One of the latest trends in scrapbooking is planners. Are you on the bandwagon?
At first, I tried really hard not to give in. But I've always been a paper person. I love paper of all kinds! There's just something about writing on a fresh sheet of paper...but I digress.
I discovered in late 2014 that planners were my only way to keep my life organized. I had used one for years, but somewhere along the last two or three years, I got out of the habit. During that time, I moved to keeping my calendar on my laptop. While it was efficient, I found it hard to keep track of things. With a regular paper planner, I was able to write things down, a process that was crucial for me to remember things. I also loved being able to check off an item when I completed a task on my To Do list. Keeping everything on an electronic device just wasn't as satisfying. So, I decided to go back to the "old-fashioned" (ha!) way of paper planners.
Ever since I got myself re-trained into using one, I feel so much more organized. I'm able to keep my To Do lists (with tasks written in specific colors depending on topic), jot notes during phone calls, and have a visual reminder of the month. I use the typical day planner - very business-like, even boring. But it does the trick.
Then the "scrap" planner came along. Products were released to help capture memories in an actual planner. There were themes with color-coordinated inserts, stickers, paper...a scrapbooker's heaven! But I couldn't quite figure out how to mesh the traditional planner with the artsy scrapbook. I decided to create a planner I could use for scrapping. Ah...that was my downfall. I found the Color Crush Planners from Webster's Pages, The Happy Planner from Me and My Big Ideas, and most recently, the Carpe Diem Planners from Simple Stories. Plus, these planners come in such yummy colors! When it comes to using planners in my creative life, I have to have color. Of course, there are also the simple planners that look like mini binders, like the Life Documented Planner from Simple Stories. (And yes, I have one of those too.) There's also the cute Memory Planner from Heidi Swapp and the 6x8 Planner Pages from Becky Higgins.
Today, I have several planners: my traditional stand-by for work and life, a small one to keep track of my creative team deadlines, a simple one that captures my notes on what I did for the day, and finally, a planner that I'm trying to turn into a scrap-type planner.
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| My planner collection |
Why so many planners, you ask? Because each planner is set up slightly differently. There's a certain format I like for work and life. For fun, i.e. scrap, purposes, I prefer something a little less structured. I'm sure you can tell which of the planners above are the "fun" ones. I like to infuse a little color when it comes to being creative. However, in my work/life calendar, I use colors to keep track of tasks - note the Flair pens in the photo.
It may take me a little to try to bring all of these together into a single planner, but I haven't yet learned how to meld the different aspects of my life. I'm working on it. In fact, I'll have a post later this week about my attempt to infuse some creativity into my planner pages - and I'll be doing a hybrid, since most of my scrapping these days is digital. In the meantime, I'm just going to excuse myself to go plan my schedule.
