Hey there, and welcome to the Planner Palace Podcast, a
podcast hosted by two true Planner Palace.
My name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages.
I'm Jess or Jessica and I, like you, feel like I've forgotten
how to do this because it's been such a while since we recorded
an episode. But Season 2 is here and I'm so
excited. It is really incredible to think
that we've made it through an entire year consistently doing
good stuff. You and I had some fantastic
chats over the break. Not that was much of a break,
but a little bit of a break of things that we want to do this
year. And it's been so cool and I'm so
excited to kick Offseason 2. So this is going to be
incredible because I don't know about you, Jess, but I've gotten
a lot of DMS and messages and seeing some really cool and
exciting new accounts coming out as they're getting started and
their planners and their bullet journals.
And I'm really excited to see what some of these new crew are
doing this year. No, I would very much agree.
I love new planner season because I feel like everybody
comes out of the woodwork and is sharing all of their new setups
and stuff. And it's very exciting to see
all of the ideas that other people have.
And I'm so looking forward to seeing them grow across the
year, seeing what they have to offer and all of that, whether
it's like YouTube or Instagram or anything like that.
But what are we going to be chatting about today?
Well, it's a very good topic, I think, especially if you are
starting in a new journal, if you're starting a new planner,
even if you are an old school planner and journaler, you might
be rethinking things a little bit.
And one things we don't want to see this year and one things we
want to help you out with on today's podcast is talking about
ways in which you can keep your planners, your journals
consistent throughout the years. And Jess and I have some tips,
tricks, and ways that we've approached it over the past few
years. I know for myself, this will be
my 7th, I think, year of bullet journaling and keeping my bullet
journal. And there's been a number of
things that I've done throughout the years that have kept me on
track, especially when I haven't been totally feeling it.
So I'll be sharing some of those.
But just let's go ahead and start with you because I know
you and I have been planning for about the same time, at least
from bullet journaling standpoint.
I think you've mentioned that you use like classic planners
and teacher planners and things like that in the past.
But why don't you go ahead with your first tip or trick for the
planner files? So one of my biggest tips, and
thus I'm going to start off with that is that if there is one
part of your system that isn't working, that does not mean you
have to throw away the entire system.
I have very much previously had it where, you know, coming into
the new year, just getting kind of excited about the the
prospects of all of these new things that you can add into
your lineup, whether it be like a new journal or a new layout
you're trying or just like some part of your system that you've
tweaked or changed something that you've added new.
If it's not working out, that's OK, but it doesn't mean you have
to get rid of everything. One of the ones that I can have
like from a personal kind of experience was one year I did
try using a teacher planner. I was finding that I wasn't
having a very good separation of like home life and work life.
So I thought that by having a teacher planner, I could kind of
pull everything teaching related out of my bullet journal, put it
into there and hopefully that would help me get that
separation. It did in one respect.
I like kept the teacher planner at school meant that all of my
work stuff was there, but it didn't necessarily in line with
how I was actually working on my teaching related stuff.
I was still doing teaching related stuff at home and then I
didn't have my planner there to help me.
I also found that in pulling all of my teacher stuff out of my
bullet journal, it made me not want to use my bullet journal
anymore because then the only things that were left behind
were chores. Not very good at chores.
That could be a little problematic and I think that's
very interesting. That's how I felt about pre made
planners before dated, undated, whatever that might be.
I think the ones that have like all the really exciting things
on the page pages, including your task and your notes, but
like the check insurance, the habit trackers and kind of all
of those things, you feel kind of confined.
And I definitely understand for those who like those, this isn't
a knock on those type of planners at all.
People who love them die for them.
But one thing, especially with a lot of those, at least few
people have been doing it for a long time.
You see people start to customize it, whether it's
getting like new sticker labels or even whole like sections I've
seen recently where people are like, well, I don't really use
that section of this planner. I like everything else and
either they've custom made a new section or I know a lot of
planner creators make their own kind of like inserts or cover
ups, I'll call them, where people are just taking stickers
and essentially covering the sections they don't want to use
and making it something that they do.
So to that point is very much just just because it comes
wrapped up in that pack and it doesn't mean that you can't
change it and use it for something else.
Exactly, just because like either you have given it a
header or the pre printer planner came with a header that
says it is XYZ of a thing does not mean you have to use it in
that way at all. So if you find that like, you
know, a couple weeks into a certain layout or whatnot,
especially if it's an annual layout, but you know, a couple
weeks in, yeah, this isn't really working for me.
How could we tweak it? How could we change it?
How could we adjust the way we use that layout so that it still
gets use? And it is of course OK if you
decide, you know what, it wasn't for me and I'm just going to
leave it there and not touch it. That's also a way forward.
Yeah, something that has been helping me recently and this was
very difficult for me to do. I have a lot of planners, dated
planners that I hadn't used all the way or used partially and I
felt like they were going to be such a waste.
But let me tell you, this fountain pen ink community, they
know how to reuse things. And I saw so many people that
are using whether it's like their Hobonichi's or other dated
planners and things that they didn't use as like ink swatches.
And at first I was like, no, no, no, we can't do this.
There's a days of the week and dates on here like they has.
This has nothing to do with what you're doing on here.
And recently I've been doing that and it's like this very
fun, kind of freeing moment where just like I don't care
what's on this page, I'm using it for this instead and just
kind of making it your own. And I really love the way it
works. It's taken me a while to get
here though, just accepting the fact that I can change it.
It's OK if it's not being used exactly what it's here for.
I do like something about this, maybe not everything.
So I'm just gonna have fun with it anyway.
Yeah. For instance, like you could
take your future log and if you're a couple weeks in, it's
like, I'm not using a future log.
I've got an Outlook calendar or Google Calendar or whatever.
There's something else you're, you know, using for that
function already. Then change it.
You could have it as a birthdays and anniversaries log.
It could become a memory keeper. It could be like a no, a little
monthly reflection space or something like that.
Especially if you haven't put the words future log on it.
There are a lot of things you can do otherwise, just stick
something over it. It could be something else.
Absolutely, 100%. What would be your tip for the
Planner Pals in terms of consistency in your journals
this year? Yeah.
So I just did the math on my fingers while you were talking
for a second. I've been journaling for eight
years, this year in 2025, just to be very clear, just to be
very clear on that, because the tip and the thing I'm going to
talk about here is what's actually helped me into doing
this for as long as I have is just making it a part of your
day at some point. So for myself, I use my bullet
journal for work. That was the original reason
that I started bullet journaling was to keep my work life
together, task emails, notes, all the types of different
things. So for me, I have to use it
because it's literally how I get work done.
But early on while I did this, I was trying to do all of the
things, too many of the things, and put it all inside of there.
And certain times you kind of get overwhelmed.
And especially early on when you just start, you don't always
think about opening up your planner or your journal every
day to look in it, to work out of it because it's new to you.
It's not familiar. Now I don't come downstairs and
sit down. I honestly don't travel around
my house often without my bullet journal in case I need to write
something down or do something, but it's just a part of my day.
I open it up, I take a look at what I've done previously, what
happened yesterday, what did I accomplish?
What do I need to write down today and kind of refresh
myself. And I do that several times a
day. One as I'm working through the
task and notes, but also I kind of give myself a morning review,
an afternoon review, like after lunch.
And I step away from my desk and, and do anything I need to
do, like eat food and then come back.
It's like, OK, I'm going to look at this again.
Just refresh on where I am, what I'm working on next.
And then at the end of the day, I also just review through it
just as a way for me to kind of close anything out that I have
done that didn't mark done. And I think a little bit ahead
for tomorrow and usually take a look at like my calendar, what
else is going on. I do a similar thing with my
Outlook e-mail box as well. I kind of follow a similar flow
to that too. So that's something that I think
is important to do for yourself. Now if you don't use your bullet
journal for work, that's absolutely fine.
You can do a handful of things that I think can help you get
that day-to-day touch, which is helpful.
One of those things is just opening up your notebook, like I
said, in the morning, and taking a look at what's going on.
Whether you keep your tasks or notes digitally or elsewhere, I
think it's really good to do. A lot of people also actually
journal inside of their journals, especially if you're
not keeping a bullet journal or using it as a planner.
Taking the time, picking a time during the day to sit down and
kind of write things out, whether it's intentions or
reflections or whatever it is you might be copying down.
It's just really important for yourself just to make sure you
make it part of your habit. Yeah, I think that this idea of
routinizing your use of your journal can be really powerful.
And when you're just starting out, that can be kind of tricky.
So I like your point about having those kind of set check
in points for yourself. You kind of build that into your
daily routine or like established routine.
That can be quite helpful. So it's like if there's a
certain thing that you do at the start of every day, how can you
like tack on your journal use to that?
Like you know, when I sit down at my desk and turn on my
computer or whatnot while it's loading up, I will check in with
my journal or something like that in my system.
I do try and make sure I check in at least in the morning and
in the evening. But as another thing, I keep my
journal where I do the primary kind of basis of my work, so it
is always there. I also find that if I keep it
open whenever possible, I'm much more likely to touch in with it
every single day. If I keep it closed, then it's
like, oh God, barrier to entry, have to open my notebook.
What a struggle. But seriously, like that will
limit me using it. It is.
I was going to say as an add on to that is definitely put it in
the place where you're working. Like you just said, have it
open. So you kind of have to look at
it. I love the times at the end of
the day, I open up my notebook, I put it right in front of my
keyboard before I get up from my desk and leave.
And now again, I work remote. So like I can do that because
this is work. But if you're the type of person
that goes into an office, again, maybe that's just part of your
daily ritual where you take out your computer, you hook it up,
you take out your journal, you open it up, you take out your
running utensil, you know, whatever.
You're kind of getting yourself together and then just sitting
down with it and just saying, OK, let's take a look at this
1st and just having it there again, whether you're using it
all, all day, every day, whatever that might look like
for you, it's going to be different.
I'd also don't want to scare anyone away.
That is like, wait a second, I have to literally keep my face
on my notebook all day long. How would I get anything done?
No, that's not reality. No one's necessarily doing that.
But I think making a part, like you said, of your routine, how
you're using it, finding a good flow is important.
The most important thing, like I said, is just having at least
one touch point a day if you can, to be able to keep it in
your daily flow. Yeah.
And I think that, you know, obviously we also have other
kind of like larger timescale touch points as well, like, you
know, the weekly setup and the monthly setup and stuff like
that. But if those are the only times
you're checking in with your journal, then probably the way
you've kind of organized the information in there needs to be
taking account of that. Like if you want to keep your
journals and planners as things that are helping you organize
your daily life, then having daily touch points with them is
really important. If it's not so much for that
purpose, then maybe daily isn't really the need, but just kind
of structuring around the way you intend to use the journal or
how you're going to be getting things done with it.
That kind of makes sense. It's extremely a very good tip
you got there, Jess. All right, what's next for you?
What's the next idea on keeping consistency inside your planners
and journals? This is one that I have fallen
victim to so many times and I find that every single time I
notice it, it's like, oh, This is why everything's so hard to
keep up with. And that is duplicating
information or having the same information stored in different
places, usually in different ways as well.
So for instance, if we take the example of the future log or any
kind of like a year long calendar or whatever, I have an
Outlook calendar. I can rely on my Outlook
calendar being up to date because I take my phone out with
me, I make plans with people. I put it straight on in there.
I don't necessarily need to then duplicate that information into
my journals because that's not going to be the place that I
think to check for that information.
But then I'm adding to this like time taken in terms of doing my
journaling practice by making myself write it in there.
Is that kind of make sense? You know, despite saying this, I
still keep a future log. It's just that I have stripped
it well, a well away back like instead of doing the full kind
of like spread of different sections for the different
months and having, you know, highlighted lines or whatever
for those. If this is your structure, I'm
not calling you out. Your journal is yours, not mine.
But it doesn't work for me. So instead, what I do is that
because I know my journal is only going to last me six
months, it's literally a page divided into two sections, one
for quarter 11, for quarter two, or in the second-half, the year
3 and 4. I'd have a very simple
structure, didn't take me a long time to set up.
And thus I don't feel as much pressure to use it or to put
information in there. Which means that I'm kind of
like limiting my, I'm not going to say ability to duplicate
information because I can definitely duplicate it if I
felt so inclined. But I'm not inclined to do it
because I feel like I didn't like waste to the page if it
doesn't get used, if that kind of makes sense.
It does. I have plenty of pages that I go
through week by week, especially as I was just doing a flip
through video kind of on the end of 2020 four.
And there are a few pages in there that were not very well
used. And I was felt wasteful or I
thought to myself at first like, did I not do this the right way?
And then I just kind of realized like that's just how some weeks
are. And you make a really good point
about how you're keeping things and writing it down.
Now, you talked about not duplicating.
And for me personally, I find that duplication to be helpful
in a way. And what I mean by that is just
when I set up my weekly, I put a lot of things in my calendar as
well, my digital calendar. Because for me, I kind of work a
little bit backwards where if someone tells me something, if I
don't put it in there right away, I will not remember it.
And if I write it down inside of my journal, there might be a
good chance that I don't remember to put it in there too,
even though I am looking at it and reviewing through it.
It's just one of those things where in my mind for me to truly
know where it is, it has to be in a digital format.
Because I'm not always with my bullet journal as I'm out and
about, even here at home. If I keep it down here and I'm
not taking it upstairs to do something inside of it.
And someone asked me a question about a date, I, I cannot
remember like I know that I can. It's not a strength of mine.
So writing it in there is is not it for me.
But I do that though, because when I am working and in a flow
state, I will refer to that. My future log looks different
than it has historically. Last year it looks similar and
I've refined it this year, but this year I have kind of a
calendar future log because for my work, I need to have that.
I found I really like that calendar view of it, but a lot
of the times I'm am duplicating. But for me, it's because it
really helps solidify it a little bit.
Remember, Mark, this is when you're going into the office.
I have it on my work calendar. I have it in my bullet journal.
I know that I have it highlighted.
I've done all the good things that I'm supposed to do, but
digitally for me is definitely a really good way.
So, but I think it is important though on your point though,
about this duplication part and making sure that you're not
duplicating is just make sure that if you are rewriting it,
that you're just kind of rewriting what's important and
not like all of the details and it's unnecessary.
Like use it almost as like a reminder, not the hard facts.
Golden source if that makes sense.
Yeah, I get you. I think that's a good point.
Also, like duplication with purpose, like you said, that is
part of your process for being able to remember things, being
able to get things done, all of that kind of stuff.
If you're finding that the duplication is kind of like
integral to you using your journals and planners in a way
that you want to go forth 100%, you know, all of these ideas are
just ideas. I just find that from my system
when I duplicate, usually it is done without that kind of
intentionality, without that kind of purpose behind it.
It's a, oh, I need to fill in this layout kind of a thing.
And then depending on how many places I'm duplicating it in, I
then have to remember to go and update all of those places.
So I was like, OK, well, I've checked this off my task list on
the weekly and on the daily and on the monthly or I should also
go check in my future log and I should probably also go and
check in with my like future me problems because it's probably
there. So, you know, if you're finding
it to be a burdensome thing, if you're finding it to make like
your journaling practice not enjoyable, then maybe
duplication is an issue. But if it's part of the like
integral way that you are getting things done, keep going.
Duplicate all the information. Go forth and do it.
All righty Mark, what would be your second tip for people or
probably up to like the 16th tip now, little tip sprinkled in,
but next major tip. Hey, the planter pals love it
when they do this. So for me, it is definitely
using things that I enjoy inside of my journal.
There's a lot of different brands out there, especially
around pens and fountain pens and inks that talk about loving
your writing and then therefore loving to use a journal and do
that. So for me, I would say probably
over what the past two years or so, fountain pens have become a
really integral part to who I am as a person.
I, I believe fountain pens ink now, but the, my favorite part
about this is like finding pens that are really cool.
So like, you know, I have this pen of the week for this week
here. This is called Big Sur.
It's beautiful. It's amazing.
Yeah. Everything about it using this
pen brings me a lot of happiness and joy.
And therefore I enjoy writing with it.
I have a really cool ink color in here.
It has a lot of shading. So as I'm writing with it, the
the colors look really cool on the page.
And when I'm done and I step back and I look at it like I'm
really proud of the way it looks.
All I'm doing is writing. Normally I'm not doing anything
fancy, but I've really enjoyed that.
But I've always found regardless if that's a fountain pen, I also
have like the Uniball Signo DX, which is like my favorite gel
pen. Also the mark on pens from
Serasa. Like these two make me happy
too, but for very different reasons.
I just know that I can trust them.
They're always consistent. I like the way they look on the
page. I like the way my handwriting
looks when I use them. And that really makes me happy
to write inside of my journal. I'll also so say other types of
stationary can do that for you as well.
Stamps are definitely a big one for me.
I love like when I create a page and I'm using the stamps and
everything looks so nice and clean and it just, it looks
almost like it's printed. You know, sometimes I, I feel
really good about myself and I do that.
I'm like, yeah, you're getting good at this part, but it just
makes me feel good and it makes me want to use the journal
versus if you have a pen that you don't like or even Speaking
of journals and, and paper is a big part of that too.
Like if you don't like the paper that's in your journal, it makes
you mad all the time. We've talked about like the
ghosting and stuff like that that has happened.
It doesn't make me want to use it any more than I have to
because it just makes me angry. So finding things that you
really love to use inside of your planners and your journals,
I think just UPS the ante for you.
That makes you want to write, makes you want to work inside of
your journal and therefore use it consistently.
Do you have any pens or anything like that?
Just that you like love, love. Oh I love, I love this question
because I've actually been thinking about it recently
because for the longest time my favorite pen, my pride and joy
was the Papermate Inkjoy pen. And I think it's been dethroned
now. And my actual new favorite pen
is the Zebra Sarasa Mark on. It's so good, isn't it?
It's very good, but especially because I swear, I swear that
after and all this gaslighting me and I will, I will die on
this hill, but I swear that their new paper is coated just a
little bit, just a little bit because things are taking way
longer to dry. And this pen has saved me as
opposed to my, my baby, my inky boy.
But he's a little bit too inky now.
So the paper joy is is being reserved for other types of
paper, not my journal. So, conspiracy theory, we think
that our channel of paper is coated now.
Yeah, that's it, I think. Not a lot, not a lot, just a
little. Long enough to make my Micron
smudgy and me have to change my favorite pen.
So I don't know. They keep telling me it's not,
but I don't believe. Yeah, it's like full blown
conspiracy mode over here. I'm like they they tell me that
it's not, but I just, I can't. But the facts don't match up.
The math ain't mathen. Maybe that's what they did.
They changed it before they started putting out more
fountain pen ink and pens because they're like, look, if
our other paper ain't gonna hold up, we got to do something with
it. Yeah, possibly.
Yeah. With the move to more inks and
fountain pens, maybe that was one of the process kind of faces
on that. But I've found that within newer
journals in particular, things do get a bit more smudgy, which
is unfortunate because, you know, you, you get into your
patterns with the things you like to use and stuff, and then
people go changing things and then you have to change your
preferences. I hate that.
Like this lady on her porch just being like, get off my lawn.
Everything's changing. You whip the snappers with your
MP threes and your top ticks. It's funny that you said I was
doing something the other day and something smeared a little
bit and I was almost like, oh, sorry, I'm sorry.
I apologize to my journal. I was like, oh, I'm sorry.
Like I didn't mean to work that fast.
And it was something that I've used before.
So now you got me thinking like maybe it wasn't a me problem.
Maybe it maybe something did happen.
Interesting. Yeah, it's not us.
It's it's it's then then the journals.
Them, the journals. Oh my gosh, this is going to
start a big kerfuffle. We'll never be invited back,
Jess. Yeah, they're really sorry.
You can't be part of the team. You can't sit with us anymore.
But no, I, I do think that what you're saying about, you know,
making your journaling a more enjoyable experience is going to
make you more likely to stick with it.
I remember getting my first, and I know this is going to sound
silly now because we've talked about it previously that this
journal is no longer for us. Getting my first Lt. 1917 was
like open the box, like the lights coming out, like, Oh my
gosh, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
And I'm going to put so many great plans in here.
And I look back on that journal, I'm like, oh girl, you think
that your handwriting was great, but no.
But still, it was such an exciting moment because it felt
so special. And it was nice to go in and be
creative and put my plans in there.
And I'm so glad that I started it, but I'm also so glad that I
stopped using their notebooks. We've talked about it so much,
and if people are just finding the podcast now just to fill you
in Loystrom notebooks, they ghost.
And then if you're not a fan of ghosting, and what we mean by
that is seeing you're writing on the other side of the page, then
they're not for you. It's not the business.
I mean, like in certain instances, you know, if it's
just black pen on paper, sure. But that's not how I do my
journaling primarily. So it's not really for me.
But by using those supplies, that felt a little bit more
elevated. It felt like, oh, I'm an adult
now. I have an adult note book kind
of a thing. And nowadays I've got like, you
know, my kind of composition printed.
I'm like, oh, I'm a middle grader.
I'm a middle school student now. But it's still it's nice to use
and it makes the process more enjoyable, so I'm more likely to
stick with it. You know what, you make a good
point there. I talked about pens and things
inside of it, but actually the outside of the notebook too is
just as enjoyable of a situation to like really want to sit down
and use it too. If it's something that you don't
absolutely love or even want to look at, that's a problem within
its own self. Yeah, there are definitely some
journals that I have in my stash that are 100% designated to just
be R&D journals because the color is like black.
Like, yeah, I'm not gonna be putting my official daily plans
in there. They deserve better than that
color. It's so funny how I'm the same
exact way with mine, just having the collection that I have that
we have. It's not a Co owned one, but we
have our own lofty collection. So I know exactly what you mean.
When you're just like going through and you're looking
through and you're just like, this is it.
When I did the video with my brother that I posted right
before the new year, I was going through all the different
notebooks that I had to find the one that I felt OK with giving
to him. And on the back of that box, it
actually said like next bullet journal or new bullet journal in
the back. And it was the old like blue
linen one with the falling star. Because it's funny at that
moment, that was like the coolest notebook that I had,
right? It was just like, this is it?
You're going to always have the coolest notebook.
And then it's just funny that by the time I got to even
potentially even think about using that, I obviously had
something else that I liked a lot more.
So it's always just funny to all that is.
But it is every time I buy a new notebook, I'm like, this is the
next one. This is what's up.
Like, this is gonna be it. And then, you know, you wait six
months or depending how long it's been between when you start
a menu and your journal, there's probably somebody new in your
life that you're just like, and you are next.
This is literally what happens anytime after an olive does feel
like first release of the year. I'm like, oh gorgeous.
Like I know we just started in our new notebooks that like this
is the one, this is is going to be it.
I get to the end of the year and I'm just like, Nah, do something
else instead. I'm telling you this next year,
I mean, I'm using my marked one because I felt like I had to use
it since I, you know, made it this past year.
I'm going to chip into the Halloween collection, I think,
as my next one. I've been holding on to those
for so long. It might even be the old classic
ones. I don't know.
It might be the Blood Moon one we just got.
I just know that my next one, I have to use it because every
single year for the past few years, I'm always buying out the
collections for Halloween with the full intention of using one
of those notebooks. They all look so cool.
And then it's just like something else happens where I'm
like, no, or it's not special enough yet or I, I don't quite
know. But I think it just goes to show
you that you know the outside of your notebook, what it is is
just as important as what you're putting inside sometimes.
I love your point about like, carefully selecting the one that
Joey could use, because I was just like, yeah, I did exactly
the same thing for Vogel. Like, Oh no, he can't use the
dragon. He can't use the bats.
Well, maybe the wand. OK, one of the potions kind of a
thing. And he comes and he's like, can
I use the dragon? I'm like, get your grubby mitts
off of my dragon. You're not having it.
So funny, those are the exact same ones, yes, that I was
thinking about using. I think I'm using the wand one.
I am doing the same things. My wife's cousins, I saw them
over at Thanksgiving and you know, they're think it's very
cool like that. I have all this collection stuff
and everything else and I was like, I've got a bunch of stuff
that I'm just never going to use if you want it.
They were like what? And so I've been going, going
through my catalog and I'm trying to pick and choose like
which ones I think are right. And I'm even being selective for
them. I was like, no, like, I don't
think you're really going to like this one.
I've got better ones than that for you.
And just being like, but it's fun to do though, to like go
through that and pick and choose and revisit the collection every
now and again because you know, you find some things.
And it's also, it's nice to let the journals live out their
destiny because I know that there are some journals in my
collection that if they're not going to be R&D journals, then
they're probably not going to be ones I use.
But when I have a friend come over and go, oh, I was thinking
about starting a journal for XYZ, I'm like, Oh well, let me
show you a notebook that I've got that has your name on it
kind of a thing. But it is nice to be able to
share the joy. It is.
It's a special thing. It's like people that are really
good at gift giving, like we're really good at notebook giving.
We're like, here's a notebook that we think that represents
you best. This is my gift to you.
I love the idea. Like this is the one that
represents you best. It's like if I kind of think
about the journals in my collection now, I kind of want
to go through and be like, OK, who do you you remind me of?
Who do you remind me of? Not that I'm going to give them
all away because still gotta have my notebook rainbow, but
still. Who was the person back in the
day on YouTube she used to name her bullet journals?
We had a few Caitlin, Caitlin, Marie de Silva did, and then a
couple other people started to because I think Elizabeth Hunt
Lace bride had a little bit that she was doing naming as well,
but Caitlin used to name all of her starting with H.
Oh, is that? I said I never realized that
common thread. I just remember her naming them
and I thought that it was so, so funny and like, very cool.
But that's what it reminded me of.
Like when you're like, this reminds me of this person.
I'm calling this one the Elizabeth or, you know,
something stupid like that. Well, Speaking of gifting, Jess,
can you gift our planner pals who are either just getting
started with their bullet journals or planners the next
little tidbit of information that's going to help them stay
consistent? Yeah, you laughed through that
because you knew how cheesy. That was so good.
So I would say that my next tip would have to be that it's just
OK to make changes as you go. Like we kind of touched on with
the first point, you know, if you're finding that there's a
layout that you're using that rather isn't getting used at
all, you can just tweak it. You can change it to be
something else. You could cover it over with a
full page sticker and ignore it completely.
That is also a change that is viable.
There are parts of my system, for instance, this year that I
have already had to change on the what, 9th of January as
we're sitting here recording this at least ninth for me.
But one of the things I was trying this year, or I'm still
trying, hopefully by the time you see this, is that I'm doing
a life admin gamification system where effectively I'm taking all
the areas of my life that aren't my work and I'm assigning all of
the tasks that I want to do more of or do repeatedly a point
value. So by doing these things by, you
know, completing these things successfully, I earn points for
myself. As I get points, I level up.
As I level up, I get rewards. That's the general gist of it.
But I knew going in that I was, one, not going to have a
complete task list. There were going to be things
that I forgot. And two, I was not going to have
assigned points as accurately as I probably should have.
Because there are some things that I have oddly previously
found quite difficult to get myself to do.
But now, as I'm gamifying my life, they're actually happening
on a much more regular basis, which is quite exciting.
Hopefully I maintain that not on wood, fingers crossed, but
because these aren't necessarily things that I could predict in
advance that we're going to be needed or things that I kind of,
you know, I thought were going to be one way and turned out to
be another way. I've just been making changes as
I go now. Notably, the tracking of this
system is on Excel, so it's a little bit easier to make
updates and not be like I have to completely start a new plan
or anything like that. But there are some things that
I've written down in my journal already that are related to that
system that do need changing. So for some of them, I just kind
of held off on filling them in until I found my feet with them.
For other ones, I'm going to be getting out my white sticker
labels and sticking up all over them to kind of like fix
mistakes, Quote, quote, they're not mistakes.
I thought they were the right thing.
They're just not the right thing anymore.
I think it's a very cool concept.
I've watched two of your videos where you've talked about it,
one with creating it, and you did another follow up in
December that talked a little bit more in depth in detail.
I think it's so cool. It reminds me a bit of like
Dungeons and Dragons kind of ask when you're like building the
story around yourself and doing that.
I personally will not be gamifying my life in that way,
but I actually really enjoy watching you do it because for
me, I would want someone else to kind of do it to give me a
surprise or, or a prize or a something.
And I'm just not going to pick that.
Well for myself, I know. But I'd be like, I want someone
else to give me a reward if I do this all the way.
Always get a lot more like validation out of that if
someone else is doing it for me versus be doing it.
But you make some really good points in there.
And that's a really good example.
I think that if you are not gamifying your life and just
using a regular planet or journal to this point though,
just know that it is absolutely OK to change it.
Because it's kind of what we talked about in the very
beginning is that if you're not enjoying using it, there's
something that's just kind of stopping you all the time that
eventually will just pick and pick and pick and pick at you
until one day you just like throw it across the room or
throw it in the trash. And you're just like, no more of
this. I want no more.
And you never open it up again or use it.
It just, you have to be able to be flexible with yourself, not
just the journal, but flexible with yourself enough to know
and, and really think about it too.
It's actually a good point that we've talked about I think
previously. I know I've talked about it in
these videos about doing these like monthly or quarterly recaps
and revising and rereading your journal to find out what's
working, what's not, and like what needs to change.
Essentially a bullet general retro for a lack of better term.
That is really important. Just a part of that mindfulness,
not just jotting down your feelings and your thoughts and
whatever else, but really making sure this is actually working
for you and having enough commitment and passion and
permission, I think from yourself more than anything to
make that change, to make it work.
It doesn't happen often. We don't see it happen very
often where people like set up their full journal or like the
start of journal stuff and they go, you know what, I hate it.
I don't want it, I don't want to use it.
I think we don't hear about it because people almost feel like
maybe like a sense of shame, like oh gosh, I'm lying.
Waste this notebook or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, but like,
stuff it, waste the notebook. Don't waste your year.
If you're not going to get the things done that you wanted to
do with this notebook because you don't like the way you set
it up, then you have my permission and hopefully your
own person's permission to just just start again, just make a
new one. It's fine.
Like it's paper. Yes, they are not necessarily
cheap and there is some kind of like financial aspect of that,
but you can also do things in the same notebook.
You just section off that part and go like haha, trial run,
take two, let's go again. There are still ways that we can
still make that journal used, even if it's not necessarily
with the initial setup that we started with.
I had someone reached out to me on Instagram that basically said
that they were like, we are 8 days into the year and I already
think I need a different planner approach.
And I was just like, Oh my goodness, first of all, like
that's really soon. But also it's OK.
Like this is a great time to figure out something's not
working for you. I usually tend to make myself
give myself at least two weeks to really like get to know
something a bit more. Especially when I do like
notebook reviews and things like that.
I like to actually spend time with it because doing something
for one day is not going to change your life.
Honestly. Doing something for a week
maybe. I mean I can force myself not to
do something for a week easily. It takes a little bit longer for
myself personally. Like turn that into an actual
habit or something that I am or am not doing.
I just know that about myself though.
Maybe other people just self realize and actualize a lot
faster than I do. But I guess this kind of comes
back to the first point of like if something isn't working, part
of it's not working, we can make tweaks and we can make changes
kind of thing. We don't have to throw out the
whole system because of one part.
So it's this kind of balancing act of like, how long do we give
it so that we kind of have more of a sense of whether it is or
isn't working. And thus do we want to change it
or do we want to scrap it and move on to something else
entirely, like making changes. I love, I like, I like changing
things in my journal in general. I like running these little
experiments with myself. And I like your point about
giving yourself time to figure out if it actually works for you
because like you said, if you try something for one day and
you're like, oh, well, this didn't work.
I'm like, OK, was it the system or was it the day, or was it the
fact that it's new and you're still a learner and we're
allowed to be learners. We're allowed to take time to
get used to new systems and such.
But once you know that something's not working, once
you're like, yeah, OK, I gave it the good college try, It's fine
to let it go and move on to something that's going to
hopefully be more successful. Yeah, and like we talked about,
reuse that for something else, rewrite stuff inside of it, turn
it into an ink journal, a pen journal, a Swatch book.
There are 1,000,000 different ideas that you can do with it.
Probably should write that down and make a YouTube video like
other other things to do with old notebooks that you're
switching out of already. But I think it's just OK.
And and I get what we say when we say like it's a waste of
money. I think we'd last year we talked
about when I got my first bullet journal, it took me a really
long time to be OK with buying one because I think at that
point it was really like 20 or $25 and I was like, that is so
much money for a notebook like I'm just going to write stuff in
it. Why is it cost so much money?
But I feel like it's how I look at fountain pens now too.
It's like an investment in yourself because not always
there are things that are overpriced in the planner space,
most definitely. But having a notebook that you
know is going to hold up, I mean, you were just talking
about this too. Like you cannot write an Lt. any
longer because it's just not it. So you will spend a little bit
of extra money to buy yourself a notebook that you know that
you're going to like. Also, when you break it down,
even if something is $35, you're using US for an entire year.
So like it does cut down the cost cost a little bit,
especially if that's going to be the thing that makes or breaks
it. And I look at the same thing
with like fountain pens and different things like this.
Yes, you can buy cheap fountain pens.
Let me tell you that the Timu ones that I got as a part of my
little like Timu trial, they are garbage trash.
They both have stopped working and I've tried everything to
bring them back to life. And I was just like, this is a
waste. I'd rather spend the extra money
on a pen that I know that I'm going to use that looks
beautiful and actually frigging worn.
But those are the types of things that I just see is like,
it makes you happy and enjoy doing it, but know that it can
change. You don't like the pen you're
using? Change the pen.
There's so many different ones. Steal one from work.
I mean, whatever you feel like you need to do.
Yeah, I think that's a good point as well.
Like you can make changes to the supplies you're using as well.
It doesn't have to be specifically like the notebook
or the plan or anything like that, but you can change up the
decorative styles you're using. You can change up the pins
you're using. Maybe if you find that whiteout
isn't for you because you try and write over the top of it and
your pen color is not really the same, go and buy some white
sticker labels. They work so well.
They're my preferred mistake fixing hack.
But anyway, just thinking about like the parts of your system
that aren't working, do I need to scrap them or do I just need
to tweak them? Is there something else that I
could do instead that'll bring me more kind of joy and
fulfilment in my journaling process?
But Mark, what would be your next tip for the Planner Pals in
terms of staying consistent? This one kind of encompasses a
little bit of everything that we talked about, but I think that
building a strong habit is going to be your best path to success.
And everything we've talked about in doing this is all about
finding what works for you and exploring that.
But I think the most important part of it is just keeping that
consistency. It's like, Mark, how do I keep
consistent? Be consistent in your usage of
what that looks like. I am a firm believer that again,
if I can touch it every single day or I can use it every single
day, that I'm going to really build it in and start to use it
more. But I know that every single day
may not be realistic for everyone.
I talk so often about my bull adrenaline work and people write
me back and they're like, well, you must not work in education
because I don't have the time to even look at anything during the
day while I'm teaching. OK, every few hours isn't right
for you, but maybe the morning time is before your first class
comes in or before you head home for the evening and you're kind
of cleaning up your space and all of that.
You take a look through and even every single day.
You mentioned it before, it might not be for everyone.
You may have something that needs to be looked at once a
week. I personally feel this way.
I think you were kind of going there too, just as that having
it that in assistant doesn't help build the habit.
So maybe you do it every two days or every three days.
I just want to go too long because I feel like the out of
sight, out of mind is what's going to get in your way and
potentially make you forget that you even have a thing that
you're supposed to be using. So really focus in on building
those stronger habits and finding things that excite you
and make sure that you feel OK and comfortable and changing
them if you need to. Again, building the habit is
going to be the most important part of keeping consistent in
anything that you're using, honestly.
Yeah. And I think that it really
depends on what kind of purpose you've set up for that
particular planner or that particular journal.
For instance, I have a journal that is a Swatch book.
I don't need to check in with my Swatch book every single day.
Like I wonder what them pens look like.
I better go check them colors. No, there's no, there's no need.
What I will do though is check in without any time I want to do
a new journal setup or something like that.
So it has a very kind of like time and place function
associated with it. So consistent quote, quote,
consistent use of that journal is just making sure that if I
get a new set of pens, I put them in the Swatch book.
And that doesn't happen every day, thankfully.
Otherwise my house would be overflowing with pens.
Mark, it's already a problem. I don't need to compound that.
But there are certain journals in my lineup that a daily touch
just is not necessary. Another one, which is a bit more
routinized, I suppose, would be my goal planner.
My goal planner does not need to be touched every day because it
is only used like once a month to pull the actions for my goal.
Into my everyday journal, which funnily enough, I do use
everyday given the fact that it's in the name.
So because I'm like siphoning off that information and yes, I
guess it's a duplication, but it's a duplication with purpose.
And we talked about that, right? Because I have siphoned that
information off into my everyday journal.
I don't need to go back and check in with the goal planner
every single day, but I do need to check in with it at least
once a month to make sure that things are still updated in
there. It has a routine, it's just not
a daily routine. No, it makes a lot of sense.
You actually just made me feel a bit better about my Desk Bullet
journal. We talked about that one quite a
few times last year where I set it up because I really wanted to
have that in my life. And then that turned more into
more of like a tracker's journal than anything else.
I have the inks that I have from Ferris Wheel Press as a part of
their affiliate Jubilee program. So I keep track of those, my
social media trackers, things like that.
And I felt really bad for a long time of not using that every
single day. You're looking in it, but you
honestly just hit me with a out of knowledge that was like,
Mark, that's not the purpose is to look at that every single
day. It's a time and place where you
need it. Not all the time.
I would feel differently about my work journal, obviously,
because I do need to. So thank you, Jess.
You helped me out on this podcast to accept myself and how
I use different journals. You are so welcome.
I think that's just The thing is like consistency.
If you, if you take consistency just to be daily, then I think
we're a lot of us are setting ourselves up for failure in that
respect. Because I said there are
journals that I consistently use.
I am consistent with them, I keep up with them, but I don't
touch them every day because it's not what they need.
That's what not not what I need from them, if that kind of makes
sense. Hopefully other people too have
just been like, all of a sudden they're like, Hallelujah, I
feel. I feel as if I've been touched
by the bullet journal. God, thank you for this
forgiveness. Thank you for this permission.
You're welcome. You're welcome.
So we want to hear from you planner pals.
Let us know from today's topic what's a habit or a tip that you
have learned in the past that has helped you stay consistent
inside of your bullet journal or planner.
You can always drop a note in the comments of the video if
you're watching this on YouTube. Or of course, you can drop a
comment if you're watching this on Spotify, Apple Music,
wherever you might be, and just let us know.
And if you're one of the e-mail friends, because we have a
number of e-mail friends that we really love that message us
because they watch us or listen to us but don't really
participate in social media. You can also e-mail us at
plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from you there
as well. I'm excited to hear other
people's tips because I know that staying consistent with
planning and journaling is something that always comes up
around this time of year. So make sure to jump into the
comments of wherever you're watching and go and Snoop on
other people's ideas as well because they have great feedback
to give. I'll tell you Jess, some of the
best places to learn about bullet journaling or really
anything you're interested in is the comments section.
You and I both know as creators, people love to tell you things.
And I love to hear, I love to hear from people.
I'm not necessarily the greatest that emailing back, but I love
to hear about it. So Jess, next episode we have a
very interesting topic. This is one that I've actually
never really spoken about or talked to at length, which is
what it's like to be a journal slash productivity slash
stationary creator on the Internet.
Yeah, I I've only done maybe like one video about it from
like the way back whens. And I think that was about like,
you know, how I got started or something like that.
And I look back on it now I'm like, Oh my God, cringe,
disgusting. Let's not watch this.
But I'm interested to hear your take on this, obviously, because
like you are in such a different situation to like how I'm doing
mine and such. And you also have like a
different niche. Like I think there's these
overlap, but there are differences between the stuff we
put out. I'm very curious to hear what
you have to say about that topic.
It's going to be an absolute amazing episode, one that I
think for anyone who may be even thinking about starting up part
time, partial time, full time content creator might be a great
episode for you. Or if anything, you just get to
learn about the history and what we thought was going to happen
versus what actually happened. Until next time, Platter pals,
we'll talk to you. See you.