it out on my computer and hit print, or I write it on notebook paper.

I totally agree that a lot of the current planners that people are crazy about are absolutely adorable, but i'm not going to buy one. And a big reason that I have decided that I'm not going to is $ related. In some ways it does seem like a waste of money for something that I probably wouldn't want to keep, but would feel like I HAVE to keep it because I spent so much money on it. Another reason for deciding to not invest in a "planner" is because of the fact that I'm more "journal" oriented. And while I have considered incorporating some of the planner ideas into my journal, I'll just make my own with what I have on hand because that just seems more cost effective. And it will enable me to have something that isn't more or less a duplicate of what someone else has. Also, at this time of year it is so easy to get free calendars that I could cut apart and use.

As for old calendars, I tend to not throw them away. I recycle them into envelopes, or art to decorate my journal with. I like making things...and custom envelopes are just cute sitting in a mailbox, it's an instant way to let someone know that they received something that isn't a bill or a piece of junk mail.

Yeah, I bought a planner last year. I couldn't resist the Webster's Pages Color Crush planners because they're just like my old Filofax from waaaay back in the 80s. I bought the orange one, which is -- apparently -- the least popular but that's fine with me.

I love my Color Crush planner and I do use it, mostly for keeping track of all the challenges I sign up for on this site ;-) The "menu" section's a total waste for me though, as I'm not the cook in this house.

I have 2, probably most would consider 3, but I don't consider them practical. Heck, I don't usually write anythign them in them until the end of the day. It's more of a brain dump for me. I have this problem where when I go to bed, I tend to rehash my entire day and relive every mistake I made and it's just not the best for me. So before I go to bed now, I write down what I accomplished that day in one planner (this is the same one where *if* I should have an appointment that week, I would write it in).

I have another planner that I use as a memory journal. I choose a topic that defined my day and write a few sentences about it. In December, I did Journal Your Christmas in it. Sometimes a quote or photo on Instagram will trigger something in me, some times I write about my emotions, sometimes I write about what I'm watching on TV. It's just a putting words on paper exercise for me.

My third is going to be a little bit planner a little bit weekly photo/Project Life type thing. I'm working on finding my groove there.

Yes, I keep them all, just like I keep my scrapbooks. Mostly I use my phone for actual reminders about appointments. To me scrapbooking has always been more about my creative expression and the smaller canvas of a planner just really works for me right now. (I'm also a big believer in doing what makes me happy at the moment which means my scrapbooks are huge combinations of paper, digital and PL).

I think what you do is actually really cool! I think I want to try to do that....
You're not just writing down appts in a book and decorating it... You're actually writing down thoughts, feelings, experiences... Etc...kinda like a diary, you just happen to be putting it in a "planner" type book.

Okay, so, hi. My name is Anne and I'm a planner nerd. In the past year, I have focused far more on maintaining my planner than on any scrapbooking. And, hey, isn't it great that nobody EVER knocks down scrapbooking as pointless or silly! Yaaaayyyyyy.

1. My life isn't "too busy. " In fact, I spend most of my day trying to motivate myself to do daily chores, make important calls, keep the checkbook straight and bills paid. Because....
2. Chemo brain is hard, man. So is fibro fog. So is adhd. So is having three kids who enjoy activities AND have health issues to track. Basically, some of us need to write it down and be able to study the important details so we can keep our families going. We're trying like crazy to survive and thrive.
3. Yes, I'm a 39 year old woman who loves stickers (and scrapbook paper, go figure!) and relies on them. Partly, the stickers I choose are functional. They are also really good at getting my attention so all the planning isn't useless.
4. If you're thinking it, just maybe I feel sensitive about the fact that I felt like planner peeps aren't exactly understood. That's because, in the six years that I have grown to appreciate these forums, I have seen so many posts wishing others would respect our love for memory keeping. A planner is a different form of memory keeping. Why knock that which is so closely related to what you love?

• MommaSaid Said:

I wasn't knocking it... I have said repeatedly I don't get it... as in I don't understand it... I never said that I understand it and think it's stupid. I even mentioned I follow "Planner Peeps" on IG because I like what they do w/ their planners.
Sorry if you took it that way!
I would love to "get it" they are very cute...but as far as fitting in my life, it doesn't.

• Doreena Said:

Now that I have taken a moment to calm down, I will admit that I was more defensive than necessary. My apologies.

No worries!

I keep a "planner". Actually I have about 12 every school year. I have one for each school subject for two high school students. However, mine are not the cute sticker, washi tape filled kind. They are lesson planners.

I have 2 wall calendars. The one in the kitchen is my reminder of appointments, birthdays/anniversaries, etc. for the entire family. The one in my bedroom charts more personal things like my cycle. I mean I know I need to chart it, but I don't want my two teen boys asking "Mom, why are there red circles (or x's) on some days but not others".

As for phone calls to make, groceries to buy, and that sort of thing...that goes on my fridge. Why on my fridge? Because that's the only place that I know for certain I will see it.

This year I began a different type of "planner" of sorts, but it is in my journal. I have a calendar sheet for each month that I can write my "gratitude" things on. And, on the backside of that page is a list of challenges, etc. that I've signed up for on here and the deadlines for when they are due. These are kept in a book that is an all in one Journal, Art Journal, Smash Book, and Junk Journal.

I understand "Chemo Fog" although after 20 years, they call it Chemo Brain. I had my oncologist tell me at 16, when my A B honor roll dropped and I wondered WHY my academics were so great before Chemo but horrible AFTER chemo that "Oh, you fried more brain cells with 6 months of chemo therapy than most addicts manage to fry in 5 years". So, yeah...understand that one.

i'm doing a planner on my own terms

I'm a stickie freak! I've got them all over the place. They help me remember. Then I throw them away!

I use a lot of stickies too!

Popping out of lurk mode to weigh in as I'm sort of getting into the whole planner craze.

I kept a planner all through high school and college. I stopped for a number of years when it was easier to keep track of work, home, and social obligations using Outlook and Google calendars synced to each other. But, since Microsoft stopped support for calendar syncs, I've been slowly going back to paper and pen options. I used a Franklin Covey binder for awhile, but I found the page layouts available didn't really work for me, too many things I didn't need, not enough of what I did.

So, this year I grabbed an journal from my stash (I'm a journal/composition book nerd. Use them for EVERYTHING) and made my own planner. Thanks to the popularity of planner decorating, it wasn't that cumbersome a task. I had to draw my own boxes for the days. But, there are plenty of stamps out there for days of the week and dates. I'm using a number of planner stickers i found on Etsy to help break up my days into boxes of information for tracking appointments, listing tasks, keeping important information handy. I do some decorating, but usually at the end of the week because I want to have as much blank space for actual planning as possible. But, having a layout that's functional and pretty keeps my interest and gives me incentive to actually open the book.

I do have a lot of things to track, though. I work in a fast paced job with multiple projects going at one time, all with various deadlines. I'm in the process of trying to fix up and clean a large house that's fallen behind due to long term illnesses and financial issues in the past. And I'm active in a number of social groups that have planned activities throughout any given month. So, I have a lot to keep track of and tend to forget things if I forget them. Having a planner puts everything I need to remember in one place and I can also use it as a sort of mini-diary to track goals, habits that I'm trying to change, etc. On a recent trip to visit family in NY, I could take short notes in my planner about the things we did that helped jog my memory when I got home and wanted to write more extensively about it in my journal. Having grown up around people who work in banks and law offices and are big on geneaology, I've always kept my planners along with my journals for record keeping purposes. They are sort of companions to my journals, chronicling day-to-day activities. But, I also write down important notes like when a home loan was paid off in full, or when a major project at work was completed (or dropped, and why).

My boss even turns a blind eye to the hour or so a week I spend updating schedules and project journals because he knows those notebooks are the reason I always know exactly where all my projects stand at any time and why I'm able o get most of them done on time.

Thanks for your input...

Again, I guess I am just not the correct demographic... I'm not that busy to even need a planner so mine would be full of just stickers and doodles and no actual appointments, LOL!

I'm not the right demographic either. I use my Google calendar to put appointments on then forget I put them there.

I was thinking, though, that doing a planner for each month on stuff that happened on days of the month would be a cool kind of mini album. I'd just jot down at night what happened that day, what thoughts I had, stuff like that and it would just be a "this happened this month" kind of thing. The planners are cool but I wouldn't do it to keep track of anything. I'd feel bad if I missed something.

But people who do use them like that...wow, their planners are so amazing.

Some people use planners as Journals. They fill the boxes with a sentence of two of what happened on thus and such day. I think that's cute.

But in all reality, I'm a journal/notebook kind of girl. I have BINDERS everywhere...gobs of them. I simply LOVE them. And with my binders and my Bind It All machine, I can literally make any book/notebook/journal that I want.

I'm not the right demographic but my Best Florida Friend (we call each other BFF but it stands for Best Florida Friend) is my age and she loves planners.

She said she has always kept some king of planners with journaling and pictures and keepsakes and she keeps them. Said she has a drawer full of them and really enjoys them.

But they are not for me - I use my outlook calendar and it everything pops up on my computer and my phone.

I combine everything in my scrapbooks.

Just a matter of preference and what works best for you. However I know I will never do a planner. Just not for me.

When I was actively selling houses I kept a planner for clients, contact information, appointments and everything else.

After a while I changed it to an 1 1/2 x 11 notebook with clear front pocket.

Had tabs for each client with a page of contact information, a copy of the contract for those buying so I would always have it with me, their inspection report, my notes about the purchase - their entire file was in that tabbed section.

I made an 8 1/2 x 11 calendar and wrote all my appointments on it and slipped it in the inside cover of the notebook so I could always see it. When I was working at my desk it was next to my writing and work space next to my computer so I always had my schedule in my face. I never left the house without it.

When the house closed I just took everything in the notebook about them into a manila envelope along with closing statement and put their name on the envelope and filed it.

That is the closest thing to a planner I ever kept.