Planner Peace Chronicles: Myth or Real?

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If you've been planning for as long as I have you've probably wondered if 'Planner Peace' is even possible. You sit back and think of all the planners, stationery products, organizational systems, and random tools you've accumulated throughout the years and you wonder: When will I find the ONE?

In the year of our LORD 2024, I think I'm a little more closer to understanding what 'Planner Peace' is, but the journey has been long and it has been hard.

Planner Peace Round One: Disc Planners

The planner I'm currently using goes back to my first love, discs. I was first introduced to discs back in 2015, through the Happy Planner brand. The interchangeability of the pages and covers was everything my heart desired at the time. 

In the craft store, Michaels, there was a lot more variety in customization options in the city where I lived back in 2015, but now it's somewhat slim picking if you decide to go in-store. If you go to The Happy Planner's website/store you'll get so overwhelmed by all of the options, but you'll never be without a planner, system, nor accessories to make sure everything matches. But, it was this lack of access and options from Michaels, along with a myriad of other things, that I sort of broke away from this brand and moved on to another favorite, traveler's notebooks.

Planner Peace Round Two: Traveler's Notebooks and Hobonichi Planners

This planner and its system I adapted lasted me about three months. This actuality bummed me out since I paid almost $100 for one of the covers I purchased for this planner. Color me frustrated.

While using this planner for my everyday tasks and plans, I was filled with discontentment; I couldn't really find my groove with this planner since it came with limitless possibilities and every one of them not fitting what I needed to be productive.

Realistically, I felt a disconnect with this planner because it didn't resemble what I saw on Instagram and Pinterest. Yep, peer pressure and planner insecurities assailed me and I was starting to resent my first traveler's notebook.

Since I was never one to fit anyone's mold I branched off and decided to use multiple planners to achieve planner peace. My thinking was along the lines of I was trying to fit too much into one planner that maybe having multiple ones would be the solution. Unfortunately, this wasn't a solve either.

Throughout the years since my first traveler's notebook, I would try my hand at starting up a new one, I even thought changing sizes would benefit. It wasn't long with this system that I began to pull away and go right back to being stagnant in my plans and goals. It's crazy how much a planning system can have on someone.

The same roadblocks I encountered with traveler's notebooks oddly became present when I acquired my first hobonichi cousin avec. I thought I had hit the lottery with this planning system. It had a monthly, weekly, and daily view and I would have never needed to leave my planner. Well...it wasn't long before all those layouts began to overwhelm me and I started resenting having to fill all of them in.

Gosh, is it me, am I the problem? LOL. 

Planner Peace Round Three: Spiral Planners

Now enters my most expensive experiment and probably the only planner that has helped me figure out what type of planner/organizer I am. 

My first order from Erin Condren was back in 2020, I believe. I had a plan, a vision, for the things I wanted to accomplish and the hourly and vertical layouts they provided were right up my alley. Like I said, I had a plan.

I wasn't until I began to feel that suffocation I felt with the traveler's notebooks that I started to shy away from these planners. Unbeknownst to me, the restriction of the spirals and the limitless possibilities of the traveler's notebook was where I needed to gauge my productivity, but I didn't know that until just recently.

In my opinion, these planners are great memory keepers. For a whole year worth of memories these planners are awesome, but for getting the dirty work of running multiple income streams it wasn't enough for me.

Planner Peace Round Four: Bullet Journals

For memory's sake I had:

• My first bullet journal (A6 & A5)
• A Webster's Pages standard TN, and
• My Pocket Plus TN every now and then

The shocking thing though was that I stayed in my A6-sized bullet journal for three whole months. I absolutely loved it. Of course, things couldn't have stayed perfect for long.

It wasn't long before I began to feel that I needed a bigger size. After some research on my favorite online stores, I picked up an a5 journal. Another planner dies away into the dust lol.

I fell out of love with the A5 planner quicker than I expected, but with this one the size felt too narrow. Eventually, I moved on to the generic journals Michael's had for $7.99-9.99 and haven't looked back since. I still keep me one of those on hand whenever it strikes me to do some bullet journaling.

Conclusion:

After the many planners and brands, I have gone back to my first love, the disc planner and bullet journal. Mind you, I'm not using these together as a planning system, they each serve their own purpose in keeping me productive. My disc planner is for my everyday (work, life, future plans, notes, etc.) and my bullet journal acts as a brain dump; each new page helps structure the very things I want to implement in the future or in the right now. I get very detailed in both, but they each serve different purposes.

With everything I have going on in my life now, I find that the space available from both planners works for me. Plus, with how I pack myself up to leave out the house to take care of business and what not I have no problem carrying one or the other in my bookbag.

The moral of the story, don't try to achieve 'planner peace' as the masses define it, but seek to find planner contentment for the individual YOU are, leave the imposter syndrome at the door. Understand why you're using the planner(s) you have and how they contribute to your life; this mindset going in to each purchase, or crafting session as you make your own planner, places you ahead of the game and less stressed. 

Happy Crafting!

♥︎ Leona (Crafting By The Pound)