How I use Multiple Planners

I am a planner addict. I will very openly put my hands up and admit that I like planners and so it stands to reason that I would have more than just one. I mainly have planners that are the Filofax brand BUT that is only because Websters Pages Color Crush are new and new to me. I have had some of my planners for quite a while now.  I am delighted by my Color Crush additions to my planner family and couldn’t be happier with them.  I also have a Paperchase planner and a couple of Fauxdori's.

One of the most frequently asked questions from people new to the planning community or for people who have one or two planners is ‘Do you use all those planners and how?”. The very short answer to that is no, I couldn’t possible use all of my planners at the same time. I would need a separate planner just to plan in when I was going to use my planners and that would just be crazy even for me!

So if I don’t use them all, why do I have them? OK so there is a couple of reasons, firstly my friends and family know that I like planners so buy them for me as gifts for my birthday and Christmas etc and to be perfectly honest that is how I have gotten most of my planners. Secondly I like to buy them and I use them as an accessory. There I have said it. Please don't judge me! I am not really into handbags and I only have two! One is a cross body daily and the other a posh hand held one for when such an occasion arises. I buy planners and change in and out of them like other people would with handbags. I just like to change colour or design with my mood, season or how I fancy decorating that week / month.

For me my planner is a planning tool. I Use them for, well, planning. Anything that is coming up and needs to be sorted or needs to get done. That for me is the difference between a journal and a planner. The way I see it or the way it works for my life, a journal and a planner are two separate things. I use a journal for recording what has happened in my day, thoughts, feelings, memories, that kind of thing and I use a planner for tracking appointments and to do lists. That is how it is currently working for me. Again there is a big BUT…one of the things I love about the Websters Pages Color Crush planners is that there are some great inserts to use as prompts for recording like you would in a journal. I am not currently using them in this way though. As you probably already know I also have the Large Florabunda planner from Ban.do on my shelf ready to use when August finally rolls around.

As for the planners I currently have and use this is how it works for me:

• Personal size – My daily everything. In that houses my calendar / diary sections, to do lists, blog planning and everything I need to plan for or jot ideas down for.Persoanl size – an old planner that I am not keen on houses my inserts that  I have taken out of my daily, that is the weeks that have passed that I no longer need to have with me

• Personal size – A red planner for keeping everything to do with Christmas planning. This only really comes out from October onwards and houses everything to do with Christmas cards, gifts, travel, house guests, meal planning etc. Check out my Christmas planning series here.

• A5 size – For all the information pertaining to my online retail business such as furture planning, potential stock ideas and supplier information.

• A5 size – which I fondly refer to as my ‘fluffyfax’ this has information pertaining to my three bunnies and two guinea pigs such as their nail trim logs, vaccination records, health records and care notes for when we are on holiday. Check out the FluffyFax here.

• A5 size – working as a home management binder where I record things like which room we painted, when and in what colour paint etc.

 

Only my personal daily which just so happens to be a Color Crush planner at the moment is the one that I look in, well errrrm, daily! This planner goes around the house with me. It sits open next to me on my desk so I can glance at it when I am working. It comes down stairs and sits on my breakfast bar in my kitchen and if I feel like having a cup of tea and a planning session then it comes into the lounge or family room with me too. Of course when I am out and about my daily planner comes too.  I have my schedule with me if I am at the doctors surgery and need to make a follow up appointment, the to do list is there if I am out in town and suddenly remember something I need to do and my notes and ideas are there if I am out having a herbal tea (not coffee he he!) and want to do a little brain dumping. Everything is all in the one place which is what I like.

My motto definitely is ‘your planner only works for you if you actually use it’. What I mean is you have to write in it and you have to refer to it. If you do that you have no excuse for missing things that you needed to get done.  All of my other planners that you could say I am currently using (the ones above) only actually get used when I need to do something in them so it makes sense for me to have them separate.  It makes no sense carrying things around with me that just don’t serve a purpose.