Hello and welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted
by two true planner pals. My name is Mark and I go by Mark
Your pages. And I'm Jess or Jessie Curran
and I feel like a bit of a fraud right now, to be honest, because
I know how helpful using my planner is.
But right now I just like don't wanna look at it.
I don't wanna, I don't wanna do it, Mark.
I don't know why, because it's like I have I have things to do
and I need to write down my plans and I need to make
progress on all of them. But there's just like something
that's been like, no, we're not journaling right now.
I'm just gonna be a low key hater on that and just do none
of it. Are you keeping your stuff
somewhere else right now? Like if you found another love
or you just like I just can't with anything, right?
I wish I had found another solution to this.
Like I'm just not feeling. I don't know.
Is it like inspired? I mean, here you see Parks and
Recreation. It's like that scene where
Andy's like I'm. Fine, it's just that life is
pointless and nothing matters and I'm always tired.
Also, I can't sleep, I'm overeating, none of my old
hobbies interest me. It's literally that I am that
about my journal right now and I don't have another solution,
which is very problematic because as in I have things to
plan, I have things to write down, I have things to keep top
log and I'm like you used to work for me, why isn't it
working right now? I've definitely been there
before as well, but I always try to find ways to bring myself
back in. So maybe today I could give you
a little bit of advice on some things you could possibly do to
help bring yourself back to your glorious bullet journal.
I would love it because yeah, I'm just, I feel like I'm just
in a bit of a slump, honestly. Like, and it usually happens
around this time of year as well.
It's it's always April. I like set up for April.
I'm like, well, yeah, I guess. I guess I did it.
Check the box. I set up April.
Now I have to use it. Honestly, I think it's just that
first quarter slump is kind of what I call it.
I think we know when you start off the year, you have your
journal or your planner picked out, you create that new videos
we always do and you're all hyped up on it.
And I think you just get into using it and then you're
suddenly like, well, maybe something isn't quite right or I
don't, do I need to change something?
I mean, I just changed my whole office around because I was
like, oh, I haven't changed it in a while and I have this new
direction or thing that I want to do.
So I think it kind of goes hand in hand.
It happens to everyone. Just so you're not alone, we
know that plenty of planner pals have been here before.
Some of my advice, I've done this before.
This was a number of years ago where I was just kind of like, I
think maybe I'm done with bullet journaling for right now.
Like it wasn't kind of fitting my need.
And I stopped using it for about a week.
And it's a very dangerous thing. This is very risky to do because
as we know with any type of habit, you know, as soon as you
kind of fall out of it or there isn't any interest anymore, you
might forget about it. But I went without it for a week
and then I kind of started to figure out like, wait a second,
my bullet journal is actually really helpful.
All these things I'm struggling with could have all been solved
with my bullet journal. So I don't know how you feel
about that if you're not touching your bullet journal at
all right now or if you're just kind of dabbling with it or what
it is. But you know, going without,
it's that whole, like without it, the heart grows fonder or
whatever that saying is. Ever since makes the heart grow
fonder. That was literally what I was
thinking. I'm just like, yeah, maybe we,
we just we're not breaking up. We're just on a break thing.
There's like maybe some time away from it would kind of
remotivate me to actually get back in and use it, kind of like
highlight the importance of it and remotivate me to get back
into it so I can be like back on top of my stuff.
Like, yeah, let's just make the problem worse so that then it's
like, OK, actually, yeah, you do need that solution.
Let's get back into it. It could possibly work with
people. I mean, even if it's not even a
full week off, because if that feels like too daunting for
someone, maybe it would just be like a couple of days without.
Like do we just need like a teeny vacation from each other?
It's a little bit of a risky thing because I know myself if I
don't do anything for about a week or so, I will never touch
it again. It's also the ADHD in me that
also causes that problem. But I have experience with this
one where I was just like, I need to do something different
and I tried it and I really didn't love it.
And I was like bullet journal is just always there for me.
I can always count on it. It's so it's a little bit of a
risky thing, but I don't know, I think you could potentially do
it. Can you imagine if I give you
this advice, Jess, and then you like never use a bullet journal
again. You're your career ends because
Mark give you really bad advice. I mean, it's certainly be
something. Can you imagine the video?
It's like I took bad planner advice and now I'm like $50.00
in debt. I don't know why I went fifty.
I was going to say 50 million. I'm like, that's too much.
So let's just like scale it back, $50.00 in debt doesn't
seem like that bad. But still no, I think that
you've got a point there. And also I liked your point
earlier about the idea of like the newness of it.
Like when we get into our journals for the start of the
new year, I mean, like, we're just going to sprinkle new all
over this new journal for the new year with your new layouts
and your new goals and everything feels fresh and
awesome. And actually, a video I was
watching the other day kind of talked about this, that, you
know, why do so many people kind of slump on their goals when it
comes to about March? And that's because it's no
longer new. Like it's not that kind of new
and exciting thing anymore. And you're kind of starting to
realize, like, OK, well, you know, I'm in the weeds of it
now. I kind of got to do the thing,
whatever their goal is, you know, it depends.
But if I've set the goal for the year, I still have a lot of time
left until the end of the year. So I could kind of just put it
off and you kind of get into this low motivated state kind of
slumpy and not working on your goals.
So maybe that's kind of what my planner has done, like we're the
new feeling has kind of worn off.
Maybe I just need to try something different.
Maybe not necessarily a different planner per SE, but
maybe something different in by planner because while you were
talking about it, I was just like, yeah, a lot of those
structures might just be feeling kind of stale.
I was going to say, I mean, something else that I've done
that it's been helpful, especially when I felt kind of
burnt out on it as I just kind of go back to the original, like
the very first or this is a great thing to go back to your
very first bullet journal and take a look and kind of get some
inspiration back from there. Like what was I doing in that
journal that it got me so excited about doing this that
now I've been doing it for 7/8, 9:10 in years?
That's something that I've definitely done.
I've kind of taken it back to the basics because I was getting
very overwhelmed with the amount of things that I was trying to
do inside of there. But then also just kind of flip
through if I need like a little like remember back in the day,
Mark, when you were like all gung ho about this?
How do I get some of that back? Yeah, just kind of like trying
to get re inspired from your past self because I find that
finding inspiration for planners can be very useful for getting
remotivated to get into it. Especially if there's like, you
know, a particular problem you want to solve and you find some
potential solutions and you're just kind of treating it like a
bit of an experiment that can be kind of fun, bring a bit of joy
back to it. But like looking back on your
past journals, I mean, like, OK, well this worked for me
previously. Like maybe I could use that as a
way to re motivate myself, re excite myself and kind of
reignite the passion. A lot of raise now, that's what
was news. Now it's raise.
We're hitting the full spectrum of all of this.
I think it really just comes down to it though is like you're
retrying to ignite that spark. Like you said, I think we all
will go through this at some point with our journals.
Are planners or honestly anything new that you try?
Everything new is exciting, no doubt about it, but it is trying
to go back to like, well, what was it about that newness?
Is it just because it was something different, something
hooked you though? I mean, think about how many
different type of planners or methods or things you've
probably tried in your life. You know, maybe we just time box
it into the past eight years. It's kind of like what we talked
about in that previous episode, like if something doesn't work
out for you, we tend to not use it again, right?
So it's just this idea that like you've probably worked out a lot
of those kinks overtime. So even going back and looking
at that, you come up with new ideas to approach those problems
as you may have solved them before, but you have all of this
knowledge now that's like, oh, I would do that better this time,
you know? And that could even give
yourself a bit of a challenge too in a way to go and be like,
OK, let me try to solve this problem again, because we're
kind of just hitting on point to point to point because maybe
you've just solved so many of your planet problems.
You're just in such this like ideal state.
Dare I say it that you're actually getting kind of bored
of the ideal state? Yeah, Have you seen The Good
Place? I don't want to spoil The Good
Place for anybody, but when they're, you know, they go up to
the Good Place and people just like everything is boring
because everything is perfect kind of a thing.
So maybe it's a bit of that. It's like I have kind of problem
solved to the extent in my journal that now I've kind of
like not solved all my problems because I definitely got
problems. Oh, but in terms of my plan of
problems, maybe I just feel like I don't have any new problems to
solve. Because that's the thing about
people like we actually, we, we thrive on having problems to
solve. You might be thinking about that
like Jessica, I don't want problems.
Why would you say this is a ridiculous notion?
But without problems and without being able to flex our
creativity in that way, we get bored.
So maybe I'm just, I'm bored because I don't have a new
problem to solve. I should take on a new problem.
I'm not going to take on any more problems.
I said I've got problems. Maybe I just need to think about
how my journal can help me solve those.
So I know I kind of asked you before about this because you're
not really using anything else. So how are you going about your
day-to-day currently, just out of curiosity?
In a shambles as a scatterbrained mess.
You know, as I said before, I'm like, oh, have I really found a
solution to it? Obviously something must be
happening because like the house isn't falling apart around me.
I think that I think I know where this started.
Actually. I did a video for Notion and
then got super excited about the idea of bringing my whole life
into Notion, like setting up my PKM.
It's like my personal knowledge management system kind of a
thing and taking notes in there and organizing my content
schedule and all of this kind of thing and integrating stuff
together and got really excited about that.
So now my journals just like am IA joke to you.
Did you not want me anymore? I'm like, sorry, you don't
excite me like Notion does right now.
It's very much like the scumbag boyfriend names like me looking
at Notion like, oh, and my bullet journal's just like
bitch. I mean, I've been the same exact
spot as you with us. So we just got Microsoft Loop at
work and I've been looking at that.
It's essentially Notion. It's kind of like Confluence and
Notion mixed together, but it integrates into the full
Microsoft 365 suite. And I'm so excited about it.
And I literally this entire week I've been talking to my boss
about different things and I was like, I've been using that a lot
more than my bullet journal over the past few weeks.
She's like, wait a second, what do you mean?
And I was like, it's just so easy sometimes with those
shortcuts. I just type a forward slash and
I can add a table. I don't have to draw anything
out or make anything happen. I have tasks.
I just forward slash task and it populates a task list for me.
I just fill it in and I send it to people and give it a date and
it's there. And it reminds me every single
day that I have things that are due.
It's doing so much for me. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this
could potentially be a problem. Now I will let you know like I
have found a solution for myself to it because I was, I would be
real nervous. Just I'm not gonna lie to you.
I was like, I created like a double page spread and I used
1/3 of it. So I had this whole like 2/3 of
a page and a whole other page that I designed that I just
didn't use because that week was like the first week I was really
utilizing it and getting really excited about it.
And so I kind of took it back a few steps and was like, OK, we
have to figure out how these two things work together.
The excitement of Microsoft Loop is really important because my
team is fully digital. A lot of that work happens.
You and I have talked about it too, especially with like how
we're planning content and kind of making those things happen.
But there is value and we know go to writing things down or
even rewriting it, you know, so that could be something maybe to
take a look at like you don't give up on notion.
You're excited about it. It's potentially working for
you. But kind of do that self
reflection. Is it doing everything for you?
You know, maybe it is like this could be a turning point for
you. Like, I don't know, the planter
pals are just probably screaming like, no, just no, we need you.
Don't do dare abandoning a log planning.
Yeah, I quit Bullet Journal and took up this instead type of a
thing. But I think that's a good point.
It's like, you know, how can we get these systems to kind of
coexist? And maybe I'm not necessarily
uninspired or demotivated by my journal per SE, but it's like
something else has just got me more excited about it.
Like, you know, Notion right now is a very exciting space for me
because I'm, you know, planning a wedding and doing a lot of
wedding planning digitally, which I started making a wedding
journal and I'm I'm still enjoying my wedding journal, but
it does feel like just a rehash of everything that I'm already
doing digitally anyway. So it's like, is there a point
to this? And then I was like, well,
you're gonna make a video about it.
Like, am I literally just making a journal for a video?
I'm kind of trying to keep it as a memory keeper so it feels like
it has more of a point. But right now I'm feeling a
little like about it. We'll see how that goes.
It's it's interesting because that could be a lot of it.
You just said that like you have a wedding that's going on.
You're planning for that. Not saying that people don't
plan for weddings analog definitely do they have books
for and no, you can't think my wife had one when we got married
too, but so much happens online. You're emailing people, you're
kind of organizing those things. You can easily populate
everything now just, you know, seating charts if you want to.
I mean, how you can get ChatGPT probably to like put people in
perfect places if you really needed them to, right?
Like so much has just made so much easier through technology.
But I think it's just finding that value in what you're
actually writing down and doing. Maybe for you just maybe it's
not even like writing it down. Maybe it is going to be
something like sketching, right? Maybe something more like visual
notes or something like that could be something and that is
like gives it purpose, but you're kind of just kind of
almost reflecting on what you're doing digitally versus trying to
capture both because then it's repetition and and that's not
fun to do necessarily. Yeah, I think also like thinking
about like reasons behind a slump.
So why would somebody be in a slump?
And possibly one that might be related to my issue is not
liking the way my layouts look, because I know that that's a big
one. If I don't like the way my
layouts look, I'm not inclined to use them and I just don't
want to get any can use them at all.
And I'm thinking that that's kind of what my April setup has
become. So maybe at the start of April
when I was tentatively thinking like, oh, maybe this isn't
really like the vibe. Maybe the aesthetic isn't on
fleek. I know we don't use on fleek
anymore. I don't care.
I'm old. Maybe I should have just kind of
evaluated that in the moment and possibly redone my April.
I've never actually redone a setup though before.
I usually just like grip my teeth and bear it.
Is that it? I don't know if it's grit or
grin. Do I grin my teeth?
Do I grit them? I grip my teeth.
Yeah, maybe I should have just like not gripped my teeth and
bear it like I usually do and just remade the layouts possibly
to something that looked a little bit more.
I'm not gonna say appealing because the layouts aren't
necessarily ugly. I just don't think that they
like have offered a lot of inspiration to use them, you
know? I'm the type of person honestly
just I would never like redo a whole entire spread because I
didn't like the way that it looked.
I am the grit your teeth and just deal with it.
And you're gonna look at that every day and you're gonna know
that you're never gonna do do that again because you hate it
so incredibly much. There's been so many times where
that's happened where I'm just like, I hate this whole thing,
but I'm gonna use it anyway because I have to.
It's like the sunk cost fallacy. It's like, no, I took the time,
effort and energy to set this up and I'm gosh Dang well gonna use
it. Yeah, and I really do think it's
it. I'm like, I don't know why this
whole like punishment thing is like a popular thing.
I'm like, punish yourself by using it.
Punish yourself by not using your bullet journal.
So you remember how much you love your bullet journal.
But I just think some sometimes we react to those things a lot
better, you know? I mean, if it's not causing you
mental or physical harm, then yeah, you let it ride.
Like, if it's really weighing on you and you can't sleep and like
you hate every second of your day, by all means RIP that piece
of paper out. I don't not usually condone
that, but like your mental health is more important than
that piece of paper. But I think for the most part
though, like we can find ways to make it work.
And if not, you just don't do it.
Or I've done this too. Like sometimes if I'm really not
loving it, like I'll just grab one of those desk pads from
Archer and Olive and just use that and be like, I'm just daily
logging. There's no stamps, there's no
markers, there's no nothing. And just do that because I'm
like, you are going to do what I want you to do and nothing else.
And I'm happy about it. Yeah, look at you.
You have you have a pre made To Do List that is That is perfect.
It's so hideous. It has columns that say do call
an e-mail and anytime I use it, because I just need to get
things out of my head, I just cross out colon cross e-mail and
do do so It's a do do do. I think lots of stuff to do.
This has lasted me quite a while because there are many pages,
but anytime I'm just like the journal's not inspiring me.
I just whip this this bad boy out, use this sad.
It's so limp sad look and see creature To Do List, but at
least at work. I mean my biggest thing, like
what kind of penny are you using on that?
Because we know we can't do anything fancy on those types of
notepads. Absolutely not.
It is a regular ballpoint type pen, but it's that thing, right?
If we're trying to plan like with the purpose of planning and
go back to that, I like to start with purpose first.
It just helps me kind of align my thinking.
But purpose first, getting the thoughts out of your head onto
paper so that you can sort through them.
Do the stuff you need to prioritize first.
Maybe if your journal isn't doing that for you right now,
use something else. So in pops the sad To Do List,
the sad floppy To Do List, but it's still it fulfills the
function, you know? Sometimes you just have to kind
of turn your brain off and that could be another thing too, just
because I know that you do like to think about things and solve
those problems and do that. That could also be burning you
out as well Because like you said, if you are trying to think
about your wedding planner and what that looks like as long
along with what needs to go inside of that, like that's
double duty right there. Like it has to look great
because it needs to look great for me to use it, but also it
needs to be functional. Hold all that information.
I think it's the same thing. Like sometimes you just almost
put yourself on autopilot and like, that floppy little sea
creature I think is fulfilling a need right now until you're just
like, yeah, I need something more than this.
OK, let's go back to the bullet journal because I can create
what I need out of that. Yeah, I think that that's the
thing like even though I'm kind of slumping with my bullet
journal right now, which is very much like a function first kind
of space function first, but must be pretty otherwise you
won't use it and then the function won't be fulfilled,
that kind of a thing. Other the other journals that I
have at the moment though that are going well are things like
my reading journal, because that one isn't so much about
function, it's about fun. And I'm really enjoying that.
I'm enjoying being creative in there and writing out my little
blurbs about the books I'm reading and such, which
previously I haven't really enjoyed doing so much.
But this year I made it more collagey.
So it's just it feels kind of new and exciting and each of the
little boxes that I do for any piece of media a little bit
different to each other. So maybe I just need to bring
some of that kind of novelty into my journal so it doesn't
feel as stale, so I can still fulfill the purpose but make it
feel more fun. Because you've kind of moved
away from a lot of the more decorative work of yesteryear,
right? Yeah, I don't do if I'm gonna do
decoration. I typically don't do drawing
heavy decoration because it was just starting to take up more
time, effort and energy than it was really worse.
Like I didn't mind doing it, but it wasn't really where my kind
of passion lied, I suppose with my bullet journal.
In my bullet journal, it was more exciting to think about
like different structures of layouts and how you could kind
of organize information. I'm like literally talking about
this. I'm getting very excited about
my bullet journal. But like how you can organize
information in a way that meant that it clicked better with your
brain and thus you could get more done.
So it's like, oh, hey, if we think about a, you know, habit
tracker, for instance, you know, this month I tried many calendar
habit trackers and I fell off on that and it didn't work.
So next month I'm going to try a vertical style habit tracker
where everything's just kind of like color for habits and rows
for the days and see how that works.
That kind of trial and error process and kind of, you know,
treating it more like a science experiment.
That is what my everyday journal is about, that kind of problem
solving aspect, which I quite like.
And now I'm excited about it just a little bit more again.
I mean, that's my favorite part. That's why I do something
different every single week because it keeps being excited
about using different stationary things inside of it.
And definitely, you know, a number of years ago when I was
really experimenting and trying new things that I used to.
I don't do it anymore, but I used to kind of rate the success
of my bullet journal by the popularity of it on Instagram.
Like if I created like a really cool layout with different type
of trackers and things on it and it got a lot of attention, I'd
be like, oh, this is a good spread.
I mean, now I know that's a bit different.
I know it's not exactly can be correlated to that because also
Instagram is not fantastic right now for any type of engagement
really except for the ones that we're creating for ourselves.
But just being able to use it and be happy about it and really
getting to that end of the week, you'd be like, yeah, I
accomplished something. Whether or not you even need it
right then, you know, maybe there are opportunities for you
to bring little pieces of what's happening to create that
excitement. You know, maybe, yes, you have
your entire wedding journal, but maybe there's a really cool
thing you can just add into it, like copy and paste little
components to be like, oh, this is really exciting because I get
to explore here while simultaneously, you know, being
functional and productive about the day-to-day things that I'm
doing too. That could be an option.
I know that this has been a problem for other people and
maybe that's also part of my issue, but this idea of like, if
I can't do it perfectly, then it shouldn't even do it type of a
thing. And recently because I have been
getting really into the idea of printed headers.
So just like typing it up on Microsoft Office or something
and then printing it off, sticking it in because it's
printed on sticker paper has been so great for being able to
use different styles of lettering that I just don't want
to put the time, effort, energy into doing myself.
So it's been very nice for that. But one of the issues that I
found is that I went and purchased more of the sticker
paper that I had gotten previously, but they changed
something about it and now the new sticker paper is Smudge
City. It's.
So bad, like the transfer that you get from one page to
another, like the pages don't even have to like really rub up
against each other is just by sandwiching them.
It's like, oh look, ghost lettering.
It's like, it's like the worst version of ghosting because it's
not from the other side of the page, it's on your page mark.
Yeah, it's on the opposite side. Is it inkjet or is it a laser
printer? It's an inkjet printer, and
while the paper that I used to get was inkjet safe, I guess
they've changed something about it and now it's inkjet not so
safe. What is up with people changing
their paper types on us and not telling us?
I know it's just rude that that will get me into a slump so damn
quickly, as if the paper in my journal has changed from what I
have previously known. I'm just like, why you do this?
I had my perfect like fleet of pens that I like to use in this
notebook and now I can't use them because they all smudge.
Well, it's just something that when you build it into your
repertoire and you build a lot of things around it, especially
like you're saying, I'm printing out headers and using them often
and doing all of that, when all of a sudden it doesn't work for
you, It does throw a wrench into your flow and just kind of like,
this isn't what I want. It's just everything starts
stacking on top of each other. Like your anger is just there.
You're like, well, my paper isn't doing what it used to do.
I don't know why I can't use these pens now.
I'm trying to stick in these headers with this paper I've
used before. And now you're transferring the
paper. Now it's fugly and smugly and
nasty over here. I don't want you turn the, you
know, it just kind of builds on itself.
And I think that's another reason, too.
Sometimes, like, you just got to step back.
You got to say, OK, what pens do work?
I know that these are trusted in here.
Don't go inks, don't go any of these other things.
I mean, for the past few weeks in my bullet journal, I've been
using my fountain pens and they have been ghost bleeding.
I don't know the right word. Like I can see it and it's not
just a little bit like it's like I don't know and I'm not happy
about it. And so I was like, OK, Mark,
well, you love using fountain pens like we know this, but this
past few weeks, like something's up here.
It's just not the same norm that it had been before.
And I grabbed just a regular gel pen, one of my favorites, those
signals DX's. And I was like, remember,
remember the good old days like you just wrote with this really
nice five point gel pen and you didn't have to worry about any
of that. Oh, look how thin the lines are.
And it was almost just like, OK, well, I've invested a lot inside
of fountain pens to use them, but it just wasn't making me
happy at that point. Honestly, it wasn't making me
happy at all, especially with the week to week.
And I'd go to set up the next week and then now I can't use
that page. And so it's just like, oh,
you're not making me happy right now.
So I kind of what I was saying before, like I just say, OK, go
back to the basics, like start over basically and then build
upon that. Maybe you'll learn something
new. Maybe you'll find a new piece of
excitement around doing that, you know, getting back to like 1
mild liner and one pen and kind of creating with that as a
challenge within itself. Mild liner, ridiculous.
I would never. OK, maybe when I first started I
was very excited about mild liners.
But I think that's a good point though, like oftentimes the
materials we use in our journal, you know, smudge ass stick of
paper aside kind of a thing, but the pen that you like to write
with and the things that you like to decorate with and all of
that kind of stuff. Over time, as our journaling
practice evolves, we can, you know, change the things that
we're using and that means we have like different preferences
and stuff like this. So maybe it is if you're finding
yourself in like a bit of a slump with your journal.
Can I just go back to things that I know wholeheartedly I
enjoy using to kind of bring that enthusiasm and re motivate
myself to get back into it? So what old is new, You know,
it's just that idea like every time that I do AD stash, every
time that I reorganize my pens, I'm always like, oh, I remember
using this one. This was really fun.
Or if I actually just started to do more swatches of a lot of my
stationary too in a different journal and I was like, oh, this
is really fun and I'm using them again.
And I was like, wait, I haven't used color pencil in a while.
And it's just refinding those things.
Even though it's all out for me. I have it out for a purpose, but
it's not serving a purpose because I don't touch it.
So it's sometimes just like re engaging with that or refinding
your excitement about it too is you know, that's enough
sometimes just to give you a little a little spark.
Yeah. I think another thing that it
can also kind of be helpful is giving yourself like a very kind
of boxed challenge is what I'm going to call it.
It's like got very fixed kind of parameters that you can use.
Like, OK, I'm going to set up my weekly this week, but I'm only
allowed to use one pin. Or I'm going to set up my
journal this week, but I'm only allowed to use like these two
colors. Like how am I going to go about
that? That was something I did quite a
while ago now. I did it as a little video
series on the channel. We had a different kind of
challenge each week for the weekly setup.
I remember one of them and the one that got like the most likes
on Instagram was when I used colors I hated.
I was like, why are you liking this?
These colors are hideous. Stop liking this picture.
I was just saying, I mean, you could definitely engage your
community for sure. We know that they love to give
you ideas. I think letting them challenge
you too. Years ago I did one time I was
like, all right, you all get to pick the stationery.
And I was like, OK, here's the three pens, and I'd have them
vote on the three pens and be like, OK, here's the three
sticker sets that we have. Which one are we using?
And just that little like, kind of collage of things together is
super helpful. I'm going to work on a video
coming up where I let ChatGPT design my weekly page for me.
I know other people have probably done that as well.
Think you might have done a video on that too.
But that was even exciting because I was like, I would
never do this type of stuff inside of here.
And it was also me then like interpreting what it was saying
and thinking about how would I do that in my style though?
So it's what we were talking about before.
You're like giving yourselves these new challenges to try to
go into to get you excited about the materials because you know
that the foundation of it is already there.
That works, but it's how do you kind of find the excitement
again to get in there? Yeah, I think another factor
that goes into slumps a lot of the time for people is just
things feeling like too overwhelming, almost just like,
OK, yeah, I've like set all these things up because I got
really excited about setting up my journal.
And now I have a tracker for this and a page for that and a
log over here and whatever else. And then when it comes to
actually using it, it's like, cool, now I'm overwhelmed and I
don't want to do any of this, so I'm just going to neglect my
journal and make that a never me problem type of a thing.
Thankfully, this time around that's not what my personal
slump is about. But like, if that is part of the
reason somebody else is in a slump, simplifying can be a
really great way to get back into your notebooks.
Yeah, I think that's just a really kind of the golden rule
there is like you're doing too much, just pull it back.
You know that it is. I think all of us have those
moments and deep down we know that it's a lot and we need to
like not go so crazy with it. It's the hardest part is to say
pull back, especially when you've been doing it for so
long. Especially like for us, like I
feel like we definitely have a style.
So when people see our photos or our videos, they kind of know
that it's us. So sometimes it's like if you go
in a totally different direction, it's like, well,
wait, who? Who is this?
This doesn't, I don't know who this is.
Like you said that one time I used to change my thumbnails on
YouTube a lot and I was like, this video isn't doing great.
And you're like, Mark, for the past 50 videos, you use this one
thumbnail style and then you changed it.
People probably don't know that it's your video by that.
And I think I was like, oh, OK, it's like, well, this worked.
But I was really excited to try something different though.
Like I'm tired of doing the same thing all the time.
And it's just that's just a really hard thing to be like,
OK, I'm going to intend change something.
Let me go ahead and grab on to the rails.
Because people might in some cases, depending on the content,
probably more than like what it looks like might kind of go a
little hard on you to be like, this isn't what I came here for.
So like, get back to doing your one trick Little Pony.
Literally that I've been feeling kind of the same about my
content recently, especially when it comes to like monthly
plan with me videos type of a thing.
I think mainly this time around, because I just have more of them
because I'm doing a monthly setup in my journal, a monthly
setup in the reading journal. And at least for the first half
of the year, we've been doing a monthly set up in the giveaway
journal, which was given away back in like November last year
is gone. It's it's got a new home now.
But because it's like, OK, cool, look, hey, another one and
here's a monthly log and here's a habit tracker.
And I'm just like, gosh, this is boring.
I mean, people watch it. So obviously it's not boring for
them. But me as the creator, I'm just
like, oh look, it's you again. We've seen that through a lot.
I was thinking about last year or the year before when Amanda,
Rach Lee, you could tell that she was kind of like getting
tired and wanting to kind of grow outside of bullet
journaling. This might be before the doodle
planners though, because now I feel like she has to be locked
in like it's bread and butter. That's money S like she can't
all of a sudden stop journaling now and she's creating it.
I think we see that a lot in other Youtubers and other niches
and genres too, where people just produce, produce, produce,
produce and they're just like, I need a break.
Like I'm doing 2 to 3 videos a week and I've done that for the
past five years. I'm going to post once a week or
once a month or hopefully it never happens, but just retire
from it all together. I mean, I feel like you got to
make a crap load of money to be able to retire from YouTube.
But you know, the idea though, is this like I'm not going to
come back to this because I've just done it so much.
I need change in my life. And so I feel like a lot of the
times that's the decision too, that you have to like, really
kind of live with. But I think you can find
different ways to do it. Like Amanda, I think is a really
good example of that where she was just doing the same thing
all the time. She's found different ways to
get herself excited about it again and put it in a space
where she feels good and comfortable about it.
Like, I feel like that's a healthy place to be, especially
when you're feeling overwhelmed, kind of burned out.
I think that's also just like an interesting conversation.
Point is, when do you know like it's time to retire from not
necessarily your line of work, but maybe from like your, the
planner you're using, like how, how do you know spiritually,
emotionally, physically that it's time for you to step away
and do something else? I don't think I'm there with
bullet journaling. Fear not, planner pals, but
there might come a time where I'm like, you know what bullet
journaling has like run its course for me.
I can't at this stage see that date.
Like I don't know when that would happen because I know it
works for me. Even though I'm in a slump right
now, I know I will work my way this for eight years or whatnot.
We've we've had moments like this before, but there might
come a time where it doesn't work anymore.
How do we identify that? I'm curious.
I've seen it happen in. This community a lot where
people will start maybe in school or college and then they
graduate and they go into the workforce and then they just
don't keep a journal anymore because different tools maybe or
really didn't kind of work out for them.
I feel like we see that happen a good amount and it's just it's
sad because we've gotten to know them over amount of time.
But the other cool thing though too, not to like pivot in the
opposite direction, but I've been getting a lot of comments
on videos recently where I've been talking about fountain pens
or I've been talking about bullet journaling or things like
that, where people have said, I used to do this 5-6 years ago
when I stopped. Maybe it's time for me to pick
it back up. Like my life, my situation is
kind of calling for it. I think it's absolutely OK and
very valid to just know right now in my time in life, I don't
need that. You know, like maybe if I had a
different job or did something a bit different where, you know, I
wasn't writing down notes all the time or tasks for myself,
you know, if I didn't need to write down a ton of stuff, I
feel like I don't know that I would necessarily use it.
Like my job requires it. And I know that that works for
me, so that's why I use it. But I feel like if there was
ever a change where like it just didn't fit my need anymore, then
I would just have to be like, all right, like pause on this
for right now. We need to find something
different. No, I don't know.
I'm trying to think about like a good example for work, like what
would take me away from using my bullet journal, even though
Microsoft Loop is doing that. But that's just because it's
new. But it's just one of those
things where you're just like, yeah, not it's not working for
me. I don't know.
It would be a hard decision, but I feel like you would.
You would keep doing what you've been doing.
And I feel like you would just realize that you're using it
less and less and you're feeling forced to use it.
And then eventually your mind would just be like, this isn't
it? Like, it's OK, Let it.
Let it go. Let it go.
Goodbye. Yeah.
If you love. Something set it free kind of
thing. I love that idea of like, you
know, even if you do end up letting it go, whether it be
like, you know, bull journaling or any other kind of planning
system or whatnot, that doesn't mean you can't come back.
Like you kind of mentioned this idea of people saying, oh, yeah,
I used to do this five years ago or whatnot.
Now I'm thinking like maybe I'll come back to a type of a thing
because we do go through seasons of life where particular like
planners or styles of planning or whatnot are going to gel with
us more. I think that the nice part about
bullet journaling for me in particular is that because it is
effectively a DIY system, you know, you, you draw up your own
layouts. I was actually thinking about it
the other day. It's like, I feel like it's the
most masochistic of the planning systems because you do have to
do everything yourself. Like, wow, I could just use a
pre printed planner that has all of these pre printed structures
for me, but then I would be locked into that system and that
doesn't gel with me as a person. But anyway, it's like because I
have gone through life changes and stuff, but I was using a
system that is so because it's DIY, it meant it could change
with me. Maybe I'm just getting to a
point where it's like even though maybe my life situation
hasn't super changed outside of the fact that I'm like, you
know, planning a wedding or whatnot, that too shall pass
come later this year, that'll all be over.
But maybe there are just other systems that would work better
for me right this second, even though things like, you know,
comparing right now to last year where the bullet journal was
just totally fine. Things aren't that different on
the surface. But maybe it's just like me and
my needs are a little bit different.
Do you know what those needs are?
Or should we ask the planner pals for potential ideas on
things that maybe work better for them?
Yeah, no, I I'm not. Too sure, because like right now
it's very like seeing the forest through the trees type of a
thing. Like I'm just so stuck in the
thick of it that I'm like, I don't know what to do here.
And it's probably one of those things things like I've made
enough videos on giving advice about being in a slump and
routinizing your journal and such.
It's going to be Jessica, take your own advice.
But I would love to know if you guys have any suggestions for
like, you know, people who are in a plan of slump or you know,
you're not feeling inspired by your planning system.
What kind of recommendations would you give them to get out
of it yet re motivated, re inspired to use your journal?
Let us know in the comments or you can e-mail us at
plannerofhousepodcast@gmail.com or hit us up on Instagram at
Planner of House Podcast. I say it over and over again.
But I feel like the comments section is going to be this
beautiful resource for all of us and you know, pin that be like
next time I'm feeling like I'm in a slump, I'm going to the
comments section of that video because we know the planner pals
are gonna pull through 100% on this one.
Yeah, your advice is always very.
Much appreciated because like I said, I'm just I'm not feeling
it right now. I know it will pass but I would
like it to pass as quickly as possible because I know it.
I know my journal can be helpful for me.
I just need to feel the push to get in and use it.
Well, we'll come back to this. Topic in a future episode
because we have to know how you got out of it was it the advice
of the planter pals did you just whip yourself back out of it
because you knew that it was going to be there we all Phase I
think that's the big thing we all phase in and out of things
and we will figure it out but you're going to I'm like you
have to hit rock bottom to be able to come back out but I feel
like you're already there though so like positivity is definitely
in the future yeah I'm sure that the.
Next episode that follows up on this is going to be a lot more
like cheerful. It's supposed to me just being
down Buzz Betty be like I hate my journal.
It doesn't work for me anymore. Everything is awful.
I'm just going to get rid of all of my notebooks.
I'm not going to get rid of my notebooks.
This is this is going nowhere. You know, I don't think we have
to worry at. All about this episode being a
little bit more of the somber side.
I think the what I know the planter pilots love about what
we talk about is that this is real life.
You know, we are while we are, you know, influencers online or,
you know, creators online. And we seem to always have those
answers, like we are people too that come across these same
problems. And I think sharing that also
lets other people know. And that's why when we say like,
share your thoughts in the comments too, it's because
everyone at some point is going to come across this.
You likely have. So definitely let us know what's
brought you out of it. So it'll be a really good time.
All right, planner pals. Well, thank you so much for
hanging out with us today. Can't wait to check out those
comments and we will talk to you next time.
See you.