Welcome to the Planner of Pals podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner of pals. I'm Jess or Jessie Curran.
And my name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages.
And today, Jess, one of my favorite episodes of the year,
Community Q and AI loved how you organized today's question.
So Jess is so smart and so cute about how she did it.
We organized today into planner pals and podcasts, so we'll be
going over different things about planners, all about
friends and pals, and then obviously some questions and
behind the scenes on the podcast today and just a good
conversation. It's been another fantastic
year, another just successful podcast here altogether.
Like I've having so much fun. I hope that you still are too,
Jess. Yeah, and I definitely hope our
planner pals are having fun as well.
I mean, you keep coming back, so I assume you don't absolutely
hate us unless you're hate watching us, which like, we
appreciate you being here all the same.
And hopefully there's gonna be something in the future that
resonates more with you. But in terms of our questions
from the community, first of all, thank you so much for
leaving them. We love getting your questions.
We love getting your feedback and all of that.
And you guys certainly bought some questions for us.
We have quite a list. We will not get to all of them,
but we hope to answer as many as we can.
So Mark, first question, what do you want to ask?
All right. So the first question in the
planner section is what planner item or process are you leaving
behind in 2025? Oh, I, I don't want to like
count my chickens before they've hatched, but I kind of feel like
one of them is going to be not to an extent of like fully
eliminating it, but I'm going to say decorative planning.
I don't think that I'm necessarily going to eliminate
decoration altogether, but I do think that the decorative style
that I've been using, I'm going to be changing up more in favour
of something that's a little more minimalist, a little less
maybe sticker and washi tape heavy.
Again, don't want to count the chickens before they've hatched
or whatnot, but I feel like that's kind of where I envision
my planning heading. What do you reckon for you?
I'm actually really interested in that for you.
Just think we've talked past episodes about you talking and
you've been going more and more into like this functional space
and less from the decorative except when you're having fun
with it. So I'm excited for you.
I think for me, I don't really know that I'm leaving a whole
lot behind. I really edited down this year
as a whole, you know, actually, no, I will.
I will put something out there. Been thinking about editing down
so many of my like regular pens that are behind me, my
stationary pens. And This is why I've just found
that I've really kind of felt very comfortable with like a
select group of stationary this year.
A lot of it has to do with like fine liners and just like black
ink. All of my color and kind of
extra fun is coming from my fountain pen ink inside of my
bullet journal. But I've just been so like very
much focused on just like my weekly overviews and my dailies
and, and definitely kind of just, that's just where I've
been. Every now and again, I might
grab have a mild liner or a brush pen, but like I have so
much stuff behind me that I'm just not grabbing as often now.
And so I have to like almost force myself and like challenge
myself to do it. And I think instead of like
forcing myself into it, I might just edit that down a little bit
more, really focus a lot more on like what I'm using, having that
available and being fast and quick about doing it.
And maybe focus more on like stamps and like stickers and
stuff like that instead of drawing it myself.
I think that's probably a lot of where that's going to come.
So kind of editing down the pens for future things that I don't
know what will take up its space.
More ink. Probably more ink.
I think that's also like something that I try to be
mindful of in terms of my stash of supplies and whatnot.
Is am I keeping this because it's something I'm going to use
or am I keeping it because of like like wishful or aspiring to
kind of like use it at some stage?
Oftentimes if it's in the wishful or like aspiring to use
it, it ends up making me feel more guilty than joyful.
Like sure, I enjoy having the stuff and I enjoy organizing my
pens and rainbow water and all of that kind of a thing.
But oftentimes then, when I cast 9 gaze upon the supplies, I'm
like, I really should use that. I want to leave behind shooting.
No more shooting, all right? If I'm not going to use it, it's
all good. Just let it go.
Let it go for Philip's destiny somewhere else, and let go of
the guilt associated with hoarding things that I'm not
using. Yeah, I think that's very much
of my mindset right now as I'm moving into that.
I mean, one of the things I was looking at the other day, I was
like, oh, I need a pencil. I have like 4 mechanical
pencils, like nice pencils that are right in front of me.
I'm like, well, why would I turn around and just grab like a
little big mechanical pencil that I have like stacks of over
here just because I've been collecting them?
I was like, they're right in front of you.
I was like, I should just edit that down and maybe put
something else inside of there. And then the other day I was
going through it and I have like old glitter like flares for some
reason. I don't know why, how I obtained
them. I mean, they're cool, but I'm
not really using that. And so it's like another space
inside of my pen holder that maybe I could edit down.
I mean, I've got like a bucket like literally next to me.
I have an entire thing of pencils and I never grabbed for
any of these pencils ever. And I think they're fun.
They're cool. Like they're different shapes,
all of this, but like they aren't my go to.
Like I go and I grab for like my nice like metal ones now, you
know, like these clutch pencils are much cooler than like these
that are here. And so I think it is just for
me, like that's going to be kind of a big thing and it's kind of
going into the new year. I probably haven't after the new
year, honestly, but like going in with the mindset set of like,
let's use the nice things that we have as I'm maturing into my
stationary is what I'm calling it right now.
And like you said, let someone else love the glitter flares
because I'm not loving them right now.
Exactly go let them fulfill their destiny elsewhere.
But another question we received was actually we received quite a
few questions around this, but the idea of journaling
consistency and making sure that you're getting into your
journals actually using them and such in particular around
building daily routines, possibly weekly routines around
them. So what would be your tips
around building journaling consistency?
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is having it out and open.
We talked about that barrier to entry, literally if you're
closing your notebook and you're not looking at it.
I know for me, having my notebook open on my desk as I'm
working is really important. I have it open when I leave my
desk. There are times definitely when
I have to close it, if it's like water or liquid or ink or
anything like that, that might be on the desk as a as a safety
mechanism for the notebook. But really just having that open
and right there I think is key. There are times where sometimes
I will like put it, I have this like little monitor riser that
has a space in it. And sometimes I'll put my
notebook in there and then I'll get like halfway through the day
and I'll be like, Oh my gosh, you haven't written anything
inside of your how are you functioning right now?
You haven't looked at your to do's like what are you doing?
I'm just like living out of my e-mail and I'm like, I have to
be mindful. I take it out, I open it up.
I'm like, you are here to be used like let's not do this
again. So that for me I think is the
biggest thing you can do is just having it out.
And then the other thing that I do is I just put time blocks on
my calendar for like 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in
the evening. Mostly.
It's like before work is over, like the last 10 minutes of the
day. And that's where I actually sit
down. Everything else is off.
No instant messaging, no e-mail, no nothing.
And I just look at my notebook and I work it in 10 minutes,
read over the things for the day, go along my day, do the
whole thing and then my little pop up comes up at the end of
the day. I kind of just, you know,
download everything that happened, make sure I cross off
any tasks that were complete, and then really just kind of
take a look at what's going to happen the next day.
So I think for me, that's probably the best advice when it
comes to like making sure that you're using it.
How about yourself? I think that the main thing for
me when it comes to, you know, journaling consistently is
actually to question what consistently means.
Because for some journaling, for some notebooks we're using, for
some planners or whatnot, the daily touch isn't necessary.
It's not actually what is needed for that notebook or for that
space. For my everyday journal.
Yeah, it's in the name. It's the everyday touch.
If I don't get in there on a daily basis, I usually start to
feel a little bit like a scatterbrained mess type deal.
Like me currently, who is the term raw dogging.
I'm raw dogging this day. I haven't written myself a task
list. I have no idea what's going on.
It's certainly a choice, but things are still happening.
Though I would prefer to have gotten in and actually written
myself a task list for that journal.
Yes, a daily touch is kind of what the expectation is in terms
of consistency, but there will still be days that I don't use
it. But that doesn't mean I don't
think of myself as like a consistent journaler or planner.
You know, oftentimes the times when I'm most likely to not use
it are going to be when I am busiest.
And I kind of just hope to give myself a little grace in that
situation. Like, yeah, you had a lot going
on, so you didn't touch your journal.
What I typically like to do to kind of combat that is set up
structures in my journals that mean that if I have time away
from it, it's not really super obvious.
That's why I use daily logs because I can put my daily logs
down for Thursday and then if I don't touch it on Friday or
Saturday and just get back to it on Sunday, it's cool.
There's no giant blank space being like you didn't use your
journal, you're a journaling failure.
Like I don't want my journaling or my planning to feel like
negative. I don't want it to fill me with
feelings of like, oh wow, I suck.
I didn't like get in every single day and use a type of a
deal. So I will set my layouts up so
that they do not highlight the periods is where I haven't been
there, which means that when you see flip throughs on my channel
and such, everything looks fairly consistent and filled in
and all of those kind of things unless it's a monthly tracker
because Jess versus the monthly tracker, like it's not going to
happen. But for those dailies, they're
all in there. They all look very kind of
complete and filled in and such. But if you go and read the
titles, there are definitely days missing just doesn't bother
me so much because I can't really obviously say that.
I think you're exactly on point and that was a real big thing
for me this year. I think you, I had mentioned
earlier in this year that like you don't have to necessarily be
in your journal every single day.
Like some days it's just not necessary.
So let's not make ourselves feel bad about it.
The most important though part is that you do come back to it
though, right? It's this idea that like day
one, like you're like, oh, I don't need it today.
I'm busy. I already know my plan.
Maybe you don't need it. But then when you're like day 2,
day three, and then suddenly it's just completely out of your
normal routine. And that's when it gets a little
bit dangerous because in our minds, we're like, well, we
don't need that anymore. More like we're good.
But exactly like you just said though, I think you start to
realize it when you start to like, listen to yourself that
you're like a scatterbrained mess and you're like, Nope, this
is not it. Like we gotta get back on track
100%. Yeah, and I also feel that like
if you do find yourself consistently not getting back to
it, like you're going days that you're not getting in and
touching and like checking in with your plans or whatever,
then it's just an opportunity to ask why like do a check in, say
like, OK, well what is holding me back from this?
Is it because I set up layouts I don't like?
Is it because the pen that I'm using takes too long to dry and
I feel like I don't even have the time to dedicate to letting
the ink dry. I just need to get in scrappy,
note things down and then get out type of a deal.
If you figure out the actual reason in behind whatever is
holding you back from getting in, doing your journaling, doing
your planning, then you can plan ways forward as opposed to just
being like, wow, what was me? I'm so inconsistent, like
nothing is good in my journaling practice.
Sure, wallowing in self pity and such.
It has a time and place, but oftentimes it doesn't
necessarily lead to behavior change that is going to be most
helpful for us. So probe a little further, dig a
little deeper. What is the actual reason that
you're finding it challenging? And then thinking about how to
address that, whether by changing up the supplies or the
out or making it easier or making it take less time or
anything else. Amazing advice, Jess.
This is why you're just, you're just the planner queen.
You're so on flight. All right, the next question is
an interesting one. We did hear a lot about this in
our previous episode that talked a lot about like the economy
right now. And this question was with the
current economy, how do I still plan but on a budget and keep it
looking beautiful? What do you reckon?
I reckon the decoration, like if we're thinking about decoration
as a form of beautification for your journal, decoration doesn't
have to be expensive. There are a lot of budget
friendly decoration sources. It's just whether using those
aligns with your personal preferences.
Like you know, you can jump on the T moos.
Yeah, I'm that person, the T moos and go and get your
stickers and such. You can jump on say it sites
like journal, say or whatever else, but you can also decorate
and make your journal look pretty without actually having
to use additional supplies. You can use the materials you
already have. And yeah, I'm thinking about
bringing back doodling kind of a thing.
You can do that because there are very simple, very
straightforward ways to decorate that are quite forgiving,
especially if you're drawing organic shapes where you don't
need perfect circles and perfectly uniform geometric
lines. Though having said that kind of
work in a journal, Oh, chef's kiss.
Some people do some absolutely beautiful things with just
straight lines. If you're the kind of person who
finds that even with a ruler you can't draw a straight line,
maybe that's not the decorative style you're going to tend
towards. But there are very simple, basic
tutorials online that you can follow for doing doodle based
decoration. Or maybe you can simplify your
planning. Go with something a little more
minimal, something that's really just like a black pen in your
notebook and focus more of your efforts in terms of decoration
or like aesthetics on just making your handwriting look
nicer. Because I don't know, there's
something very appealing about a well written list with nice
handwriting. Like I went through my Instagram
saves the other day because I was distracted and some of the
ones that I have in there, the handwriting gave me like the
cute aggression. I was like, oh, your handwriting
should be a font. I'm so angry.
Why is my handwriting so naff compared to yours?
Yeah. It's one of those things where
you have to really kind of just sit back and like really think.
I mean, one of the things we talked about was just shopping
your own stash. I mean, you already have the
items more than likely. So instead of going out and
buying more just to fulfill that need of shopping, just take a
look at what you already have and use that instead.
Maybe go and explore different ways to use something.
So like something that I still love to do is actually like if
you have a brush pen like the Tombos for instance, you know,
using them like watercolor is something that like I learned a
while ago and I thought this is so cool.
You just get yourself like pizza plastic or Saran wrap or
whatever, you put your marker on that and then you put a little
drip of water and then you can paint with the marker like
paint. So it's just one of those things
where you just find different uses for those things.
I would also say, you know, really invest in quality over
quantity. I talk a lot about this, you
know, with fountain pens, but I also talk about this when it
comes to like stamps. Now, again, pot, kettle, black,
I have a lot, don't get me wrong, but like if I was not
buying as much anymore, I would go and just be very particular
about the things that I'm buying.
Instead of just buying all of the things, I would take a look
and say, like, of these things, what am I going to use the most?
So like most of the time, if I had to kind of really rethink my
approach, I would say, OK, I know that I'm setting up weekly.
So I'm going to find a stamp that has really nice, like day
of the week font that I can stamp really nice and easily.
And then maybe something has like a little bit of decoration,
a shape, organic, whatever it might be, but just buy one of
those and then really focus on like changing those, stacking
them, you know, using different materials together.
That's how I would approach it, especially if I was on a budget
for myself. Just really taking a step,
looking at that. And if you have to, and I know
this is a really hard thing, unsubscribe from the stationary
emails. You know, like every time I get
an e-mail from one of those, it's like new sale, new thing,
40% off, you know, any of those. It might be difficult, but it's
a really great way to like just be like, Nope, I don't need any
more of this. I'm just going to unsubscribe
from now. And they'll be happy to have you
back later on when you're maybe in a better spot or the overall
economy is in a better spot as well.
Yeah. I also think that if you do
still want to acquire new things and bring them into your stash
to do, you know, decoration in your journal, beautify your plan
is all of that type deal. I would focus on materials that
you can use flexibly rather than something that is going to be
like a cool, I get to use this for like one week and that's it
type of a deal. So rather than buying a sticker
kit or something that has, you know, very set numbers of the
types of stickers that you have in there, it can really only be
used for a very finite period of time.
Focus on getting things that have either like a larger
quantity that then maybe you could use over multiple months,
multiple weeks, or something supplies that you can use
multiple times like stamps. So rather than buying an
individual sticker of something, can you buy a stamp that you can
use effectively infinitely? You know, provided you're not
like hand fisting your stamp and like break it up to the second
use or something. Shrug.
Does that happen? Do people like crack stamps?
Can you crack a stamp? I mean, if it's old and like dry
rotted technically and if you're very strong, I mean, I guess
technically you could maybe RIP 1 1/2 or something like that.
But most of the time, no, you're good.
They're a polymer, they're rubber, They're acrylic, but not
hard acrylic. So like, you're usually pretty
good. All righty.
So yeah, go with stamps and don't be a ham fisted maniac
who's out there like punching their fist through their journal
trying to stamp things. But if you can have multi use
items, ones that it's like a buy once use multiple times, that
can also be a way forward for that.
If you had to set yourself a budget, I know that we got this
question. If you had to set yourself a
budget for how much stationary you were to buy in a year, what
would your budget be? Let's put some context
throughout this. This is things that I am
purchasing with my own money or things that I can like, use
store credit for and other things like that.
See, that's the tricky part, eh? Because I'm like, for me, I'm
like, I can spend none because store credit and stuff like
this. So if you had to spend your own
money, like let's just assume that you don't have store credit
anywhere, you don't have any like vouchers or anything like
that, and you had to set an actual stationary budget for a
full year, what would it be? Maybe $2000, which seems like a
lot. And the only reason I'm saying
that is like, I like to buy fountain pens throughout the
year, but I'm not buying them all the time, right?
And those can add up. I'm also thinking about just
like general materials that I also purchased like over and
over again that like restock and re stash.
And I also give myself a buffer because sometimes I'll come up
with like a brand new idea like you had talked about on one of
the last episodes, how you reorganized your entire stickers
into the albums. So I went ahead and I purchased
an album and all of the same things and reorganized all of my
stickers as well. And so like I needed a budget to
do that because it was a smarter idea.
That's kind of how it look. It seems like a lot, but I mean,
I, I guarantee I probably spend hopefully not that, but I
probably do. I mean, in the long run of like
all the different things that I buy for myself, but it's
probably also very different too, because like I would also
like put stuff into my studio in here as well.
So like extension cords and materials and cameras and
lighting and equipment and stuff like that.
I know that's not stationary, so maybe it shouldn't be a part of
that. So I'll just go with $2000.
I'm living that big life over here.
Big stationary life. Well, what I think for me, first
of all, I have to figure out the conversion in my head, quick
math. I can't do that and also have to
consider the shipping cost because in the assumption that
I'm not getting store credit or vouchers or whatever, everything
costs at least twice as much. Sweet.
So I think that like if I was trying to challenge myself, I
think that I could do a genuine low buy stationary year and
maybe spend like I'm going to say like 150 New Zealand.
So like, I don't know, 70 ish US, I could probably get away
with it based on what I have in my stash already.
Based on following my joy, though, I would probably bump
that up to closer to maybe 500 New Zealand, So like 300 ish USI
could probably, you know, comfortably get away with that.
I I know that at this stage in my stationary collecting life,
there's not a lot I need and I'm pretty happy with the stuff I
have. So it would mainly just be those
like, you know, one time releases from Archer and Olive
where they have the absolutely beautiful cover and I absolutely
have to have it. I've gotten to a point where I
don't let the FOGO get to me quite as much.
I can kind of appreciate the beauty of the item and not
actually purchase it for myself, but there's.
Probably going to be a couple of designs that come out next year
that I'm like Nope, Nope. The FOMO got me.
I'm getting that notebook. I need it.
Yeah, I'm definitely getting to the point now with a lot of that
too. Or I'm, I'm doing the same exact
thing with notebooks. I just realized like I just have
so many. It has to really be something
amazing. And I mean, I also, I just got
the subscription box for December that has notebooks
inside of it. So like it really is adding up
quick. I don't know, now that I'm
rethinking, I feel like $2000 is a lot of money, but I have to
like, but I get I'm only saying that much money because like
sometimes there are fountain pens that cost a lot of money.
I think we, I mean the one I was talking about for is like
$350.00. So like that right there blows
your entire year low cost budget.
I guess I'm not buying any new pens if I were to really keep to
it. But I mean, if I was really hard
pressed, I'm like really didn't have any extra money or anything
else like that. I could probably I mean I could.
I mean, I don't have to buy another notebook for at least
the next 30 years. Honestly, like I have more
notebooks than I could use markers.
I have plenty of ink. I would never have like a Tom
Studio pen and all my ink. I would never run out of ink or
a pen to write with. So like I could go very low, I
guess if I needed to, but that would make me very sad.
Like what if Eric Small Things came out the new collection and
I didn't have any more budget because I was myself and I'm not
doing that to myself. Yeah, exactly.
We wouldn't want you to have like a missing part of your Eric
Small Things collection. I like to think of your office
as like a shrine to Eric Small Things.
I don't think you're quite like that level, but that's the way I
like to think of it. So like back behind me, if
you're watching on YouTube or Spotify, there is a shelf right
here. It's out of focus.
But all of this is just all Eric small things gear.
And I have a glass that's above it.
That's Eric Small things. I just actually placed an order
that has more stuff on the way. I love Eric small things.
I absolutely, I love it. She's amazing.
Too good. Our next question though, was
surrounding the idea of trending terminology in the planning
community. Specifically, what are your most
and least liked planning terms or phrases from 2025?
Do you have any that come to mind as ones that stick out as
like, yeah, I like that I use that versus absolutely not that
gives me heebie jibbies. One of my favorite that you said
earlier I think is this year. Last year was fussy cutting.
I don't know, that's just a very funny like thing.
And it's funny because I was about to buy, I guess I don't
know what's called a fussy cutter, but I saw one the other
day. There goes my stationary budget
and I was like, should I buy it? I don't need it.
I'm not, I don't fussy cutting anything, but like I want to
just cause Jess said it. That's probably my favorite term
that I learned this year. And my most unfavorite term is
overconsumption. I am over the overconsumption
conversation. I think that it is silly and I
think people just like to hate and they need to focus on the
themselves and I'm gonna stop before I get myself in trouble.
And us cancelled for saying something really nasty.
But that's the word I don't like this year.
Especially like as spoilers for our next episode, guess what
we're talking about in the first episode of next year.
But I think for me, the term that irks me and it's like it's
such a nothing thing to get irked about, but I still get
irked about it is the idea of waterfall tabs because they're
not tabs. Like not really.
They're waterfall Dutch doors, yes, but not really tabs.
Because if I'm thinking waterfall tabs, I would be
thinking of like individual little pieces of like card that
stick out the side of your notebook.
They go from top to bottom. So eventually just like it's
just a tab system, like it doesn't need the term waterfall
at all. It's just tabs.
But waterfall tabs, big quotation marks.
When you have a series of pages and the page that's like towards
the back of the journal is at full width, then the one that's
in front of that is slightly narrower.
The one that's in front of that is slightly narrower.
So that you have this quote waterfall of pages going like
from the start of the journal to the back.
You know, usually not for the entire of the journal, but for a
series of subsequent pages. And I, I think of it as
waterfall Dutch doors because that's essentially what you're
making. You're cutting down your page to
make what people would call a vertical Dutch door.
But I don't really see them as tabs.
So I get irked at the terminology of waterfall tabs.
The actual process of it though, I think it's very fun.
Like it's a good way to add some visual interest and decoration.
But the term I don't like it. You can't see my face during
this conversation. I am not going to lie, I don't
know what the hell you're talking about.
I've never, I don't even I, I know what a Dutch door is and I
know that I will never cut my paper to me.
I will do a faux Dutch door. Let's fold my little piece of
paper in half to make it look like a Dutch door.
But I do not know what you're talking about.
What the hell is a waterfall tab?
I just, I just feel like it's a piece of paper that's folding
down and you're setting that up for like a month or people are
doing this like their whole notebook.
They're cutting their pages by like 1/4 of an inch every page.
Typically you wouldn't do it for the entire of the journal, but
as like a piece of monthly decoration, you'd do it for
that. So maybe some people would do it
for an entire month that most of the time it's just for the kind
of start of month set up. So all of your monthly pages or
monthly collections or whatnot would be on this waterfall
system or whatnot. So you can kind of see this
panel of decoration down the side and you can easily flip to
the pages or whatnot. I mainly consider it to be a
decorative technique, then a really super functional one.
But I don't consider these to be tabs.
Like it's a waterfall of Dutch doors.
It's not a waterfall of tabs. I guess so.
If you say so. I don't really.
I don't. Yeah.
Well, that's see, that's why it bothers Justin, not me.
I I feel like I'm like not a planner person because I don't
know what the hell I think I've. I feel like I've seen it.
Maybe I just haven't known what it's called before.
Yeah. So you see like the first page,
pretty and then the second page, yeah, and then the third and
then the point. So yeah, you get to the side.
It's like, which you can barely say because Ding, Ding, Ding,
Ding, Ding, kind of the side. I don't know that I'd love that
personally, just like I don't like to cut my pages all
together. I think like I was saying, oh, a
Dutch door. No, the best thing that I
learned this year was a tip in and how to do those properly.
And that game changer for me. Never had to cut another piece
of paper in my notebook again. Fantastic.
Well, we definitely got a question about Dutch doors and
whether we were pro Dutch doors. I love a Dutch door.
I think Dutch doors are a lot of fun.
They're a nice way to add some kind of a, you know, visual
interest if you're doing it decoratively or can also be
functional. If you want to have more kind of
real estate on a page, but you don't need like a full another
page. Or if you want to set up a multi
spread collection but don't want to have to redo your title.
That's a great reason to have a Dutch door.
You just cut away the top of the page.
You put the title in once and then you just have the little
Dutch door that contains all the information.
Mark I take you are not pro Dutch door.
No, I, I, I've at each time I've ever done a Dutch door, I've
just folded my piece of paper in half because I don't want,
because it feels wasteful to me. That's why I would rather, if I
want to hide information or anything, I'll just fold my page
over to make it look cool. But like the last time I did a
faux Dutch door was several bullet journals ago.
And I think even one time I tried to do it because everybody
else was doing it. I think I used a stamp.
It was like a dog or something like that.
I forget. And then I didn't have a fussy
cutter, but I could have fussy cut it all the way around their
little ears. And then I did it.
I was like this to me was dumb. It was a waste of space, it was
a waste of materials. Like I could have written on
that extra paper, but that's just me.
And that's why I am anti Dutch door for reals.
I mean, I think it looks cool. Don't get me wrong.
I get I get why people do it. But at the same time, I'm like,
if you just use your index, you easily find those pages.
You don't got to cut away several pieces of paper.
And how do you plan for that? You know, it's like, how do I
know that I'm going to need that many pages cut for that topic
like that? Just that's just me, but let's
move on from that topic again before I get myself in trouble
with all of our planner pals. This next question was a really
good one just because I know you and I both probably suffer from
this at different varying levels.
I know other people do, especially if you have ADHD or
you feel as if you might have it.
Time blindness. Someone asked a question on how
do we deal with time blindness and if we had any tips for being
less blind time. I think that for me it depends
on whether you're thinking about like macro time blindness or
micro time blindness because I have different techniques for
either of them. So with macro time blindness,
this is mainly adjusting her eternal beef against the monthly
calendar. She cannot even because you
know, you want to do something in the middle of the month, but
then this month has this many days.
So the middle of the month is at this number day, but then that's
in the middle of the week and that's not an opportune time to
do the thing. And it just, it irks me.
So in terms of that one and tracking the passage of time, I
don't like months, I like cycles.
So a cycle is a four week block means that each of those weeks
is 25% of the block of time. It's a lot easier to kind of
compare where in theory I would like to be up to with any goal
or project compared to the time that I have in that cycle.
I really love that. That's for my macro time and
macro planning. That and quarterly planning,
love quarterly planning. But when it comes to kind of
more micro time blindness, I just love the power of a visible
timer. Like actually being able to see
the time passing is really helpful.
So sometimes I will set myself a timer on just like a YouTube
watch page. I actually have some on my
channel in an unlisted folder of just different time spans and
timers for things. So like a one minute, a 2
minute, A5 1/2 hour, like all of those type of things.
But Vogel also got me this little desk timer, which has
different time amounts on the side.
And you just kind of flip it over to whatever time span you
want, have that pointing up, and then it just starts counting
down for you. And you can set it so that it
makes noise. I don't like it to make noise,
so I just have the time counting down for me.
And at the end it's just like and scares the crap out of me
but reminds me that hey, time is passing and you should be aware
of it. I was going to say, yeah, I have
a very similar 1. I actually almost bought the one
that you have because I was like, oh, that's cool too.
I would say that like as a person who has, I literally have
multiple timers in my life. So like I have my little tick
timer as what this one's called. Same deal.
It has, what is it, 351025, 3015, I think that's all of
them. And yeah, you just turn it to
the time and it counts down. I don't look at it when I count
it down, even though it does do it.
I use this all day long with work because I am the person who
will be like, oh, I've got like 20 minutes until my meeting and
I'll go and like pay attention to something else and then
completely forget that that meeting's there and then I'm
late. So anytime that I do that, what
I do with it is I have 20 minutes until my meeting.
I set a 15 minute timer, it goes off.
I just join am I meeting early and I'm already there.
That's a really big thing for me.
If I what I really know is for myself too.
This year, especially like getting officially diagnosed
with ADHD is like, oh, turns out you can't accomplish a 30 minute
task in 15 minutes, right. I mean, it's a wild concept.
I know right? But for me is like, and, and,
and I'm I'm saying this is like, if you feel as if you really
have a problem with it. And this is the thing and it was
for me like this is years and years of issues with it where I
was like, this is causing a problem in my life.
I went ahead and got officially diagnosed and it turns out that,
you know, ADHD admits help you a lot with that.
So like I've now like, it really is helping me a lot where your
brain suddenly like realizes that you can accomplish
something that's going to take 30 minutes or more and less
time. Just like, Oh no, I'll just do
that right after I do this thing and I have the time to do it.
So that like was super helpful for me.
So, but I'm not like telling you like go get diagnosed or take
medicine if you have time blindness, like use a timer
first, like baby steps, multiple timers if you need to.
And then the other thing for long term time blindness, I
guess, and really that I just put everything in my calendars
all the time, everything possible.
So everything goes on my calendar.
And something new I've been doing for myself is if I have an
appointment that's at 9, AMI will set my timer for 8:30 but
in the title put the time of my appointment.
So that way I'm leaving 30 minutes early preparing myself
to get there on time. Whereas usually I'm like alert
for 9:00 for 9 appoint 9:00 appointment.
Oh crap I'm late. I haven't left the house yet.
So like, that's been little like tips that I've been doing for
myself. Yeah, I'm definitely the kind of
person who if I have an appointment on my calendar, I
will also book in the travel time as a separate thing.
So I can say like, OK, here's the appointment in the time slot
the appointment will actually be.
But there is a block of time right before it that just says
travel. And I've got like a travel color
on my calendar. So all of those are color-coded
to say like you need to get to the place to do the thing.
I loved your point about, Oh yeah, I've got a meeting in 20
minutes, so I'll just go and do this thing and then, you know,
get distracted or whatnot. Whereas I'm the kind of person
who's like, I have a meeting in 20 minutes, I can do nothing.
Nothing is possible. 5 minute task.
No, I won't. I won't even look at you.
I have an appointment at 3:00 and it's currently 10.
AMI can do nothing. I have to just wait around for
this 3:00 appointment. It's like my brain won't let me
get into anything just on the off chance that I might get
distracted and miss it. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a real
problem. Hopefully these tips are helpful
for you and your time blindness and definitely other people
share, you know, in the comments too, as we go through with this.
Like if any of you have solutions, let us know.
We literally our our comments section sometime is just self
help. Honestly, it's the help desk for
your life. All right, well, we've talked a
lot about the planners and going in there.
We definitely don't want to skip over our pals.
Suggest you want to pick up the first question we have from our
pals. All righty.
So one of the questions that I thought was fun, especially
around this time of year where people are all getting there
like YouTube wrapped, was who are some of your favorite
channels or creators to watch on YouTube, whether they be
planning related or other interests?
Did you get your top five? Did you look through them?
I'm Dallas. I am my most watched YouTube
channel. Were you in the top like .1% of
viewers? Well OK so my top five was
myself so mark your my number 2 was Call Her Daddy because I
love the celebrity interviews and those are like 2 1/2 hour
long episodes #3 was the Porterhouse podcast.
It's too good. I love that you're like our
biggest supporter, Mark. Thank you.
Well, sometimes I forget what we talk about.
I mean, that's fair. We do go on a lot of tangents.
And then after that, I think it was like new rock stars and
maybe Screen Crush. Where were the other ones?
And probably a lot of stuff on Marvel Rivals.
I play a lot of Marvel Rivals, so like a lot.
I watch a lot of content on those creators.
So like those are mine. I would say, you know, it's
always funny. We talk about this a lot with
like other people that we watch and clearly I'm too busy
watching myself and us to watch anybody else's content when it
comes to planners. But sometimes I will like pop on
a video. I'll go through and scroll and
be like, I haven't gone around enough and done this.
So like I will watch a lot of Julia here's content because I
love her fountain pen videos and how she swatches and all of
that. Another one I watch is Rachel.
In theory, every now and again I'll pop back onto her channel
because she has some really interesting videos and really
interesting topics that she talks through to something just
it's inside of the planner space, but it's not like bullet
journaling. It's very different.
So and also I know like she works a regular full time job as
well. So like she's utilizing that and
I do too. So like I would say like in the
planner space and like fountain pen space, it's those.
So like I would say like those are there.
I'm really into like Job's journal as well.
I'll watch his just because he's like traveling around the world
and like stuff like that. So I I peek in and out.
I don't like watch anybody hardcore really.
Amanda Rachel Lee Sometimes I'll pop into hers too, if I'm just
thinking about journalers. Jess Obviously, like I'm not
just watching you Implanter bowels, but I will watch a lot
of your stuff, especially when you're setting up like some new
cool journal. I know like your life journal
that you gamified still is like such a cool one, but also you
just have such great tips as well.
So really I would say those are it for that.
And then gaming like Swanee plays games as a channel I watch
a lot of because he talks about a lot of the games that I like
too and I like his style. There's probably 1000 other ones
that I will watch like for the video itself, but then not
subscribe. It takes a lot for me to
subscribe to a non journaling channel to really be like Oh
yeah I want more of your content versus just searching for it.
How about yourself? Yeah, in terms of journaling
very much, Well, I watch every release from you because I'm a
supporter like that. I will watch everyone of Aaron's
releases. I used to Erin, Erin Smith that
is. I used to watch a lot of journal
content, but nowadays I've found my interests have kind of just
shifted a little bit. So I don't really watch as much
journal content as I used to. But in the kind of journaling
planning space, I do watch Sarah, Sarah Cannon and Heart
Breathings. She has two channels so I watch
pretty much every release from her as well.
Even the ones that are about like being an author and
publishing novels and such. I'm like, I have literally 0
intention to write a novel, but I will watch it anyway because
again, she's, she's good. I want to support her.
But then in terms of other interests, I feel like I've
really kind of branched out in terms of my other YouTube
related interests this year. And one of those was the
influencer Insanity series from Hannah Alonso and got completely
suckered into that. Watch every episode of that.
But typically speaking, her channel is about MLM's, multi
level marketing and such and stories that people have as
related to those and kind of deep dives into the payment
plans of those MLM's and all of that kind of thing.
So I've just been watching a bunch of that.
That was really interesting for me this year.
And much to your dismay, also over consumption content.
I have definitely been watching a lot of that.
So Shauna, I think I'm Shauna Apari.
I'm probably saying that wrong. I probably said her first name
wrong. Apologies, not Shauna.
I, I will learn your name, I promise.
But I've been watching a lot of her content as well.
And then just other kind of like random bits and pieces around
overconsumption and kind of like TikTok overconsumption in
particular and a whole bunch of like rage bait videos.
I've learned a lot of really good terminology surrounding
TikTok this year. For somebody who doesn't go on
TikTok a lot, I feel like it really opened my eyes to that.
But outside of those, for the most part, YouTube is just like
a learning tool for me. So oftentimes I won't
necessarily watch a specific creator.
I will go to YouTube with a specific problem or area of
interest or something like that, and then watch like effectively
give myself a little deep dive by watching a bunch of things
about that thing. But yeah, in terms of top
channels, it'll be you, Aaron Smith, Hannah Alonso, Those
would be like my main 3. That's awesome.
Yeah. There's a lot of good stuff out
there and I'm similar. I mean, I listen to all of mine.
I don't watch them as much as I listen to them, so I almost do
kind of treat them like an audio podcast of videos.
So that's what I do. A lot of I'm taking like a long
drive or somewhere far like 20 minutes, you know, most videos
are usually under that unless it's like a super long podcast
episode and I'm like listening to it for days when I'm in the
car. But yeah, it is just sometimes
just like that's how and where I'm consuming a lot of that kind
of stuff. Like I have to also be in like a
mood, you know, to like, really sit down with the video.
That's why I also really appreciate like all of our like,
individual followers, like on each of our own channels.
And also for this one, like, to sit down and like watch a video
from somebody. It means a lot.
Especially like I'm sitting here like I don't want a lot of that
type of content. But I think it's also because,
like, you and I are also making the content, you know, So like,
I'm so over enamored with like, notebooks.
Some planning systems and ways to do it and I'm always like,
what about something different? So like taking like a break from
that main content. Like I said, even though like
Julia talks about journaling and her pens, I'm watching mostly
her like pen videos and inks because like I said, they're
beautiful, but it's also like a break from like the everyday.
So I always again, big shout outs to everyone who follows and
listens and watches and comments because like you're the real
emojis and we love you. All right, this Next up, the
really good one, just I'm just going to read it word for word
because I won't be able to paraphrase it.
When you guys met in person for the first time, what were each
of your apprehensions, expectations, fears, doubts,
etcetera of the friendship that you had and of them like, were
you afraid you would end up not liking them as much?
I'm always more afraid that somebody's going to like not
like me as much, if that makes sense, because I have been
proven time and time again throughout my life that I am an
acquired taste. And I'm certainly not
everybody's cup of tea. So I'm always worried that
people are going to get like the wrong impression of me online
and then meet me in real life. And they're like, oh, what a
disappointment. So I think I was probably more
concerned about that. Also I just like didn't realize
how tall you were. I know mine was going to be.
I didn't realize how sure you were.
I think like when we met for the first time in DC, I was like,
oh, there's Jess. Oh my God, she's so little.
Oh. My God, who's that tower over
there? Oh my God, it's Mark.
Yeah. I mean, I would say for us, I
mean, I feel like we've talked so much and like have known each
other. I mean, I think I've mentioned
it before, like when we didn't know each other as well, like
we, we weren't like super close. I basically was like, Jess is
going to want to do nothing with me.
She's this giant Instagram and YouTube account and she's like
doing it right. And she's this giant influencer
and all these great things like that.
And I was just this little baby account and I was like, nobody
wants anything to do with me. But the great thing is that good
people that are in this community will blow you away.
Like that's just kind of how people are.
Is like you can just if it, if it's right and you can have an
actual genuine conversation. I think that's the other thing
is like, whether you're talking to someone who's an influencer
or bigger on YouTube, like just having a normal conversation is
like the best part about like a day today.
Like I, I really appreciate that because that's I think how our
friendship started. Just like back and forth and
things like that. I don't know about like
apprehensions, but like things that I thought like, I mean,
what I've always appreciated about you, Jess, is that you are
very like blunt about things. Like if you don't like
something, you don't, you don't, you know, you don't beat around
the Bush. Like you just like, Nope, I
don't like that or I don't believe that or that's not the
way that I think where like I'm a people pleaser.
So I'm like, oh, you like that? That's great.
And meanwhile I'm like, oh God, how do I go to this
conversation? This is awkward and weird.
So that's just something that I've really appreciated.
But I also kind of knew a little bit of it to like my
apprehension was like, is Jess going to like me is because I
talk a lot I can be annoying and I know that like it's a very
self aware thing. So like how do I find ways to
balance that and not piss Jess off?
Because the last person that would ever want mad at me would
be Jew because I feel like I would like my soul would be
burning and I would feel so bad even if I didn't do anything
wrong. Like I would just be like, how
did I make Jess about it? And she'll never forgive me.
And she'll hold this grudge for the rest of her life.
Yeah, she's stubborn like that. She's she's very good at being
stubborn like that. But I do at least appreciate
that we kind of have the same apprehension of like, oh God,
what if we're annoying but like, not if the other person's
annoying like us individually. What if I am annoying?
Definitely always a concern point.
I also appreciate that you think I'm blunt.
Maybe I'm just blunt for you because I feel like you need it.
Yeah, no. And, and that's the thing, all
of the people in my life that are like that probably out of
necessity, like, and I also tend to gravitate towards people who
are my opposite, like one of my best friends at work, he I
called him my opposite. Like I was like, type a woo, big
ideas, all these things. And he was like, cool, Mark, now
let's go ahead and focus and let's write this on the
whiteboard and break this down into steps of how we're going to
accomplish this thing that you have these big ideas about.
And that's also why I think you and I are friends because you do
the same thing with me where I'm like, want to do a podcast and
have some fun and talk about stationary.
You're like, sure, what's your business plan?
How will this work? What are your expectations from
me? And I'm like, Oh yeah, good
questions. Well, they're supposed to be
planning in the planner. Podcast.
Nobody signed me up for that. That's ridiculous.
Well. Regardless of our apprehensions,
even. If it was just about us coming
off as individually weird, I'm just glad that we actually got
to meet up because there's always something very special
about getting to meet your online friends in person, and
given that I live where I live, that opportunity does not
present itself very often. We did definitely get a question
about planner made UPS though. Have you guys ever been to a
planner made-up? If yes, how was it?
If not, how do you feel about the idea of it?
Well, yes, have been to a planner made-up.
Have organized some either in like kind of city or whatnot.
Some of them have been more successful than others.
I I always love it when you plan to meet up and you have a whole
bunch of people RSP like, yeah, I'm gonna be there.
And then you show up and nobody's there.
You're like, well, I guess I'll just have a day out by myself.
Thankfully it was not that bad. I actually had other planner
friends come with me and we're like, OK, cool, nobody else
showed up. We will just have a day by
ourselves going and doing things that we want to do.
So that was cool. But pretty much anytime I
travel, in particular if I travel to go wild or something
like that, I do try and organize some kind of planner, meet up
with people who are there because I know that we do have
an international community and it's always nice to be able to
meet planner of house in the wild.
So that is something that I try and prioritize.
It's just the hardest thing for me is figuring out where to meet
because you don't necessarily know how many people are going
to be there. And there are a lot of
considerations around like, you know, time of year whether
whether we can all sit together. Do I have to buy food if I'm
going to be there? If people do have to buy food,
is it the kind of thing you can split a bill?
Because as much as I love my plan of powers, I don't really
want to foot the bill for all of your food if we're going to be
eating. So that's always a kind of
concern point for me. But, and in general, I do love
planner made UPS. It's just nice to get to hang
out with people who are enthusiastic about the same
things as you are, even if, you know, we're all from different
walks of life. We all have different kind of
backgrounds and whatnot. But that shared love of
something is a really good kind of basis for potential
friendships. Yeah, mine.
I the only thing I've ever come. Close to has been go wild as
like a planner meet up kind of thing and going to like the one
that you planned. Cuz I don't I don't do anything
like that usually like it's out of my day today.
So I think for me, like it's very cool.
I would like to do more of them. But honestly, like in my normal
day-to-day life and job with like a family and all of that,
like it's just not like a major priority.
There are some like Baltimore meet ups and like DC, Virginia
and things like that. But I don't think I would travel
far for that. I don't feel like I'm doing
anything maybe substantial with my journal that like I would
need to do something like that, you know, or like get those
ideas. I feel like between the stuff
I'm already researching, doing myself and then for some of the
stuff that I'm seeing online, like I'm getting those ideas
that way. I'm a social person.
Don't get me wrong. Like I, I love meeting people.
I love meeting up and doing all of that.
But other than go wild, I've never been to 1 and I don't know
if I would ever like really plan 1.
And like I, I, well, I mean, the closest thing I got, I did teach
a class one time on bullet planning.
So avoid that copyright. And so I did do that.
So like technically a meet up, but I was teaching.
I wasn't, I mean, we didn't talk and we drank coffee and ate
Donuts, but like it was more about like a session or a class,
less about like a meet up, even though we did like talk and
share about those things. So that's probably the closest.
I feel like I've come. Yeah, I know that in Melbourne
in. Particular they have a kind of
monthly plan, a meet up that they book through the library.
So everybody brings their plan of supplies and such and you
know, it's just very chill and whatnot.
That's a really great way to build community if you want to
start, you know, having community connections in your
area around the love of planning type of a deal.
But I guess it really just depends on personal kind of
like, you know, preferences when it comes to the amount of social
connection you need and the nature of that social
connection. Like if you're finding that
you're kind of circle of friends, you don't have people
who have the shared interest of planning or the kind of like
love of and enjoyment of stationary and such.
And that's something that you want to have in person
connection about or more around than having planner meetups can
be a really fun way to do that either by organizing them
yourself, you know, going into your local community groups or
whatnot. Like I'm thinking Facebook
groups in particular and just posting up to say like, hey
guys, I was thinking of organizing XYZ.
Would anybody want to come? Or even just those kind of like
online planner spaces that have a bunch of planners from a
variety of different places that you can say, hey guys, I'm in
insert city here. Would people want to meet up and
like, you know, have a planning afternoon or whatnot just to
enjoy each other's company and do some planning in our
notebooks or whatnot? That can be very fun.
It can be a very enjoyable process and a really nice way to
make friends. But if that's not the kind of
space that you want to make those types of connections
around, then it isn't as much of A necessity, I suppose.
I don't know. That's actually a really good
tip. I think that's.
A really smart way to think about it, especially if you're
like new to an area or you know, you're not into sports or like
going out to a bar or anything like that.
At least you know that like the planning space, we're fun, we're
quirky, we like stationary and notebooks and you have an
instant common interest that kind of never know where it
grows from there. All right, well, let's move on
to our next segment. We've done planners, we've done
pals now. So we have some questions about
the behind the scenes of the podcast and the first question
that's on here is what is your favorite part about doing this
podcast? This is the only part of my job.
Really that has another person tied to it really like clearly
specifically like we have Francisca.
Thank you, Francisca. She edits the podcasts now makes
our life so much easier. But I haven't actually like
talked to her face to face. Similar idea we've got like the
moderation team over on my community Discord server, like,
you know, obviously those are people that I'm interacting with
as part of my job, but this is the only part of my job as of
current where I interact with somebody face to face.
And thus it is very, very valuable for me in that respect.
So thank you for being my person, Mark.
Yeah, my answer to that question is.
Exactly the same. This is the only time as a
creator that I get to talk to somebody else who is equally
interested in the topics. And if you are not interested in
the specifics of it, you still will have a conversation with me
about it versus ignoring me and like walking to a different
office room. Like when I'm in the office, I'm
trying to talk to somebody about stationary.
They don't care. But it's just nice to be able to
have exactly that. As both creators ourselves, we
are used to talking to a camera, but we think about the planner
pals and we think about our crews and our peoples and
everything else like that as we're talking.
That's why we make the content that we do.
But it is great to be able to just have like a fun
conversation about it. I'll just add also like I
mentioned before, like I also really like that we are not
exactly the same so that we actually can have a meaningful
conversation about something And it's either me teaching you or
you teaching me or us finding things out together.
That's just really fun. So I would say for me that would
be be the same exact answer. Yeah, I think it's also in the.
You know, respect of like being different people with differing
opinions and such. It is also nice to kind of like
just get out of your echo chamber every so often.
Like as somebody who has been like, you know, for instance,
going down a rabbit hole with overconsumption and all of these
kind of things. It is nice to also have a voice
for, you know, not necessarily like yay overconsumption, but
more so like, nay, overconsumption haters or
whatever. You know where you're coming
from, you get it, but it is good to be able to get that kind of
like alternate opinion rather than just going on, you know,
building your own train of thought or your own kind of like
understanding of a topic or whatnot.
Getting somebody elses perspective is really nice.
And also I feel like I've learned a lot about how to take
care of virus. I know so much now.
Is she doing it? No, but she knows how to take
care of virus. Wait, have you not filled her up
yet with the new? Ink, she's still looking empty.
Jess, all you have to do is. Stick it in an ink and turn the
top and it will have ink in it and you will be done.
She's not ready, she's not ready.
Do it right now on. Camera so everyone.
Can see you do it. I would make such a mess.
I'd be so stressed out. Oh my God I ask 2 questions I.
Feel like go hand in hand but I let's I guess go with the first
one because the first one has to happen before the second one.
How do you manage filming in two different countries and still
keep the podcast so fluent? Thanks to Riverside for did not
we're not. Sponsored by Riverside, but
Riverside is the no application website, whatever that we use to
record these. It does mean that we can have
pretty high quality. I mean, for the most part, since
I rearranged my office. Guys, I know it's slightly
echoey. You've probably noticed, and if
you haven't, I'm really sorry for pointing it out to you, but
yeah, I noticed. Me too.
Especially when you hear one. And then the other you're just
like, God, that's grating. I've really tried, I've tried to
do some sound buffering, but that's the application that we
use to record these. The actual kind of like biggest
pain point is though, the time change and the difference in
time and having to do time math, time math is the worst math.
And even though you've given me the same link.
To do the time math, I never use it.
I'm always like, what is 6 PM your time and you're like, Mark,
use the link. I'm like, but what is it?
I actually on my phone. I do have New Zealand time on
there. So like I can look and see what
time it is like at that moment. And sometimes I'll do backwards
math. But I will say that right now
for us is the ideal time. Jess and I have been so
productive with the podcast because we are able to meet
multiple times a week because it is winter for me and it is
summer for you, right? And our, our time variances are,
are like hours apart, like they're different days.
Like Jess is living in the future, but it's closer to my
timeline than usual. And so that's really great.
But when we when I jump forward and Jess then goes backwards, we
are like, it's not a good space for us because we also have
lives, family and other things too.
And we're like, can we make this work?
Like it might be 9:00 PM for you, Mark, but it's like 8:00 in
the morning for you. You know, it's like it's very
off, but that is definitely the hardest part for us.
But luckily everything else though, I will say like goes
pretty good from a standpoint. Like we have a lot of like
asynchronous ways of working. We have documents ideas.
We do have actual podcast meetings like once a quarter to
be like, Hey, let's plan this thing and like make sure we know
what the hell we're talking about.
But aside from that though, I mean, I'm, I'm glad you all like
that. It's like up to date that it's,
you know, timely. So I appreciate you for we're
appreciating that. Yeah, I think that one of the
things. That I think is probably the
hardest part about doing the podcast is that Mark like has a
family and a life and actually wants to go and do things with
them. Ridiculous.
It's always summer because he's like off at the beach or
whatever. And I'm just like, it is the
dead of winter. Everything is ice.
It's not that cold. But as somebody who doesn't do a
lot with their summer outside of vlogmas, I'm usually just
chilling in my office just waiting to record another
episode. But Mark's off gallivanting
around and doing fun things and such.
If you were here, if you have been a planner power since that
awful episode where we tried to film it on location, let us
know. God, that was like the color
change across the episode because the sun was setting was
so funny. Yeah, I did that all on my
phone. I.
Think I had air pods in I was sitting on the floor in one of
the bedrooms. And that was the time like after
that, like Jess has never been more disgusted with any type of
media that has ever existed from me or anyone else.
And that's when we, we decided that we are doing like summer,
like winter breaks. Like when that happens because
I'm a remote employee, my wife's a teacher, my kids are in school
and they have off and we spend long weeks away from like the
normalcy. And that's when Jess and I are
like, hey, I'll be like, I'm going to be home for three days.
Can we make this work? Like, let's see what we can do.
So, yeah, it's definitely a fun time.
But I was like, you know what? Like, we're not getting paid for
this. It's not like we're sponsored by
anyone. If you want to, by all means,
feel free to reach out to usplannerpalspodcast@gmail.com.
But I mean, it's not that big of a deal.
Like, I don't want to let the planner pals down.
But also, like, I'm not going to stress us out over it,
especially, like, during those times of the year.
It just doesn't make sense. I would love to try another like
filmed on. Location one just for the lols
of it but the editing of it and like trying to get the sound
sounding nice like oh on a mission I could probably figure
it out now that we have like the.
Little mini mice mices like I would just have to hold it the
whole entire time but it would at least sound a lot better I
feel like and I would go into a room that was light controlled.
That would be the other thing too.
I wouldn't be by a window as the sun is setting.
The lessons learned like in the closet with a torch under a.
Blanket with the mouse mic? Yeah, that sounds like it would
be certainly interesting to watch.
I would do it for the podcast. I've done it for voice.
Over work before. Literally exactly like that.
To film a voice over video for a YouTube video.
No lie whatsoever. In a closet with a blanket over
top of me and my phone light and a little microphone.
I've done it. Well, you certainly have less
echo than I seem to have. In my new office arrangement, I
know that fixes need to be made, but I'll get there eventually.
Well, what we have to do, we either need to get you a.
Sound screen, which I was thinking something we could put
like in front of where you're talking or I have them in my
office. You can't see them here, but
there's these little cool like hexagons you can stick on the
wall and that also absorbs sound.
And they look really cool too. I'll send you a link.
Nice. Yeah, no, I figured my fix was
just going to be to. Move house like, you know, very
casual, yeah. Or just, you know, move
everything to. Make it work for the podcast.
Oh my God, exactly. You know, I'm just going to move
house just for the. Podcast Well, the the follow up
question to this. Is and that's why I want to do
that before this next question, which is how long does it take
you on average to film a podcast?
Because it's like, OK, first we have to like schedule it and
make it work for both of our times and lives.
And then the recording of it in the timeline.
I will let you go ahead and take this answer first.
It's been many moons. No, OK, It's like not that bad.
But typically speaking, we usually schedule it for an hour,
and sometimes we have something that happens right after that
hour. So we kind of say in advance,
like, OK, yeah, I need to leave at the top of the hour so that I
can make it to XYZ type of thing.
And even then, we still go over the hour being like, OK, yeah,
like I really need to go. I really need to wrap this up.
If you can spot the episodes where we've had to finish the
episode in a rush, I would love to know because some of the
ending very much like, OK, cool, thanks, bye.
We need to go goodbye. I would say when we first
started. There was like no time limit.
I mean, I think one of our very first episodes, it was almost
two hours long. I think like because we were
just talking like we didn't know.
We were trying to figure it out. Like before the Planter Pals
podcast and I was just talking to myself.
Like there was nothing to react to.
It's just me, you know, monologuing, which sometimes in
these episodes, it is just me monologuing as well, too.
I will say that that is something else, though, that has
also kept us under time is Jess's feedback.
When I talk too much and we usually edit it out, Jess is
like, can I talk now? And I was like, I'm so sorry.
I was just so passionate. Yeah.
She raises her hand, and she waits for me to call on her to
answer. But I also tried to be much more
aware of that. I think when I used to be
editing the podcast, I would notice it more because I'd be,
like, Mark's blue clip forever. And like Jess is like, I agree.
And then Mark's blue clip. Literally that, right?
It's just me. Like trying to keep a mental log
of the things that Mark has said that I wanted to have a reaction
to so that I can get to the end of his, like, monologuing and be
like, OK, so to respond to this point and this point and this
point and that point. Yeah.
If you ever notice Mark like very quiet, usually it.
Means Jess has provided feedback in a previous episode and then
by the next episode I'm right back.
I do remember there was one period where we're just.
Like should I like raise my hand?
Like specifically, should I raise my hand if I have like a
point to add to something? I just, I don't do it because I
just feel weird and awkward about it.
I'm like, I'll just let Mark talk.
He's enjoying himself. Oh gosh, I'm sorry.
But yeah, so. That usually also helps us keep
it nice and short ish. Yeah, and definitely like the
pre planning. Of our talking points and such,
I feel like most recently we've been a little bit slack about
it. Not for this episode though,
because we had to get your questions first.
So we did a good job on that one, at least I think we did.
But pre planning kind of discussion points or general
themes about what we're talking about, we don't go and script
anything out because first of all, I'm not very good at
reading. I'm doubly not good at reading
in front of a camera. Hell no.
So it's more so just a general no sequence of things we would
like to talk about and then they will take as long as they take
type of a thing. We aim for an hour, but
oftentimes the footage ends up being a lot longer.
Currently we're sitting at one hour, 8 minutes, but you are not
one hour and 8 minutes into this video.
So hopefully that kind of gives you an idea.
Yeah, we like to edit down, but we've got.
A few more questions to go and these are actually really good
ones. I'm excited.
So as as we continue to look at like what's next, next
questions. Are there plans to add any other
pals to the lineup or special guests?
I would definitely like to. I know that.
When we talked about our plans for the podcast this year, we
were kind of thinking about bringing people on and having
more people to talk to, you know, planner pals from the
community and getting their insights around topics.
And it would still be something that we'd be curious to do.
It's just the time, organization and figuring out when all of us
could actually meet up to do that thing.
The logistics are tricky, but I became yeah, I feel exactly the
same way. It's like.
I would be open to it very much so.
Like I think it would be fantastic to have like different
people on, but like in my brain to think to try to schedule
something. Like I can't even schedule or
figure out time between Jess and I.
And we do this, you know, at least once a week to think about
having to schedule myself and like US East Coast, Jess, New
Zealand time and then like somebody else in a different
time zone. I don't, I I don't know how we
would make it happen. Like I feel like one of us would
be like just waking up or going to bed and maybe somewhere in
the middle. We want to do it.
I mean, there's so we have literally a tired list of people
that we want to. We actually had one person that
we like almost had going and then we told it's already
ghosted them because we were like, we can't like connect on
this. But I feel like now we're
definitely in a better spot from a planning perspective, timing
perspective and all those things.
So I yeah, I think it would be super fun to be able to do Yeah.
And I think that even though. Logistically it is tricky.
I think there's also an aspect of like not knowing what you
don't know. We haven't tried to do it
before. So there is kind of like, not
necessarily like a fear of stuffing up or anything, but
maybe a little bit of that in that we have obviously got like
a dynamic between the two of us. How does that then work when you
add somebody else into the mix? Because if we're adding somebody
else into an episode, we want to make sure that they have their
time to say things to shine. Like that's the purpose of
inviting them on is to get their insights.
So how do you then make it that they get their time to shine?
Mark has his time to monologue. I have my occasional, Yeah, that
sounds good, getting up, just being a bit of a Dick, but you
know, being able to kind of navigate that as well.
Because a lot of the time when it comes to preparing our
episodes, yes, we have our topics decided in advance, but
the actual talking points, oftentimes it's like the day
before or sometimes even like 1/2 hour before and we're in the
document typing things up. You can't really do that when
you've got somebody else who is a guest on your podcast.
So there is a little bit more planning that goes into being
able to have an episode with them that actually feels like a
good time for them, a good time for us and a good time for our
plan, our palace as listeners. Yeah.
And we've had two years of doing this.
Too Now, I think when we first started, it was very much like,
do I raise my hand? Like when do I answer a
question? And now I feel like, at least
for me, maybe you have the same thing.
But like, I can tell when Jess is like coming down off of a
thought. And sometimes also like, and
thank goodness for our editor. Like neither of us will say
anything. And it's just like, OK, do you
want to do that next? Like we're both just kind of
like, are we ready to move on? We're not sure.
Like we don't have hand cues or like a sound board or a light or
anything that kind of help us do that.
So I think that would be interesting too.
I feel like it would be much more of like an interview style.
It would be like if we were like morning show TV host
interviewing a guest, you know, like I feel like that that's
what how it would kind of be. But the only way to know would
be to try it and see what happens.
So hopefully that'll happen in the new year.
Jess, let's get into the last question, which is all about the
podcast on the back end. And what are your plans for
season 3 of the podcast? That's crazy.
That's going to be three seasons of this podcast.
Wait, we're doing a season 3? I thought this was the final.
My contract from has. Not come through yet?
Yeah, I haven't been paid for the last two.
No, I'm. Kidding, but I think that in
terms of plans for season 3, obviously just like continuing
with awesome conversations and such, we literally just talked
about it. I would love to have people on.
I think we just need to get over the fear of like either the work
that is required to get people onto the podcast or like, you
know, the the scheduling kind of timing conflicts of it or
whatever. I think it would be a really
good time, but I also think that it would be fun to explore areas
of the planning kind of sphere conversation and such that we
haven't really touched on yet because there are definitely
some. I know for instance, the very
first episode of season 3, it's going to be about
overconsumption, your favorite topic, because I have thoughts,
you definitely have thoughts. And so that's going to be fun to
get into and chat about, but there are other things that we
just haven't really touched on yet and also some older topics
that I feel like we have kind of gotten an updated perspective
on. And it would be pretty nice to
revisit those and maybe dabble a little bit more in that area.
I know that you're just like gunning for another fountain pen
episode going. What do you want for Season 3?
No, so I actually had this image I thought about.
Some older episodes because I feel like you and I have had an
epiphany, a thought, direction, feelings on like bullet
journaling as a whole this year. There's definitely something
that went down that you and I have very similar thoughts on
with like that general space and kind of how we're approaching it
moving forward. I would love to have another one
of those because one of our first episodes ever was like,
why we love bullet journaling. And now I would say why do we
like DIY planning? Or you may be using other words
for it. So coming back to topics like
that would be good. I don't want to get into like
drama, not necessarily even though I literally just like
teased up drama there, right? But like, I, I think a little
bit of that is good conversation though, because I mean, we are
two people in this community who are a part of it.
We're not just spectators and we don't just like comment on it,
right? We are a part of it.
And so I think like getting more of those hot takes and like
talking through that. And we, we do for the most part,
but I think it would be interesting to have like a
really juicy topic that like might get us in trouble, you
know, like just for the fun of it to see like what happens with
it, not to try to incite and making anybody upset or anything
like that, but like having a really deep conversation about
that. And I think some of our older
topics would be great. Definitely some that have been
like more popular than others, like coming back into those and
seeing. And I would say just episodes
like this, getting questions from the community and like them
asking us questions and us being able to answer them because
like, that's the best part. I feel like that's the best
thing as a consumer. If you're like, Hey, I have
questions, but I don't know how to ever get answers to them
directly. Like we're giving them to you.
Yeah. And I know that we didn't
necessarily. Get to all of the questions
because we got a decent crop of questions and I so, so super
appreciate you guys being responsive to it, being
responsive to our podcast, obviously coming back time and
time again, watching, interacting and all of those
type of things. And because we we do make it for
us, but we also really we make it for you, right?
So when it comes to Season 3 of the Platter Pals podcast, what
is it that you want to say or topics?
If you like us to dive into what you wanna hear our feedback,
insights, thoughts about, let us know in the comments.
Or you can hit us up at plannerofhousepodcast@gmail.com
or over on Instagram at Planner of House Podcast.
We're really eager to hear what you would like to see in season
3 though. But as always, Planner of House,
thanks for watching.