Planner Love!

I have loved paper planners for as long as I can remember.  Some of my earliest memories of my dad are of him sitting at the desk each month with his Day-Timer.  I watched with anticipation as he took the completed month insert out of his leather cover and replaced it with the insert for the new month.  I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to have one of my own.  I’m serious.  I REALLY couldn’t wait!  So, I did what any desperate child would do – I created my own.  I gathered the nicest paper I could find and cut and folded until I had just what I wanted, then stapled everything together.  The Day-Timer had perforated corners so you could tear of the corner each day and go right to the new day.  I figured that must be important, so I drew lines in my “custom planner” to represent the perforation and dutifully tore of a corner each day. 

As I got older my planners evolved.  I loved little notebooks of any kind.  I remember being a teenager when a paper store opened in the local mall.  In my memory, I can still feel the texture of the binder cover I left the store with that day.  They had a whole store filled with different pretty pages to customize your planner. 

Time has gone by.  I have had Day-Timer planners, Dollar Store planners, Franklin Covey Planners… the list goes on.  My husband loves to tell me that I need an organizer to organize my organizers.  I used to think he was kidding. I TRIED using a Palm Pilot and other electronic organizers when they first came out, but none of them gave me the same sense of satisfaction that I felt when using a paper planner.

We live in an incredible age of technology.  Someone in my family can enter an event on the phone calendar and it automagically (no, I didn’t forget to spell check, I say this is a word and I’m sticking to it!) appears on each family member’s phone.  This is a great convenience and I do use it. 

However, I am much more productive if there is a paper planner in my life.  I love the ability to look at the whole month at a glance, color code events, add stickers or washi tape, etc.  My planner is more than my daily schedule and “To Do” list; it is a creative outlet.

I love the feeling of accomplishment when I look at my calendar and see items on my to do list checked off.  I am one of those people that has been known to add something I have already done to my list, just so I can have the satisfaction of checking it off.

My current planner love is the Erin Condren Life Planner.  I’ve been using it for years and I love the interchangeable covers, and other available accessories.  After being out of school for over 38 years, I started college again this semester and found that my list of things I need to do and remember no longer fit in my Life Planner.  So, what is a self-proclaimed planner addict to do?  Buy another planner, of course!  My new Erin Condren Academic Planner is sitting at my local FedEx waiting to be delivered tomorrow.  I can hardly stand the wait.  I’ll share pictures of my “new toy” soon.

Being a planner addict is serious business.  How does a planner addict store all things planner related?  I finally found a solution that I love. Check back next Thursday and I will show you my solution!

What is your favorite planner? Do you use stickers and washi tape or are you a “keep it simple and only use pen” planner? Comment below!