Sugar Paper Planner

I am a planner. I thoroughly enjoy the process of all things planning related. 

Documenting lists, creating schedules, goal planning, organizing ideas and schedules. Ticking off each item as I get it done.  Even going back and recording the things that I already did just to have the satisfaction of ticking the item off.

Planning supplies. Paper, notebooks, notepads for lists, stickers, colorful pens (staedtler fine liners are my favorite), cute characters, florals, and geometric prints. I love it all.

I could sit in my office for hours just organizing and planning my day, my week, my life, my grocery list, my list of bills to pay, scheduling activities, my business, cataloging information (paper and electronic).

Me and planning are tight. 

There is something I find incredibly satisfying about the whole process.  I have dabbled with using planners off and on over the years.  For a long time I had a large Day Runner that contained my life (contacts, calendar, bills, important info, etc.).  A few years ago I stopped using a paper planner and moved to Google Calendar.  My husband and I decided it was the best way to keep ourselves reminded of what was going on and inform each other of things we had schedules.  I love Google Calendar for this.  We each have individual calendars that we share and then we have Meal Calendar that we used for awhile to plan our meal menus each week.  Now that I am on Keto, we haven't used it but when we did, we loved it. It definitely kept us eating at home more because we had a plan.  Our Google Calendar usually contains appointments that we have, the school schedule for the year (in-service days, early release days, conferences, etc.), birthdays, and other various reminders.  The Google Calendar continues to work for us but also I realized it wasn't helping me with the things that my old paper planner did like goal setting, planning activities that weren't appointments, ensuring that I make time to do things for myself, etc. 

At the beginning of 2016 I decided to move back to using a paper planner in addition to the Google Calendar.  The Planner that I purchased was fairly inexpensive (from Target) by Sugar Paper.  Sugar Paper makes a line of all things stationary related. My planner has a monthly calendar and then a weekly page that allows me to plan tasks, people/places to call, things to buy, and people/places to email. It also has a monthly page that allows me to goal-set for the month -- Financial Goals, Work Goals, Personal Goals, etc. I really like the setup of the planner and it works well with how I think.  It also includes little slots in the front to stick bills that need to be dealt with. 

I have found that since moving back to a paper planner my ability to accomplish tasks has really improved. I feel like each week, my family and I have achieved many things and widdled down our to-do list.  From a small-business perspective my planner has definitely helped keep me accountable to the goals I set each month.  It has even helped in ensuring that I make time to blog and get my posts up on here each week.

If you are in the market for a planner, there is a great many out there as the world seems to have gotten planner-fever the last couple of years.  There are certainly some very customizable, fancy planners (and pricey) like Erin Condren and Day Runner but there are also planners for those that maybe don't need something so extravagant.  The Happy Planner is a cheaper option that still gives you some of the customization options,