A Penchant for Planners

katespade.com

 I recently bought a new planner. I didn't need a new planner. I have plenty of planners. 

Yes, planners. Plural.

But it was pretty. And undated so, theoretically, it will outlast my current planners.

Did I mention it's pretty?

Shallow as that sounds, I really don't judge a planner by (just) its cover. In the end, while pretty was a key factor, the interior layout sealed the deal. Each page has room for my daily schedule, three daily priorities, and a to-do list. There's also room at the bottom to note food and water intake for the day, should I so desire.

I don't. I keep track of that on my phone.

My hope was that having my schedule, priorities and lists bound into a book, I'd reduce the ubiquitous flurry of papers that litters my desk, and I would (almost) never need to dig to find my to-do list. 

So far, so good. I still jot down notes on random pieces of paper from time to time, but I'm developing the habit of adding those items to the list in the book, usually the same day. In addition, I'm learning to keep the book close at hand in the evenings, when to-do list items pop into my head.

After purchasing the planner, I discovered that the pages are perforated, making it easy to pull out an unfinished list and tuck it into the next day's page, rather than re-writing it. I haven't yet done that, but it's nice to know it's an option. 

Truth be told, no matter how useful it is, this planner was a splurge. I saw it, I liked it and, although I didn't buy it right away, I bought it in spite of the fact that I didn't need it.

Am I sorry? Not a bit. It has much more room than the pages I was previously using for my week-at-a-glance cheat sheets (but the flip side of that is that it also takes up more room than those single sheets). As it turns out, that's an unexpected bonus. I rarely fill every line in the to-do list section of the daily pages, and my daily schedule isn't usually lengthy enough to fill that section either. The resulting white space is calming, reassuring me, in a way, that although my day was busy, it wasn't overwhelming.

Not on paper anyway.

Organizing is a practical process. If the tools we use aren't up to the task, we need to replace them. But, from time to time, we all need a tool that's pretty and practical because that combination can make organizing not only fun, but a habit as well.