Welcome to the Planner Fals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true Planner Fals. I'm Jess Ojashi Curran.
And my name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages.
And in today's episode, this is a sad topic to talk about, but
we're going to help you out today.
Today we're going to be talking about have you already quit your
planner? This new Year is barely just
begun, but we know that it happens.
I know that it's very popular for us to make these New Year's
resolutions New Year, new me. But perhaps that honeymoon
period has already run off. We're only a month in this year,
but we know that it happens. So we're going to be showing
some tips and some tricks and just some general advice that we
can provide for you if you fall into that trap.
But before we get started, Jess, we have to know this question.
Have you ever given up or ditched one of your planners
this early in the year? Usually I get to this point and
I'm still trying to struggle through it, but there have
definitely been planners that I've started with the best of
intentions. Like this is the one that's
gonna change my life. It's gonna solve this problem.
I'm gonna be so consistent. Crickets.
Like, no, that's just not how it turns out.
And I think oftentimes it's because sure, intentions may be
great, but if the reality of the situation doesn't align so that
things can actually happen, they don't happen.
One planner in particular that I can really think of with this
would have been my kind of like social media content calendar
kind of planner, which again, best intentions.
It's not like I wasn't doing this stuff for social media.
It's just that actually using the planner to help me, not so
much. Have you had a similar situation
happen? Yeah, I mean, I've definitely
gone in. Most of mine has been mostly due
to quality versus like what's inside of it.
I feel like a lot of my bullet journals and planners over, Oh
my gosh, it's almost been 10 years.
I was just doing the math the other day have been pretty much
consistent how I set them up. But it has definitely come down
to the the paper or maybe like the way in which the planner has
been organized. And this was before I even got
into bullet journaling or DIY planning and sort of making it
myself. But it's definitely one of those
things where, especially now, I know pretty quickly whether or
not something that's going to work out for me or not.
So I give it, you know, the good old college try.
And then I just sit down and kind of reflect and like, yeah,
maybe not, but I usually have a backup plan.
I've never ditched anything and like, had nothing set up for
myself. But I think all of us at some
point have been there. Yeah, definitely.
And I think that you know, in terms of the number of reasons
that there could be for not getting in and using your
planner, it could be the actual planner itself.
Maybe the quality of the materials isn't great, Maybe if
it's a pre into one, the structure isn't actually gelling
with how you want to do your planning.
If we're thinking about a DIY system, maybe you just don't
know what you need going into it.
So you've set up a bunch of stuff that realistically in the
day-to-day life actually isn't essential for you.
So it's not getting touched. But I said we are going to be
giving you some tips on how to get back in, actually get more
consistent with your planners and journals so that you can
have that kind of setup system that really works for you and
hopefully holds you through the rest of the year.
But Mark, what would be your first tip?
Yeah. So the first tip, I've kind of
themed this lower the bar to today.
So one of the problems that a lot of people have with planners
or systems, especially if you're new to it, is that it starts to
feel like homework. And especially if you have never
used a planner or a system before, you're kind of coming in
fresh. So you haven't gone through the
processes before you have to do this.
So a really great tip and something that I've used many a
times, especially when I've kind of been overwhelmed, is the idea
of not dating. I don't think the right way to
say this, but like date the page, not the planner.
I know this gets hard because there's a lot of dated planners
out there, but what's great about dating the page is that
you can always turn the page and the notebook doesn't care if
it's a week from now or two weeks or it's been a month since
you've touched it. You can just write down the date
on that page and there's get going with it.
And I think that's just a really great tip.
I've done that before where I've forgone my planner for like a
week or something wasn't quite working out, just wasn't it.
You know, you just feel it, but you're not sure of the answer.
And that was probably one of the best advice pieces that I was
ever given. It's like basically turn the
page and write down and just kind of go from there.
And then you kind of give yourself this really nice fresh
approach to it. I think it's something that I've
always really appreciated, You know, maybe skip a few pages if
you need to, whatever it takes just to get back in there and
really approach it from a day-to-day standpoint too.
I would also just say that if you are overwhelmed by a planner
and thinking that you have to plan weeks and months in
advance, you do not daily logging is a thing, whether
you're using the bullet journal method or a different method,
just focusing on what's happening that day.
What do you have to get done running down those notes?
And then tomorrow you just do the same exact thing and you'll
find ways to kind of catch those bigger future planning things.
But right now, we're just focused on your getting back
into your planner, back into your journal, and onto the right
path. Yeah.
And I think that for people who in particular, I'm thinking pre
printed planners here, when you look at the days, weeks,
sometimes even months that you haven't filled in and feel like
I have to get that stuff logged before I can focus on the now.
Absolutely not. You do not have to do that.
I mean, technically speaking, you don't have to do anything.
But if the blank pages do bother you, if you feel like you can't
just start from the here and now because there is that kind of
backlog that you haven't filled in.
And oftentimes that backlog makes, you know, mountains out
of molehills and such. Even if you were just planning
for today, it would be quite easy.
You just jot things down, what you need to do or whatnot.
The idea of having to go back and catalog all of the stuff
that has happened so that you have a complete planner just
means that you kind of get into this paralysis zone.
Like, Oh my gosh, I can't even possibly because it's just too
big of a task. Just RIP the pages out.
Like you could just get rid of them.
OK, if you don't want to RIP them out, I get it.
But maybe it's just using one of those kind of elastic bands that
you can have around a planner to kind of section off a piece, put
it around that section that you haven't used so that then you're
not turning to those blank pages.
You're just turning to today. So you can just focus on the
here and now and get those plans in.
Or if it's only been maybe a couple weeks or something, you
could stick the pages together. You could put some washi tape
along the edge to kind of seal that parts shut so you don't
have to look at the blank spaces that make it feel like you're
quote failing in your planner because you're not.
It's all good. Yeah, one of the biggest places
this has ever happened to me was inside of a Hobonichi 5 year
planner. So it was gifted to me and I was
so excited. I was like, absolutely, I'm
going to write in this every day.
And for the first few days I did, and then I didn't.
And then I kind of forgot about it.
And I was in the exact same mode that you just mentioned.
And it also kind of relates to our last episode too, where we
had talked about procrastination and instead of planning this
whole idea of like, well, I have to fill in everything that
happened on those days to get up to where I am.
I'm not going to lie to you. I went through that about three
times before I finally was just like maybe a five year journals,
not your thing work. Like it clearly this isn't
working out. You're doing all of this back
work to try to fill it out. But for what?
You know, the whole purpose of a five year is that idea of like
catching the day or the moment or those things.
But, and we'll talk about this in this episode too, because I
know this falls in here is like, but it doesn't have to be every
day. You don't have to use your
planner or or a journal or whatever.
Every single moment of every single day and that's OK.
And I think that's just for me. I just got to the point where I
was like this five year thing to saying it.
It's OK, Mark, like I know you like the idea of this, but maybe
we'll find another way to do this.
All right, Jess, how about yourself?
What do you have a great tip or kind of advice for anyone that
has maybe given up on their planner already this year?
So this one, if you're part of my book club, then this is going
to be familiar. But recently we read a book
called Tiny Habits, which I definitely recommend.
I did very much enjoy it, but one of the concepts that's
introduced in that book is the idea that any behavior relies on
three things, motivation, ability and a prompt.
Now oftentimes motivation is fickle, A fickle mistress.
All right, sticks around for a little bit of the start of the
new year, new year, new energy, all of that kind of thing very
quickly dwindles. Wayne's type of a deal.
Ability, on the other hand, is really where we can start to
pull some levers. So if we're thinking about
motivation and ability as being kind of like inversely related
to each other. So if you have a lot of
motivation to do something but have low ability, you're still
going to get the thing done. Whereas if you have super low
motivation to do something, but you make it really easy, so your
ability to do it is really high, it's more likely to happen.
OK, so if we're thinking about the kind of behavior of getting
into your journal or into your planner and actually using it,
the biggest lever that we can pull is that ability lever
making it so that it doesn't feel like a giant struggle to
get in to do it, which means we don't need to have super high
motivation to get the thing done.
Now, when it to making the ability to do planning a little
easier, this could be about the scale of it.
It could be about the materials you're using.
There are a bunch of different ways that you could make it
easier. Some of my favorite ways are
just kind of limiting the number of supplies I'm using.
So in my day-to-day planning, realistically I just need one
pen. It's my everyday pen, so I've
always got it available. It could be just limiting the
number of things you're filling in.
So rather than having a full fleet of different trackers and
logs that you have to log information in every single day,
make it something that you only need to fill in once a week.
Or maybe it's something you have to fill in daily, but the actual
way to fill it in is super easy. The other part of this though,
because remember there were three motivation, ability
prompt. If you do not have something to
prompt you to actually get in and use your planner, you're not
going to do it. One of the prompts that we often
rely on is like, I'll just remember it.
The biggest lie ever told in all of humanity, I swear.
Because if you're just relying on yourself to remind yourself
to do a thing that you haven't already been doing, the
likelihood of it happening is pretty much close to nil.
I think that's one of my biggest things on why planning has
worked so well for me over the years is that exact piece when I
tried to remember it on my own, never happened.
You also realize over time that that memory piece is not there
for me. It lacks.
There's a big spaghetti hole, you know, like, but not
spaghetti hole. What's it called?
A. Spaghetti Strainer.
Yeah, it's a big spaghetti strainer up there sometimes with
things that I'm not interested in fully that don't stick.
But I think that it's such great advice there and kind of really
connecting it to certain things, places or times.
My next one, we'll talk about that a little bit too, but kind
of to continue on like kind of where you were on that one.
I think it's just really important to think about those
kind of anchors is what I call them.
But like these times, these places, these events, really
kind of just feeling really good about it.
I think that also really comes down to a lot of what we're
talking about today is, you know, you got into this for a
reason. You made this decision to start
planning or, or, or using a journal or whatever it is for a
reason. Just use it like don't feel like
you also have to completely like fit inside of some one elses
box. One of my favorite things.
Again, I don't know, I just say I said it.
I don't know if anyone else has ever said it, but this idea that
your planner needs to work for you, you don't need to work for
your planner. This whole idea of trying to fit
yourself into the system, I will caveat that though, a little
asterisk and say, but sometimes we need that.
I'm the type of person that needs a system, a rule or
something like that to like teach me the right way to do it
because in my life I've been doing it wrong forever.
So I needed to find something that was like, hey Mark, here's
a process, here's a system, here's a method on organizing
those thoughts. And for me, you know, bullet
journaling was the thing that really grabbed me After trying a
lot of different pieces, the methodology behind bullet
journaling really grabbed me and it works for me.
And I think that's why I've been using in it for almost 10 years
now. And it's been so helpful in my
life. But sometimes you do just have
to kind of like find that thing and what kind of gets you
excited? And sometimes it does mean you
got to spend a little time with it.
I mean, I researched it for probably over a year before I
actually started doing it. I did a little trial bullet
journal to kind of take myself through the paces to kind of see
if it's there and finding those points of the day or, you know,
really kind of the times when I'm utilizing has been key.
And for me, that's been work. Other people, that's just their
day today, it's not work. So I, I think that's a really
important point that you made there about kind of making it
your own and enjoying it, but really anchor it down to like
what you need from it. Yeah.
I think that if you're focusing mostly on the needs that you
have for your system, then that can also just lower the bar, I
guess, which you kind of touched on your first one.
I like to think of like a high bar, low bar kind of strategy
when it comes to building a new routine for yourself or whatnot.
What is the low bar version of your planning?
What does it look like to be consistent in the lowest kind of
capacity that can definitely make the behaviour eventually
stick? You know, we're not going out
here trying to reinvent the wheel and kind of overthrow our
planning system within the space of a couple weeks and just
expect it to work because oftentimes it just doesn't do
that. You know, this is the thing that
I have with intentions, and we're going to talk about this
in a separate episode, I swear. But intentions for me are just
people saying they want to do something without a plan.
And I feel like when it comes to planning and planning systems,
we get really excited at the start of the year of the
possibility of being a certain type of planner without any kind
of plan for the follow through of the planning.
I'm saying plan too much now. It doesn't mean anything.
I will say that there are a lot of really great planners that
help you breakdown those attentions.
Finishers Secret is one of those journals and planners that
really kind of lines things up for you if you're the type of
person that like you don't know how to start or how to break it
down. That is one notebook that I have
always really appreciated and taken a lot from because it
helps you go through the process.
It's kind of what I was saying before, you know, we've adopted
these methods, we've adopted these systems because we need
help. And sometimes, you know, the
bullet journal method to your exact point, what you just said,
that's kind of telling you what you can do.
Yes, set intentions, yes, reflect, but it doesn't always
help you break down those into actionable pieces.
So if you are in a spot where you need any of those things,
definitely do your research and see like what exists out there
to your exact point that meets the goals of what you're trying
to achieve within your planet. So I just wanted to add that in
there because I thought that was a really, really valid thing
that you just said there. Everything you say is valid.
Let's not kid ourselves. But my next tip here has to do
with using anchor points as ways to get back into your journal.
So I think this falls a little bit more into those who I'm
going to say have a fallen out of planning, but maybe you are
new to it. I like to think about my
journal, especially by certain points of the day.
So I just mentioned before that you don't have to use your
journal every second of every day, right?
You don't have to wake up with it, work through so all the all
the day and your day with it as if nothing else exists.
That's not realistic. So think about certain anchor
points of the day to get yourself back into your journal.
So a great example of this, I do this when everyone leaves the
house and I drop the kids off at school and all of that.
I grab my iced coffee or whatever is left with it, or
maybe my second one in the morning.
I come to my desk and I sit down with it.
I don't turn on any screens, no e-mail, no nothing.
And I just go through my bullet journal from the previous day
and I line myself up for the day.
That's the first time usually that I'm touching my journal in
the morning, right? Then I turn on my computer, I
get into my emails, my chats, and then, you know, I'm jotting
down notes or tasks, whatever throughout the day.
That's how I use it. If you feel like you have to be
in there all the time, maybe that first touch point is great.
Second touch point could be at the end of the day, right?
With kind of a brain dump. We've got a lot of stuff flying
around on our brains. After an entire day of work or
whatever you may be taking on, use that time as another touch
point for your journal. Let's get it all out.
Don't worry about the organization, the structure,
what page it goes on, where it should be.
Just create a brain dump part of your page or even a new page
that you have to and just get it all out of your head.
That's a really fantastic way. Again, is this another touch
point for that journal? Because again, if you're using
another anchor, which is that morning coffee sitting down, you
can go back to that and then move things around where you
need to. Another spot that I really like
to do is a Sunday evening sit down and that's really just me
taking a little bit of a look ahead of what's coming up for
this week. Sunday nights are usually when I
also I'm just kind of setting up my week, but it also just like
puts me in a place. I know that I'm going to write
this several times as I go throughout the week.
I'm going to write down, you know, appointment on Monday,
meetings on Tuesday, whatever it is.
And then when I set up my weekly, I'm writing them down
again. I'm looking at my future log and
other things like that. But if that feels like a whole
lot, just if anything, again, just sitting down with it at
another anchor point throughout the week to say, okay, just
going to kind of look ahead real quick.
And I think just having those points and you pick whatever
works for you, right? Don't you have to use those
examples exactly? I personally do love a morning
and an afternoon check in, but that'll help you also get back
into it. Hopefully.
They really lower that bar. I love the way you said that
before. Like it's almost like leveling
up in your journal. Like, you know, you're starting
off with your experience points on a, you know, level 1 mage and
you're like, OK, I'm going to make some magic today just by
writing down what's happening. And as you continue to build
that habit and start using it more level 2, what does that
look like Level 3 and building up from there?
Yeah, I think the nice part about having anchor points is
that you can very much turn them into prompts for yourself with
that idea of like, you know, behaviors don't happen if you
don't have a prompt. But if you turn it into such a
thing of like when I sit down at my desk, the first thing I do is
open my planner. Or when I go and make my morning
coffee, the first thing I do is have a look at my planner or
write a checklist or something, which is kind of very much
related to my second tip, slightly different.
But I do love the idea of having those kind of set check in
points for yourself, especially if you could make it a set check
in point that doesn't necessarily require a specific
time to do something. Because if I make it for myself
be like, Oh yeah, at 9:00 AM every single day, I will check
in with my planner. Cool.
I already know that there are going to be 3 days of the week
that that does not work because one of them is live stream day,
one of them is the Epic Goals work along, and another one is
Saturday and I'm probably still in bed.
Something like that. If you can make it kind of
context based instead. And it's like anytime I'm put in
that situation, I will check in with my planner.
I find those to be more powerful, at least for me.
Do you have a similar feeling with that or?
I mean, like I said, like mine is like morning coffee, sit
down. That doesn't, you know, work
starts usually for the rest like the team itself at 9:00.
But by the time everyone's dropped off and whatever, I'm at
my computer at like 8 little after 8:00.
So I don't hold myself to a specific exact time of the day.
But it's kind of like you said, like that moment of the day is
kind of that habit that I'm building up.
And again, I remove all distractions.
So I really can't just focus on that one thing because that's an
intentional thing that I'm trying to make happen.
And I also know that'll give myself a really great start to
the day. So yeah, I would say it's more
of a moment, less of like a time of the day for your exact
points. Because if I have a doctor's
appointment in the morning and I come back to work at 10:00, I'm
like, well, missed my 9:00 AM coffee and computer.
No, I could still do it at that same exact time.
It doesn't matter when I'm doing it.
What's most important, as we've been saying, is this, that you
do it. Yeah, I think that that's also
part of the consideration of finding a prompt for your
planning system is if you've got a prompt and it's at an
ineffective time, it's not going to happen.
If it's an easily ignorable prompt, it's not going to
happen. If it's prompting you to do
something that you just genuinely don't want to do, it's
not going to happen. So figuring out a prompt you
know that actually works can be a little bit tricky.
Yeah, that's like my not really New Year's resolution, but I
really told myself that I was going to start like running on
our treadmill. I like signed up for the, you
know, fitness plus plan on my treadmill.
I can do all this crazy stuff and I started to do the opposite
of what I'm shared about my bullet journal, realizing that I
should use these tips at any type of my life because I was
doing that. I was going, OK, Mark, at 8:00
you're going to go downstairs and you're going to walk slash
run on the treadmill for 30 minutes.
And then something would happen that threw my morning off and I
was like, oh, well, I missed that time.
So I'm going to do it at lunch. And then of course, like a
meeting runs over or I want to eat lunch or whatever else.
And then suddenly I'm like, well, now I don't by now I just
ate like I don't want to go running after I just ate.
I'll do it later on in the. Evening and like evening time is
pure chaos. You never know what's going to
happen and then it doesn't happen.
So like I'm also realizing I need to use these tips in my
other parts of my life too, because it's really important to
say less about the time and more about the moment, you know, and
kind of building it out from there.
Yeah, I'm currently in a 200 plus day exercise streak, which
for somebody who went from exercising all of that like
twice in 2023, that's not too bad.
I think it was up to about 24 times in 2024, probably because
I had a tracker for it. But yeah, on day 220 something
or whatever, I don't even know what it actually is at this
point, but the way that I very much tackled that was the high
bar, low bar. So I never set myself a minimum
requirement for the exercise. I just have to do exercise.
And that means that most days, like 95% of days, it's at least
30 minutes or at least 25 minutes.
But for the other 5% of days, it is just like I jumped on The
Walking pad for two minutes and called it a day because I'm just
like in that kind of keep the streak alive mentality.
And now as I'm 200 something days in, I'm like, well, I don't
want to break my streak because then I have to go back to zero
and I don't want to do that. That's how social media gets
you. Like TikTok is doing that now.
It's like you sent this person a TikTok yesterday.
I'm like I sent them 30 tik Toks yesterday.
They're like, don't lose your streak.
And I was like, does this really matter?
Like I but, but I understand the psychology behind it though.
Like my daughter is on Snapchat and sometimes we'll be driving
in the car and she'll like take a random picture out of the
window. I'm like, are you OK?
Are you having like a, a moment? She's like, oh, no, I'm just
keeping my streak alive. And I was like, OK, but you're
not putting. Are you writing like a funny
thing or a good morning? She's like, no, just taking a
picture to send it. And I was like, so there's
nothing meaningful in that. Like you're literally doing it
just to keep a streak alive for no reason.
But again, it's that psychology of it though that like, I get
it. It's exciting to be able to say
I've, you know, worked out or been active for over 200 days.
Like that's incredible. I'm like, can I get in two days
this week? And I but again, that's like the
low bar thing. Like that is a really good thing
to say. Like, yes, I could get in two
days. I have two moments of time.
I BS my way through parts of the day anyway, scrolling through my
phone or you know, doing whatever else.
Like I can make that time for myself.
Yeah, definitely. I think that the snap streak,
gosh, that's such a throwback because I got to a point where I
was like, my relationship with this streak is not one that's
actually beneficial to me. So I just deleted Snapchat.
I also recently deleted tick tock.
I had to like, you know, sit my friend down and be like, I know
you're going to send me tick tocks and I just want to let you
know that I'm not going to see them because I no longer have
the app. She's like, it's cool.
I'll send them to you via Instagram like, well again.
Sorry, Jess. Well, let's go into your second
point. Advice.
Let's tip on those who have given up on their planner so far
this year, which is totally OK. I don't mean to say it in a
negative way, but we've all been there.
Yeah, it's all good. Hey, if you want to come back to
it, though, one of the things you can use is somewhat related
to these anchor points, in particular related to Mark's
anchor point with the morning coffee.
And that is temptation bundling or essentially pairing your
journal or planner use with something that is genuinely
enjoyable. You get really excited to do so,
even if you aren't, you know, super excited to do your
planning or not as excited or motivated to get in and use your
planner. What's something that you kind
of without fail would just love to do?
So it could be having your morning coffee, you know, having
a little indulgence like that. It could be listening to some
fun music. It could be, I don't know, can
you work out at the same time as doing your planner?
Possibly. Working out isn't really a fun
place for me, but for some people, runners high and
dolphins, yadda yadda, something like that.
But what is something that you genuinely enjoy and how could
you pair that with your journaling?
It could be also the kind of thing that you use your planner
or journal, set it up for the day or week or whatnot, and then
immediately after that, do something you enjoy as kind of
like a little reward to say, hey, you did the thing you have
to do. Now you get to do the thing you
want to do. For each person, it's going to
be a little bit different as to what is going to really tempt
them to use their planner in that way or what's going to make
it more fun or exciting. But for some of us, it could
just be using supplies you really genuinely love.
Sometimes there is just a joy in being able to use those things,
whether it be creatively or just like, you know, very
functionally, but you just love the feel of it.
Like I love the feeling of a good quality black pen on nice
paper. Like even if I'm not doing
anything fancy with it, just that that combination or chef's,
yes. So maybe in trying to get back
into journaling, planning or whatnot, using supplies that you
really love, that just feel good to use can be temptation enough.
Yeah. Otherwise, if you need something
else, maybe it's a snack or some music or something else that
just makes it a little bit more fun.
I love those. That's so important.
We were just, I mean, it reminded me exactly what I was
just saying where I was like, I need to apply these to other
parts of my life because I think that's what I fall into a lot.
It's just like, I'm not looking forward to that.
But my brain loves a reward. I mean, my whole being loves a
reward The same way everything else is gamified or the games
that I'm playing, you know, do X amount of things, get this
piece. I like have to somehow attribute
that to like Mark, get on the treadmill, be healthier, you
know, like little things like that.
Instead of getting like a digital badge for a game I'm
playing, like give yourself something that you really are
excited about. I just think that it really does
come down to like pairing that. I love that.
I think a lot of it is like a lot of that like dopamine, the
excitement. Everyone's there in the
beginning of the year making changes.
I'm doing this more. I think a lot about like the
summer for me, we spend a lot of the summers at the beach and I'm
always like, you know, I'm going to work out and I'm going to be
healthier because like I'm going to be out on the beach or I'm
going to in the water. And I don't want to feel
uncomfortable about like the way I look.
And then I kind of get there and it's like a week before we're
about to leave. And I was like, I got to work
out now I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes.
Look at these ABS, you know, like ready to go.
They're not there, but it's kind of that expectation of it.
But just the idea of like, how can I work better about creating
these habits and these plans and these things.
And I love the idea again, of connecting it to something that
you really enjoy or I don't know, part of me though.
And I'm just going to be honest here because that's how I like
to live my life. Life.
I the problem I have with it though sometimes is I'm like,
but I can just do that now. Like I feel like I know some
people who are like, oh, well, if you do this thing, you get a
piece of chocolate. I'm like, I'm gonna say the
chocolate bar right now. I'm a adult.
I'll do whatever the hell I want to do, you know?
So it does get a little difficult because my like reward
system and the way that I think about life, it's like I'm adult.
I have adult money. Like I work hard for this.
I'll just get what I want at this moment.
I'm gonna run on a treadmill for an hour to get there.
I can run my ass down stairs right now and get that.
But that's the hard part for me though sometimes with it just
being realistic is that to find that way to like motivate
yourself without jumping the gun or kind of, you know, taking the
shortcut to get there in a way I personally do struggle with.
So I think it is something I just need to be more mindful of
and like treat it like a fun thing versus knowing that I can
just skip right to the end and get my reward.
Yeah, No, I am very much the same way.
If you, if we're playing with physical rewards or like
tangible things that you can just like purchase or whatnot,
I'm like then I could just buy it.
Like. That's the same issue with gift
giving season people. Like, what do you want?
I'm like nothing 'cause I bought it myself.
I got adult money. So I find that the types of
rewards that usually work best for me, I just like the
satisfaction rewards or, you know, being able to check a box
on a tracker, being able to say that my streak is 200 something
days long. Being able to, it's like Fitbit,
you know, when they give you those little badges saying like,
hey, you've walked the distance to India or something or like
things like that. Those are really fun for me
because it's not necessarily something that I set up myself.
Because I find that the types of rewards that I set for myself
are usually the kind of things it's like, yeah, I'll just go
buy it anyways, whatever. But you know, because you're not
expecting them. And then they just kind of
happen. You're like, oh, when's the next
one coming? So there's that kind of surprise
element that comes with it, which how we actually planned
surprises like that for ourselves.
Don't ask, you're going to say, but I'm sure there's a way.
I'm sure it's like asking someone else to do that.
That would be something where I'd be like, hey, Jess, I'm
going to have you, you know, randomly I'm going to, you know,
number a piece of paper, 1:00 to 10:00.
And then I'm going to make a bingo card of 1 to 10.
And when I achieve that thing, I'm going to tell you.
And then you're going to tell me what I get from it.
But like that then is hard, you know, because I'm kind of like
part of me is like, what do I give you a budget to like buy me
fun things or, you know, experiences like, yeah, exactly.
How do you plan that out? I think the best way to do it
though is to give it to like accountability partner or
somebody that like you know, that can like reward you for
those things without you knowing it.
Because otherwise I have 0 idea like how you do that.
I'm sure there's companies and apps that do that.
Oh, definitely. I think on your point of
accountability partner, that's also like just in a side tip,
you know, it's not one that's in the lineup for today, but if you
want to have an accountability buddy to do your planning with
having a little community, especially if you can find an in
person 1. So maybe it's like, no, every
Sunday you get on a Zoom call or a Discord chat or something with
your friend and you do some planning together.
Or even if you don't have a kind of accountability person in your
immediate circle, joining a journaling or planning group
online can also help add that kind of fun element and the
motivation. Because then you can kind of,
you know, share how you're using your structures, see how other
people doing this. Obviously there's a trap in this
of like, you know, just constantly collecting more
information and tweaking and changing your system to the
umpteenth levels because you're just constantly looking at other
people's ideas. But there is something very
motivating about joining a community where other people are
already doing the thing that you want to be doing.
So hanging out with people who already actively use planners or
want to use planners so you can commiserate together when you
fall off on things, that can also be really helpful.
But Mark, what is your next tip for everyone?
Yeah, absolutely. So my next tip is about that
blank page. We always had that blank page
and we feel like, Oh no, like I didn't fill it out.
I failed. There's this quote that I saw it
up, forget who it was by, but it says blank pages aren't
failures, they're permission slips.
And I was like, oh, OK, I like that that a lot.
The idea here is instead of skipping ahead or completely
abandoning your planner because you missed a page to label it
something that kind of that motivational thing, label it
reset. Currently right now like this
idea of just almost like my first one, right like dating the
page, not the planner is just sitting down and being like, OK,
yeah blank page didn't fill it out, didn't use it and just
write down like what else you can use it for.
I do this a lot in my journal, but it's mostly because if like
a page is like a lot of bleed through or like something
happened on it where it doesn't look great.
I do skip it because I do love a nice fresh page, but I don't
love skipping pages and like not using them.
I actually have a sticky note in the back of my notebook where I
write down those missed pages because I do come back to them
if I need like to jot down notes or kind of do whatever on.
So I would say this more has to do with the fact of like, I
missed it. I'm unmotivated.
So this just gets you back into it again at a really nice and
low bar way right now and just start.
And again, that's just another way to make sure you're touching
that journal, you're touching that planner and getting into
it. I will say that if you have a
dated planner, and I feel like this is where it gets hard
because I know the value of a dated planner, especially if you
don't have to write the days and the weeks and the and all of
that stuff. I get it.
But I also feel like it's so hard to do that because if you
missed a few weeks, like it's almost like the the walk of
shame. You have to turn those pages age
and everyone to be like not at use, didn't use, didn't use.
I would say instead, I don't do this because I don't have a
dated planner, but go online and look at what people do inside of
their dated planners because I feel like there's a lot of
people that like really customize those out the wazoo.
There's so many. I don't even know.
They look like a weekly anymore. They just look awesome and find
ways to use those pages again, you know, use it for memory
keeping. One of the best things I've ever
seen because I have a bunch of the Hobonichi's and like other
stuff that I really thought were going to work for me.
I just open up the weeks and I'll do like ink swatches inside
of there. Or you could do you know, you
got a new pen or new pen pack and just, you know, fill that in
there with like the colors or whatever doodle on the page,
whatever it might be like you can find other functional ways
to use those when you haven't. So like have fun with it, use it
for whatever. I think the biggest thing is
like they're most people don't have cameras watching them and
live streaming their life. Unless you're on the Truman
Show, no one's going to know, right?
If you don't use that or you use it for something else.
The only way they do is if you show somebody, right?
Like the only way that anybody online would ever know that I
missed pages or messed something up or abandoned my planner is if
I told them that I did. Otherwise, everything looks
great. It's awesome hunky Dory,
rainbows and sunshine. So just keep it to yourself if
you feel like you're going to get any negative effect.
But honestly, I don't know anybody personally in the
planner space that would ever be like, oh, you missed a page.
You're trash. Like I've never come across
that. Have you ever just like any like
people looking down on you for not doing something that they
expected that you should be doing in your own planner?
Oh, I definitely have, but that's because people don't know
when to keep their opinions to themselves.
But it's OK because you won't have this problem, you planner
pal. It's like, you know, people
saying, Oh, well, you're honest not a very good planner then
because you missed all of these pages.
I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry that you're so perfect.
It must be really hard being you.
But on the note of like having skipped pages, I love your point
about the ink testing for sure, 100%.
If you can think of like any kind of collection that you can
split into 8 sections, that can be a really great way to use a
general weekly log, either vertical or horizontal.
You could set it up as like an ideal weekly schedule for
yourself. So I was like, Oh yeah, these
are my days and how I want to theme them or something like
that. You could make it in terms of
lists of like different areas of self-care, so like physical
versus financial versus like personal environment versus work
self-care or like those kind of things.
You could make it as like lists of things that you love or
reasons to smile or whatever. And again, split that out into
different life categories so that you can use up the
different structures of the page.
If we're thinking about a monthly calendar, you could jot
down like, you know, little memories or moments or anything
like that. Or what you could do is go on
to, I know Word or camera or whatever, type up 404 error
month not found, print it off and stick it in your planner.
Now you're just kind of making fun of it.
I use that one a lot. If you miss something or if you
make a mess up in your journal or whatever, just go haha lol JK
whoops or something. Put that in there and move on.
Because at the end of the day, sure, we could beat ourselves up
and you know, made this mistake or I haven't used this thing and
oh, I'm a terrible planner and all of that.
Making yourself feel shit is not going to make you do the thing,
all right? You're not going to beat
yourself up to consistency in your planner.
And if you do, you're not going to enjoy the process.
And I want you to enjoy this process, all right, When it
comes to planning and journaling and all of that, I want it to be
joyful. I want it to be joy nailing.
I don't want it to feel like a chore or something I have to do
or something that I'm going to beat myself up and rake myself
over the coals over because I missed a day on my tracker.
I've missed so many days on my trackers.
My favorite way to tackle those things is just writing myself a
little note that says obviously I died or maybe putting in a
sticky note that explains why I didn't fill the thing in.
Like oftentimes when it comes to month long trackers in
particular that I haven't filled in, the thing that I will do for
myself is just write a little explanatory note as to why the
thing didn't happen. One of them in particular that I
can think of was a time log where I was, you know, going
through in 15 minute increments or something and kind of mapping
out what I was using my time on over the course of the month.
And it had worked really well the month prior.
So I set it up for the subsequent month thinking like,
Oh yeah, I'm going to use this. And, and this was in the time of
the Rona. This is when I got like, you
know, stuck in Melbourne because there was a snap lockdown and I
couldn't get back to Wellington and all of this kind of thing.
We were purchasing a house. Like things were happening.
So I just wrote myself some journaling being like, you
intentionally didn't use this and these are the reasons why.
So now it's essentially a memory keeping page rather than just a
blank page that I can look back and go like.
Well obviously that didn't work out.
Well here I am saying go on the Internet to find ideas.
Just go to Jess, this is YouTube, and she will give you
all the ideas. You know, here's a list of 500
things to do in pages that you haven't used.
Jess has got it all great ideas. I mean, those are amazing.
Those are just really great. I love how you're just like off
the cuff, like I would have to do like hours of research to
even think of one of those ideas.
Just as like, here's 35 ideas on how to use a blank page that you
didn't use. I love it.
I think those are really great ways to go about it.
And again, just to kind of reinforce the fact too that it
can be whatever you need to be. I love the idea of kind of
razzing yourself about it too, because it's just fun.
Fun. We know we mess up.
I I talk to myself all the time of like, Mark, you're an idiot.
What did you just do that for? Especially after like awkward
conversations, you're walking away and you're like, what did
you even just say? Like, are you, what are you
something wrong with you? You can't have an adult
conversation. But it's also just funny though,
because, well, I will think about it for weeks, but most of
the time, like awkward conversations tend to last with
you. But the idea that you can also
kind of make fun of yourself a little bit in it and be like,
yeah, well, next time we're going to try to do a little bit
better and kind of see how it goes.
Alright, Jess, what do you have for your last tip?
Advice for those who have given up on their planner early in the
year. So when it comes to starting a
new year, new planners, new planning system or whatever, and
having these very idealized versions of what we think
success looks like because they're idealized, because they
rely on perfect us and the perfect situation and having the
perfect amount of time to put in the perfect plans with the
perfect decoration. And you get in the theme here.
I find that one of the ways that helps me stay consistent or be
consistent, you know, given the fact that Mark and I have been
doing this coming up on 10 years now, it's been a while.
One of the things that has helped me in particular stay
consistent and keep up with it was just redefining what success
looks like. So for me, success does not
necessarily mean having a fully filled out section for every
single day of the week, for every single week of the month,
for every single month of the year, for every notebook that I
use because not every day is the same and not every week is the
same. All right.
There are going to be some periods where I either don't
have a lot to write down so it doesn't need to be fully filled
in. There are going to be other
periods where life just got way too hectic and the idea of even
touching my planner feels like time taken away from these other
fires I need to put out. So stuff isn't going to happen
with regards to that. And if I sit there and beat
myself up about it, like we said before, beating yourself up is
not a way to make yourself more consistent.
It's just a way to make yourself feel crappy.
We don't want to feel crappy. So instead going with that idea
of just lowering the bar, making it easier for ourself or
whatnot. I do not consider success in the
consistency in my journals to be I used it every single day.
That's not to say that I don't use it almost every single day.
Like there's a reason I call my everyday journal my everyday
journal. It's the everyday touch.
But in terms of the extent to which I use it or how much I
fill it in or anything like that, that is going to vary
day-to-day. And I know that that's just
going to be part of my perfect system because it actually
aligns with real life. Because as I said, there's going
to be some days where I do need to write a lot.
There are going to be other days where I don't really need to
write anything. There are going to be other days
where I probably should have written something down but I
didn't because I got too busy and the idea of using it was
just like too much to handle. You've made such a good point
that I was thinking about this. I was actually just going back
and setting up bi weekly for this upcoming week and I was
looking back on the previous two because I also have a bad habit
sometimes of like migrating certain things but not others.
And then I get like 2 weeks down the road and I was like, I don't
think I migrated. I go back and I was moving up
forward and I was like looking for my pages and I was just
like, well, first of all, how did you miss this?
There's not a whole lot on this page.
And I was like, did I fail at using my journal this week?
And I really did think about it and I was like, you used it.
It did exactly what it needed to do for you.
You wrote down notes, you wrote down tasks.
There was a lot of stuff that happens.
And I think that's also something else that I'm also
coming to realize now. Again, 10 years in, I'm still
learning about it. What my page looks like does not
define how busy or productive I am by what's inside of there.
I think I've also just really come to learn, you know, there
are certain things that just happen in the beat of that
moment, right? So like something that's like
happening a lot to me right now at work where I'm not using my
journal for I'm an admin for a tool.
So anytime someone needs access this, I get an e-mail that tells
me to add this person or remove this person.
And it used to be manual, but now it's automated from the
standpoint of the messaging. So I get 10 or more of these
automated emails every day. And I started thinking like, at
first I was like, oh, I got to write this down.
Like I got to write down who it is.
And I need to make a tracker to say, yes, I added them to this
tool or yes, I remove them and yes, I close the ticket.
But I don't need to write that down because I'm doing it in
that moment. It's easier for me to be like,
oh, this person needs to be added to this tool, Add them,
click the link, close the ticket versus me writing it down,
creating a tracker, doing all of this when it's just all
happening in the moment. And I think that was like a
really big thing because I was like, I know I was busy last
week. I know there was a lot going on,
but like my journal page isn't reflecting it.
Therefore, like, am I not doing things right?
And it was just like this, like aha moment that I just had for
myself the other day when I was doing this or I was like, like I
was saying where we started. Like the the plentifulness of
that page has nothing to do with success of that week.
You did write down the things that you needed.
You took the notes that you needed and the rest of your life
is OK. Am I fired from my job?
No. Did I accomplish what I was
supposed to? Yes.
It doesn't matter that it wasn't written down.
So like, that's been a really big thing for me recently.
And that is, again, the idea of just like redefining what
success looks like for you. It doesn't mean your page is
filled every single crevice of it.
Bottom line, did I do the things that I said I was going to do?
Like that's kind of where I've come to recently.
Yeah, I guess it's the idea that like you don't need a full
planner to have a full life, whether that be, you know,
getting your plan sorted, getting your stuff done, being
productive, making memorable moments and all that kind of
thing. Just depending on what you're
using your planner for. But if the thing that gets for
me is like if I am kind of like holding up doing stuff or like
holding back on getting things done because I feel like, oh,
gosh, you just have to do this in your planner first.
Otherwise it's like doing the thing doesn't count.
That's like a red flag for me. Whereas another red flag is
like, oh, I'm not getting things done because I didn't put it in
my planner. That's also like a problem.
So it's finding that kind of happy balance between like
letting your planner help you do the things you want to do and
not letting it hold you back from doing the stuff that you
need to or want to do. Yeah.
I like that a lot. I mean, I think it also kind of
comes down to the fact of like just really examining whether or
not the solution, the method, the notebook, the planner that
you purchased or what you're using is actually fitting your
life. It's, I don't feel like enough
of us really do this and maybe you don't have the means to do
it. That's also something I have to
remind myself of often is not everyone has the ability to just
buy a $25 planner to see if it works, right?
Because that's AI mean that's a commitment.
Whether you think $25.00 is a lot of money or not, that's
everyone's individual perspective, right?
$25.00 is a lot. I remember spending $17.00 my
first loystrom and being like, who the hell spends as much
money on a notebook? This is ridiculous.
But I think that it's just the reality of of what it is.
If you've never used that system before, you've never really
built it into your life. Something that I've been
thinking about recently, I talked about like the Ugg monk
cards all the time, like the next today, you know, whatever.
And someone had messaged me recently and they were like
Mark, I love the idea of the system, but like it's a lot of
money for some index cards with some lines on it.
I use faux monk is what she said, but I changed it into funk
monk. But anyway, she was like, the
concept is exactly what I need, but I can't afford that.
And she actually sent me a picture of like how she set up
her index cards and it looks like she just did it by hand.
And I was like, that's just a great idea.
Like you're right, everyone can't.
So this is kind of where I'm getting to with this is like,
you know, if you're not sure if something's going to work out
for you, I talked about this with bullet journaling.
This is what I did. I grabbed like 6 sheets of paper
and stapled them down the edge and essentially set up a bullet
journal before I ever started. Bought that $17.00 notebook,
right? Wasted my money if I'm always
going to use it or not, and I use that and that is how I
realized that it was going to work for me.
I think I used that lasted about a week or two, maybe with a
handful of pages. But like, that's a totally valid
thing to do is to see if something's going to work for
you by just making it yourself. It doesn't mean that you're not
going to buy it or you have to like make every planner or
whatever yourself. But like sometimes you just have
to try it and just see and, and really kind of get into it if
you're not sure. Because I think it really does
come down to like the value that you're getting from like the
planner that you're using or the method or whatever it is.
And I think also reflecting, you know, if you did stop using your
planner a few weeks in, like, does that feel good to you?
You know, like, are you as productive or are you getting
things done? You know, are you, oh, I'm going
to remember to do that. Are you actually remembering to
do that or are you falling behind?
And that could also be not to think about it negatively, but
to say to yourself, that really did help me out.
Let me redefine what success looks for me inside of that
before I get back into it and kind of again, turn that page,
restart today. Now, whatever that might be that
we've talked about today to start it up again in the way
that makes sense for you to be successful, I think that's
really kind of, from my opinion, really what it comes down to.
Yeah, and hopefully these tips have been helpful for your
planner of house, but of course, we would love to hear from you
if you've fallen off with your planner or become a little less
consistent than you would have liked.
What kind of things, tools, strategies, techniques have you
used to get yourself back into it, back into the routine of it,
keeping a little bit more on top of using your planner?
Let us know in the comments or you can hit us up on Instagram
at Planner Pals Podcast or flickus.anemailplannerpalspodcast@gmail.com.
Well, hopefully everything helped you guys out today.
I really do hope you get back into your planners and your
journals and again, just really remember that you started for a
reason and you can get back into it in whichever way works for
you. It was a fantastic episode
today, Jess, I love talking to you.
So many great ideas to like this is again, I always say it, but
that's why I really do love getting these different
perspectives because we both live different kind of lives.
And I think why we have totally found out what we we love about
our planners. Getting people equally excited
about it is always a fantastic time.
No, I very much agree. Thank you so much for sharing
your tips and I'm really excited to read the ones from the Plan
of Pals. So as always, thanks for
watching.