March, for me, was a bit of a planner/journal mess. I traveled a lot in March which threw off both my rhythm for regularly updating my planner while I was on the road but also made getting caught up in the time I was home difficult because I was also trying to catch up on work. Oh, and I caught “con crud” — twice. So, that also threw my cadence for keeping up with everything way off.
I tell you this to encourage you not to give up or blame your planner or system. Sometimes, stuff just gets in the way. My solution for planner/journal mess-ups are as follows:
- Try to do a little back filling: if you can remember something that happened on a particular day that you can go back and add in your journal or planner, do it. Even if there are 4 blank pages or slots in between. It’s better to document a few things then nothing at all. As you add in those one or two things, other memories might come back to you. Maybe you have to jump around. “Oh yeah, we ordered that delicious take-out on Thursday and Tuesday I spent an inordinate amount of time on hold with tech support.” Maybe there’s nothing for Wednesday? That’s ok.
- If you are traveling or sick or something else majorly disrupts your regular writing, go to those days and just write “SICK!” or “In Chicago”. Later, it will at least trigger reminders of the big events, even if you weren’t able to remember anything else.
- Use the start of a new month, or your birthday, or the day back to school after Spring Break as a chance to renew your commitment to keeping up your journal or planner or memory keeping.
- Find the right time to write. Some people are morning people and want to get all their to-do’s into their planner first thing in the morning. Some people just want to drink coffee (that’s me). I find I am most planner productive at lunch. So, I grab my lunch and my journal and sit somewhere that is not my desk and update whatever I need to. On particularly busy days, I may wait and do it after dinner. I have a lovely lap desk that I will set on my lap while sitting on the couch in the evenings and add doodles and what not while watching an episode or two of a favorite show.
The bottomline is that you want to write or doodle or memory keep or whatever brings you back to those lovely paper notebooks, pens, washi and whatnot. So let yourself love the time you set aside and don’t punish yourself or throw the planner out with the bathwater (that sounded better in my head) just because life got away from you.
So with all that said, this month, I will walk you through my not-so-well-done planners and give you a little insight on how I plan to reignite my planner passion in April.
What am I using:
Notebook:
- Stalogy Editor’s Series 365Days Notebook B6 Size
- (leather cover is no longer available)
Pens & Ink:
- Pentel Fude Touch Brush Sign Pen in Pale Pink
- Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Highlighter Brush in Mild Smoke Blue
- Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Highlighter in Mild Dusty Pink
- Kuretake Zig CleanColor Dot in Salmon
- Bandai Sun-Star Dot é Pen in Pink and Mint
- Marvy Le Pen Flex in Peppermint
- Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4mm in Magenta
- Pilot Juice Up Gel Pen – 0.4 mm (Classic Glossy – 6 Color Set)
- Sailor Line Friends “CONY” Pro Gear Slim fountain pen
- Franklin Christoph 45 fountain pen (retired model, no longer available)
- Callifolio Ohlanga
- Colorverse Light on Ceres
Stickers, Washi Tape, Etc.
- Col-o-ring “Oversize”
- Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book (Standard Size)
- Date Dots Sticker Sheet
- Days of the Week Sticker Sheet
- Darling Ducks Sticker Sheet
- Lovely Leaves Sticker Sheet
- King Jim Kitta Washi Tape in Palette
- Bunches of Botanicals Sticker Book
- The Botanist’s Sticker Anthology
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My March was similar. My brother came to visit for two weeks. I didn’t write anything in my page a day notebook. I caught a cold while he was here, that was bothering me after he left. I haven’t had a cold in years. I forgot how they hang on. So I didn’t get back to writing.
I wish I’d made small notes while he was here. Now all I can think to do is leave one entry that covers when he was here, then another about having the cold. Then get back to a page a day. It was that easy to fall out of the habit of writing. It took a long time to get into the page a day habit. I need to get back to it. Thank you for sharing your March experiences that threw off your writing. It helps to know I’m not alone in this. I was going to wait for April to start. Now I’m going to work on it today. I have so many fountain pens, and that should kickstart the habit. Thank you so very much.