Like, super busy.
And it means that every minute I can be productive, I need to be! I've always been a paper person - paper books, paper record keeping, paper planner. I've been on the hunt for the perfect planner for MONTHS now, and I'm pretty sure I found it!
The past two years, I've used gorgeous Kate Spade planners, and I love them! They're beautiful, they were monogrammed, and they were a super simple design. But now, as life has become more complicated, it's been crucial to have areas to plan out family time, business obligations, and the normal hub-bub of every day. I went on the hunt for something different for 2017!
I did a lot of planner research. Like a LOT of planner research. There are so many great planners out there, but I was sold on Plum Paper Planners for a few reasons.
1. They have a gorgeous layout that can be broken down into M-A-E (morning, afternoon, evening). I love this because it helps me to budget my time throughout the day and not feel super overwhelmed by a daunting list. I can totally handle a few things in each subset of the day!
2. They offer a lot of really unique and fun add-ons - sections for meal planning, finances, cleaning schedules, direct sales, stickers, and so much more! (More on what I added on in a bit).
3. There are monthly goal planning sections at the beginning of each month. I'm incredibly goal oriented, and I LOVE that I can sit down at the beginning of each month and decide what's most important to get accomplished that month. I'm using my three sections for the three most important things for me: Family, KEEP, and House. One major goal for each category each month! (January's goals include planning a family getaway in the next few months, soaking in all the amazingness I can at Director's Summit next weekend, and finally tackling the organization of our walk in closet!)
4. There are SO many places to take notes! Like, every section has at least a note page or two, and there are additional note pages at the beginning and end of each month! If ever I'm out and about and genius strikes, I can jot everything down here instead of on something that will most likely get buried in the bottom of my purse. And since everything is tabbed and broken up, it makes it that much easier to find said notes!
So, now for my add on sections. There are truly so many to choose from, but I opted to keep it simple this year.
Meal Planning add on: This is a constant struggle in our house. I have the best of intentions when I go to the grocery store every week. But inevitably, I walk out with things for breakfast, a ton of sides, and maybe a dinner or two. I sort of dread my brain around 3 p.m., because I know that's the time when I'm going to start thinking about dinner and how little I have in the way of an actual meal. So, I'm REALLY excited about this section. It's not fancy - sections for monthly meal planning and grocery lists, favorite meals, and take out places - but, I'm already seeing a difference (meals are planned through January 14, what what?!). I'm hoping this will help take the stress of what's for dinner away and in turn give me some time back in my daily routine!
Direct Sales add on: This is the one area of my life where I don't mind having the digital help, and I'm SUPER lucky because KEEP offers us an amazing Lounge that organizes our orders, contacts, sales, and reports. So while I don't need the help keeping track of hostesses or parties, I DO want to have a visual for goal keeping, and I LOVE that this add on provides that! Each month, I can sit down to decide my goal number of parties, sales, incentives, and so much more. There's tracking for expenses, mileage, and month to month revenue, and I'm REALLY excited that this will be another component I can use to track my progress!
And I didn't even get in to all the OTHER customizing that can be done - covers, names, monograms, quotes, graphics, and so, so much more! Seriously, you have to take a look for yourself!
Question of the day: What do you look for in a planner? Do you have a company that you stick with year after year?
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