I just finished a yearly project. Each day of the month I posted on a pre-determined theme. During the month of November, I'll post a collage of all my photos on the daily theme from the past year. The theme for the seventeenth day of the month was "Method."
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Advertisement - In which I talk about a Burger King commercial way too much. YOU RULE.
Tracking Books - My system for recording what I've read. Why do I even need a system?
Writing Daily - Everyone who said they enjoyed what I was writing for these prompts in month three are probably regretting their words now.
Yoga Accommodations - I still try not to do child's pose if I can help it.
Doing Laundry - Maybe my most controversial post?
Approaching Quarterly Goals - How I do goals.
What's Wrong THIS time? - Hannah goes on hunger strike.
What's Wrong THIS time? - Hannah goes on hunger strike.
Goal Tracking - A tour through my paper planner.
Finding Books and Podcasts - How I find things to entertain me.
Evolution of the Perfect Shot - Zelda being beautiful.
How To Get Snail Mail - My long-term plan is finally working.
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Hannah count: 1
Zelda count: 1
Modes of transportation count: 2
Library count: 2
Book count: A lot.
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My current conundrum has to do with my goal tracking journal (see the Goal Tracking post linked above). I have used it for the last two years and after December, it will be out of pages, so I need to figure out a new way to track my goals. I see three main options.
1) Just buy another journal with mostly empty pages and keep on doing what I have been for the last two years by essentially tailoring each page to what I want to track. Pros: I have been consistent about this and it works for me. Cons: It's annoying to have to create the layouts from scratch every month.
2) Find an actual journal for tracking goals and/or planning and make it work for me. Pros: Layouts are done! Cons: I'd have to do a lot of research to figure out what planner would work for me.
3) Go digital. Just keep a spreadsheet on my computer that I can fill in and/or print out every month to fill in. Pros: Cheap and available. I won't have to lug around a notebook/planner when I travel. Cons: I know that I will NOT go to computer before bed every night to fill in a spreadsheet the same way I sit at the dining room table for two minutes to fill out my paper journal, so I might fall behind more than I do now.
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Which method would you use? Basically, this is one of those situations when I would like An Adulting Manual or someone who would just make decisions for me.
I have just resigned myself to using a Moleskine for most things. I do have a planner, but ALL planners are hit or miss for me.
ReplyDeleteThis is shameful, but I don't like how Moleskine smell. Isn't that weird? My husband loves his, but I am just not into it!
DeleteThat sounds so grown up... I've never noticed the smell, but after I learned the way to pronounce "Moleskine" it was uncomfortably too close to "molest" for me. Also I use markers, and they sometimes bleed through the paper.
DeleteI LOVE paper planners, NGS--but it sounds like a digital spread sheet would give you the control you crave and bring you the joy of tracking in detail.
Hang on - is it pronounced Mole ESS kin???
DeleteI can't help you. I have no goals. 😊
ReplyDeleteIf you don't NEED goals, that probably indicates a level of motivation I do not possess on my own.
DeleteI am not a goal tracker, but if I were, digital would be my choice. I tried doing some rudimentary goal tracking earlier this year, using a spreadsheet, and it worked okay for awhile and then I stopped doing it. HOWEVER I think that you should continue doing what you're doing. I would guess -- though I don't know for sure -- that it would be very difficult to find a notebook with templates that match exactly what you need. It might be a pain to set things up every month, but at least you can do it the way you want to.
ReplyDeleteI WANT to be a digital person, but it turns out that I'm just not enough of a digital native to make that comfortable for me. I hate to admit it because I know I'm showing my age!
DeleteI think you should do what is working for you but if it was me, I'd go traditional planner. Every year I go to the bookstore and look at what's there, and choose one that I like. I like a weekly layout so I can see easily what's up for the week, and my planner also has a month-at-a-glance page, and pages for special dates, etc.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should go to a bookstore or office supply store and take a look at the planners. There are so many - there has to be one that will work for me.
DeleteI'm a paper planner person, not a computer planner person. I use a small Franklin Covey planner with a monthly view so I can see ahead what is going to be happening all month at a time. I don't do the goal tracking/values part of it anymore. Somehow I feel like doing that held me back.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I'll definitely go paper. It's just a question of whether or not I design it myself or use a planner's template.
DeleteI'm definitely Team Paper. But I don't track my goals like you do. I agree with Suzanne that you should probably keep doing what you're doing, since it seems to be working well. This reminds me that I have to start looking for a 2024 planner!
ReplyDelete2024 is just around the corner! Isn't that crazy?! It seems like we were just starting January.
DeleteI'm Team Paper but I've also mostly stopped tracking more than a few things daily (which I track in my daytimer but I DON'T keep my daytimers, and I get the sense you may keep these)?
ReplyDeleteI will probably NOT keep them. Most of the information contained in them is on my blog somewhere, so I have a record. I don't decorate them with photos or stickers or anything. But it's just that I will use them, whereas I probably will fall off a digital wagon.
DeleteI do digital tracking, but it sounds like the pen to paper tactile tracking is much more rewarding for you! Can you make one version of you tracker and have it copied and bound to fill out?
ReplyDeleteOooohhhh...you know what? This is a GENIUS idea. I will play around with it if I have time this weekend.
DeleteI'm a paper person, too, and I've think that that even though I think I'd like to create my own layout, I'd be more likely to use that as an excuse and let it fall off vs. just finding something I can work with.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take me all that long (maybe 10 -15 minutes) a month to get the layout done. But I do grumble about it. I'm liking Kim's idea of creating something digital and then copying it so I don't have to do it anew every month.
DeleteI'm wondering what goals you are tracking. Is this obvious to everyone but me? I'm not tracking my goals, so do I just suck? I guess I'd vote to go with the paper notebook that works for you. Could you make up your template and bring it to a printer and have them make it into a notebook for you?
ReplyDeleteI do quarterly goals because I am lazy and if I do not have the encouragement of having to post results every quarter, I'd do nothing. I track that goal progress every night. I think I will do a digital version of my current tracking worksheet and then put it all into a binder. I am not sure why this never occurred to me to do, but I'll get started working on it when I have time.
DeleteI am always motivated when I get a new planner but then life happens and I give up. The goals are still there but are just tracked mentally 😂 If I would do it I am paper all the way. If I put it down on paper it sinks in more (paper and brain) for me.
ReplyDeleteOh, boy, if I tracked things mentally, I'd always give myself way too much credit! Sure, I worked out five times last week. LOL.
DeleteMy Fitbit unfortunately does not lie about that 😂
DeleteI'd probably, if I were you, just keep doing what you are doing. It seems like it does work for you, and I think I might find sitting down monthly to sketch that out, with a cup of tea, relaxing. That said, if you really get annoyed by it, then I think I would look for something new.
ReplyDeleteRe: digital habit tracking- I do this, and I have chosen to do it first thing when I sit down at my computer in the morning, not at night. I would never do it at night, either. So maybe consider doing it in the a.m., like right when you get to work? I do it on a Google Sheet so I can access it from my work computer. I find I can easily remember what I did the day before, so long as I do it rather early in the day. If I wait until I've done a bunch of things on the new day, well, the day before starts to get fuzzy. haha.
Ugh. There is so much to my morning routine that I'm hesitant to add more. I would consider this if the first hour or two I was at work were quiet, but they are not. It's interesting to me that it fits into your morning schedule - everyone's lives are so different!
DeleteI am a paper girl, but I also have a habit of buying cute notebooks and not using them, so I have zero business saying anything here. I have just resolved to use a notebook to write down the Christmas cards I send this year. That's one!
ReplyDeleteI don't track my habits nearly enough - I think I subconsciously worry that I already don't have enough time in the day to DO the stuff, how am I going to find even more time to WRITE about the stuff?
I have had my Christmas list in electronic form for maybe a decade at this point. I just update it during the year when I get new addresses. It has really made the last minute December card free for all so much easier, but it was a pretty big time commitment up front. Now it just lives in my Google Drive and I can check it anywhere.
DeleteI'd go digitial.... for the sole reason that you can archive and SEARCH your trackers. It's just so convenient (although I really love paper!). Could you do a small daily paper log and then fill out the log on computer once a week? Or too much work?
ReplyDeleteUgh. Fill out a daily log AND then go to digital. That sounds like WORK, San. WORK!
DeleteAm I supposed to have goals that I track? Feeling totally inferior today. 😳😳
ReplyDeleteI have goals to track or else I would never do anything except read on the couch with my cat. If you're internally motivated, you don't need to track your goals!
DeleteI spend way too much of my time researching goal planners and then I give up because nothing is EXACTLY what I want. Maybe I need to design one myself but that feels like way too much work. I will be interested to see if you find a journal that works for you!
ReplyDeleteThe research is so HARD because a lot of journals won't show you examples of their layouts and I get why they wouldn't want to show them, but it makes it hard for me to make a decision.
DeleteI used to use this simple one-page habit tracker. I wrote my habits down the side, and then it had the days of the month across the top - made a grid. I put an "X" in each box for the habits that I did that day. I liked it but you probably wouldn't (loose paper). :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I think a variation of this would work for me. I'd definitely want some nice graphing paper, though! It could be loose paper or poke some holes in it and put in in a binder would be easy enough.
DeleteHere is another option: if you like the design your created for this journal why not copy it and have it binded/bound (?!) in a copy shop? This way you know it works and it probably wont be so much more expensive.
ReplyDelete