It’s happened. I’ve been hit by the planner bug.
For the past three years or so, my mom has always given me a simple planner for Christmas. I use it to track appointments and my daily to-do lists. I use it as a modified bullet journal, except without the bullets. But the idea is the same. I list what I’d like to accomplish and mark them off when I do. If I don’t, those tasks move to the next day. I also track wordcounts as well.
And I do love that planner. It’s simple, easy, and I can jot stuff down and get to work.
All three have been Bloom Planners, so I never have to figure out a new way to do things.
However, a few days after Christmas, my mom told me that she’s actually bought me a different planner. Unfortunately, there was an issue with it closing once in a while, so she decided to not give it to me. She showed it to me anyway, and said I could still have it if I wanted it.
And it’s a bit different than the Bloom Planner. So I thought about stuff for a bit and came up with the idea to use it as a Tracker.
I had a bunch of things I wanted to track: wordcounts (yeah, I know it’s a duplicate, but I liked the idea of having them there, too) bedtimes (because I am still working on my schedule), food (because I am dieting again! I’ve lost 13.5 pounds so far!), my get up times (this is just a box with smaller boxes for 7 days to check off), weight, books I am reading, to-do list, and my daily Tarot card.
I added the Tarot card because I thought it’d be cool to try. I had tried doing it in the past with little success. I am using the Cat Tarot, which has to be the cutest Tarot deck ever.
So once I figured out where everything would be, I started using it. And it was fun. My mom had also given me some stickers, so I’ve been experimenting with those, too. And, because I never do anything in half measures, I’ve got some stencils and markers on my birthday list this year. Because why not.
I want to mention that I’ve always been intimidated by bullet journals and planners. People have these beautiful, unique layouts that probably took hours and possibly some artistic ability. Yeah. One look at them on Instagram and I was like, no way. I simply don’t have that kind of time or artistic ability. So I decided that I would make mine simple. Ten minutes tops to set up my week layout. Nothing fancy, just stickers and maybe those stencils if I get them. And my handwriting sucks, and when I know I’m writing something that should look nice, my brain digs in its heels and [bleeps] it up. So it’s messy.
But it’s totally me. I’m not messy per se, but I am someone who accumulates clutter. My stories are often messy. I used to have to rewrite everything. (Now I don’t.) My workdays are chaotic and sometimes I feel like I’m running a marathon or trying to finish something before a timer (maybe a time bomb?) goes off in my head. Because there’s always so much to do. (But I do love it). So while it’s not great art, it’s me and reflects the kind of person I am.
I am also considering getting another planner, strictly for Tarot stuff. Maybe. I don’t want to go nuts and get intimidated again. I need to take this slow. But damn, I want to do All The Planner Things and track everything and make messy, semi-pretty layouts and—yeah, better put the brakes on for now. I am beginning to feel anxious and is that a tick-tock in my head?
<whispers> I’ll tell you a secret. I actually backed a self-care planner on Kickstarter. I think I might be addicted.
But damn, it’s fun!