3 Keys Thursday: 3 Key Questions to Ask When Choosing a Planner

 

'Tis the season to think about planners! 

I must confess to having a passion for them. Though I know the advice to have one planner that holds everything is sound, for me, planners are like potato chips. 

I can't seem to have just one.

As someone with an I need to see it personal style (more on planners and styles next week), for me, it's all in the layout. Though I have a pile of planners that I use for a plethora of purposes (more on that in January as well), the two I use most regularly rose to the top of the pile because of their layouts. 

One has each month on a two-page spread, giving me space to write in all my appointments and see the month at a glance so I can (theoretically) avoid appointment overload. It's big enough that I don't have to squeeze everything into a tiny square, and thin enough to fit in my purse so that I can write down appointments when I make them.

The other is an undated book with space for daily notes. Each Sunday, I transfer all of my personal appointments and school obligations from the monthly planner into the undated book (dating the pages in the process) so that each day has its own page. Yes, I'm aware that I can find both of these features in a single planner and, for a long time, I did. But I love the space for a to-do list and three daily priorities in my undated planner and the process of transferring things from one book to the other reminds me of what I need to do and aligns the personal and the professional, reducing the possibility of my forgetting to be somewhere or do something. 

Sound too complicated? Then it's not a good plan for you. But, for me, after years of trial and error (#itsaprocess), I've landed on a plan that helps me keep everything straight without having to lug a ten-pound planner with me everywhere I go. As with all things organizing, though, one size (planner) does not fit all. 

Here are a few more things to consider as you go in search of the one that's perfect for you.

Electronic or paper? Do you use your phone for everything? If so, you might already have the perfect planner at your fingertips. Don't like the calendar on your device? There's probably an app for that. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the built-in calendar when it comes to your planning needs can help you figure out what you're looking for....and what you're not.

To note or not to note? I like having pages for notes at the back of the calendar and, if there's some note-writing space on the planner pages themselves, that's a bonus. I don't have a hard and fast rule about what those pages are for. Quite honestly, I sometimes use them because they're the only note paper I have with me but other times, I use them to record things that are time-relevant, like information from doctor's appointments and goals and plans for the year. Again, if you're a planner-on-the-phone person, you might use your Notes app for this.

Parked or portable? As I said at the outset, there's a lot of wisdom in the advice to have a single planner for everything, whether it's in your bag or on the refrigerator. If you're going to break that rule (as I clearly have), make sure you're simplifying things, rather than overcomplicating them. Be honest with yourself about how well your plan is working for you. How often do you forget something that's in the "other" calendar? Never? Great! Keep up the good work! Sometimes? Maybe you need a plan for combining your calendars.

What's the most important feature of a calendar? Its ease of use. It doesn't matter if your calendar is the one that came on your phone, a clearance bin generic version, or an expensive personalized agenda with a monogrammed leather cover. Choosing the tool that works for your styles is half the battle.

What do you like best about your planner?

To Putter or To Chunk?

clipart best.com

Though I love teaching, I look forward to the end of the semester for several reasons. At the top of the list is replacing grading with writing. As the piles of school work diminish, I get excited and start making plans for what I will work on instead of papers, presentations and grade calculations.

But the end of fall semester coincides with the ramping-up of holiday preparations. While I long to sit down with my laptop and the muse, Christmas cards, tree decoration and baking (to name a few) tug at me as well. (And my family is more interested in those last three than the first one). 

In addition, the collision of end-of-semester assignments and deadlines often results in a pile-up of clutter that definitely does not put me in the Christmas spirit. Finishing the semester with some peace of mind means filing away all the extraneous bits and pieces of student work, notes to self, and grading sheets. 

What to do first? 

Everything. Not all at once obviously. But slotting in some time each day for each of these things helps me stay on track. And so, for the last week or so, I've been trying to find time each day for something in each category, chipping away at the piles as well as the anxiety and frustration they inspire. 

The school stuff is typically the first to disappear because closing the book on the completed semester is the first step toward relaxing and buying into the idea that I'm on vacation (despite looming to-do lists in other areas). Household responsibilities and organizing in other areas of the house are quick to expand to fill the void, keeping my daily activity categories at three. 

Some days, I only get to one of the categories; other days, I touch on all three. But, by the end of the week, each area has been represented with deadlines determining what rises to the top each day. Each morning, I ask myself what task I'm most interested in and which one I'd be most satisfied to check off my list at the end of the day. It's a good day when the answer to both questions is the same.

If this sounds overwhelming, you may prefer to chunk activities. Holiday baking days are a great example of this. While those were fun and productive when I was younger, I find them much less enjoyable now. Doing a little baking or wrapping each day gets me across the finish line with fewer aches and pains, and a lesser degree of grouchiness than spending a whole day standing, hunching and measuring.

As I type this, the day before Christmas Eve, I have one batch of cookies still to make -- my dad's favorite -- the one I tend to make on Christmas Eve every year. The shopping is finished. The gifts are wrapped. There is still some decluttering to do, along with finishing touches here and there, but nothing overwhelming.  If I so desired, I could make a long list of things I could still do but, as I get older, I find I am more satisfied with less because worrying and fussing less means I enjoy the days and the season more. 

However you get there, I hope you have a wonderful, restful Christmas and a happy, healthy new year.

Throwback Thursday: Stepping Slowly Toward Christmas

I usually post my Throwback Thursdays with little-to-no editing. But today, I'm feeling a little grinchy, and the unedited version of this post felt a little preachy and a lot hypocritical. I'm hoping this revised version has something for everyone -- from those overflowing with Christmas spirit to those who might be feeling as though they've been hit by Santa's sleigh, with nary an elf in sight.

Step by step. One foot in front of the other. And elves only get underfoot anyway. :-)

My husband is one of those people who thinks that Thanksgiving signals the beginning of the Christmas season, and, if we haven't hit the ground running by December 1, we're behind schedule. This year, we've added a sunroom on to the back of our house with plans to put the tree up out there. We're still waiting for the finishing touches so, alas, no tree yet. 

I tend to approach the holiday season more slowly, due in no small part to the fact that the first two weeks in December are the end of the fall semester. As such, they're filled with assignments, papers and exams, all of which need to be graded. It's hard to get excited about giving up a whole Saturday -- or even an entire weeknight -- preparing for Christmas, when, all the while, everything else that needs to be completed before Christmas is calling out to me, sucking the joy out of something that's supposed to be fun.

All that said, I do get excited about Christmas. I like decorating and getting ready (and even I am beyond ready to put up our tree). I just don't want the preparations to turn into another to-do list to set alongside the one I already have.

And so I take small steps. Some days, my small step might be as simple as setting out just one decoration. Other days, that one thing will be decorating the tree or tackling my Christmas cards.

Usually this works but, this year, with a succession of things like family illnesses (everyone is on the mend) and incomplete rooms, some days, I'm struggling to find my Christmas spirit. Small steps don't seem to be enough and, at times, everything that remains to be done (even the fun stuff) feels like too much.

But, most days, doing just one thing helps me feel as though I'm making progress and, as a bonus, the gradual arrival of Christmas at our house helps me to create a balance. While "Christmas" is ubiquitous everywhere else, in our house, Christmas is tiptoeing in slowly, reaching its peak on the actual holiday. Instead of being overwhelmed, I can savor Christmas, piece by piece, being more thoughtful about each step along the way.

This time of year, when daily responsibilities collide with holiday preparations, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Reminding myself that it's okay to take small steps, whether toward Christmas, a more organized house, doing something I enjoy, or perhaps all of the above allows me to savor the season.

And if Mary could have a baby in a manger, I can deal with a delayed Christmas tree. 

Space in Progress: No Grinches Need Apply

I've reached the point in the semester where I'm crafting and posting my blogs way too late in the day...as evidenced by the fact that two recent posts intended for my Porch Swing Chronicles blog ended up here instead.

Oops. Let's just call those "bonus content."

I'm back on track now, with the features you're used to seeing here. This one is for all the parents whose college age students have returned home for break, as well as those (like me), whose graduates are starting off their post-college careers in their childhood bedrooms, another side-effect of finishing college during a pandemic.

I haven't said it for a while, so I'll say it now. It's a process :-)

Then: 

My daughter is home! And she brought all of her stuff! Today's post focuses on three questions to ask myself so I can be the cool mom who doesn't bring the Grinch to Christmas, but who still reclaims her living space.

• Who? Who does the stuff belong to? Her stuff, her responsibility...but yelling and screaming and nagging won't get the job done. In fact, since my daughter is so much like me, it will probably lengthen the process and make everyone miserable as well -- not the end result I'm aiming for at Christmas. Pitching in a little at a time (removing things from where they don't belong and putting them in the space where they do belong) helps both of us feel less put upon.
• Where? Finding logical homes is key -- perhaps even more so since some things will stay here only until she packs up again early next month, some will need to be stored until fall semester and some will likely take up residence here until some (undisclosed) time after graduation. The "a little at a time" approach described above helps ensure that we don't simply move the piles without improving the situation.
• When? As soon as possible. Every trip between the places where things were dropped and the places where they'll be stored is an opportunity to improve the current state of affairs. My mom used to tell us to never go upstairs empty-handed, and this advice applies now more than ever. Our stairs are currently populated with a wide variety of items that need to go from one floor to the next. Every trip upstairs takes us closer to organization.

There are certainly other approaches that will work. Some of these include setting a deadline by which this must all be done (I have one in my head, but am keeping it to myself in the hopes of actually beating the clock); insisting it all be done now or simply setting aside time and doing it all at once. If these approaches work for you, there's no reason not to use them. Right now, though, my daughter and I are both in the sigh-of-relief mode that follows a busy semester and, if doing this in a relaxed, yet consistent manner gets the job done, I much prefer that to ultimatums. In addition, I'd like her to be able to walk in her bedroom (something that will be impossible if we simply move piles from one place to another). Perhaps more important, I have faith that, after a few days with some down time, this will bug her enough that she'll tackle it on her own. 

Years ago, a principal I worked for used to ask if "this" -- whatever the issue before us was -- was a hill we were willing to die on. 

It isn't. 

Overwhelming someone who's already overwhelmed is never a logical solution. Spending the all-too-brief time I have with my daughter under our roof arguing over dishes and clothes is not my idea of time well spent. So, we'll make slow, but steady progress, keeping the who/where/when questions in mind and enjoying one another's company along the way.

Organization is important, but it isn't everything. 

wixin_56k via Pixabay

Now: 

My daughter is home! And so is all her stuff! And they both live here 24-7.

I love having her here, but negotiating a parent-young adult relationship under the same roof after spending four years adjusting to an empty nest is (say it with me) a process. And managing the stuff is just one piece of the puzzle.

We both know her time here is limited, but we don't have a definite endpoint. We both know her stuff will go with her when she goes off on her next adventure, but we don't know when (or what) that will be. Until then, we have a household and a half all crammed into the same house because it's no longer just the stuff she brought with her freshman year. It's also all the stuff she acquired in the four years that followed.

The questions in the post above still apply but, with more stuff to manage in an unspecified time frame, a healthy dose of patience is required. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, it's important to remember that what we do surrounding her stuff is likely to make her feel more or less welcome here -- a bigger issue than what goes where.

Together, we're figuring it out. Her styles, my styles, and my husband's styles frequently collide when it comes to the shared spaces in the house but, as has always been the case, her room is her space -- her zone, her respite, her launching pad. In that space, she can organize as she sees fit. Meanwhile, I try to limit my nagging to the areas that really push my buttons because as much as I like my house to be organized, making it a home is more important. I want this to be the place where she feels welcome, no matter how old she is or how much stuff she has.

Organization is important, but it isn't everything.