My Planner Routine

 Today I thought I would share my planner routine.  It's quite an ordeal for me to keep up with all of them, but I also enjoy it.  And so far, I've kept up with all 7 of them.  Worst case scenario is that yesterday I got home from dinner and was too tired to rehash my day, so I updated them this morning.  The memories are still fresh, with the exception of what I ate yesterday, which isn't of vital importance in the grand scheme of things.  

Why do I have 7 planners, you ask?  Because I love writing, I love notebooks, and I couldn't narrow it down to fewer, quite frankly.  

Last year I used a Hobonichi Weeks as my daily carry and love the size and shape of it for keeping in my purse and writing out my work schedule and appointments, which I'm doing again this year.  At the end of the day, I record how my day at work went and any other important bullet points like important things that happened.  It has some blank space in the back for me to record other things like tv shows I watch, knitting patterns I'm trying to keep track of, etc.  This year I went with the regular version instead of the Mega since last year I didn't use much of the back space.  

Also living in my purse is my Hobonichi A6 Notebook which I use as my social media planner.  I jot down notes for posts I want to make, I drafted a schedule of ideas for the month ahead, and generally brainstorm for my blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Youtube.  I keep this with me so that I can potentially work on it when I'm on lunch break at work, although I tend to scroll social media instead of working on my content. 

When I get home at night, or before I go to sleep, I sit down and write in the other 5 journals/planners that live in a bin next to my bed.  

1. In my 8-in-1 sketchbook journal, I record my mood for the day, note anything that I talked to my kids about, track any spending, note any learning or crafting progress, write anything notable about my social media accounts, and record a bit of gratitude.  This one isn't something I spend a lot of time on.  I have a brain dump section if there's something I'm trying to puzzle my way through.  But for the most part, it's just relevant bullet points in each section that's applicable to that particular day.  
2. In my Hobonichi Techo A6 (English version) I do longhand journaling about everything that happened that day.  The A6 size is perfect to record a couple paragraphs and summarize my day so that in the future I will be able to get a good view of my life's day to day happenings.  I hope to build a library of these so that I can look back on them in my old age. 
3. The Aura Estelle Hourly A5 planner is where I record my work hours and everything else I do throughout the day to kind of know how I'm spending my time.  It's messy and quick.  I miss the Erin Condren Daily Duo for the hourly record aspect of what I accomplish in a day, but I don't need a whole page per day to record that stuff either.  I like having the week at a glance with my work hours blocked off so I can visually see how my week is shaping up.  I tend to get more done on days that I go into work late because I can get stuff done in the morning before work.  Most nights that I get home earlier in the day and just veg because I'm worn out.  
4. Erin Condren Habit Tracker notebook - I got this one a year or two ago and never used it.  I make a weekly list of tasks I should be working on for that week.  I write the days across the top and just X off the tasks that I actually accomplish each day.  This is a newer idea for me, and I'm not sure how it's working as this is only the second week, but at least I get a daily reminder when I check in that I'm supposed to be working on stuff this week that I might otherwise forget about, like scheduling appointments or reorganizing my yarn stash. 
5. And, finally, my Bullet Journal 2.0.  This notebook I pre-formatted for my year ahead with the pages already labeled with each week, my monthly goals pages, and my budget and spending trackers.  In the front is my no-spend tracker, my gratitude tracker, and all my goals for the year from my Makse Life-derived goal planning.  Each night I record my spending, the thing I'm grateful for that day, and then turn to the weekly view and record some bullet points of the day and cross off any task bullets I completed and sometimes record some bullets for tomorrow that need to get done. I'm not really a bullet journal follower - I found the video about how to bullet journal when Ryder Carroll put out his first video on it many years ago.  I like the original iteration of it where there was no preplanning, you just grew the notebook as you went.  It was a Moleskine and a pen.  I could handle that.  Then people like Kara from Boho Berry came along and made spreads and trackers and banners and beautified the whole thing and I just couldn't keep up with that aesthetic. I like to be able to plan ahead, so I pre-dated the notebook.  It will also keep me accountable since each page has its purpose and I don't want to waste them.  I don't pre-layout the weekly view though.  Some weeks I separate into 8 equal areas, sometimes I bullet each day's information free-form and use as many or few lines as needed for each day.   This week I set up a To Do list at the top to cover things I must accomplish this week.  I think I will eventually discover a layout that works well and stick with it, but right now I'm just experimenting.  

So, that about sums up how I use and keep track of my 7 planners.  Do you use a paper planner?  Do you have more than 1?  I'd love to hear your experience!