Welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I'm Jess or Jessica in.
My name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages and we're back for
another great episode today talking about a topic that I
don't know. It's not like a sad topic
necessarily, but it can feel that way sometimes, both for you
and your planner because today we are talking about the planner
slump. And this is right about the
time, Jess, where I feel like we're all feeling it.
We were talking before we got started today we're like
completely separate from the topic itself, like something
just this doesn't feel right. Is it the planner?
Is it the life? Is the life affecting the
planner? And so today we're going to talk
about what is the planner slump, if you haven't experiences just
yet. And if you have experienced it,
we're going to share some of our own experiences and maybe be
some solutions or just blab on forever about where we are and
hope that you can help answer our questions.
Yeah, this is one of those like write in column kind of pieces
where you kind of write into the author and be like, this is all
of the issues in my life, please solve them.
That was definitely what it was like before we started filming.
I mean, honestly, isn't the planner supposed to be like, now
I need you to fix my life like I bought you now fix it all?
And we expected to kind of do that for us.
And in many ways it does. But if you're like me or
honestly, like a lot of other planner pals, we know that this
happens. We get so excited about the
planner that we chose at the end of last year, we start using it,
we set it up and now we're a few months into it and it might be
time to figure out if there's kinks to work out or honestly to
see if maybe it's not the right planner for us.
And that's like really hard decision where we're like, well,
I paid money for this. Yeah, exactly.
I think that, you know, the time spent with it, the effort spent
with it, the money spent with it really does factor into any kind
of decision making process around like, do we just stick it
through? Do we just keep going with it?
Do we switch it out or anything like that?
That is the sunk cost fallacy at work.
And I do try to avoid that, but it still gets me because, you
know, in previous flatter slumps that I've had where I get a
couple months into it and I sit there thinking like, oh, no,
this, this isn't the vibe anymore.
I'm just like, oh, well, we can probably do a couple more months
in it. Like you can probably ride out
to the end of the notebook. But what are you sacrificing by
doing that? Like, you know, the productivity
sacrificed, the joy sacrificed. These are all also parts that
should be going into the decision making process outside
of just I spent money on it. But very rarely is that the
case. Oftentimes it's more so the kind
of like loud voices, like think of all of the effort you already
spent on this. Think of all the time you spent
with us already. It's definitely a difficult
thing to kind of work through inside of our head.
So let's work through it together.
We all hold hands, we're all in a safe space.
As we talk about this kind of space where we are, I mean,
honestly, I think the best place to maybe start, we'll be talking
about our slump history. I just hit my 9 year Bujo
anniversary. So it's been 9 years since I
officially started bullet journaling and planning and kind
of morphed through there. So I've had, and I think you're
in the same exact boat, right? Nine years as well for you.
Yeah, I think that in November, start of November this year,
it'll be my 10 year anniversary. Feel like I'm gonna have to do
something special for it. You're like, yeah, but not
celebrate Bullet Journal itself because, baby, I moved away from
you. We have departed.
We were divorced. I don't know if we're coming
back. Yeah, that's right.
I think like, you know, people have divorce cakes, right?
That could be a thing. I'm not going to say that I'm
going to celebrate with a cake, but now I'm feeling like it
could be part of the party it. Definitely could be.
Well, I mean, I can go and share just a little bit of mine.
I've definitely hit a number of planner slumps throughout time
inside of mine. I remember my very first one
many eons ago was when I was bullet journaling and just
starting. And I remember getting probably
6 months into the bullet journal.
And just to give a little bit of background, if you haven't
listened to like one of our very first episodes, which actually
think talked about how we got into bullet journaling itself,
you know, I practiced in a bullet, a fake, kind of like a
faux bullet journal. I just really took some pieces
of paper and stapled them together to be like, OK, how do
I figure out the signal fires and how these bits and pieces
work? But when I finally like got into
it, I was all in. It's the only thing I talked
about. Oh my gosh, it was the only
thing I would ever talk to anybody about.
And I just remember like 6 months in and I was kind of in
this moment. I think it actually came right
after a long vacation and I came back to work and I used my
bullet journal almost primarily for work.
So made sense to kind of take that break.
And I came back and I was almost like, is it worth it?
Do I need this? And I remember being like, you
know what, like maybe I don't, right?
Maybe I don't need this and I can just make things happen.
And I actually gave it a week because I was like, I don't
know, Mark, like giving it all up.
Let's see what happens. And it was so terrible.
Like I felt my life was falling apart.
I was forgetting things again. Like projects weren't getting
done on time. Like I wasn't getting back to
people. I was like, no, no, no, no, no,
no, we need to bring this back. And I brought it back into my
life. And I've been relatively happy,
you know, with it. But I just feel like a lot of it
kind of comes and goes. I can definitely say like the
one that followed up from that one was probably when I got into
more of the decorative bullet journal planning where I started
to add more color, more doodles, more stamps and things like
that. And I think after you're kind of
in it a lot, you've probably been here too and others have
done it too you, you kind of get a little sick and tired of like
doing all the stuff for your bullet journal.
But I think it's also like that moment for me when I start like
questioning whether like I'm working for my bullet journal or
if my bullet journal working for me.
And that I think is like a big conflict area that gets me
sometimes. Yeah, definitely.
I think that some of my previous slumps have definitely been
around that kind of decorative element and almost like a kind
of creative burnout with your journal or, you know, if you've
kind of been going through the motions doing the same thing
over and over again, Which in a way can be nice because the
routine of it can make it something that's easier to stick
with, easier to keep up with or whatnot.
But if that routine is so time and labor and I don't know,
resource intensive, then that can also come with like a cost.
I found for me, one of my first kind of major planar slumps was
around that decoration and feeling like I almost had to do
it, which wasn't the case. I know that that's not the case.
Rational Jess knows that's not the case, but subconscious Jess
is like, are you even doing it right if you're not decorating
it? Again, she knows it's not the
case. But still, this was part of the
narrative for me. And I was also at the time
already sharing things online around my plan around how I did
it and such. So there was also this kind of
element of me putting other people's expectations ahead of
my own personal needs, my planner, but also putting their
expectations into their mouths for them.
It's kind of like you're speaking for somebody else.
Nobody had actually told me if you stop decorating your
planner, I'm not going to watch your videos anymore.
But I had kind of, I don't know, established that narrative in my
head, which meant that that was a very kind of large part of my
decision making as to like, you know, how long I stuck with
decorative planning or how long I was doing that particular
style of decoration. Because one of the things that
was very much in the decision making process for me when I
started my channel was the idea of I want anybody to be able to
do what I'm doing in my planner. Thus I will use supplies that
everybody has accessible, like to them, they can actually get
these things. So for the most part, it was
like a pen markers, those kind of things.
There wasn't any tape or stickers or anything like that
because I didn't want people to need very specific supplies in
order to recreate things if they wanted to.
Whereas when I eventually changed, changed and started
using stickers and washi tapes and whatnot, people were like,
oh wow, I really love that I can do this too now because I can't
draw or like, you know, don't have the same level of drawing
ability that you were demonstrating in your videos.
So it really kind of highlights the number of times where I hold
off on making a choice because I'm making assumptions that
aren't necessarily true. Like in this case, it was, you
know, building that narrative around our people won't be able
to do XYZ or people want XYZ or whatnot.
First of all, it was my plan. I shouldn't even be thinking
about that, but it is still part of the thing.
So, you know, it kind of makes me question for future slumps
and like current slumps, possibly how much of the
decision making process is you just kind of like building up
the stories in your head or telling yourself kind of lies
almost. That's probably where some of my
slumps have definitely come from.
I mean, they definitely happen with the burnout part of and I
think there's probably definitely a difference between
burnout and the slump, but sometimes this slump is kind of
triggered by that burnout or I don't know which one kind of
feeds the other one. I mean, over the years, we've
seen a lot of people who have burnt out on the content
creation part of journaling. Or a topic that I'm interested
for us to talk about in the future is this idea of like, do
you outgrow a journal or outgrow a planner?
Right. Maybe you used it for a time in
your life or a season in your life and you're beyond that now.
And you may or may not really need that.
And I think that's the really hard thing for maybe some people
to realize. And they hold on for longer and
longer pieces because kind of to your point, from the creator
standpoint, you have an audience.
People expect those things from you or they like to see them
from you. And you are like, OK, well now
I'm just feeding this monster, but like, I'm not in it.
My heart's not in it anymore. Like, I don't actually need this
thing, so I'm just going to keep doing it.
And I think there's a part of that that like leads to that
burnout and like I'm giving it up.
But the slump part of it, though, I think is a little bit
different. And again, if you're not a
content creator, you're not making videos or posting online,
the slump is still a very real thing.
Like I currently am kind of not really, I'm kind of in a slump,
but I think I'm also just kind of like bored right now with
myself a little bit right where I'm just like, am I really using
this to my my fullest ability? But that's completely regardless
of what video. So I'm making like I feel like
now like my audience knows, like they're on, they're on a ride
with me for like a certain amount of time.
Whatever the hyper focus moment is for me right now, things are
going to change. But like the bullet journal has
always stayed. But like right now I'm kind of
in this like size slump, I guess is the best way to kind of call
it. You know, I'm using my B5.
I used that last year and I really liked it.
What I'm noticing right now, for instance, is that my daily
day-to-day work is kind of changing where I don't know that
I need that size, but I bought this hemlock and oak.
I set it up. I like this notebook.
It's not doing anything bad for me necessarily, but I'm just
kind of like, oh, but like I have this new trifold that I can
put an A5 inside of and like I'm really excited about that.
And so I'm just like creating my spreads now and not that I'm
half assing it, but like I'm just not, I'm not whole assing
it. I'm not going above and beyond
for it now. I'm like a few stamps a few days
of the week. I'm good because it's all I kind
of need right now. So I think there's also just
like I'm not burnt out from a journal or posting or doing
anything. It's just like kind of just not
currently motivated or currently inspired by my current
situation. Yeah, I think the boredom can
definitely be a kind of reason behind getting into a plan of
slump. So, you know, burnout can be a
reason, Boredom can be a reason. The materials that we're using
can definitely be a reason. So like you know, you've said
you do like your notebook that you're using.
It's just maybe the size isn't quite right for you right now,
especially like when life changes happen, whether it's for
work or personal life or something new that you need to
plan for or want to plan for and your current system doesn't
really accommodate that. That can also lead to slump
energy because now the planet that was working so well for you
isn't because you've got this new set of needs that you have.
I know for me in terms of like the supply specifically, another
slump kind of period was when I was transitioning over from the
Lt. 1917 into what was then the scribbles that matter for me.
So just having that thicker paperweight because I was
getting into slump energy around my layouts because I was so sick
and tired of the ghosting and the bleeding because it didn't
lend itself nicely to the style of planning I was doing.
So that was kind of like a slump period as well.
Specifically, kind of tied to the fact that the supplies I was
using weren't fit for the purpose that I was giving my
planner at the time. Yeah, side note is scrolls that
Matter still around? I have not heard that planner
brand in so long. I think they are.
I think they just go by STM now, but I don't really see them
around as much. Yeah, I remember there was a
real big time when like that was like the next journal to have
was that pre Archer and Olive. It was for me at least.
I mean, I know that they had like the thicker paper.
I remember being like early on I was like who needs that?
And I think I've mentioned this before, like when I spent $17.00
on my first Lt. 1917, I was like, why am I spending this
much money that the scribbles that matter were a lot more
almost double the price. And I was like, I don't
understand how people could spend this much money on a
notebook. Now I do know why, because the
qualities of the figs, but yeah, sorry, I just haven't heard that
name in a while. And I was like, oh, are they
around? No, that's all good.
I mean, what previous notebook brands that I've used, I started
Lt. 1917 like, you know, officially we're not thinking
about pre planners like, you know, the school diary or
anything like that. But then it was STM Scribbles
Nevada, then it was Dingbats and then since then it's just been
like exclusively ultra and olive for all of my everyday journals
with some tifosi chucked in for R&D notebooks and other things
like that. So it's interesting to think
about, you know, when slumps occurred and what kind of things
I did to get out of them. Obviously, we're not going to
talk about that just yet. We're still talking about the
slump itself. We got to establish the base,
you know, the base cases here. But I'd be very curious to like,
map a timeline of when I transitioned to new notebooks,
what notebooks they were, and where my slumps were, and see if
there's any kind of like correlation between them.
I'm sure that there is. I mean, I think a real big thing
that happens with slumps too, is just when the planner or the
idea or the method just isn't, isn't working for you.
I mean, how many people will probably pick up bullet
journaling because they saw it talked about in some way, shape
or form? You know, you put the time, the
energy, the effort, like you said into it.
You understand how to do said method.
And then you get kind of two or three months in which I, I
believe personally is a good amount of time to give something
a good try and it's just not working for you.
It's kind of what I was saying before, like are you working for
your bullet journal or is your bullet journal working for you?
Because when the bullet journal is working for me, oh, I feel
good. I'm moving, grooving, I'm
grooving, I'm having a good time.
I know where things are, they're happening.
But like when I've used other planners or methods that are not
that, I'm just like, well, wait, where does this go?
Oh, do I put it on here? Where does you know?
And then you kind of get yourself like overrun.
I mean, I got like that when I had, I remember, gosh, what was
a few years ago, I had an A5 size bullet journal and then I
had a dated planner. And this was the data planner
from appointed because I really, really liked the format of it.
And like how the appointed one was kind of organized, but the
paper did not fit my needs. So I was, I had two different
pens that I wrote with. I wrote one that was safe for
that planner. And then I had like my fountain
pens or other pens I used in my bullet journal.
And I got a few months in and I was like, I can't, I can't do
this anymore. Like it's pointless for me to
like have a pen to put things over in this planner.
And then in my bullet journal, it was just too much.
And I was just like, I'm over this.
And I just consolidated back to the bullet journal.
And then now I've kind of moved beyond that to say, OK, well,
now incorporate like a calendar into your bullet journal,
general future log. Like that was my evolution.
But I was just like, I got to the point where I was I was in
that slump and I was like, this just isn't working for me
anymore because it's just too much.
And then, you know, you kind of make a decision from there.
And I think that's a really important part.
And we'll get into that just a moment about like diagnosing
your slump. But is that realization part for
you to feel like it's OK to make a change, even though you've put
like we've mentioned the time, money, effort and all of those
things into it? It's just like sometimes it's
just so hard to just bring yourself to make that decision
because you feel like you're failing because you set this
thing up and you were so like gung ho on it.
But I think the bigger part is like realizing that it's an
evolution of where you're going, but you have to kind of do a few
things, which like I said, we'll talk about on on how to kind of
get through that, identify and then move on.
Yeah, I think that you're this idea of splitting plans out or
like having multiple or whatnot, that can also definitely be a
kind of recipe for slump energy. Because a previous instance that
I've had is when I was, you know, entering the new teacher
year and I was really interested in the idea of this work life
separation because I was finding I did not have work life
balance. I was constantly working.
I found it really hard to leave work at work.
Like if you're a teacher, you know, that's the case.
But I found that because that was such a problem for me, the
solution that I thought was going to help me was having a
separate teacher planner where I put all of my teacher planning
related stuff in there. And then any other kind of
planning I needed to do would go into my bullet journal.
But but what I found is that that gave me like huge, huge
slump energy because I didn't have my planners on me all the
time like I usually would because I wanted to keep my
teacher planner at work, because I wanted that separation.
But often times when I had a thought about teacher planner
related stuff, it might not necessarily be on my person with
me. If I was at home, it definitely
wasn't with me. And then the only things that
were left in my regular personal bullet journal kind of space
were chores. I'm like, well, that's super
inspiring. Absolutely love that.
So it was just like the kind of places I was putting the
information, it was still the same information, but because I
had split it out, that sent me into a plan of slump.
So that was kind of a challenge point.
Definitely did not happen though that this also happened in 2020
and we all know what happened in 2020.
So, you know, just because we're feeling like slump energy in our
planner doesn't necessarily mean it's something that we have
specifically done or, you know, something that is a fault of our
own. First of all, probably isn't
your fault. I'm going to blame the planner.
It's its fault, look at it. But secondly, it could just be
life in general. Like there are things external
to our planners, external to us working in our planners that
will have a really big impact or influence on our mindset when
we're coming into work with our planners as well.
It's a really good point. I think depending where you are,
what's going on, there's sometimes just bigger things
than filling out your bullet journal, you know, that are just
happening and it's really not the time for it.
I mean, I kind of think almost like we said, the seasons of
planning as well as like maybe you're just beyond that.
It's not working out for you and trying to figure it out.
One thing I wanted to ask you, Jess, around this and again
we're pondering on this, but like, why do you think these
planner slumps tend to happen a lot of the time at like this mid
year mark? Like, what do you think it is
exactly that's causing us to really rethink how we're taking
on planning, journaling, anything like that?
I think that by the time we get to mid year, especially if
you're using like a year long planner or something like that,
it can be this kind of combination of a loss of
motivation and just boredom. Like the monotony of doing the
same old, same old can sometimes really start to get to us.
And even if you're not, you know, depending on where you're
based, sometimes it'll be a seasonal thing.
I personally don't like hot weather.
Hot weather is not for me. So in summertime, I'm just like,
I'm going to be like, what's the reverse of a lizard?
I want to be a reverse lizard. I'm going to stay as far away
from the sun as possible. But also where I'm actually
based. This is the time when we have
our darkest days, coldest weather, everything is rainy.
So it's like there could be that kind of an impact happening as
well. If we're thinking about people
who are in a place where the weather is a little nicer and
they are the kind of person who does get out and do things and
such, maybe you just don't have as much time to dedicated to
working in your planner. It could be a range of things.
I think for me personally, it's usually the boredom factor.
Started the year with like really kind of good intentions,
motivation, excited energy. Like yeah, this is the year I'm
going to get my life together or whatever.
I feel like I'm constantly trying to get my life together.
But anyway, and then we get to the mid year point, I'm just
like. But like, is it my year?
Is it though? What do you reckon?
No, I think you're exactly right.
And depending on how you use your planner and where you use
it, I mean for myself, if you use your planner or your bullet
journal for work, you know, a lot of the times it's all the
big ideas, the big things we're planning for the year, the big
projects, the road maps, all those things.
And right about this time, honestly, earlier than this,
probably in like more around like the March time frame, that
end of the first quarter, so many of those planes have gone
out the window, right? And and all of those Rd. maps
are now completely blown. The bits, all of that early.
Is my journal going to fix my life excitement?
It's starting to kind of go along with the shrapnel of
things being blown apart. You know, even the seasonal
part, like you just talked about makes a lot of sense.
I've never really connected it to that, but that makes a lot of
sense too, especially if like you're affected by like, what is
it the like the seasonal affective disorder?
Is that what it's called? You know, so if it's like
seasonal depression or things like that, that really does play
a really big part in it when you just don't want to open your
notebook or like you're just not really feeling it.
I think, you know, being able to identify a lot of that the same
way you would with any type of like depression or things like
that. It's like a really important
part of it. Whether you know, a lot of the
times, especially with like ADHD, like I'm starting to
realize a lot of my impulsivity and I'm like stopping myself.
I'm actively currently trying to do this with a lot of things
where previously I'd be just very impulsive by it, do it,
kind of make it happen. And I feel like that is how I
get myself into these places too.
Like my trifold that I bought, you know, like this was, it was
impulsive buy. I didn't need this, but I got it
and I wanted it and I love it so much.
Jenny Bick is where I got this one.
It's so much fun. But like this is ready for me to
do. I've got my, you know, little
stamp journals in here. I've got my ink journal in here.
All I need now is an A5 bullet journal to complete this little
baby and get it all together. But like that was an impulsive
buy, which then led me to the excitement around it, which then
I come home and I like look at my B5 and I was like, I don't
like you as much anymore because I'm excited about this over
here. But it is very much about that's
how I am with like materials and things like that too.
Because I think my solution to the boredom is to buy new thing
to excite me about it. Like, you know, buy new pens or
new stickers or new stamps, you know, go on a journal, say haul
for myself and then come back with, you know, $150.00 worth of
new cool things to play with. And sometimes that works.
I'll be honest with you. Sometimes that's all that I need
to do that. But it really is just kind of
like so many life things have happened by this point.
You really are kind of second guessing and really thinking
about, OK, here's where I am now.
It's mid year points. It's a really good point.
I feel like to take a look at yourself and what's happening
currently and say, OK, how am I going to finish out this year?
And if your planner is not making you happy, you don't want
to spend the next six months with that planner, like that's
not going to make you happy, right?
Or if something is really working out for you, but it
needs a few little tweaks, now is a fantastic time to tweak
some of those things to set you up for the rest of the year to
to see how well those things work.
So I really do think that's like one of the main areas where
you're like, OK, this is mid year point feels right to me
because I've given it a go. I've been using the same thing
for, you know, almost six months now.
So let me go ahead and just set myself for success for the next,
you know, five to six months. Yeah, because I think that's the
thing that when it comes to this mid year planner slump and
whatnot and you're throwing baby out with the bathwater and
whatever, we still have so much time left in the year to make
things happen, get things done, all of that because my planner
is typically the place where I'm planning things to get done.
That's kind of where my mindset goes to.
It's like I still have time to get things done, so why slog
through with a planner that isn't helping me get things
done? What changes can I make, what
adjustments? And may not necessarily be like,
Chuck the planner out and get a new one.
That's not necessarily the solution here.
But I think that before you even start to brainstorm solutions,
the biggest thing is figuring out like the causes or the
reasons. Like why is it that you are in a
slump specifically? Because, as we've just noted,
there are plenty of different reasons why you could be in a
slump, and different reasons are going to have different
solutions for them. Absolutely.
So let's talk about that a little bit.
How have you or how do you sort of diagnose yourself with in a
slump? What does that look like for
you? So typically speaking, I will
tackle pretty much anything planner related when I'm
starting to think about making changes or not whatnot with a
want analysis. I love the want analysis.
I love how flexible it is. If you haven't heard me talk
about it, first of all, you must be new here.
Secondly, the want analysis stands for wins, aversions,
needs and to try and through doing that, through thinking
through those categories of things with my planner, I can
usually identify like, OK, well, it's not everything sucks.
It's more so these things don't work.
What could I do to actually adjust and move like, you know,
forward with a bit more intention.
So in terms of breaking that analysis down W wins.
This is all the stuff that is working.
I like to start with the positive because all too easily
I will fall into my negativity bias and just be like everything
is awful, everything sucks. This is the worst.
So by starting with the stuff that is working, it just kind of
has a little bit more of a positive spin on it.
And it can be really small things like, oh, I really like
how I've been using stickers in this way.
I really like how my lettering has looked on these weeklies.
I really like the placement of my trackers or something like
that. Just the little things, totally
fine. Doesn't have to be huge things
for any category. It doesn't have to be huge.
But once we've done wins, once we've thought about the
positive, then it's the inversions.
This is the stuff that is not a win, the stuff that sucks.
What specifically is not working?
So rather than just saying like the planner doesn't work or like
I am in a slump, which like, wow, very helpful.
No, no, no, no, we're going to get a little more granular with
it. OK, Specifically what is not
working for me. So it could be like, I'm not
remembering to come back and check in with my tracker, or I
don't feel that the habits and routines I'm keeping track of
are actually helping me, or I'm not remembering to open my
planner, or I can't easily transport it to work.
Like all of those different aversions or different problems,
Again, I have different solutions.
So I want to make sure that I'm being very specific and very
particular about those so that then when I start to figure out
ways forward, they're actually aligned with solving those
problems. In terms of N for needs, this is
thinking about the stuff that my planner should be hopefully
fulfilling for me moving forward.
So if we're thinking about a mid year check in, it's like cool,
for the next 6 months, what do I have coming up that I'm going to
need to plan for? Or what do I kind of hypothesize
that will become needs for me? Are there any projects or goals
that I'm thinking about working on or tackling or whatnot?
And what will I need to put in my planner to accommodate those
kind of things? And then for AT try this is
specifically looking at my needs and the aversions and thinking
about what I could do to solve for those or accommodate those
things. So it's like if one of the
aversions is I'm not checking in with my habit tracker, then
maybe it's like, OK, is it the planner's fault?
Or could I just have like an alarm set on my phone at 5:00 to
say like check in with your tracker?
Or if it's like, OK, I have this goal of project that I know is
coming up in quarter four. Well, what kind of layouts could
I put into my planner to help me plan for those things?
It's kind of like an all in one, one kind of process, but you
really just start with the West and the A and really kind of
analyze what isn't isn't working to start with.
And then the other two sections are more so forward thinking,
but that's what helps me. What do you do?
Well, first I heard a new word today that I have to share with
you that someone said when you said about like putting
something on your calendar to remind you to do something.
I was in a meeting today and someone called that a tickler.
They're like, oh, I'll put a tickler on my calendar.
And I was like a what? And they were like, oh, it's
like a reminder. I just call it a tickler.
And now I want use it. That's I think it's such a
weird, like hilarious word to use like, Oh, I put I'm going to
jot that a tickler for that one. I was like.
Well, there's certainly one way to to word it.
That is not what my first thought was.
I'm just like, Oh yeah, tickle time with whoever.
Like, yeah, put that on my calendar.
Yeah, each to their own. If it helps them remember, then
it's totally fine. Yeah, we don't King Journal
shame here. You do whatever you got to do
for yourself. But I think a big thing for me
is understanding. So some thing I do, I've used
the one analysis. I typically do that for new
journals, but my mid year looks a little bit different.
What I actually do is actually just do an audit of my current
process and journal. I've multiple journals are
planners. I'm looking at everything all
together and I'm essentially just taking a trip down memory
lane for the past four to five months or wherever you kind of
fall. I start at the very beginning.
I just take a look at my index and my writing things inside of
here. How does this make me feel right
and go to like my future log most of the time?
Like I was just thinking myself. I was like, I actually don't
know the last time I added anything to my future log
because I have something different that I'm doing now,
like with all of this. And I'm like, OK, am I using
this? Am I not like, what is it giving
me? And then I'll just go through my
weeklies and honestly, sometimes too, I'll I'll be like, Oh, I
totally forgot to migrate this task.
I should probably pick this back up if it's timely, but I'll go
through that. Just be like, okay, what's
working for me and, and for myself, a lot of the time I'm
paying attention to like how I'm utilizing my weeks and I'm
taking a look and saying, OK, I set up a two page spread or you
know, a spread on this page for this week and I used half of it.
I even use that second page. And I'm kind of looking for
these trends where I'm saying, oh, you know what, probably for
the past three or four weeks, I've only really used one side
of my journal. So why am I taking all this time
to set up a spread and on 2 pages and all these different
pieces when in reality, I'm not, you know, using my big like
weekly areas for a task or whatever.
Like I'm realizing for myself, just to give like a real life
example, most of my weeklies I set up pretty large areas for
like the days of the week. And I usually will typically put
task or events or appointments inside of there.
But recently I've been making them pretty big and I'm
realizing I'm not really utilizing that space all the
way. And that could be a reason why
I'm making these two page spreads because I think that I
need that space, but I really don't so I can shrink it down.
Mark, what's more important, honestly, what's most important
is that I know what day of the week and what the date is
because I reference that so much.
So it's not really the space, but what I need from it kind of
goes into the want analysis is the day and the date and then
maybe, you know, a handful of things that happened that day,
whatever that might look like. And then when I get to the end
of that, and I forgot to mention this, have like a scrap piece of
paper or, or a page in your journal, a collection page where
you're writing kind of these things down, what's working,
what's not working for you? And then you're just going back
through that. So it's very similar to the one
analysis, but if you're not trying to like fill in a
quadrant because you're not quite sure, this works just
fine, like a brain dump almost. And then from there I'm just
really kind of looking at it. I'm kind of pulling up and
picking up like, again, that what's working and what's not
working for myself to then realize and start to diagnose,
OK, what is the problem? Is it that I'm, you know,
closing my notebook at the end of every day and then it's not
open when I start my day, therefore I'm not looking at it?
Or is it something more along the lines of like, not a lot's
going on right now and so I don't really need all of that
kind of space. And I mean, the one thing I like
about my bullet journal is that it's so open because sometimes
things are busier and sometimes they're not.
So sometimes it's just changing my approach to it.
And that's really kind of how I take it on honestly.
And like I said, when I had the bullet Journal plus the planner,
at this point, I was just like the duplications not having it
for me. It's totally OK, we're going to
retire the planner and just stick to the bullet journal
because that's what has always worked for us.
So I would kind of make that same decision at this point
right now for myself and just say like, oh, it is definitely
too much. So I'm going to condense down to
what is working for me. If it's not working for me at
all, then I might want to just take a look through.
And again, with the bullet journals, pretty
straightforward. It's like I'm not using my
index, I'm not using my future log.
I'm barely using weeklies, I'm not using a monthly overview.
I'm not going and filling out my habit tracker.
Like maybe this whole thing and not that the habit tracker is
necessarily a part of the bullet journal method, but like the
collection page, you know, is whatever it might be, it just
might be like, you know what, man, take it back to the basics.
And I've done that before too, where I've just completely just
put all the extra stationary pens, stickers, all that away.
And I just went back to the basic straightforward bullet
journal method to like reset myself.
And sometimes that's been super helpful to be like, yeah, why am
I doing this? Like it's like remembering your
why. Like, why did I decide to use
this method, this notebook? Whatever it might be, I've just
gone too far with it and now it's time to rein it back in.
Yeah, I find that the utilization of the want analysis
for me is kind of similar to the analysis that you're doing.
I used to previously set it up as kind of a quadrant thing.
So we had like there WANT like on quarters on a page or
something. But nowadays what I typically
do, because I cannot be trusted to do 1 section at a time
anyways because I'm just not that way inclined, is that I
will set it up using the Alistair method.
So I have 4 columns on the side, actually 5 S, 5 columns on the
side of a checklist. So one for WANT and then one
just for like a task bullet kind of a thing.
And I'll go and jot down all of my notes about what has been
working, what hasn't, like flipping back through the
layouts on the planner, thinking about the planner as a whole.
Depends on what I'm using the wanton analysis for.
So if it's this kind of like mid year slump, it would be
considering the entire planner and all of the ways that I've
been using it and also the layouts in there.
So it's like the materials and the practice and the system and
all of the other buzzwords. But all of that stuff would end
up on the list. And then I just put a dot
underneath the relevant column. So it's like, oh, hey, this is a
positive dot underneath W for when Oh, this is something that
kind of sucks or isn't working or isn't getting used dot
underneath A for a version. Because then if I set it up as a
bulleted list, I can go through all of the thoughts that I've
had on that list and start to make decisions specifically
related to those specific things.
So it's like, oh, OK, this was a win.
I really liked the fact that the journal was a linen cover or a
faux leather or whatever. So it's like, OK, my next one,
maybe I want to have another one of those.
That's like a decision that I can make to kind of like set
myself up in a way that is going to be most joy filling most like
aligned with how I actually like my planet to be and how I like
to use it and whatnot. But it's really giving yourself
a very specific actionable things as opposed to just being
like slump energy, everything sucks.
Wah wah is made kind of a thing, because unless you're really
breaking the problem down, you're not going to have the
greatest likelihood of having decisions made that are actually
going to help solve your problems.
Yeah, I found some of my worst decisions come from my
impulsivity. You know, we're kind of like I
said, I'm doing being very mindful of it right now.
It's been very hard for me not just to completely abandoned my
my current journal and just pick up one of the other 55 a fives
that I literally have sitting next to me right now and just
starting to use it. But I think it really just comes
down to like, OK, why am I feeling this way?
Like, why am I feeling so impulsive about it?
And it's more about the idea I think of this having, you know,
in this case, because right now, like we were, we just had our
last episode about like junk journaling or like things we've
fallen into my junk journaling trend at this point right now is
happening inside of here because I was so excited to use it that
I just put it inside of here. It made sense.
And so I'm like, oh, well, if everything's together, you know,
then like I'm just remembering it.
It's kind of this big happy family versus what I know
doesn't work for me, which is having multiple different
planner notebooks and kind of things everywhere.
But at the same time, you know, I'm being good from a standpoint
of saying like, OK, I've identified why I, I feel this
way. It's not because the planner's
not working for me. It's not because the notebook's
not working for me. It's none of those things.
And I say, OK, Mark, well, let's see how you feel later.
So like one of the things I'm doing with my impulsivity
outside of notebooks and planners is that I've been
putting things into my shopping cart but not clicking buy now.
And I don't come back to that, if I even come back to it at
all. This has been a really important
thing where I will like open back up my phone and be like,
oh, I forgot that I had five things in my cart from cute
things from Japan. And I'll actually like go back
through them and I'll look at them and I'll say, OK, do I
really actually need these things right now?
You know, like do I need another clear stamp set?
I do not. I have crates.
It's overflowing. I was telling Jess before I got
started, I just sold some fountain pens because I have so
many fountain pens now that I actually have run out of space
to put fountain pens. And so my my rule is instead of
buying another binder to put more pens, I need to keep within
my space that I have. But I have on multiple different
sites right now, I have shopping carts that have fountain pens in
them that I really, really want, but I don't just need them them
right now. And so I think for me, it's kind
of this idea of, you know, it's like, OK, be impulsive in that
moment of like putting them in a cart to kind of fulfill that
little dopamine kick that I'm craving, but just kind of give
it a day or two and then come back and see if you actually
want it afterwards. And so like, that's how I kind
of feel with these things right now is like, by the time that I
get to the end of the year, you know, am I still going to be
excited about this? And if I am, then I'm just, oh,
it's going to be beautiful because it's going to be like,
yeah, let's get back to the A5. Let's go back to like where we
started because I've been in squares and B vibes for the past
few years. Let's give it another go and get
excited about it and then see what happens.
And then, you know, six months later, let's see if I'm still as
excited about it after I'm in that A5 or if I'm like, oh, this
was a bad decision. I knew it.
Yeah, I definitely am not great at not giving into impulsivity,
though. Mine specifically happens with
relation to food, which is not great when you're supposedly on
a health journey or whatnot. It's like, you know what?
I really could go for fries. Instantly goes, gets fries.
Like, no, Jessica, why? Think about the outcomes you're
hoping for for yourself. But in terms of like planet
stuff, I'm usually, I'm very slow to make changes in my
planner. I usually slog through things
for a really long time, which almost just makes my slump worse
because it's like you're really just sitting and dwelling in
that like feeling. Especially if you're the kind of
person like me who if you set up a monthly setup or whatnot and
it's not working for you, you're just like, well, it's only a
month. I'm like, yeah, but that's like
a whole month. It's like, it's like a whole
like 28, seven days depending on what kind of month you're doing.
And for me, it's 28 days, but I find that the novelty factor and
like, you know, the shiny object syndrome and such, you know, can
definitely come into play with a lot of people in terms of their
planners. And you're constantly jumping on
new things. So you never really get a feel
or appreciation for the kind of like core of what works for you
because you're constantly chasing newness.
I feel like this is a separate part kind of point, but it still
felt necessary to say. More importantly, though, once
we have identified what the issues are, once we know why
we're in a slump, what kind of things have you done to get
yourself out of it? Obviously it's going to be
really dependent on the reason, but what kind of things have
worked previously for you? Yeah, so sometimes it's funny
when you're talking about like living in your filth a little
bit like this idea of like you made this mess, but you're going
to go ahead and deal with that for X amount of time.
I don't know that I could do a month, but I definitely do this
with my weeklies where I'm like, oh, this is ugly.
I hate it's not working. And I'm like, well, you chose to
go this far, You chose to take it.
So you're living in this mess and you're not going to make
this mistake again. So like there's, there's a bit
of like that kind of happening in like the mess.
So something that I've done to get myself out of a rut is I
will sometimes change my approach.
So as I said that one time I said, you know what?
I don't like my journal right now.
I'm not really using it. I don't think it's right for me.
Let's give it a week, right? And I felt the effects of what
it was like not having that. So that when I was like, no, no,
no, I need it back. You know, I don't even think I
made it a full week, honestly, probably 3 days.
And I was like, my life is falling apart.
This was really helping me and you kind of get back into it.
The other thing is going back to the basics, like I mentioned, if
you feel like you're overly decorated rating, you've got too
much stuff, too many extras, and you've fallen out with the
actual reason and your why, go back to the basics.
All of your stuff will still be here.
You know all of your little ADHD stacks you have, They're not
going to go anywhere. They weren't going to go
anywhere anyway. Let's be realistic.
I've got 2 right now that keep growing almost every single day.
But the idea is that all of your stationary stickers, stamps, all
of that will be here if you choose to come back.
But maybe you choose to bring them back slowly, you know, and
kind of take that smaller approach and again, really find
your why. So for me, those are kind of my
my two really big things. I would say the third is that,
you know, after you've gone through those and it's not
working, just giving yourself the permission to make that
change. Don't be impulsive about it.
We've talked about that's not always a good thing to do.
But if you're kind of wallowing in this unhappiness and you're
trying kind of the least crucial critical like decision making
things, then you can at least kind of pair out the things that
are not the problem and really find the core and the root cause
of what it is. And if it happens to be that
journal, you know, and I know again, it, it might be hard to
do, especially if you really commit a lot of time, money and
effort into that. Just, you know, sometimes
hitting that refresh, hitting that restart is the best thing
that you can possibly do. But I usually looked at it as
like a last ditch effort because again, I know myself.
So I know that starting there is not going to be the right thing
to do. So those are kind of be my my
main ways to get out of it. But how about you, Jess?
Yeah, I think that it so depends on the reason a because one of
the ones that you obviously pointed out was, you know, par
back decoration. Whereas for me, one of the ways
that I previously got out of the slump was leaning more into
decoration. And that's because the
decorative style that I had started using just wasn't
resonating with me. It felt almost performative, but
not in a nice way. Like it's it's not like I was
making my journal too decorated. And that was kind of, you know,
leading me to not plan properly. It was more so the decoration
style that I had leaned into was just so uninspiring.
And I did not like the way it looked that every time I opened
up my planner, I'm just like, cool, this fugly thing again.
Great, close that back up. Let's just not do anything today
so we don't have to write our plans down South.
For me, the thing that got me out of that slump was kind of
just taking myself back to something that felt safe,
approachable and enjoyable. And for me, that was actually
collaging, which is interesting because I still don't feel like
I'm actually that great at collaging.
But if I keep it super simple with the collage and use
elements that are very matchy matchy and work well together, I
can usually make something that just like is peace inducing.
It felt cup feeling making it. It looked nice when it was put
together. It made me love my journey
again. So that was very good.
But other things that have also helped have sometimes just been
admitting that you need to get rid of your planner.
So what I do in terms of giving myself the opportunity to do
that without quite as many bad feelings is that I am now on a
quarterly notebook system as opposed to 1/2 year notebook
system. And I know there are some people
out there who are on a full year notebook system.
And I'm like, so happy for you that you can do that.
But it like could not be me because I just find that I first
of all fill up the notebooks too fast And I don't like feeling
like I have to restrict myself in terms of how much I put in or
whatnot. But also I just love the fact
that I have these built in fresh starts in the year.
So if I find that my system isn't really working, I know
that my fresh start is not too far away.
I know that for some people, going to a quarterly system
feels like overkill. And especially given that so
many notebooks these days have like 160, a 192 or sometimes
like over 200 pages or whatnot, it might be way too much to fill
in in a three month kind of, you know, system.
Understandable, very fair. I'm specifically using my back
catalog of notebooks that only have 160 pages now or going with
a basics or something because of that page counts just a little
lower. But it does give me that
flexibility to change things up to, you know, lean into the
novel and thus sometimes the things that are more exciting
and enjoyable and whatnot, which I guess then my third tip would
be do lean into the thing that is exciting you the most and
sparking joy. Because a lot of my slumps also
come from the fact that I am denying myself the ability to
lean into the things that feel fun or exciting or I feel more
motivated or drawn to in the moment.
It's like, no, you have to stick with the thing that you've
already started using and set up.
And I'm like, why though? Like, why?
If you have the ability, whether it be like, you know, time,
energy, financial resources, whatever else to make the change
and you know, the change is going to be more joy filling for
longer than just 5 minutes. All right, We're still not
trying to give in to impulsively.
Mark's tip stands here, Jessica. But I do find that sometimes to
just re spark that kind of motivation to use my planner,
Get Me Out of that slump. Sometimes something completely
new within reason can be very helpful.
No, I completely agree with you. Sometimes just that early
planning and I think this kind of leads into our next kind of
topic in this, which is like, can you avoid a slump to begin
with? And I and for me, I don't know
that you can always avoid it because like we've talked about
so far this episode, like there are so many potential
contributing factors, right, that could make you be feeling
that way. But I do think that there is a
way to kind of lessen it. And I think a lot of it might
honestly be like doing that, that want kind of quadrant
analysis before you even get started in a journal, right?
Like we've talked about it standpoint of it not working for
you now because of your slump, but you can also utilize the
tools like that before you even start in a new journal.
So taking the time to say, OK, what do I want from this
journal? Like I have these feelings on
those different pieces. You know what, you know, do I
need from this? Like those are kind of my two
wants and needs. They're always my favorite, but
I find the wants are like this really great blue sky, but the
needs really helps me align to like, what are the, you know,
drop dead? Gotta have them's in this
notebook and and kind of really understanding those helps me go
out and look for that thing. Because when I go into a store
or I go into an online shop and I'm just doing a general Google
search for something, I can say, OK, I mean, now you could
probably put this in the ChatGPT or any of the GPTS and be like,
Hey, I'm looking to start a new journal.
I'm looking for these types of actually, this is a great video
for for the next year's journal. I'm going to see what it finds
from you later on. But this idea of like, I'm
looking for these things, like I wanted to do these things.
I needed to do these things, right?
And I know you use W as wins, but I think about them as once.
I'm just going to call that out now because it totally abandoned
your original, but this idea is just that you are really
understanding what you need before you make that decision.
You've actually put thought versus impulse into it.
And that way you can go into it feeling a lot more comfortable
and maybe confident than you would just being, you know,
going into a stationary shop and pulling and the pretty one off
of the shelf, right? If you can pull the pretty one
off the shelf and it also happens to have all the things
you need, that's a total win. We love that.
And I think that's really kind of what is the first kind of
excitement about a new journal and what gets you pumped up
about it a lot of the times are those features.
And then as you get into that journal, just being mindful of
kind of those core pieces to you, right?
I need it to be able to help me track my week to week.
I need it to be able to help me track my projects and, you know,
assure that I get things done on time because they're not getting
done now. My little calendar ticklers
aren't tickling, so I need to write it down instead, right?
Creepy. That's why I keep using it
because it is really creepy. But this idea that like you're
really using it for what you need to and then always just
kind of checking in with yourself.
I really do though, just I don't want to completely abandoned
what you were just talking about.
I love that idea of just like a quarterly planner and being able
to like have almost a built in safety switch or exit, you know,
like emergency exit if you need it.
I really like that idea. But you're absolutely right.
There are not many journals now that don't a, you know, have an
entire year inside of them, even in blank pages now, which years
ago I was dying for with Archer. And I was like, I need more
pages to get me through a whole year.
But now I'm like, what if it didn't have as many and it just
kind of ended around that quarter?
It's a good idea. Yeah, I've been very tempted to
try out their what, everyday deluxe system or whatever
because the little inserts that they have do have fewer pages
and it's very intriguing to be, I haven't bit the bullet,
haven't actually started using it, but I was tempted.
But I do also find that, you know, in leaning into novelty
and things that are new and something that is at least
having its moment, it's not actually new.
We already talked about how it's not actually new, but junk
journaling is having a moment, you know, memory keeping and
such through junk journaling is also having a moment.
So all of the excess space that I have in the back of my
planner, that's just going to be dedicated to that.
So it's kind of nice in that I know that the space is still
going to be used. The notebook will still be used
in full or to an extent that I'm kind of happy to call it full.
There might be some blank space in there shook horror, but it's
not so much that it's like, wow, you like quote wasted half a
notebook. But having that kind of like 3
month system, but being like, Oh yeah, OK, we set it up.
We do all the plans, get all the goals done, yada, yada, work on
the stuff. And then having that kind of
natural built in reset is really nice.
And previously I had it so it was every six months and that
was really good too. I think that even just having a
six month system can give you that natural built in reset
around the periods that feel like not necessarily milestone
moments outside of the new year, which kind of does feel like a
milestone moment because it's, you know, pretty universally
recognized for a decent chunk of people like, Oh yeah, new year,
new me energy kind of a thing. It's not to say that it's true,
but like, you know, we're all there celebrating or whatnot,
Wahoo. But having that are those two
points in the year to kind of like give you those like big
rocks, Those are the points where you're like transitioning
from 1/2 to the next and such. That can just be a nice
opportunity to change things up, to lean into novelty, to adjust
in such a way that it's going to work as best for you as
possible. And kind of like I said, you
know, you can use the want analysis for a slump.
I use it for a new planner. I use it for a new month.
I use it for like a new like journal lineup or whatnot
because the categories are really broad.
I know that you called W like you're going to call it as
wants. I just think of it as anything
that I like, anything that's working.
So that's why it's W for wins. But you can still break it down
in that way. Use that information to figure
out a new journal or a new monthly setup or just a new
collection or layout or like version of something.
If you're going into it though, not having, you know, had a
notebook before or had a planner before or whatnot, that doesn't
mean you can't do it. It's just, you know, maybe a
little bit more difficult to figure out what is a win or what
works for you if you haven't had that kind of like try a
experience with something, I guess not impossible, just a
little bit different, a little bit trickier.
Yeah, no, I hear you on that 100%.
Well, Planner Pals, we would love to hear from you on this
topic. I mean, we could be kind of
broad about this one too. If you're in a current planner
slump, you can certainly share kind of what's gotten you there
and if you have gotten yourself out of them, I know the Planner
Pals also included love, good tips and tricks in the comment
section, so definitely let us know.
You can drop a comment in this video if you'd like.
Of course, you can always hit us up on
ouremailplannerpalspodcast@gmail.com or over on Instagram at Planner
Pals Podcast. We would love to hear from you.
Definitely would because I feel like slump energy, it's always
lurking, right? We all fall victim to it.
So having not only the tips we've shared today, but also all
the ones that you have available to you to share, we would love
to be able to read over those and share them with the
community. But as always, thanks for
watching.