Dysfunctional Planner

January always feels like a clean slate. Maybe its that everything looks dead but there is lots of promise growing beneath the surface. We just need to patient and soon we will have spring, blossom and all its glory.

It has come around so quickly.

After The chaos of Christmas we naturally have a clean out, put all the decs away, fill the house with more candles and look sadly at the corner where the tree used to live.

January is full of plans and promises.

New years resolutions are generally held for the month, even if they disappear into the either after that. I like to sit down and start my new planner. Although I didn’t need any new pens I couldn’t resist my new Staedtler fine liners.

Is anything better than crossing off a list.

If you have completed a bullet journal and are onto the next then this is the most exciting part

So I thought I would share with you my pages I use and love and the ones I started but never looked back at.

Love:

Year at a glance, it’s a yearly calendar so you can see the dates, circle any birthdays or holiday you have booked. It easy

Bill tracker. Yes I could do this all on my phone looking at my accounts but when the bills get mixed up with payments I like to tick them off. It makes me happy and feels like I am doing something. Also it makes me aware of my budget for the month.

Order tracker. I use this at work. I have my orders I have to put through every month. This makes sure that I don’t order things twice. I have to go through different systems so this little tick method reminds me of all my suppliers as well as all

Blog tracker

Again this one is for work. It helps me know what I am writing, when what images we need. Although we love other peoples work and always credit it in our blogs we know how important it is to create our own images but it takes time. Lots of planning and then follow ups on our social media.

Monthly spread

Again this is me seeing my month at a glance. This is especially good for planning my weekends, birthdays and other event. I always write when I have a workshop planned, parties just everything. When my friends meet up for a meal every so often, I can tell them when I am free. I am more likely to put in in my Bullet journal then in my phone.

Savings

We all know ( I bore you enough) that I am saving for my wedding. This fills me with Joy, I am already halfway through my target and still have 8 months of savings to go- so I am going to do it.

14 day meal plan

Okay so Gav loved this one. After every evening meal I would ask him what he wanted and he would always say I don’t mind. I love to cook and Gav loves to order takeout. We are trying to be healthier so I tried something knew.  I wrote 14 meals which are generally our favorites. I wrote out what I needed in each meal and then combined it to make a super grocery list. There were enough ingredients to make 14 meals but we weren’t a slave to it.  Take out was also an option on it! So after dinner I would ask Gav to choose and if he couldn’t decide I asked him for a number and we chose it based on that.

No wasted food, no extra food to buy for.

Not used

I tried a reading tracker. I am a big reader I generally read a book a week (the benefits of commuting) So I wrote a list of books I wanted to read and ended up ignoring them all and just buying books on my phone whenever the next one ran out. I also tend to read more than one book at one. At the moment I have a thriller on my phone for commuting, an organizing one in my bag in case I get bored of the phone one. A book about the army, which I bought because I had to wait two hours for my phone battery to be replace and then a murder mystery which I forgot I started reading.

Netflix tracker

Hmmm really don’t need this. Lots of people love it I guess its just the pure joy of ticking something off. Again I have a bout 4 series on the go at once. Me and Gavin live different things so Lemony Snicket, Diablo and The Protector we will watch together but You, The Sinner and The Staircase he is not interested in. But Netflix stores all the info for me so I don’t worry about loosing my place.

Water Tracker

I am trying to be heathy and drink more water. Now putting on its own page doesn’t make me look at it but I do put a mini tracker at the bottom of each day I find a lot more useful.

Weight tracker

Oh shoot me. No I am only kidding. I have a weight loss app on my phone and as I have to log my food I didn’t end up redoing it. Also seeing a list I am not great at completing makes me reach for a donut and fold over the page. I didn’t like filling out this page at all but I don’t mind the clinical aspects of the app.

Mood tracker

Ha ha ha ha not going to even try. I am a Scorpio, enough said.

Conclusion

I think a clean slate is great. I think a simple bullet journal is better. This year is going to be jam packed enough without fancy pages and more trackers but I am generally happy with it.