Welcome to the Flanner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I'm Jess or Jessica and.
My name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages.
And today's episode is going to be awesome, Jess, because we're
going to be talking about unpopular opinions in the
planner and stationary space. I got a bunch of messages that
was like, oh, y'all are going to go ahead and start goofing on
planning. Good luck.
And I was like, well, it makes for a fantastic topic.
No, IA 100% agree. And I know sometimes with these
kind of topics, people can get a a little bit like, oh gosh, are
we like veering into like 2 negative a territory.
This is all meant to be fun. These are all opinions.
All right? We're not saying that any of
these are fact. If there's something that we
kind of say, Oh yeah, I kind of agree with that opinion.
That does not mean that you are planning wrong.
It does not mean that your planner is not valid.
So do not worry. We're just going to have a
little bit of fun with us and see what some unpopular opinions
in the planning space are and whether we agree or disagree
with those. And remember, these are all from
planner pals. This is not us saying these
things. I didn't even add any of my own.
Unpopular real opinions. We're strictly reacting to the
community, so Jess wanted to go and get started with the first
unpopular planner opinion. So this one was I don't like the
aesthetic of the elastic bands keeping journal shut.
If a journal has one, I won't get it.
I mean, what journals don't have that?
I think what the Baron fig one at least didn't have one, my
Baron fig one didn't. But then I just ended up getting
an elastic band and putting it over the front because I do like
an elastic closure even though I don't really take my journal out
with me anymore. I just it feels more secure if
it's secure. Oh I'm the same way.
My journal's at my desk most of the time and at the end of the
day when I'm done, I still bind it up with the elastic.
That's just that's what you do. It's a weird unpopular opinion.
I don't agree. I don't personally agree, but at
least you've like kind of recognize that about the way
that you like to journal and what you like.
Because we have some people out there who they still want the
journal with like the pretty cover that has the elastic.
And then they're out there just like journal surgery and just
like cutting the elastics off. I'm like, Oh no, poor precious.
Like I get it, if you're not going to use it, fair.
I'd probably be more inclined to just tuck it into the back
cover. But if they get kind of
stretched out then they don't really sit nicely.
So journal surgery is the only way forward.
Yeah, I feel it's a very limiting though.
Isn't that like I feel like most journals now have the elastic
closure. So I feel like you're limiting
yourself to maybe like a handful of notebooks out there, but hey,
you do. You it also could be just
because like I know that's my personal preference.
So I'm not necessarily looking for journal brands that don't
have elastic the closures. Maybe there's like a plethora
out there and I'm just like, you know, all over my eyes.
Just don't know they exist. So the next hot tape that we
have here in popular opinion here is that PET tapes are
superior to washi tape. And honestly, I'm not going to
lie, I don't know the difference between each one of these.
Mark, you call yourself a planner, pal.
Oh my gosh. I know what washi tape is, but
PET tape, What I think about it, I think about is that the type
of stickers that have the paper on the back of them that you
have to peel off. Well, they do often have an
adhesive on the back or like what something that they're
adhered to rather, but PET is a plastic tape.
Effectively, it's typically the ones that are a bit transparent
unless you're getting like a full coverage design or whatnot.
But the best part I find about those ones is that you have
individual elements or items on the roll.
You can kind of fussy cut them out or sometimes there's kiss
cut, which is really nice. But because they're on a
transparent backing, they blend really nicely into your pages,
which effectively makes it look like you drew it yourself, even
though you might not have artistic talent like that.
OK. I think I've seen you use them
before, like on like the corners of some of your pages where
you've done things. OK, that makes sense.
I mean, I guess for my opinion there on that one is, does PET
tape come in as many varieties as washi tape?
Because I feel like washi tape is like a dime a dozen.
I mean, I guess they kind of in my mind, they feel different
needs a lot of the time. Like you can get some designs
that they do both in washy and in PET.
Like the washy tape shop in particular does a lot of their
designs as either just so that people who have a preference
either way have the option. But in my mind, you don't get a
lot of the kind of like 1 1/2 centimetre rolls with the kind
of repeating pattern and such in PET tape.
PET tape is typically not for those kind of designs.
You see them for other things. In terms of whether we have a
larger or smaller range for either.
I feel like the rise of the PET tape is definitely here because
in terms of bringing things into my collection, I've been
bringing in a lot more PET tapes than I have washy tapes.
And my drawers are looking a little bit full and they
probably need to do a declutter but I don't want to do because I
like the tapes and I don't want to get rid of them.
I guess I have to try about more.
I just have so much washy tape from over the years.
Honestly. Like I said, I didn't realize
there was even much of a difference, but now I know so.
But be on the lookout for something cool like that maybe
and really see if that is true. Is pet tape superior to washy
Undecided over here? I don't know.
Next one we have is one or two colors is fine.
Why clutter your page up with decor?
Where do you plan it? Doesn't have to be pretty.
I mean, this is one that we hear so often.
So as an unpopular opinion, I mean, I agree with it because
that's how I plan, but I also, for me personally, don't care
how you do it as long as you are actually doing.
If you're planning, this is the important part.
I think about that statement and that's why it's probably an
unpopular opinion here is because we've talked about this
before. It's when you have so much stuff
on your page, you leave no room whatsoever to actually plan.
Maybe you're not exactly planning or maybe you'll call it
something different. But I really do believe like
everyone needs to find their own way of doing it.
That's a That's a hard one. Yeah, I think that for me,
because I do, I love a checklist, I need to have a lot
of space on my layouts to allow for that stuff.
So I do tend to kind of focus my decoration into particular parts
of the page normally like the corners or the edges or
something like that, so that I can still fit my planning space
in. But we do see some content out
there that is kind of like marked as planning where it is
more decorating. And I'm not necessarily sad
about it. It's just not the kind of
content that I personally like to.
But if you start to get people into a headspace of like, oh,
well, if I don't fill my page with decoration, then I'm not
doing planning right. That's that's something that I
probably would take some issues with.
This is an unpopular opinion and I don't know how much of our
planner pals are into fountain pens, but I did get one from the
community that said gold nibs on fountain pens are overrated.
And this one that I can actually agree with because you can get
these 24 karat nibs and I'm always like, why are you getting
like nicer pen nibs than you are?
Like maybe jewelry that you have on you, but supposedly it makes
it softer as you're running with it.
But I've used a gold nib, an actual 24 karat.
I don't think I have one myself. There's not much of a difference
with it. So I agree with that to a
certain extent. I know there are people who are
very strict and specific about what they like their material
made out of, but it does feel weird using a pen nib that you
know is made out of gold. You're like, though, this is
really made out of gold, okay? I think I take more issue with
gold leaf on food. I'm like you just gonna eat
that? Like what's the point?
I personally don't have a very strong opinion on this one.
I have but one fountain pen. She is beautiful.
She does not have a gold nib. I think it's been a while since
I've seen her. I haven't gotten her out of my
pencil case for a second. She does not have a gold bib.
But I think that if if there's like a function for having the
gold nib, then I guess it makes sense.
Like you kind of mentioned the softer writing, but also maybe
it's like a status thing. I don't know.
It's like why people go and go and get like Rolex watches and
stuff. It doesn't necessarily like tell
the time any better, but it's a status symbol to have that,
unlike my beautiful fugly Fitbit that I got reamed out for one
time in the comments. I love them for that.
Yeah. And it is always something too,
when I see it where it's like 24 karat gold nibber or whatever it
is, it makes the pen so much more expensive.
And especially if you're are you looking at a pen that's pretty
expensive and you add that on top of it, it just, Oh my God,
it sends the price skyrocketing. So that's also a reason why I
stay away from it too. Like if you can get the same
general writing style with a non gold nib, why not save that
extra cash for another pen? Cheap or inexpensive notebooks
can be as good as expensive ones.
I would agree with this, but it depends.
It depends on what kind of cheap you're getting.
Like if we're getting the $1.50 kind of notebook from the back
to school bargain bin or something, that personally is
not going to be for me. The paper is not going to hold
up to what I want to do with my notebook.
But we do have notebooks that have what I'm going to call
better quality paper and your definition of better, whatever
you want to call it, planner pallets or goods, doesn't
necessarily have to be 160 GSM dot grid like I like, but you
can get notebooks that have the quote better paper at a more
cost effective price. You just have to know where to
look a lot of the time. That doesn't mean that I
necessarily have many of them in my collection, but you can do
it. Yeah, I would actually agree
with you completely. I think at first my gut reaction
is no, no, that's not true. But you're absolutely right.
It's all about like the branding and you know, is it more of a
luxury brand? Is it a more inexpensive brand?
But you do have to kind of test and see.
I mean, I've definitely had experiences with other paper or
other notebooks. It'll say, oh, I'm 160 GSM.
That's just the type of paper that I like to use and I'll use
it. I'll be like, no, something's
off. Like no, it's a different type
of paper. It's not something's not right
here, but it's significantly less money.
But there have been somewhere I've gotten for like half the
price of like Archer and Olive is what I buy a lot of.
It's like half the price and I'm like, oh, OK, look at you.
OK, this works out pretty nicely too.
But you really have to test it out.
And then I feel like then you're just buying notebooks to try it.
And then what if you don't like it and then you're wasting
money? They need to buy another one and
you should have just bought the one that you wanted that was a
little bit more expensive in the 1st place.
That's how my brain works. Yeah, no, that is completely
fair. It's, it's always a bummer when
you try and, you know, cut costs or something 'cause you're like,
oh, I think that this will work fine for what I need to do.
Like, it won't be like the best of the best, the top tier or
whatever, but it'll get the job done.
And then you get it. You're like, I mean, I guess the
job's getting done, but at what cost?
Where is the joy thing? And it doesn't necessarily have
to be for notebooks specifically.
It can be for other materials and whatnot, like, you know,
inks or pens or anything like that.
You know, you get particular brands of like dot markers, for
instance, where they put the dot down really nicely, whereas
other ones, maybe it dumps a bit more ink and now you've got
splooge on your notebook and it bleeds through to the other side
and you're like, cool, I saved money on the dot pen, but now my
page is fungly so. Jess, why do you have splooge on
your paper? Pen splooge.
Pen's Splooge. Oh, Pen's splooge.
OK, just making sure. All right, I'm going to combine
these two because someone wrote dot grid suck and then someone
else wrote grid paper is superior.
A lot of superiority going on to line and dot grid paper.
I love this one because I also got this one as well, and I
think that honestly, grid paper that we should have more of it.
I actually really like a grid paper.
I'd use it for my brainstorming book, my scribblebook kind of
thing because I find that getting thoughts out of my head
on that type of paper is super satisfying.
But for my everyday plan, planning and journaling and
such, I would prefer a dot grid. I would just like there to be
more options. I would like there to be more
notebooks that have grid paper that are accessible to more
people. That would be nice.
Yeah, I completely agree with you.
I have some really nice grid notebooks, but it's none that I
use for my bullet journaling, just exactly like you said.
I also think it's because it's something different and I know a
lot of people don't love the dot grids because they either have a
hard time seeing some of the dots or they have a really hard
time like visualizing the vertical and horizontal lines.
That way. My eyes are trained I feel like
just to look at it that way anyway, so I don't have an issue
there. So I can see why they would like
it. I just think aesthetically it
looks cooler, kind of gives you a grid within a grid, especially
if you're the grid layout type of person, and it just makes it
look much cooler. I don't know something about it.
I definitely feel this one. Yeah.
I think we should also have more like triangular grid and
hexagonal grid. But I like your point about that
kind of like accessibility of it.
I know that for people who have like a visual impairment or some
kind of like, you know, optical blindness, it is a lot easier to
see a full grid than a dock grid.
And also having certain dock grids that have like, you know,
really, really faint dots versus the darker ones.
Often those darker ones or the ones that are slightly larger
are going to be better for people who find it hard to see
those very faint, very small pale grey dots.
So it looks like we agree with this unpopular opinion, even
though we don't use a lot of it necessarily.
Every single day. That's definitely a good one I
think. I like this one that just said
if you don't like thin paper, don't buy thin paper.
It's gonna go store bleed. I'm like, yes, fact.
I don't think that's an opinion. Nope, you're right.
Totally. Facts next.
Exactly. I'm like, yeah, It's one of
those things that oftentimes you don't necessarily know until you
start using it. You know, you don't necessarily
know your preferences with notebooks, especially when
you're just getting into planning and such.
For instance, you know, starting with an Lt. 1917 because that's
what everybody in the community was using.
And I did like it to start with. But after about 3 notebooks, I'm
like, yeah, now this isn't the vibe.
I can see everything from one side of the page to the other.
And I know for some people that is very much they're like happy
place, this is not my happy place.
I talk about it all the time that it's not mine.
But it's really hard though, because I think for people who
like notebooks like Hobonichi, and I think the sterling ink
paper is pretty thin too, it is it's, I mean, it's a part of
like the culture I feel like of those notebooks.
But that's where I can have to draw the line though.
It's just like people think they want it because so many people
talk about it. Someone I work with actually was
like Mark, I got a Hobonichi. I heard a lot of people in the
planet space talking about it, and she had come to visit and I
was letting her use one of my fountain pen.
She's like, Oh my gosh, did I tell you?
I stopped using my Hobonichi said I could not handle the fact
that I could see my writing on the other side.
She's like, I'm so bummed because I spent a good amount of
money on this and it kind of feeds right into this unpopular
opinion where it's just like, but if you know that it's thin
paper and that's the selling feature of it, what made you
think that it was going to react me differently?
Yeah, no, I am very much the kind of person who knows that
they would not actually enjoy using a Hobonichi, but is
incredibly curious about a Hobonichi.
I think it must be really hard for the planet pals who have a
particular structure of planet that they absolutely love.
They're like, that is my perfect structure on completely the
wrong kind of paper. Like maybe it's because they
want to use fountain pens or whatnot.
Maybe it's because they don't like ghosting or bleeding, or
possibly maybe they do like ghosting or something like that.
They've found the perfect structure in a planner, but the
paper is just not the business. All right, this one, I'm going
to say it right this time. Tomoe River paper should not be
ruined by putting a ton of stickers on it.
That's an unpopular opinion from the community.
What do you think? I love that ruined.
I, I wouldn't necessarily agree with this one because I don't
think it's fair to say somebody else has like, ruined their
paper by putting something on it.
If it sparks joy for them, it's totally fine.
For somebody who maybe doesn't see a lot of Tomoe River paper
notebooks in the community or like the availability of them
isn't wide, I can understand getting a little bit like, oh,
you're like wasting it by just using it on that.
I'm sure there's something in my stash where if people used it in
a certain way, I would feel like it was wasteful.
Like maybe if you got like, really good quality scrapbooking
cardstock or something and wrote your grocery list on it, like
I'd probably have something to say about that.
So I'm trying to think about it in that kind of respect so I can
understand where they're coming from.
It's just not an opinion I personally share.
Yeah. I think it's because the paper
is in so many different notebooks now.
It's just kind of common. It's not like you're talking
about that. I would I, my brain was going to
like watercolor paper. Like really nice watercolor
paper. Yeah.
Putting stickers or something over top of that, unless maybe
you're doing mixed media, it's a bit of a waste because the paper
is made for a reason. I think with the Tomoe River
paper, the idea there is that you can write on it really
nicely, Right. Your fountain pens especially
work well with it. But then why are you going to
cover that up, You know, this usable space space with a
sticker. But I do think it's because most
of the time, at least in this planner space, it's inside of a
predated planner. Most of the time, or even if
it's not, people are using it for that reason.
I think especially in like traveler's notebooks, it's very
popular to add stickers and all this different stuff and
ephemera to it and glue and tape stuff in there.
I probably would fit inside that same zone as the stickers.
Like, wait a second, why are you covering up this beautiful paper
with a movie ticket stub or a train ticket or receipt to
something? Why are you not writing on it?
Because that's what its purpose is.
So I think I see where this one's coming from.
But I agree, let people plan however they want to and they
don't know the good use of a good paper, well, that's on
them. I think that I got a comment
kind of similar to this one. It wasn't necessarily about the
paper specifically. It was about some PT designs I
was using which came off a tape cut.
Those ones out, stuck them in, but I ended up putting a whole
bunch of MIDI calendars over the top of it because I wanted those
floral pieces to kind of be in the background.
And so I had a couple of comments being like, oh, you
wasted those PET pieces by just putting them in the back and
like fully covering them up and such.
I'm like, do you not see them sneaking their little heads out
the side? And I didn't want to have to go
and like fussy cut specific pieces off to like tuck them in
amongst the calendars. Makes way more sense just to
smack them down on the page, stick the calendars over the
top. So as a time saving feature I
was like, I'm fine with this use, but I can understand why
some people would be like, Oh no, the florals, you can't see
them anymore. Gotta save every piece of that
PET tape. It sounds like it's very
special. Oh my God, I'm such a hoarder
when it comes to these kind of things.
So I'm like, I, I feel proud of myself that I didn't go and
fussy cut them all out and just stick the very particular pieces
down that would be seen in amongst the gaps.
Because I'm totally the kind of person who will do that.
Especially when the tape roll starts to run out.
I'm like, Nope, gotta hold it like a dragon and make sure that
we have every single little skimmick of this.
I threw some paper out the other day.
I was very proud of myself. I've been holding onto it for
literally 2 1/2 years and I'm like Jessica, it's time to let
it go. It's amazing.
I have a little drawer slash little bucket that I put paper
scraps into, especially what I'm doing like real quick, like
writing samples or something like that.
But what's funny is that every single time I do a writing
sample, I will grab a new sheet of paper and I'm like, oh, I'll
just put it under the slip versus grabbing the paper that I
have specifically for that. And I know exactly what you
mean. The piles getting pretty large
now I have to remember to kind of go in there sometimes and
like pull it out for like a quick note or like a quick
Swatch. But yeah, it's it's hard to not
want to save those little pieces, but then at the same
time you don't go to think to grab them first, especially when
you're planning 'cause you want something new and fresh and
cool. So kind of on that same train of
thought, though, the next one I had was I hate told my way.
I'm like fam, sure, I probably do too.
It's about 160 GSM. I don't want to use it.
I mean, it's unpopular opinion. I think it's probably one that's
in there because so many people love that paper or claim to love
that paper and it comes in all of the notebooks that they like.
But I would agree with that. I understand why people like it,
it's just not for me personally. Yeah, I think that when it comes
to paper and in particular like the way that I want to use my
journal and such, I don't use a lot of fountain pens.
I know Tommy Weaver paper is really good for those kind of
things. I don't want any ghosting or
bleeding or anything. A lot of people like that, kind
of like lived in used feeling. It's just not how I like to
plan. So yeah, I'm I'm there with you.
I don't like it. The next one we have here,
again, this is from the planner community so I'm assuming this
person has a special affinity for these type of journals.
But they said that ring bound journals are superior to all
other journals. And as an unpopular opinion, I
would agree that that is unpopular because I do not I I
can't, I'm a lefty. So like I have good reason for
it. I just personally can't.
I like the functionality of it. I like that you can move things
around or I know you can take out your paper and write on and
do whatever and put it back, but why am I going to spend that
extra time to do that? Now?
The one thing I wasn't sure of is it meant like rings, like
with the little teeth that connected or if it's like disk
bound. I don't know the difference
between that. I guess you would say disbound
versus ring, but bottom line is that is unpopular for sure.
I don't know. I can understand where they're
coming from though, because in terms of like getting full use
out of a notebook or whatnot and being able to reorder pages and
all of that kind of thing and then being able to like take
them out and work on a flat surface or whatever, that kind
of stuff. You can totally understand that
being a very good system for some people.
I think my biggest issue would be is that I don't really like,
I like writing in a notebook, OK.
I like writing in things that are bound together and the
center rings would get in my way.
Like I'm not a lefty, but they would still get in my way.
But if you're not the kind of person who feels the need to
write in it when it's kind of assembled together kind of a
thing, if you're OK with taking pieces out and working on those
and then putting them back in and such, then it could be
really beneficial. Also, that just idea of being
able to reorder things, that is awesome.
Like if I think about something like my Swatch book, for
instance, if I have a particular collection of pens that I decide
like, hey, I'm not actually using these, I like want to get
rid of them or whatnot. I just take the page out of the
ring binder rather than like having this layout dedicated in
my Swatch book that is now obsolete because I don't have
those pens anymore. I do the same exact thing.
One of the notebooks that I have for all my pen swatches or ink
swatches too. I use it in there is the same
exact way. It's a ring.
I like it. I like the paper, I like the
layout, but I also just, I'm just like every time I do it, I
was like, OK, it's one of the me plus one.
So it has like little tiny rings on it and I like pop it open and
I pull out a piece, but then everything else kind of comes
out with it and I'm just like, OK, OK, this is this is
relaxing. We're doing our pen Swatch and
our ink Swatch today. And then I like fold it all back
together and I'm just always like, I wish this was just
printed and bound together would make it so much easier.
But then at the same time I say that I'm like, it is really
nice, especially for that to like take it out of a notebook,
have it in its own space, kind of do what you need to do.
It's like a little art project and then put it back away.
I think for that specialty need, I would agree with you that the
ring is nice because you can move things around, especially
when you're doing swatches or anything like that.
You're not always buying your pens or your inks in
alphabetical order. That would be very odd and
weird. So having the ability to move
things around is nice, no doubt. But I definitely for like a day
today, that would not be me. Yeah.
I also wonder if like a ring bound system would just like
emphasize my perfectionism a little bit.
It's like by using a bullet journal and by having it in a
bound notebook. I feel like over time, I'm still
a perfectionist. I'm still a persnickety biscuit,
but I think that I have kind of loosen the reins a little bit in
terms of that. Whereas if I had a ring bound
system where you can just like constantly tweak and chop and
change and stuff and put things in different orders and whatnot,
I would start to get a little bit obsessed with finding like
the perfect ordering for things or having things in like the
ideal sequence or whatnot. As opposed to like, Oh well, I
put it in the journal now. It is where it is.
That's how it's gonna be. Or you mess up, I mean, kind of
called me out one and you just said that I was like, I do that
actually. Like in the Swatch one that I
have, if I don't like the way the Swatch looks or my
handwriting looks, if it's the very first one at the top of the
page, I just put inside my little bin over here where all
the other paper scraps go and I just start with a new one.
Otherwise, if it was all bound though, I'd be like, well, it is
what it is because I'm not ripping that page out and
wasting it. So it's actually a really good
point. Whereas like in my Swatch book
the other day, I had kind of started setting up a layout for
a certain collection of pens I had, and I started just watching
the pens in the order they came in the packet because I'm like,
surely, surely the pens have been put in an aesthetically
flazing order. Of course they would do that.
No, they had blue and red right next to each other.
I'm like, what heinous rainbow school did you go to that
decided that was the way to order your pens?
But you know, that should be an unpopular opinion.
It's certainly an opinion. Things should be in rainbow
water. Unless you're colour blinded,
you can't tell the difference between half of those colours.
It's not gonna help you. It's OK, You send it to me.
I'll help you out so at least everybody else can look at it
and be like, yes, Mark, they are now aesthetically pleasing.
Everything is fine. Everyone needs a planter pal
like you, that's for sure. I try to help where I can.
This one I don't know how I feel about, but it said you only need
one planner, but journals are infinite.
I'm this one's tricky because like in terms of my journal
lineup, a lot of them in terms of the name that I give them.
And in journal like my everyday journal, my yearly collections
journal. I technically only have one
planner and that is a goal planner.
But my everyday journal is where the majority of my plans end up.
So is that now my everyday planner?
No, I've got 2 and now I'm feeling like should I have two?
I'm a little worried. I think if we break it down into
the difference between like a notebook, like a blank notebook
that we're sitting out for bullet journaling and a pre
dated planner, I would agree to a certain extent.
I guess it depends how you use it.
But like you only need one planner that's dated for the
year and the days of the week and like everything else, right?
So why would you need multiple? But I guess unless you have
multiple uses for it, like in my brain, I'm thinking about
somebody who has like a planner for work and then has like a
personal like a pocket notebook or, you know, a little like
pocket planner or something like that.
That's for like 2 different subjects.
Like, if you are clearly keeping them separate, then I think that
that's a good reason to have more than one.
But I think I understand where this one's coming from.
It's like, well, if you have one planner for that, why not just
have everything all together all the time?
Because otherwise you're keeping two different dated planners.
Why? But I think the reason I gave
right before that would be the answer to that question.
Yeah. I think that if there's like,
you know, different areas of life that need their own
dedicated space, totally makes sense.
I know there are some people for instance, that in terms of their
work planning, those are the kind of things that can be like
what is it called? Like OIA, I don't know what it's
called in other places, but it's like it could be called upon to
be looked at in a kind of professional setting.
And you don't necessarily want like gynecologist appointment in
there with all of your other stuff.
Like does your workplace really need to know the kind of a
thing? So I can understand why people
would keep multiple planners in that sense.
I personally keep multiple planners because I'm planning
different stuff. So I have my goal planner, which
is for breaking down action, pointing my goals and such.
Just dedicated to that. Just looking at the reflection
process so that I can see that at a glance, I don't need to go
looking through all of my other stuff for it.
And then I have my everyday quote planner, which I call my
everyday journal. That's where I put my task lists
and stuff. That system does work quite well
for me. It could possibly be brought
together, but I like having them separate.
It makes sense that your story that you just said like keeping
those things separate reminded me today on Instagram.
I saw a story from a planner that said that for the past
several months they are a teacher at a college it sounds
like, and they have a shared calendar that they use for all
of the classwork that's due. She's like, today I realized
because the student told me that I've been putting all of my
personal calendar things onto our school 1.
So they know when I go to the gynecologist, they know when my
period is. They know when I take my dog to
get groomed and get their hair cut and seen by the vet.
And I was just like, oh man, that is, that's, that's a good
reason also maybe to use totally different types of calendars for
things like that, because I'll do that by accident.
Sometimes We have like a shared family, one that for any type of
like events or concerts and things like that.
And then I just have one that I put like random stuff on to for
myself. And I have to always look to
make sure that like random things don't go on there because
I've put them on there before. And my wife's like, why is this
on the family one? I was like, oh, I didn't click
the button, you know, for whatever reason.
But you know, maybe just keep them separate.
It's safer that way. You know, I have the same kind
of thing with the separate calendars for separate things or
whatnot. I foolishly though made two of
the calendars the same color so I forgot to actually check which
one I was working on and started adding everything to 1 calendar
when it was supposed to be on the other one.
I'm like cool, now I need to move everything over and admin
and such. Thankfully I called it early
enough that it wasn't like the hugest problem in the world, but
it still was not ideal. This one is 1 that I think you
probably sent to me Jess under like a different username that
says that any planner or notebook that doesn't have full
size weekends is a useless planner or notebook.
I got the same one in mine and I'm like, yeah, come through.
You tell them like it is. They were doing double duty.
They were, they were doubling down to make sure that that made
it onto this unpopular opinion. I mean for me personally I do
see that as an unpopular opinion because I don't agree with that,
but that's also because I don't use the weekends that much for
myself to plan. I think the little itty bitty
space that some give, if any at all, is plenty enough for me.
I don't need big space for I've got a lot to do during the week.
The weekends is low chill time for me but I know it's not the
same for everybody so I respect it.
If I was designing a planner that had the perfect amount of
space for each day of the week, the weekend and Monday, Tuesday
would all have a fairly decent chunk of space.
Wednesday would have a little bit less.
Thursday would have barely any because you're not going to do
any work. Don't lie to yourself.
And Friday would probably be back to that more kind of like
medium kind of size. Most planners don't do that
though. Most planners think you're
probably going to get some work done on Thursday, foolishly
because it's not going to happen.
But I completely understand people wanting the same amount
of space given to the weekend. What I in particular do not like
when a planner does is when they either like share the weekend
box together. I'm like, no, the Saturday and
Sunday are their own things. Hello.
They don't have to share a bed, please.
Or they change the layout just for those ones.
So for instance, the one that I'm thinking about in particular
is where they have like a vertical space for all of the
days of the week, like weekdays, quote, quote Monday through
Friday and then the weekend it's like, oh, we're just gonna go
horizontal for that. I'm like, oh, stay in your lane.
Pick one and go with it. I don't want a horizontal weekly
like space and then a vertical weekend or vice versa.
It's just nasty. Well, it does because you know,
seven days in the week doesn't fit perfectly into 3 columns.
I mean, that's even for myself. Whenever I do that, if I include
the weekends, it's usually everything you said that you
hate. It's combined into one space or
it is like very small to the side in a totally different
layout. But it's because especially when
you want like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
you're like OK, Saturday, Sunday stacked over here or something
different. So in my mind, I get it.
But again, I just don't use weekends that way, so you know,
it is what it is. Yeah, I'm just more of a fan of
having like 8 sections on the 2 pages because then you can get
an even split and then that extra space can just be used for
something else. So whether you kind of like
truncated and make it into like a mini calendar section with a
priorities list or possibly just like a note space or something,
maybe a little meal plan section or whatnot.
But I also use daily logs instead of weeklies.
So I'm like over here having really strong opinions for
something that doesn't actually affect me at all.
This one's a bit of fun. The bigger the better.
I love my letter size Archer and olive notebooks and I wish that
more came in that size. I have not been able to find a
good use for the letter size. I love having a range of
options, don't get me wrong, but I also found that when I moved
to a notebook that was even just B5 size, I got overwhelmed.
I know people say like, Oh yeah, there's more room for like
decorations and stuff like that. And I just made all of my
regular size decorations bigger and they all looked silly.
So I'm not a fan of that big. I think the square is like my
happy place in terms of large notebooks, but I appreciate that
people do enjoy large notebooks. I like them too.
It's funny. Whenever I see the letter size
that's vertical right up and down, I'm like, yeah, that's a
lot of space. But I am slightly interested in
the heirloom ones from Archer and Olive.
I got a bunch of them with previous ones and I was like,
oh, I'm going to use them for something special.
And just the other day I was thinking should I try to use
that for my bullet journal? But I only would use it in that
horizontal layout though. Something about that feels a lot
more approachable. Feels similar to the square
notebooks in my mind, even though it's not.
So, yes, but I don't know that's really big.
I think I'm much more of like the kind of person who prefers
small notebooks. I think I just love the novelty
of little ones. Like a little basics is the
cutest size. Like I know you can get a six
and like sometimes even A7 and whatnot.
I don't gravitate towards like that small, but a basic size is
just such a stinking cute size. I should use it more often.
Yeah, I don't know. I've been try.
I don't think I've actually used one.
Yeah, everyone talks about how amazing they are, but I feel
like if I was already using up a ton of A5 size notebooks, like
multiple pages for a week, I don't even know what the hell I
would do. And that I'd be like, oh, this
journal lasted me a month and a half because of the pages.
Everyone said to use it. But I do think it has to do like
place in time and how you use it.
Maybe it makes sense. But yeah, for me, not so much.
But then also you've got the polar opposite with that big
huge letter size. Like that's, that's an opinion,
that's for sure. Yeah, I think if I wanted to fit
a whole year into a notebook, I could probably go with letter
size. I don't know if I'd enjoy it,
but I could technically do it. And I think that if I wanted to
go for like a new quarter, new notebook kind of system, then a
basics would be absolutely excellent.
A5 is still my happy place though, but I'm glad that
there's some big notebook love out there.
I can fit a whole year in a square notebook and I can fit it
inside of AB5 notebook. That's why I want B5 this year
for myself because I was like, I'll just do the whole year in
here. It'll be fine and I'll pick a
new one next year. But yeah, I I don't know.
I feel like the a 5 though. I mean now I'm very curious to
try it out and see like now I've definitely want to try to make
it my next journal and see it'll laugh like a two year journal be
fantastic. This next unpopular opinion is
interesting. I like this concept, but that a
24 hour timeline in planner should be more common than
uncommon. And I like this unpopular
opinion because when you think about everyone doesn't
necessarily work a standard 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Or I don't even know how a lot of those planners look because
it's been a while since I used a predated one.
But I like this idea. For me though it has to still be
in like non military time like it needs to be 12:00 PM one PMI
don't need a 131415 all the way. 24 hour that.
That breaks my brain I don't like it.
Yeah, I would have to agree with that.
I personally prefer AMPM, mainly because I'm like, I don't want
to have to do math. Time math is my least good math.
Like of all of them, time math is the worst.
But I can totally understand people wanting this more for,
you know, people who work in spaces that you don't have your
9 to 5 like you mentioned, or they actually do things beyond
8:00 PM or whatnot. Because oftentimes with those
planners that have the, you know, 8 to 8 or like 6 to 10 or
like whatever, not everybody has those as their wake hours.
You know, some people are out there starting their morning
routine at 4:00 AM choices, but like you do you.
But others, you know, we stay up till 11 or 12 or something and
we still have stuff that we're doing then, even if it's just
leisure, but maybe sometimes it isn't.
And sometimes we have other things that are scheduled for,
then it would be nice to have spots to accommodate for those
things. And I think that 24 hour time at
least would give everybody the option.
They there would be the availability to be able to put
those things in. I totally love this idea.
Who's gonna put it out next? Does anyone even have one?
It's been such a long time since I used a preprinted anything
that I don't even know. Our planner you have to let us
know are people making 24 hour planners?
If so, who's doing it? Because I like this concept at.
The risk of getting cancelled Archer Olive is overrated and
overpriced. I I can understand where you're
coming from all right like I get it they're not cheap notebooks.
I think that you know, obviously it's all opinion based and such
so for you, yeah, possibly they are overrated and overpriced.
I think certain designs are a little bit overrated they're not
like my cup of tea or whatnot and you can definitely get 160
GSM notebooks that are as good structurally or whatnot as
Archer and olive ones. I would also think that like in
terms of cost in particular, this is an American based brand
with American based employees with American based salaries,
whereas other companies that are from other places in the world,
salaries there are probably a little bit different.
So the need to accommodate for that is it's a different kettle
of fish kind of a thing. If you're just looking for a
notebook that looks gorgeous, has 160 GSM paper, yes, you do
not have to pay Archer and Olive prices for that.
Overrated. I don't think that the company
itself is overrated. I would probably just say that
certain designs, but not really for me, are a little bit
overrated. Yeah, I'm with you on this one
here. I know where people are coming
from because so many of us in the community talk about it,
especially being on the brand team and doing stuff with the
affiliates and everything else like that.
We do talk about it a lot, but I can see where they're coming
from. I was thinking about this the
other day, just actually, because I was going to take it
myself back to like when I first started.
I remember the first time I saw Arch and Olive Notebooks, and I
too was taken aback. Pearls were clutched because I
was like, wow, like people are paying this much money for
journals. Like I was worked up when I
first bought that, that loystrom and it was like $25.
And I was like, this is a lot of money for a notebook and then
you go and see that. But I'll be honest with you and
not everyone gets the opportunity.
And I think that's where I kind of came into is like, would I
have eventually tried it? Eventually I would have probably
bought one on my own. I got lucky because this was
early on and I was friends. I got to know some of those
people and they were like, you definitely need to try this
notebook. And I was sent one for free.
And that was the moment, though, where I was like, oh, this is
it. Like I like this.
And then as I've grown with those notebooks and definitely
them as a brand, I was like, oh, I really like everything that's
happening here. It's more than just finding a
random notebook seller that has 160 GSM paper and cool covers.
There's a story behind it. I know the people there.
I know, you know, we've become friends with a lot of them too.
So for me, it's a little bit more of that affinity.
So I can understand though, for someone doesn't have any of that
direct connection that they're just like, what are you guys
talking about? Like, what do you mean you're
going Gaga and drooling over this notebook?
Like it's not all that. Like I can see it.
Yeah. I think that that's a really
good point about that kind of like emotional investment as
well. So it's like it's not just the
notebook, it's like, you know, the people behind the scenes and
all of that and the connections that we have with those people
and such. You know, if you don't have
those and if you also just don't feel like spending 35 plus on a
book, like fair, I get it. There are plenty of other very,
very much more affordable brands out there that have the same
kind of like quality of product, but you don't get the rest of
the kind of experience. I suppose.
Like I focus on the mental health kind of awareness and
creativity as a form of self-expression and all of those
kind of things. I feel like the kind of
messaging and mission behind the brand is really important, but I
understand that people don't necessarily want to pay that
much just to be associated with that kind of messaging.
Does that kind of make sense? It makes sense.
And I think also, I don't often think of them as a small
business, even though I think they technically still are
considered a small business. And that's also so a hard part
for me too, because I feel like they've gotten so big that it's
grown beyond that. But I guess it's not like a in
every home type of notebook. People still don't know what
Archer and Olive is, even though we're in that space all of the
time. So that's another reason to it
becomes a specialty brand. I think they, you know, kind of.
Position themselves from a brand perspective to as a luxury brand
and that's how they can up some of their prices on things.
And I know a lot of people have a lot of feelings about that.
You know, when you have like a double edged marker for a lot of
money versus what you could buy at a craft store for
significantly less. Well, what makes it so much
special? Is it really that different or
is it just because it's from them that it makes it special?
And so, yeah, there's a lot that kind of goes into that, but
definitely can understand where someone's coming from with that.
Unpopular because we know there's a lot of diehards out
there. This unpopular pig and I, I was
taken aback by this back. Planning is not planning.
Stop doing it. I'm sorry.
How else am I going to look productive if I don't write down
things and check them off immediately after I've done the
thing that I just did? You you buy Joe Damn business.
I think that the reason that we're insulted by this is
because we are totally being called out like like, yes,
technically it is not planning in the same way that people say
that like, you know, memory planning isn't a thing, which I
kind of technically disagree with.
Like I think you can plan memories, but I think that a lot
of the time when people say something's memory planning,
it's really memory keeping. But that's, that's another
topic. I am very much the kind of
person who will write something down that I just did to check it
off because I like want the record of achievement.
I want to be able to look over my checklist for the day and be
like, look at all the stuff you actually got done as opposed to,
hey, look at all the stuff that you said you were going to do at
the start of the day. But you didn't do that because
you went on all these side quests and you were very
productive, just not in the areas you said you were going to
be. So sure, it's not planning, but
I don't care. Yeah, I guess technically it
would be task tracking. I guess it's more what you would
call that, but it mixes in and at the end of the day it looks
like I planned to did it and that's all that matters.
Exactly, as long as I come out looking good it's fine.
Oh God I don't know if I can even deal.
But one of the unpopular opinions was just like a
statement of fact for their own reality.
And as I toss my journals after I'm done with them, what?
I could never. OK Like yes, I run a planner
channel so it makes sense that I keep as many as I do.
So like if you are out there throwing your planners away
because you don't have the space, sure.
But the idea of it gives me the heebie jeebies.
I could never. I have never ever thrown away a
planner. Even the ones that I've just
like tested out for a little bit are only used for half a year.
I have them all lined up in order in which I use them.
I could never imagine throwing in one away ever.
Like, that's history. I think that's the thing, right?
It's literally my life. Like these are snapshots of my
life. Thinking about the ones that you
just mentioned, like I don't even throw away the ones that I
just tested for a second. I have a planner.
It was a goal planner. We've talked about it before.
It's the one where the bookmarks weren't long enough to be used
as bookmarks. So I very quickly gave up on it.
I still have that one. I like set it aside because I'm
like Jessica, you don't need it anymore.
You can probably let it go. And now it's just sitting and
its own separate pile in my shelves because I'm like, Nah,
I'm not ready. Like I've kind of like half
committed to the idea of letting it go, but not fully committed.
So it's still in there. Yeah, I don't have words for
this one. Never could I ever.
That's the next game we could play.
Jesus. Yeah, for sure, because like
that is not something that I would be doing at all.
But if you have any unpopular opinions that you'd like to
share in the planning stationary space, anything like that, we
would love to hear them. Share them below in the
comments. Or you can e-mail us at
plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com or hit us up on Instagram at
Planner Pals podcast. Especially if you're here on
YouTube, make sure that you jump down into that comments like any
of the ones that you agree with. We're not out here trying to
like start a riot or anything, but it's always nice to know
that your unpopular opinion something that's shared by other
people. I definitely let us know if your
reactions are the same as ours. Like I'm so my heart is still
beating from some of that we went over today.
Like I could never imagine half of the things that people are
like. Unpopular opinion.
I throw out my journal. Who are you?
I'm sure everybody else was
probably, hopefully not driving. You're like what when you?
Said you weren't driving. I thought you were like throwing
it out while you were driving. Like you're on the highway.
You're like, I'm done with this journal.
Just toss it out the window. I mean, why not?
If you're gonna throw it out, who cares where it actually goes
at the end of the day? But this is a ton of fun, Jess.
I mean, it's something we definitely have to do again in
the future. I love hearing these from
different people because this is stuff that I would never in my
entire life think about. No, I very much agree it is.
I said it was supposed to be a bit of fun kind of a thing.
So if any of these unpopular opinions, like we've said no to
like they're not our opinion does not mean you're planning's
wrong. Very interested to hear your
thoughts in the comments though and thank you as always for
watching.