Off-Topic Planners

[desderata]

Demeris - I know you are retired and I think you might be Catholic, so you might want to check out the Monk Manual. It's a 90 day planner/journal that includes some spiritual reflection as well.

[bee]

Originally Posted by Demeris

I'm grateful to everyone who posted. Thank you for your ideas. I wish Arizona had an Aldi's.

We do have Walgreen's, so I might go take a look at the Blue Sky planners.

I'm taking a look at Plum Paper and Erin Condren.

Has anyone had any experience with Michael Hyatt's Focus planner, the Monk Planner, or the Passion Planner? Did any of these help you use your time more judiciously or productively?

Has anyone had any experience with the Christian planner or the Catholic Planner? Did you find these supportive of integrating your spiritual life with everything else you balance during your weeks and days?

I got a Passion Planner one year..... it was not for me. I needed more structure, or something.

[donnamp]

Those look interesting, Carol! I wonder if they have one for android? I have a Google Pixel phone and it would actually be nice to have a planner to use with it.

I bet there is something....will have to check it out!

Donna

[bee]

I'm looking at the Commit30 ones right now -- they seem to be having a sale. I'm not sure if I want the regular one or the fitness one. The regular one is dated, has more structure but is less flexible, obviously. Fitness one is undated, smaller format only (as far as I can tell) and seems pretty flexible. I'm not sure I really need to plan out my fitness -- I'm very consistent with it and sometimes do like to do something other than what I may have "planned" (in my mind). I was thinking about using it more for food planning -- seems like it's certainly flexible enough for that. But as mentioned above, I previously didn't do well with an unstructured planner. I know, I'm probably overthinking. Anyone have thoughts to share for me?

[creatrix]

I bought the Clever Fox Pro planner. It's a goal planner with yearly, monthly, and quarterly goals, lots of checkins, etc. I like the idea of all that but it all feels a little bossy and overwhelming. Also, it's undated, so I can't just flip ahead and enter events through the year without entering dates on all the pages first. I'm debating getting something simpler.

[bzar]

Originally Posted by sherry7899

I have liked what I saw of both of those, but I am inconsistent with using planners so I do not spend a lot on them.

i agree.

at one point, i always ordered a large spiral monthly planner by At-A-Glance for work that i kept open on my desk. in 2014, i chose not to order one. for one thing, it cluttered my already cluttered desk, and i used the electronic Outlook calendar to schedule appointments since that's where all of my work appointments were being scheduled anyway. stopping the At-A-Glance calendar was easy and i never missed it.

i can integrate my phone calendar with my work calendar on my phone too, although my phone app doesn't sync too well and i have to probably adjust the settings.

i carry a small weekly planner that fits in my purse, mostly to collect some of my thoughts and write down shopping lists. i might stop doing this one too because i have found i have trouble getting rid of the old ones!

i write some ideas on my phone and also use the calendar in there to record my appointments. there's probably an app that i can use as a diary too.

it comes down to a behavioral thing - if you decide to go in a certain direction, you can make it work. back in the 80s, Franklin planners used to have a full course on this, that integrated with time management. i took a time management class (from a trainer at work) that covered a segment on using an organizer (or anything really). Palm Pilots were just starting out! anyhoo, the takeaway was you can make any calendar system work for you based on your needs and motivation.

[buffmama]

I've gotten mine at the Dollar Store, CVS, Marshalls and 5 Below in the past. I like them about 6x8 inches with space for each day and a monthly calendar as well for planning purposes. It's too big for a purse usually but great for every day since I do carry other bags. I put exercise, work and family stuff in it as well as any info I might want to refer back to.

[T2B]

I love The Happy Planner. I buy 2 every year. One is used to log my workouts and is kept in my workout room. The other is used as a food diary/journal. I buy the vertical layout planner which has enough room that I can pop a sticker on it everyday as well. I love motivational stickers. My handwriting is big and these have enough room to record everything.

I was in Aldi’s last week and saw the planners that Sheri linked. Those are awesome and if I hadn’t had my planners already I would have gotten those. Great price, too!

[AnMrsDe]

Originally Posted by sherry7899

Aldi has a nice selection of big hardcover ones for $7.99.

LOVE the Aldi's planners!! I used one this year and was exactly what I wanted...nice, big area to write down all my thoughts about workouts. Then I also write just the workout title and minutes I worked out in the calendar area of the month that is tabbed, so when I go back, I can see at a glance which workouts I did that month. Can't go wrong with the price, either.

It looks like these are very similar to the Happy Planners with fewer stickers. There are a few stickers in the back but I haven't used them...they're mostly used as markers and reminders.

T2B, I like your idea of using them as motivational rewards!

[sherry7899]

Originally Posted by AnMrsDe

LOVE the Aldi's planners!! I used one this year and was exactly what I wanted...nice, big area to write down all my thoughts about workouts. Then I also write just the workout title and minutes I worked out in the calendar area of the month that is tabbed, so when I go back, I can see at a glance which workouts I did that month. Can't go wrong with the price, either.

It looks like these are very similar to the Happy Planners with fewer stickers. There are a few stickers in the back but I haven't used them...they're mostly used as markers and reminders.

T2B, I like your idea of using them as motivational rewards!

It looks like they are offering more stickers in the new ones. I am going to look for the health planner tomorrow.