The Big Planner Shake-Up

By Debra Sennefelder

What happened at the beginning of January was an unprecedented shake-up in how I plan my life. And it all started in the latter part of 2019.

There was a post on Facebook. A fellow author was looking for suggestions for planners. Like us all, she was looking to get a head start on organizing 2020. I commented that I’d been using an Erin Condren Life Planner for two years, but I intended to go back to my six-ring A5 DayRunner.

After careful consideration, I decided to go back to the A5 because I wanted the flexibility of being able to organize the planner how I wanted it. And I wanted more space to write my to-do tasks for each day.

With the decision made, I ordered new inserts for the A5. As soon as the inserts arrived I began noting all my deadlines, birthdays, appointments, etc. Everything was good.

So, I thought.

Something started not to feel right with the A5. My first thought was maybe it was due to the texture of the binder. For some it may not be a big deal, but since I handle my planner multiple times during the day, how it feels in my hands is essential to me. I then thought maybe I was over the black cover. Perhaps a pop of color would be nicer and more visually appealing. The temptation to buy a new A5 was strong, but I held strong. The DayRunner was good enough.

So, I thought.

In early January, I signed up for a free online workshop on how to go paperless. During the class, I learned some tricks on how to go partially paperless (some papers just can’t be scanned and shredded). One of the recommendations was a to-do list app. This was new to me and I decided to give it a try.

With the app downloaded to my phone, I began using it. After a week, I realized the app wouldn’t work for me because once a task was completed, it was deleted from the list. I’m one of those people who need to cross off tasks from a list and be able to see what I’ve accomplished at the end of the day. While the app didn’t work for me, it did introduce me to using my phone as a part of my planning process. Which led me to my Google calendar. Yet again.

I’d tried using the Google calendar before, and it never clicked. Until now.

I planned out the whole month of January. Color-coding the tasks was a nice perk. And I got into the habit of opening up the calendar in the morning right after my morning pages were completed. What I’d been craving in my “planner” was the ability to look at the monthly spread without having to page back and forth all the time in the A5 or EC. Sure, I could have a wall calendar, but then I have to take it down and write in the task, then put it back up, and for me, it becomes visual clutter on the wall. The Google calendar was working for me. Finally.

But there was still a piece of the puzzle missing. While the Google calendar gave me a view of the month, I was missing the daily planning. All the things I need to do from laundry to outlining to walking Connie. Yes, I know there’s a daily view feature in the Google calendar, but I prefer to write these lists down so I can cross of all the completed tasks.

I gave some thought, and I ordered a new planner from Amazon. It’s bigger than a personal size Filofax but smaller than an A5, and it has a page for every day. This gives me plenty of space to write my lists, group my to-do actions into categories if I want to, jot down ideas that pop into my head. Since I don’t use the monthly spread for planning, I use it to track my workouts. It’s awesome.

Finally, between the Google calendar and my new daily planner, I have the perfect planning system for 2020. I know this because I feel calmer when it comes to my to-do’s, and I’m getting things done without feeling scattered or overwhelmed.

Most of the time, a shake-up can be a negative experience, but this time it was a gift. I trusted myself enough to let go of what I’ve clung to for years, and it’s been one of the best things I’ve done so far in 2020.

I’m curious. Do you use a physical planner? A digital planner? Or, a hybrid like me?

Debra Sennefelder is the author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series. She lives and writes in Connecticut. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking, exercising and taking long walks with her Shih-Tzu, Connie. You can keep in touch with Debra through her website, on Facebook and Instagram.

Do You BuJo?

by Paula Gail Benson

Have you heard about bullet journaling or “BuJo” as some practitioners call it? I hadn’t until I read an announcement from Fiction Addiction, an independent bookstore owned and operated by Jill Hendrix in Greenville, S.C. Jill is offering a course about bullet journaling on Thursday, February 22, at 6:00 p.m. The cost is $25, which is redeemable on a purchase of supplies available that evening in the book store. If there is sufficient interest, an afternoon course will be offered.

Advertisement for the Course Offered by Jill Hendrix

From the advertisement, I could see that bullet journaling could be used for keeping a calendar or agenda. I wondered, why offer this course in February instead of at the beginning of the year?

Then, I began reading about the subject. At http://bulletjournal.com/, I learned that bullet journaling was described as “the analog system for the digital age.” It was developed by Ryder Carroll, a “digital product designer living in Brooklyn, N.Y.” Mr. Carroll has trademarked the names “Bullet Journal” and its abbreviated form “BuJo.” Rachel Wilkerson Miller, a writer, editor, and blogger, also based in Brooklyn, N.Y., has written several books about the technique, which she calls “dot journaling,” maybe because practitioners are encouraged to use notebooks with dot grids as a guide for their own creations. Ms. Miller has been criticized in her Amazon reviews as appropriating trademarked information that Mr. Carroll has available free online. You can take a look at her website at http://www.rachelwmiller.com/ and compare it with Mr. Carroll’s site to see what you think.

Anyway, bullet or dot journaling is a do-it-yourself organizer that can include as much or as little information and structure as the preparer wants. Ryder Carroll has some great videos to explain how to get started in his online section Bullet Journaling 101. They are simple, straight-forward, and concentrate on the focus--how to be efficient in organizing your life. They set out the method without complicating it with any artistry a preparer might wish to bring to the process.

What is the method? According the Mr. Carroll, through bullet journaling you can track the past, organize the present, and plan for the future. First, number the pages of your journal. Second, label the first few pages as “index” so that you can list where you’ve written certain items throughout the journal. Third, create a future log, diving two pages into a six-month or longer organization where you keep lists of tasks and events that must be handled. Fourth, use two pages to make a monthly log, with a calendar on one page and a task list on the other. Fifth, through a short hand system, you can list what you need to accomplish. A filled in dot is for a task (which later can be “x-ed” when the task is completed). A star next to a dot means the task is important. An oval signifies an event (and can be colored in when the event is over). Indicate notes (things you need to remember) by a dash. Sixth, at the end of a month, set up the next month’s log. If you have tasks that have not been completed, consider “migrating” them, either forward into the next month, or back into your six month projection. Mr. Carroll uses a greater than sign > if the task goes to the next month’s list and a less than sign < if it goes back into the six month projection.

Many aspects of one’s life can be included in the bullet journal: obligations for home, work, or school; routines or patterns such as exercise, diet, or writing; and personal reflections, like journal entries. A cottage industry seems to have grown up around bullet journaling, very similar to accessories for scrapbooking. You can purchase books, pens, and stencils to help you create a very unique product.

In some respects, I see this as a natural off shoot of the adult coloring books, only instead of being just relaxing, bullet journaling combines creativity and productivity. Not to mention it encourages a generation that grew up with computer graphics to take a chance on using those old fashioned tools of pens, pencils, and rulers to sketch out their own destinies.

After learning about the method, I understand how it’s adaptable and can be started at any time. I’m tempted to try it. How about you?

Getting It Together

by Linda Rodriguez

This is not really my house (thank heavens).

My husband, the world's original disorganized, absent-minded professor, is fond of saying, “I'm going to get it together,” as if he's putting the final touches on a perfectly organized life. Now, regular readers of this blog may remember that my youngest son, who adores him, calls him “the chaos demon.” Sometimes people who work with my husband at the university take someone new into his office just for the shock effect. Over the years—after many efforts to set up systems he can’t destroy and after giving him books designed to help him understand the simplest organizational principles (like ”throw the trash in the trashcan—don’t just walk past it and deposit it on the kitchen counter”) I’ve stopped trying. I try to keep a couple of areas clear and comfortable for me, and I don’t look when I pass the rest. I haven’t had guests to my house in years, although I had many before he fully embedded himself in my home. (It takes a year or two to completely undo good systems, I’ve found, even for a chaos demon.) He's a wonderful man, and it’s his only real fault, so I long ago decided to live with it.

Lately, I've been chafing at these circumstances, however. Probably because, unlike my husband, I work at home and thus spend most of twenty-four hours a day in these chaotic surroundings. I've grown tired of living with boxes of books and postal bins of manuscripts stacked in the living room—he runs a micro press from our home in his spare time when he's not running a university press and teaching. This morning finally sealed the deal for me, however. My weak and shaky hands (from lupus) managed to knock off the table between our chairs the big Columbia University cup in which I keep things I use regularly—fountain pens, mechanical pencils, scissors, a nail file, and knitting needles. This meant I had to scrabble around on the floor around and under his chair for the spilled contents of my cup.

He keeps a quilt made by my sister in his chair to cover up with if he's cold or just sit on if it's hot. This quilt often puddles on the floor around his chair, and I've given up chiding him about it. So this morning, I was looking for my fallen necessities, only to find that his quilt was hiding three times as many items as I had spilled. Apparently, I'm not the only one with shaky hands in this house.

My cup is back and filled with the pens, pencils, and knitting needles that I consider necessary to daily life, but my hard-won peace with the house mess is gone. I'm googling home organization websites and making lists of decluttering tasks to do over the next weeks. I'm laying in supplies of trash bags and cardboard boxes. The chaos demon's days are numbered.

He tells me he is going to get it all together. I tell him that's a meaningless phrase, that no one ever gets it all together. He reassures me that. He. Will. Get. It. All. Together. I tell him that, like too many men, he sees the house situation as a war where he can win a battle and go home forever. I tell him that life's not like that. “It's a case of constant maintenance, baby,” I say. The chaos demon is stubborn, however, and insists that he will get it together. Tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that. After all, things are crazy right now. But he will get it together. Later.

Writing the Fly Lady Way

by Maria Geraci

I have a confession to make. I'm probably one of the most naturally disorganized people you'll ever meet. Oh, I can fake it pretty well, but beneath my iPhone's carefully filled calendar is a field of chaos so large I can barely wrap my arms around it.

This is something I've always known about myself, but it's really struck home lately. You see, I'm in the process of filling out various Q&As for my upcoming blog tour to promote my August 7 release of A Girl Like You. One of the most common questions has to do with my writing process/routine. I shudder at the real answers to most of these questions.

Q: What is your writing routine like?

A: Oh, I like to get up in the morning, drink a cup of coffee, then get in 2 solid hours of good writing time before I start the day.

REAL A: I get up in the morning, drink a cup of coffee and immediately start looking at my email, which then takes me to a plethora of other sites that seem sparkly and distracting and before I realize it, 2 hours have gone by! 


Okay, sometimes I really do write for those 2 hours in the morning, but most times, not. My writing routine is all over the place. Sometimes I write for a couple of hours straight, but most times my writing is done in fifteen minute intervals because I have the attention span of a flea. But that doesn't mean my writing routine is wrong. It just means that it's the way I think and the way I create a story.

I guess I'm the Fly Lady of writing. Never heard of Fly Lady? Fly Lady is a fantastic site that stresses decluttering, destressing and organizing your life in Baby Steps. Awhile back it occurred to me that Fly Lady's cleaning tips could also be applied to writing. Fifteen minutes here, Fifteen minutes there, and eventually, you have a manuscript. Believe me, it works!