Elisabeth recently had a giveaway on her blog for a Sprouted planner. I did not enter because I have officially moved away from bulky paper planners. I used to have paper planners and loved them, but it honestly was hard to keep track of our household's comings and goings with it. My husband and I have a shared Google calendar and everything goes in there.
But I am looking for a simple physical journal that allows me to do two things:
2) Create daily to-do lists
I don't want inspirational journal prompts. I don't want endless blank pages for bullet journaling that will stress me out. I don't want a daily/monthly/yearly/5-year/10-year plan. I want a clean design with daily goal tracking and maybe a sidebar for a to-do list. Is that so hard to find?
Well, yes, yes it is. Apparently most people do want journal prompts, inspirational sayings, and blank pages.
Right now my system is that I hand create a goal tracker for each month in a journal. My to-do lists are scattered around the house in tiny papers and heaven forbid one item on the list doesn't get done because I will not throw that list away until it's done. Last year at this exact time, I wrote a very similar post to this one about how I wanted a simpler system, but guess who still doesn't have a simpler system?
Here are some options I've come upon:
1) A tracking calendar (or this) that I fill out nightly AND a pocket journal with blank pages that I carry around with me for my to-do lists (a day for each page)
2) Suck it up and get a slightly bulkier planner that has what I want AND other extraneous things
3) Buy a digital tracker and create my own tracking journal with printouts
I suspect that most people who track as much as I do track things electronically on digital spreadsheets and that's why I'm running into this problem. I'll have to figure out something in the next month and a half.
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Does anyone have a magical solution for me? If you're a goal-setter, how do you track your goals?
I just used a lined notebook-- I have a tendency to resist form.
ReplyDeleteI think the lined notebook would be fine for to-do lists. It would be nice to just have all my lists in ONE place, honestly. But it's not really practical for goal tracking, so I'd need something else in tandem. Honestly, maybe I should just stop setting so many goals that need to be tracked so much.
DeleteI just go with two planners - I have a Hobonichi Cousin that I use to track habits - I track on the monthly spreads. Then I have a separate planner for to dos, A hobonichi weeks. It's a smaller planner so fits in my purse. I don't have a good method for keeping all my to dos together either - things just pop in my head and I'll put them in my phone or in my planner depending what I can get to first.. What I really want, though, is to be able to synch my Outlook calendar at work with my personal Google calendar so I don't keep missing meetings or appointments.
ReplyDeleteI think you've mentioned the Hobonichi Cousin before and I do like the look of it. They're kind of pricey, but if it solved my problems, I could be converted. I feel like there's enough space in that planner for my to-do lists and I would love to have it all in one place. Hmmm...
DeleteIf you figure out how to synch your Outlook with Google, I would LOVE it. Right now I have my Outlook open at work AND my Google and every time I make a work appointment, I also add it to my Google calendar and it's SO MUCH WORK.
I have a planner that has a week at a glance, and a sidebar for to-do lists. Now, yes, it does have more than I need - monthly pages, a few pages for notes, stickers, etc - but generally speaking it does the job. I like to have it laid out with my daily things in it - what I need to do, what we are having for dinner - and occasionally I'll write a goal or two.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think I would be able to get away with this if I didn't want to track my goals, which is the big thing I'm still doing by hand!
DeleteI guess I don’t track things after the fact, but I use Alexa and Google Calendar to more or less keep me organized. The other day Calendar reminded me that I had a car appointment in ten minutes. It was only a block or two away, so I did make it in time.
ReplyDeleteHa! The life of a retired person. I check my calendar like eighty times a day, so something like that would not get missed. Although I did recently send out my nephew's birthday card two days late, so maybe I'm too cocky.
DeleteI also am having trouble finding a planner for 2025. I want more than you do, but I also don't want all the extraneous pages of prompts and reflections. My only suggestion- if you're going with paper- is to go to a place like Barnes and Noble or TJ Maxx. They carry planners, and you could just look through them. Some of them are very simple, and you might be able to find one that fits your needs.
ReplyDeleteJenny, I don't think you really understand that I live so far away from a Barnes and Noble or TJ Maxx that it would be a day trip for me to go to one of those places. LOL. I'm buying it online or bust!
DeleteI'm a lined notebook type. Maybe I need to set more goals? I feel accomplished if I cross a bunch of things off of my list each day, so I guess that's enough tracking for me. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteYes, I get it! This a problem of my own making because I want to keep track of so many goals. I wish I could be more fancy free about life!
Delete"If you're a goal-setter, how do you track your goals?" I don't set specific goals, just determine what direction I need to go in, then do a little of it every day. I use a legal pad of paper on a clipboard where I keep an ongoing list of things I need to do, crossing them off when I've done them. After a page is completed, I scrunch it up into a ball and toss it in the trash. It's a satisfying sound to hear it go thunk.
ReplyDeleteI like paper planners in theory, but every time I buy one, they sit around unused, gathering dust after a couple of initial entries. Like it or not, I guess my destiny is digital.
ReplyDeleteI use Google Tasks and you can make multiple lists, so for example you can have certain ones which have due dates which will also transfer to your calendar, and then you can have a separate list which has no due date, or a due date at the end of the quarter (and can be repeatable if you want). Then you can just check in with that list each day or week or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI used to have one for more date related tasks and one general Travel one which was not as immediate but was more for down the road at some point. Now though, I keep them all on one list since most of my life is travel related.
You know I live and die by my paper planner...but I have also mostly stopped tracking things. That said, my Sprouted Planner does have a two page spread with every single day of the year with a block available, so if I was going to track habits, I'd do something there since it literally captures the whole year at a glance.
ReplyDeleteI used to be a bit habit tracker, but I can tell it was a net negative in my life, so I've ditched it. Hopefully for good? Short-term things are fun (i.e. my walking club), but I have zero desire to track habits 365/year. I LOVE it for other people, but it is just too much for my mental health since I want to see perfection so missing a day of something stresses me out.
So old me wouldn't believe new me isn't blogging 7 days/week during NaBloPoMo!
I think there is magic in a Bullet journal, set up exactly to your own preferences and liking.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite way to bullet journal is in a grid notebook because it makes writing lists, the index and drawing up any calendar pages and trackers a lot easier..
There's nothing quite like the rush of checking something off, so I get why you want a physical planner. I track fewer habits than you do, so I can get away with the kind of planner that Nicole describes above.
ReplyDeleteFWIW: https://www.pocobrat.net/2021/03/days-are-short.html