As promised, here’s part 2 to our epic planning chat we started last month. We’ve deemed this “Special Interest” territory because honestly we could probably talk about this for a least a whole season if you gave us the chance!
In this episode we talk about everything from function over form to visual planning (with the usual meandering in between). We wrap up with the end of year rituals we’ll be embracing for the end of 2025 in the hopes it’ll inspire you with your planning over the next month. (or any time you’re listening to this if you’re in the future somewhere!)
Even managed to make the embedded player festive, because it’s December!
What we talk about
Functional vs pretty planning. Feeling intimidated by the gorgeous spreads you often see online, and worrying that we wouldn’t measure up. But for us, function is always more important than aesthetics – it doesn’t matter how pretty a planner is if it doesn’t work for you and your life.
Though pretty doesn’t always have to mean artistry – stickers, washi tape, doodles, reinforcement rings & colourful pens and highlighters all add a dopamine hit to your planning. If your planner’s nice to look at it probably increases the chance of you using it? (say the two absolutely not scientists…)
The inevitability of cycling through different systems as your needs change. No planning system lasts forever, and we’ve both outgrown or fallen out of love with various planners that once worked brilliantly for us. It’s an annoying fact of life, but once you’ve accepted it it’s an excuse to keep a backup planner on hand!
A practical tip that’s saved us some planner guilt is using undated planners, and dating only the current and next month. This means we don’t waste pages if (when!) we set a planner aside for a while. There’s no pang of guilt for unused weeks or months, we just pick the system back up when we need it and put in the current dates..
Permission not to follow every rule, because your system doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s, and you can ignore the bits that don’t work for you. For instance if you hate habit trackers or vertical calendar layouts, skip them. Only use what is genuinely useful to you from each system. (Carla may or may not have created stickers to change her Clever Fox from a Sunday start to a Monday start because she cannot cope with starting a week on a Sunday!)
Habit trackers were an interesting contrast for us and it turns out we feel quite differently about them. Their most useful job in our experience is to track things like health changes, sleep, medication or fitting in joy, to help us notice patterns visually that we may not see otherwise in the noise of everyday life.
But if you’re finding they feel more like a pass/fail tool and ultimately don’t improve your life, don’t use them! (you can always just colour in squares in odd moments for mindfulness!).
We also talked about
We took a scenic detour past vision boarding, because that very much feels like it’s part of annual planning. Vision boards can be powerful both in the creation and as a regular reminder of your goals, intentions, dreams & plans, and we’ve both enjoyed physical and digital versions.
Annual rituals also made it into this conversation, both reviewing the year just gone and planning for the year ahead. These will be highly personal, but ours include both some dreaming and some practical stuff – because so does life!
On the planning front, Sarah is very good at blocking out time off first, so that work fits around life rather than life having to squidge into tiny pockets of time. Carla is less good at this but working on it!
We had a little chat about paper vs digital planning, and what’s suited us in the past and what we’re using now. Sarah’s mostly digital with a bit of paper, and considering adding more paper. Carla has a terrifying to outsiders sprawling system of mainly paper (Filofaxes, physical planners & the Remarkable) plus Google Calendar. Again, whatever works for your brain is the correct system for you at any point.
Both of us do quick monthly reviews. These don’t have to be complicated, but can help ground you by noticing the passing of time and being more present, keeping perspective, counteracting panic and letting you see progress as it happens.
We’ll probably never have a single succinct point to sum up our meandering chats in our episodes, but for this one we’d love you to know that:
- your planner doesn’t have to be pretty
- you’ll almost definitely fall in & out of love with different systems over time
- the only rule is that it has to work for you
So don’t be afraid to tweak, customise & change things when you need to!
We’d love to know what your planning systems are, what you’ve settled on, what you’re still searching for and how you use them to keep track of your life!
Links you’ll love
Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year & Word of the Year