Are you a planner? A list maker? Do you keep a color coded calendar, beautifully decorated with coordinating task stickers?.... You are my hero. By nature I am a note taker, a notebook oriented list maker. I am always seeking order in life and planning my days, weeks and months are an important part of that. Am I successful? Hardly ever. Do I get up and try again? Everyday! Keeping my house clean, lunches packed, laundry done, meals on the table, lessons planned and transporting my four kids to where they need to be is a job for a small village! Is it possible to do it all and do it well, sure I think so, is it possible for me to do it all, not a chance. But you know, I'm okay with that. Most days we get to where we need to be, in clean clothes, on time and with a good meal in our stomachs. I have been known to forget a snack day here and there and I have ordered a pizza on occasion but for the most part our daily plan works for us. I do believe we all need a plan for our days and a list of what needs to be done. For planning, I use both a notebook and a planner. I have used many different planners over the years but the last 2 years I have used the Erin Condren Life Planner and also the Erin Condren Simple Notebook. The Erin Condren Life planner has become very popular in the planner community and rightly so. They are beautiful books, well made and thoughtful.
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I love that there are so many beautiful covers to choose from and the covers can be personalized if you wish. The planner is set up by the month and with in each month the weeks are displayed on a two page spread with the days divided into 3 sections. Morning, Day and Night. Although I do not use these sections as intended, this set up is perfect for me. I write over the sections with Home, School and Blog. In the Home section I record any appointments or activities for the family. I also list my house routines and projects I'm working on. The School section is where I record any plans for activities for my preschool classes and the Blog section is used for post planning. The clean pages below usually end up covered in sticky notes by the end of the week.
The bottom of the page is perfect for meal planning while the Goals section works well for an easy "To Do" list. As you can see, there are no fun stickers or fancy post-its. Simple is where its at!
My planning notebook is used for more extensive "To Do" lists, grocery lists, recipes, day to day notes etc. The system of a planner and notebook has worked so well for me. I do not always complete all the lists I make but I try my best everyday. With all the jobs we Moms complete everyday how can we kick ourselves for the few that don't get done?
Make your lists and give it all you got. Tomorrow is a new day!
xoxo Mickey