Welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I am Jess or Jessie Curran.
And my name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages.
And we're back for another fantastic episode continuing
through. Again, just have to thank all
the planner pals for all the comments in last week's video.
It is so awesome hearing about the things that people want and
don't want from their own planners and journals.
I love also the feedback where everyone said my head is too big
and too small compared to where we do this.
I'm like we're, we're literally talking across continents.
Give me a break people. You can tell he's like totally
not sour about it at all. This is literally something we
have a conversation about every single start of podcast.
Like am I too close? Am I too far?
Oh my gosh. I don't know quite how to figure
it out. I also think too, because you
use a camera as your main piece and then I'm using the back of
my iPhone, which is still better than just the webcam I have, but
I think that might be the reason.
That's my excuse. It has nothing to do with my
editing or production quality of what we do here here on the
Planner Pals podcast. Exactly.
It's not you, it's the tools. Exactly.
And it's the same exact thing for when it comes to planning,
right? It's not us that have the
problem. It's clearly the notebooks and
the pens that we're using that can't help keep us organized and
keep our lives together. So let's blame it on those two,
right? It's literally that.
It's like, oh, OK, I'm going to get a new notebook and this is
going to be the one that changes things for me.
This is the one that's going to help me get my shit together.
And you're like, yeah I'm like 2 days into using it and it's been
kicked under the bed and I've gone back to my like gremlin
mode ways. Today, we are going to have some
fun, Jess. This is something that neither
of us, I think have ever done in our own videos before, which is
essentially predicting the future when it comes to
stationary planning. Some of these might not
essentially be happening immediately in 2025, but I think
there's a lot of beginnings of some of these that we might be
thinking about South. They might take a little bit
longer to get into your workflow, but I definitely think
that these will be hopefully coming in the near future.
Well, we'll see what happens, yeah.
It's like, are they predictions or is it just like wishful
thinking? Fingers crossed.
So Jess, why don't you go ahead and start today with your first
prediction of what you think will be happening in 2025 ish?
So Oh my gosh, I never like to do these predictions because I'm
just like, Oh my God, I'm going to be wrong and somebody's going
to come back to the video a year later.
Me like Jessica, you said, and it didn't even happen.
So like big grains of salt family or McCoy.
But I think my first prediction is that people are going to be
maybe moving away from like what I call single use decorative
pieces into more multi use decorative pieces.
So I'm thinking maybe less of the kind of like specific
sticker packs or kits that are going to be just for a week or
maybe just for a month. Maybe ones that are going to be
able to be used for a longer period of time.
So maybe like larger rolls of washi tape.
I'm thinking stamps would probably be a good one because
it's like you buy the stamp once you use it multiple times that
you can do those like little star ratings and stuff rather
than using star writing stickers.
You can have them for your headers and for your boxes and
all of that kind of a thing. So I'm thinking we might see
more stamps. I've talked about this through a
couple of people. They said not yes.
I don't think you're right on this.
This is the hill that I'm gonna die on.
The stamps are coming. I think if you're interested in
stamps, more people will become. I always get a lot of comments
that people I think are interested in stamping, but they
are so nervous about the right way to do it.
How do I clean them out? Like what happens if you get ink
in a place you don't want it to be?
I just think everyone's just terrified of just the ink, the
stamp and kind of all the pieces.
Washi tape, stickers, All of that is great because you just
stick it to your page. It is relatively self-contained.
A sticker sheet has them all on there while she is on a roll.
But when you get into the clear stamps or wood block stamps, I
think they become a little bit more cumbersome, which I think
scares people. But I agree with you, I think
the idea of being a little quicker about it, utilizing
those tools will be really helpful in how people plan and
kind of get their things together, regardless of how they
do it. Yeah, I think it's going to be a
really great tool for efficiency, especially if you're
the kind of person who says things like I'm not an art
artist, I can't draw, I'm not creative.
And like, first of all, I'll how dare you with your fixed
mindset. I believe in you.
You can do the thing, it just takes practice.
Yes, the forbidden P word. But putting that aside, if
you're very much in your camp, like waving your flag, heck to
the gnaw, not an artist, can't draw, then stamps can be a
really great way to add that decoration in, in a way that
looks like it's drawn, especially if you get the ones
that are kind of just outline based.
You stamp it down with some black ink.
Now it's a coloring page, so it kind of gives that hand drawn
look to it in a way like not in the same way that a sticker kind
of would. Like you can get hand drawn hand
designed stickers but it still looks like a sticker at the end
of the day for the most part unless they have like a very
specific material they're using. I completely agree with you
there and I love one of my favorite tools to use with my
stamps are the click art markers from zebra because they don't
smear the ink when you write with them and they come in a
bunch of different colors as well.
I use them with a lot of my Eric Small thing stamps because her
stamps are always like very detailed in there and you can
really get in there nice and tight and it always looks so
nice when I do it. I always have to remind myself,
Mark, don't forget you have all these other tools with your
stamps because I usually use them just black ink on the page.
Sometimes we'll fill them in, but it always does look nice.
So I agree with you there. It's a really good point.
Use them as almost like a coloring page to kind of add
extra things to it if you want to.
You can still be creative without being artistic and
feeling like you're locked down and having to Draw Something
yourself. It's a really good point.
Yeah. And I think that if you are
looking to get into stamping, because I'm starting to dabble,
I'm like very dabbler. I'm not going to come out here
being like, yeah, if I'm like exclusively stamping now or
anything like that. We do have some really great
creators online who are making stamping related, you know,
tutorials, content specifically for use in your journal, which
is really helpful. For instance, our friend
Natasha, Natasha Miller creates, she started doing a little
series about stamping. So in her first episode, she
talked about like the different types of inks and which ones,
you know, you kind of maybe want to use in your journal versus
the ones you should steer clear of because they will bleed and
make ghosting and all of the nasty stuff.
We don't really want. And then in a more recent one, I
think it was like the different kind of materials that stamps
are made out of and what you might want to look out for for
that in terms of like their flexibility and whatever.
I know nothing about stamps. So I found it very very useful.
That's amazing. Yeah.
It really does make a big difference on the materials and
what you use. I've learned a lot about it over
the years. I am the stamping fiend, though.
I have so many. And every time I find a new
creator where I see like a cool new font, I use a lot for like
days of the week and numbers, not so much letters.
But you do have to think about it.
I still am editing my 2025 bullet journal set up right now
and I use stamps heavily in there because it's kind of where
I like to spend my time. And it was like a printing press
in here because I had all these different pieces.
I did a whole calendar page. You actually had told me a few
episodes ago, a while ago around how I could utilize my calendar
page that I had my square in my B5 that I'm using.
So I did turn my journal to the side and I was like, well, I'm
not going to write in the days of the week.
I'm going to use. I've stamps for that.
And I had like 3 days of the week on one stamp, 3:00 on the
other, one separate because they couldn't fit.
And it was just like stamp one, set it to the side, stamp 2, ink
it next. It looks really great.
But this, this art space, I had crap everywhere.
I'm still cleaning up from that. That's how much like I was
using. So there's definitely a pro and
con to it. Yeah, if you want one that's
like reusable, but maybe not so messy.
Another one that I think is probably going to be on the up
and UPS is the idea of digital sticker packs because it's like
a purchase once and then print as many times as you want.
Like your sticker stash then is just your digital files on your
computer. You can print them off on
sticker paper and then use them into your journal, which means
that you like don't have any shipping costs outside of
getting the sticker paper to you possibly, unless you're buying
it in store. And you can just, you know, use
as many as you want. You can make little edits and
manipulations to them depending on what they are like.
You can change it to kind of suit what you want in your
journal. It gives you a bit more
flexibility. And I've, I've found them
really, really good for just doing headers because I, you
know, there are only so many styles of lettering that I'm
quite comfortable with doing and some of the ones that I think
are really pretty and I might want to use in my journal.
I just couldn't be bothered going and like spending the
time, effort, energy to draw those out myself and get like a
subpar product. So I would rather just go onto
one of those free font websites, find one that I like, type out
all of my headers, print them off on sticker paper, neglect my
cricket and get out my scissors and cut them all out
individually. I was actually going to be my
question to you, Jess. I don't know if you're already
doing that or again, people are doing that was going to be my
next question essentially was, are people then using a cricket
to cut them out and doing that? Because that feels like a lot to
me. That's honestly a reason why
I've never gone for digital stickers before and also digital
stamps. A lot of the creators everyday
explorers code, they do digital versions of the stamps.
I accidentally bought 11 time. So I I have it.
I just don't know what to do with it because I'm like, well,
I don't know how to use a cricket.
I don't have no idea about it, but I also don't know that I
want to go through and then like hand cut every single one.
But I guess I don't have to hand cut up ahead of time.
I could really just cut them out of the paper as I need them
versus having them ready to go. Oh, look at you.
Ken Alright, I just make sure I pick a font that doesn't have
any hanging letters. It makes it a lot easier.
I made the mistake of picking a hanging letter font.
You know like GY anything that like dips below those won't take
a lot longer to cut out. If you just use an all caps
font, then it's literally just cutting things in lines.
Nice and simple. I will learn to use my cricket.
That's like the new year, new me problem kind of a thing.
You could always just have one and neglect it like I do.
It's looking at me right now, just like we'll just hide.
But I find that using the scissors, it does take a little
bit of time, but at least then I'm spending that time just
cutting things out, and that's not as long as it would have
taken me to do the lettering myself if I wanted to have the
same style. It's a really good tip there.
I never really thought about doing them in a sheet.
I just always think about sticker sheets whenever I think
about that type of thing. So that's actually really smart.
You could just run that through one of those like little photo
paper cutters, right? Just like slice them through.
That's that's a good idea. All righty, Mark, what do you
think your prediction is? Your first prediction of a trend
that's coming up on the horizon. So I've been seeing this a
little bit. So that's why I think it's
possible. And I don't know if it's because
people are maturing away from bullet journaling and planning,
but a lot of people in my prediction here are going to
start moving more into the Hobonichis, the Sterling Ink and
these predated planners or kind of pre made, maybe undated
planners and then add in what they want instead of having to
recreate them every single week. So I've seen that even in myself
a little bit as I think about it each year.
But I really enjoy the process of creating and using my
stationary inside of there. But perhaps for the people who
maybe started in college and then are moving into the
professional space, they don't feel like I still need that.
It's like a different time, a different place.
So for example, just not needing anymore that journaling guy and
Brian, he just put out a video where he's stopping bullet
journaling after doing it for years.
And something that really stuck out to me in that video was
exactly what I just said is. Spoilers, I haven't watched the
video. Oh, sorry, essentially he just
said it's just not working for me right now.
And this isn't anything that we haven't heard before just so
it's totally, it's not that big of a spoiler.
He had other things he talked about in there, but it was just
this idea that I'm just not interested and motivated to do
that anymore. And it's creating these
intricate spreads. I don't know everyone's process,
but he had mentioned that he was spending like hours setting up
these spreads. And I was like, Oh my gosh,
maybe just dial it down a little bit.
Like mine take me like 5-10 minutes maybe to set up.
And I know mine maybe are a bit different than others, but I
don't feel like you should be taking hours to set up a spread.
I mean, this is coming from someone who just set up their
reading journal and it took like 10 hours, but that's not a
bullet journal. Like also, I don't mind spending
the time, effort, energy in putting the kind of creative
work into that because that is my creative outlet.
If you have other things going on in your life that you know,
the hobbies or whatever other areas of interest, then sure,
maybe you don't want to spend that long.
But I also find that my journaling and the amount of
time that I spend on it, like setting up my layouts, it will
fluctuate like some months I, you know, dial it down, make it
a little bit easy mode. Like my December setup is going
to be one that's really, really simple.
It's just a couple of washi tape stickers, a little bit of inking
in the corners and the rest of it is just like, I don't know,
every second line highlights, which don't take me very long to
do. Yeah, maybe that's just the idea
that you've done it a lot. Maybe other people don't have
the practice and that, but just this constant kind of feeling
like you have to make and remake and compete and make bigger and
better. I think some people just falling
out of love with that. And I think that is a reason why
people may start to go in a different direction and look for
these other companies who are still very much aligned in the
planner community. They have a great following.
They're very functional and how they work.
And then you can add in the extra little pieces if you want
to. On top of that, maybe there's a
little bit of like maturing out of the overly decorative and
just moving into a different part in time in your life where
you don't have the time to spend on that.
Or to your point, which you just made, if that is your outlet,
let's make sure that you are making that time.
And I think that's probably the difference where you value that
time and that creative energy you're putting into that as a
way to express that that makes it worth it for you.
But I think for others, it adds so much extra stress to what
they're trying to do that it kind of defeats the purpose of
it. I don't want anyone to give it
up because I think many people find a lot of benefit in it.
They just kind of get over the setting it up 100,000 times when
I I could just buy a planner that has a layout that works for
me or works best for me that I can then add into if I need to.
I think that's the point of it actually.
It's like possibly less about maturing away from decoration or
something similar like that, but it's more so like maturing into
your planning style and finding these structures and layouts
that work for you. And rather than setting them up
yourself, finding something pre printed that already offers that
structure. So you can kind of take the time
you would have done setting up that kind of skeleton and
framework and using it for other things, whether that be like
purely productivity focus or like, you know, finding simple
styles of decoration to add into that structure set up that this
pre printed plan offers you. It's kind of interesting though.
I feel like we're seeing this a lot in terms of like content
creators as well, because I mean, that's honestly where we
see a lot of these things because you know, this is the
stuff that gets shared online. I'm not like sneaking into
people's everyday houses and like looking at their journals
and plans. Little creepy, but because we're
seeing a few of our bigger creators doing this as well,
then it also makes space for smaller content creators who are
still sticking with regular like journaling, planning the stuff
that we've kind of seen before, but now they're kind of like
left a bit of a hole or a vacuum as those bigger creators move to
something else. So if you're thinking maybe in
the new year, you want to start like a YouTube or an Instagram
or anything like that. I feel like I'm a like Rep right
now trying to sell you on this idea.
I'm not really, but I just think I'm really excited about it.
I love watching journaling content because that's how I get
a lot of my ideas. So like I want you to make the
content so that I can watch it. Absolutely.
I think it is really important to you make a really good point
there. This is why I love sharing and
talking about this. Like my favorite part about the
podcast is when we have these different views on that, because
that's actually a really good way to think about it.
Maybe not maturing out of, but just really fully understanding
how you like to work. I think for myself, even I've
seen a lot of that over time where now I have kind of basic
structures of pages I'd like to use with.
I just add in a different type of, you know, theme, so to say,
where I might use a collection of stamps and sort of stickers.
But in that same general space, it's I know what works for me.
There's no planner out there that is custom made for exactly
what I'm looking for. I'd always have to customize it
in some way, shape or form to get what I need out of it.
So that's why I just like creating it myself.
All right, Jess, what about your next prediction?
What is happening in the near future?
So my next prediction is gonna sound really dumb, but I call it
joy knowing like joy journaling journaling, which sounds like
it's just like a really bad twangy accent.
But I am maybe this is more of a want than a prediction, but I
don't care. I'm putting it out there like
manifest or some shit, but I want to see more people just
like getting in and enjoying their journaling process.
Journaling, whether that be, you know, using different creative
styles, things that they've been tempted with before or
something, or whether it be something like just bringing
more novelty into their layouts, you know, trying different
trackers or pages or stuff. Like, you know, one time I
tracked in a Coke 0 tracker because I was just curious, like
how much Coke Zero am I actually drinking in a day?
I was surprised that it was not as much as I thought, but still
certainly more than some people would probably hope for.
Not mad, still gonna keep doing it.
I was just curious also thinking about things like adding in
little pieces like of ephemera and memory keeping.
And this is something that maybe I think maybe I'm just a little
bit curious about, you know, bringing the joy back into the
process, making it something that feels just good and cozy
and warm and nice to be in type of a thing.
Especially because I know that a lot of people like the end of
this year, like at the end of any year, but the end of this
year, a lot of people having like some tough times, they're
not feeling too great or something.
So possibly using their journaling as that kind of like
safe creative space place to be in to just like recuperate, fill
their like emotional well-being cup and stuff like that.
So I am. I'm predicting we're gonna see
Dwinling. All right, let's go and put that
on a T-shirt and we'll be good to go.
You come up with the most amazing word sometimes, I swear.
I think I just, I like to smack two things together quite often
and sometimes it works and sometimes it sounds twangy and
dumb. One of the ways that I am going
to be dwindling in the new year is bringing more gamification
into my layouts. So I'm effectively thinking
about like, hey, me as a person, I'm really good at work.
I'm great at working, not so great at actually doing anything
in any other area of my life. So I'm doing what I'm calling
like a life admin gamification kind of system where I'm giving
myself like points associated with doing different tasks and
my character AKA me can level up in these different skill areas.
I've made it kind of like fantasy RPG based, so it's like
instead of physical health, we've got vitality, instead of
mental health, we have spirit instead of like, I don't know,
social connection, it's charisma, that kind of stuff.
So I'm really excited to get into that.
I think it's just again, another way to bring like novelty and
fun into your journaling. Something that feels a little
less serious and a little more silly.
Sometimes I do feel like I miss a little bit of that from my own
because mine becomes so purely functional, but I also think
that it's something you have to try to see if you would like it.
I know in the past when I've tried the different of trackers
and kind of more join a lean type things, it always tends to
lean to my interest as it should, right?
But I never really come out of that feeling like, Oh, I created
something like it's always like, oh, I get really excited if I
create like a really cool tracker for social media or I
create like a really cool tracker for YouTube or some
dataviz type view. That's the kind of stuff that
gets me excited and I have to always remind myself like,
that's OK, Mark, you don't have to create this like nutty
looking like amazing screen, you know, whatever that is because I
would spend so much time doing that.
And then if I don't use it, I'm just like, well, that was a
waste of time. You probably have a similar
thing. I don't know where you get a lot
of comments saying like, oh, I wish like I could do this, but I
am not creative or I wish I could do this.
I'm not an artist. Rah, rah, that kind of a thing.
It's like 1, you don't have to be and two, you could be, you
can do it. I believe in your friend though.
Like we can do these little bits and pieces of creativity in our
journals. They don't have to look the same
as other people's though. Like just because somebody's out
there drawing like very elaborate pictures in their
journals at all, whether that be like, you know, actual pen and
ink or be like watercolors and stuff like that.
I'm not a watercolor artist. I would love to be a watercolor
artist, but I'm not doing that in my journal because it's like
that's not where my skills are. You can do creativity in other
ways, though. So for instance, the person who
made-up with like, you know, the Alistair method, right, which
is, you know, if you haven't heard of the Alastair method,
it's effectively columns on a page.
It's literally like a table. It's, it's, I'm going to say
it's nothing special, but it's actually very special.
And I use it very, very often. But it's, it is creativity, but
it's not like decorative creativity.
So we can bring that creativity into our journals in other ways
that kind of sparks joy, makes us feel good about being in
there. It's like, you know, you found a
creative solution to a problem, but it's not necessarily like I
drew a picture. Yay me.
Yeah. And I think if you're looking
for something totally opposite of that, that's when you come to
me because I'm like, not that. Like I used to get a lot of
comments like that when I was doing more creative kind of
stuff like that. Oh, I can't draw that.
I can't do all that, all of that.
Now I feel like I'm getting more comments like like, whoa, you
made me feel like I can do this. But that's also because I have
been figuring it out for myself. I don't like to doodle and
draws. Therefore I find a stamp that I
like or, you know, I want to create small icons on a page,
but I don't want to have to redraw them 1000 times because
the first one will look great and the second one's going to
look like crap. OK, well then I find really cool
like little icon stickers that you can then add to your page.
So for me, that's I look at it kind of that opposite side
because I have an entire creative background.
I've heard that from other people my entire life.
I go into a workshop now and I become the dedicated person
writing on the big board because Mark has cool handwriting and
I'm fine with that. I love to do it, but I'm always
telling people like you could do this too.
Here, let me show you how to do these letters real quick.
I'm doing like a little mini workshop in my workshops for
other people around that kind of stuff, but you just have to show
people sometimes and you have to try it.
Jess and I talked a lot about these R&D journals or just
having like something else you can do that in that could be a
really cool thing for you to try this year.
Get a sketchbook if you want to. And as you're seeing these other
things, try it out for yourself and see because Jess said that
that nasty P word that no one likes, which I wasn't thinking
practice when you said that is a really good way to go about
learning new things. Trying it out.
It will probably look like crap the 1st 17 times that you try
it, but that 18th time when you've tried it a different way,
you watch a different person do it is always awesome.
That's why when I look at like lettering videos, for instance,
I am not a great like calligrapher, but I can do it,
but I have to. I had to find a way to do it my
way because I don't do a lot of flourishes and all that.
I have no idea exactly how to do that.
So I found a way for it to work for me.
And I think that just that exploration trying because I
have pages and pages and pages of paper where I've been trying
to do that and I just can't because I'm a lefty.
Also, I do really honestly think that's why I can't do it as
easily maybe as some others, but I just find workarounds.
I think that's the best way to kind of make it happen.
So same thing if you're trying to get into join Elaine, you
know, you're just not sure what your join Elaine looks like.
Try some different things to find out what style you like.
No, I would very much agree with that.
It's like that kind of trial and error process.
R&D journals can be really great for that because they just take
the pressure off like this isn't the final pace.
This is just a trial run. It can be a little messy, it can
be a little sketchy, and sometimes I find that those ones
end up looking better than I want.
I put in my journal like, oh, why don't I just put this in my
journal to start with? It's like, because you didn't
feel as pressured to perform, Like you didn't feel like it had
to be perfect. So it just ended up being a
better and more natural process. But what would be your next
prediction for next year, do you reckon?
Mark, what's coming up? Well, Jess swings the pendulum
this way to join Elaine, and Mark pulls it over to making
things a lot easier and functional and straightforward.
So by prediction, totally opposite of justice here is that
people move towards a more simplistic and functional way of
planning due to personal need, but also due to just time and
the work that they're trying to do and accomplish with that.
So there are a lot of really cool pages that you can set up,
just has a beautiful plethora of different ideas in there.
But for me, I sometimes am doing it in the moment because I'm
using my bullet journal for work.
So if I go into a new meeting and I need to do that, I could
leave the header blank and then come back to it and do something
decorative later. But most of the time I'm not
because I need it in the moment. So I kind of throw everything
out and I say, OK, this is the pen that I'm using today and I
will go ahead and maybe do some like quick lettering or
something cool on there just to give it a little bit of flavor.
But then the rest of that page I'm just setting up like as I
need it. So sometimes I will decide that
I'm going to build a table in my bullet journal.
I do have a limit like I won't go above 10 table items rows
because I then I feel like we'll mark just move this to Excel or
air table or something. Work smarter, not harder.
But if it is something that is obtainable and easy to do, I'll
create it. But I'm not doing a whole lot of
different stuff. Again, sometimes it's just
getting the information on the page and then utilizing that to
kind of move into what I need to next.
And so I think that is kind of what I would predict is going to
start to happen. Again, kind of goes with my
first one a little bit about kind of moving away from overly
designed pages and into things that are maybe more functional.
But I think overall, seeing that happen, not everywhere, but in
some spaces where people are going to just come to a point
where they go, OK, like I've been doing this for a number of
years, or maybe I'm new to bullet journaling or just
planning as a whole and just say, OK, I'm just going to kind
of go bare bones with this right now.
And then maybe take the opposite approach, which is if I want to
come back and add things to it later, I will.
But I think that's also a really good test to see whether or not
you will or not. Because I say that all the time
to myself, like, oh, Mark, you'll come back and you'll add
some of these fun little stamps or whatever to the pages.
I never do because it's kind of like a fleeting moment for me.
And sometimes where I'm just like, yeah, OK, sure, next thing
and keep going on it. So that's where my prediction
is, again, very different than Jess is here, obviously.
So who knows what'll happen? Well, it's, it's gonna be one of
them or it could be both. Like, why not?
I think that it will be nice to see people go with kind of, you
know, more I'm gonna say more functional.
And in my mind, functional does not necessarily mean not
decorated. So possibly like I'm thinking
maybe more minimalistic styles, especially if people are tending
towards like, you know, your Hobonichi's, your Sterling ink
kind of planners, anything that has that kind of thinner paper.
So maybe the decorative styles we'll see.
And those just won't be so kind of like ink based because the
paper is thinner. I don't know because like I know
that there's a fountain pen friendly, right?
Yeah, I think a lot of that paper is the Tomoe, if I'm
saying that right, paper, right. It's thinner paper, but it does
handle fountain pens really well.
So if you are creating your own pieces using different kind of
inks and pens and things like that, that paper just tends to
work better. But you are going to see it on
the other side, not bleed through, but you'll just see the
ghosting because it's like 58 GSM.
But I think that like there's something kind of nice and used
in like in about just writing effectively on those pages,
which I think writing totally fine.
As soon as you start to do like doodles or sketches, that's the
part that gives me the hibbie jeebies.
That's the part where I'm like, no, thank you.
But if it's just writing, I quite like it.
But I don't do just writing in my journal, and thus that's not
where I'm going. That's not my join all.
Yeah, I can't take it. Even when I write in it, it's
just something about it for me where I was just like there is a
conflict with what I'm looking at here.
If I can see the letters behind it, my brain just scrambles and
I'm like, OK, I can't pay attention to anything else.
This is not working for me. I I don't know.
So it has to be a real specific reason.
I do use them in some cases for other pieces, but really it's
not for a daily deal. It's really like a tracker, but
then I can just skip a page if I need to.
It's not that big of a deal. I think that though your
prediction in general about people moving to like more
functional, possibly more simple, it'll be interesting to
see. It's always, it's nice to have a
variety of inspiration for any type of kind of journal planning
related stuff. So I think it would be
interesting to see if we have people who are in like
traditionally decorated planners moving away from that style of
decoration. I'm thinking like our happy
planners, our Erin Condren's, anything like that.
I'd be quite curious to see if in that planning space we end up
with people using less decoration and more kind of like
stripped back, minimalistic, strictly functional type styles.
So my last one, Jess, I'll kind of kick into this one because it
is in line with kind of that more streamlined approach to
planning. But I think that we're going to
see a lot more digital tools coming into to either partner
with in some cases take over. And there's three main areas
where I see this happening. So the first one I think is just
going to be focusing more on a digital calendar to remember
things. I know a lot of people don't
love a future log or don't really use those monthly pages,
especially with bullet journaling.
I tend to still use them, but I will not remember them or I
don't look at them enough. And So what I have to do all
that times and what I'm doing now is I will write it down and
then immediately just put it into my phone calendar too, so I
can remember it, have it in another place.
It is great if it's written down on a book, but if I don't have
that book with me when someone asks me a question, it's no
help. So I've been doing that a lot
recently just to try to get it into a place that is all over
the place. I would agree with that.
I mean, I've also been finding that using my digital calendar
more has been so insanely helpful for my productivity
because yes, I can write myself a, you know, To Do List for the
day and my daily local whatnot. And that one, you know, it has
its merits. It is very helpful.
There's a reason that I keep using it.
But oftentimes if I do not schedule when I'm going to work
on something, it either gets like pushed to the end of the
day or I fiddle fart around and I get things done in a timely
manner. Like, you know, stuff just blows
out in terms of how much time I'm spending on a task that
should not have taken me that long literally yesterday with my
newsletter because the day was not a writing day, but it had to
be a writing day. So I'm, I'm curious to see more
about how people actually do use those digital tools.
And the the digital calendar is one that has a lot of merit.
Going on to actually what you just said about then time
blocking out or timing out your tasks.
So I also think that we'll see a lot more of just general To Do
List moving digital as well. And the reason is, is that so
many of them have some great features.
So this happens in Trello. We have this in air table.
I just created something in Dropbox using a pages feature
where you can give yourself a task, but you can give it a due
date and you can assign it to the person that needs to do it.
So especially with collaboration on things, it's very helpful.
And I find that to be great because you can set up
notifications based off of that. You visually see that and you
don't have to like write down when it's due because it's kind
of in there and you've selected it.
And so it kind of helps you prioritize it easier to.
I think that's a really big thing that I love.
If I have a bunch of to do's written out with different due
dates, I can't just click a button and filter by when is the
soonest due date, right? I have to really look through it
and maybe rewrite that list again, which is also helpful.
But in the sake of time saving or in the sake of collaborating
with others, especially for doing this at work, having those
digital tools I think are really important.
And I really like that feature as well.
I just did that on a collaboration I'm working with
right now with Matt from Desktop Nerd.
We're working on some stuff and I was like, I'm just going to
assign the to do's inside of here.
I'm going to assign you to this and give dates to this to
basically build out a timeline versus writing it down somewhere
else, having to then still e-mail him with the schedule.
So to say I'm just like, it's right there for you.
And I would came out of that feeling really good.
I was like, oh, I really like this.
This is a little dangerous. I you are not going to catch me
doing my To Do List digitally unless it's a brain dump.
If it's a brain dump, yes, because I can type faster than I
can handwrite and sometimes you just need to get thoughts out of
your head so you can make sense of all of it.
But I am very much like a stickler, my written out
handwritten To Do List. But I can see the merits of
having it digital, especially when you said like, you know,
working with other people, assigning tasks and due dates
and all of that kind of thing. Totally makes sense when you're
a one man band over here playing the cymbal and the drum.
And I don't know what else is in a marching band because we like,
don't have those here. Tuba saxophone when?
You play tuba and a drum at the same time.
I will find a way, but when you're the one man band and you
have to do all the things, you don't really need that kind of
functionality. So I don't mind having it just
written down. But if you're working with
others, it totally makes sense to use a digital tool.
Yeah. And then the third part of this
that I think we'll start to see a lot more of, and I've only
scratched the surface of this, but is utilizing AI in ways to
help, whether it's through note taking, calendar optimization,
There's so many different ways and places that I think we're
starting to look at it. You had mentioned motion the
other day, utilizing AI for that.
I know Notion is doing more with like calendar features and AI
features and really starting to build these stratospheres
atmospheres of how to use your same information and have it
just kind of taken care of for you.
We've talked about Sun Sama before, which is where I've been
playing a little bit more recently and just kind of like
figure things out. I just see that becoming just
more of your daily to do because I know people get terrified of
AI when it comes to art and creation.
I get that. But I see so much value in AI
when it comes to simplifying tasks that we would spend a lot
of time on when you could essentially just have it kind of
condense that information for you and be able to kind of spit
out something for you then to react to.
But for the most part it basically being done could
remove hours I feel like from just general planning and how
things get done. Yeah, I think that's the nice
part about a lot of those AI tools is the kind of like the
level of information you can feed it to get a tailored
response. I suppose.
Like let's just say for instance, you wanted to plan
your kids birthday party or whatever.
You can tell it like, hey, you know, kid is turning 1, want
this kind of a theme. Like what kind of aspects should
I consider when it comes to like planning this out or whatnot?
It'll spit back all of the things that you need to
consider. Like you can get it to help you
write the birthday invites that sound like fun and poppy and
whatever else. And you know, especially if
you're not really a creative writing type person, like you
can use these tools to just simplify.
Especially I'm thinking like writing because I'm not a
writer, but you know, simplify that process for yourself, just
speed it up and stuff. And yes, you go through and you
add your own kind of personal flair to things and you tailored
so it fits as well as it can kind of a thing, but it can just
help you along. I like your mention of I think
it's called motion. I don't even know it's that one
of which is like effectively you tell it what kind of things you
need on your calendar. Like these are my non
negotiables, but it doesn't matter when they happen these
when the appointments are going to be rah rah and it just like
makes or build your calendar for you.
I have not played around with it.
I'm very curious about it but haven't actually dabbled with
it. Yeah, something that's out
there, it's very cool and very neat.
And I think also when it comes to AI is the idea and I, and I,
and I hear this a lot and I, I do think about it a lot when I'm
utilizing it. So something Natasha just was
telling me about, which I've been trying to do is using my
transcripts from my YouTube videos to generate blog
outlines. And it is game changing for me.
Like I actually have an interest in doing it now.
And at first I was like, this feels like cheating.
But then I remember, Mark, it's literally using your words.
It's just condensing your long form content into something
that's more digestible. And I'm just like, I'm loving it
right now because I'm just like, oh, I feel like I'm efficiently
using my time now. I'm already recording the
videos, editing them, doing all of that.
And now I just need to condense that down into a blog post so I
can just take that transcript and basically ask it to condense
it down for me. I still have to go through it.
I still am training it to speak like Mark because I just some
words I just don't use. And they're not even like fancy
words, but they're just like very colorful words.
I'm like, that would never come out of my mouth.
Delete. Put in a more simplistic term,
but it is super helpful. So I think finding little ways
like that is great. I don't love the idea that doing
the work for you, meaning like generating something from
nothing and then you copying that and pasting that.
I don't like that at all. I don't think that's fair.
But to start idea generation, like you said, I think that's
maybe a good example we could explore.
Like if you put that into ChatGPT or some kind of AI
feature, it's going to give you some ideas.
But then I totally feel like you should then explore what that
might be like. Ask it to then be like find a
vendor to do these things. It'll send you somewhere so
weird. It'll literally like make up a
vendor. Like it will not.
It'll be like, yeah, I'm looking for a Taco truck.
And it's like, oh, like his Paco's tacos.
And I'm like, does that exist? No, not in my area.
You've just gone and take like a name from offline and like
slapped it down there. It's like, Yep, this is where
you should go. And that's what I'm saying is
like you do have to add the human element to it or else your
event or whatever you're doing is going to sound feel robotic
or stale because you need to add the human element to it.
I feel like to to really make something fun and exciting.
So I'm excited to see where it goes.
But I definitely see so much more popping up about it in my
professional space as well. I'm seeing it a lot.
I work in a very regulated space, so we can't use it as
openly as maybe other companies and teams can do, but it is
definitely something that I think is going to make a big
impact. It's just understanding what it
is and how you can use it to help yourself versus feeling
like it's replacing you as a person because I don't like that
at all. Regardless of what role you're
in, what you're trying to bet done.
Like humans should always exist in everything that we do.
Just help me a little bit buddy. Yeah, I think that it will
certainly be available as like a tool for people to just like
streamline their processes and stuff and just help them out.
Like for instance, I enjoy using AI to do proofreading because my
attention to detail when it comes to words is really poor.
Like unless I go through and actually read every single word
out loud, I will miss things. And even if I do that, I will
still miss things. So I'll be like, hey, Chair GPT,
can you please go through and make sure that I haven't used
the word like become instead of became or active instead of
activity or something like that? Because I type as fast as I do,
my brain just kind of just thinks that it knows how the
words supposed to end, even if it's not actually the right
word. And I don't pick it up because
it's still an actual word. So we can use these tools in
ways that still feel kind of like ethical.
They align with, you know, whatever your personal thoughts
on AI are, but they just help make your processes faster.
And I think that there are a lot of really good ones for
productivity that I'd like to dabble into because I'm a bit
curious about them. Yeah.
So maybe this is a great topic for like a future podcast as we
start to explore those and see again as it continues through.
And I'm very interested in it and like figuring out how I can
utilize it more in my today. So we will put that one on our
backlog list. All right, Jess, what is your
last prediction as of now for 2025?
My final prediction is probably moving away from the digital
space again. I hope you guys are enjoying the
whiplash. Digital not digital, AI not AI.
This is what makes the podcast so great, Jess.
I know, right? We can't follow a train of
thought. The trains derailed.
People have gone everywhere. Bring back the passengers.
We have to get to the station. Top Mass Express.
Scary that. But I think what we're going to
see is more people just kind of like shopping their own stashes
because we have, you know a lot of really great websites that
have a lot to offer in terms of decorative pieces or notebooks
or anything like that. And I think some of us are
finding that we are maybe accumulating more stuff than we
can realistically use in like in terms of the rate that we're
accumulating those things. And that's not to say say that
I'm out here like, you know, with my ruler smacking y'all on
the back of the wrist like you have too many stickers, I have
too many stickers, I barely use stickers and I have so many
stickers. So I'm right there with you.
I think we're going to see more people just using up or kind of
like making a conscious effort to use up the stuff that they
already have rather than purchasing new, which I think is
going to lead to a lot of really interesting creativity and how
people are using like the dregs of their sticker packs and stuff
like that. Like how are we bringing
multiple packs together that have, you know, some smaller
elements that didn't get fully utilized for the first time?
We used the sticker pack. How are we using the small
amounts of washi tape that we still have on a roll?
I know that in terms of like my genuinely decorative tapes, I
have used maybe 2 full rolls of washi tape.
Most of them I'd like use once. And then because I do my stuff
for the channel and whatever, I'm like, Oh well, I've used
this one. People don't want to see the
same theme again. So I'll just give it away, kind
of just donate the rest of the rolls.
I mean, that's technically one way to use your stash.
Donation is great, people love to get freebies and whatnot, but
I think we're going to see more people making more of an effort
to just use the stuff they have. I love this idea because I think
it does help you and makes you think more creatively about how
you might and even for yourself. Jess, I think that that washi
tape example is a really good example where people might feel
that way. But the truth be told, and this
is me, you know, therapizing you is you have new viewers all the
time that have never seen that. While I would love the thing
that everyone is going through your back catalogue of videos, I
have a feeling they're probably not.
So maybe there's a great way to do that or even a great way to
challenge yourself here because you're like, oh, I don't want to
use it again. How might you use it differently
in the next time? Like sure, maybe same theme or
wherever it might look like, but what might that look like
differently? Think that would be really cool.
And I agree with you on this one a lot.
I've actually been thinking about it myself, one because I
put out a real recently and people were like, do you live in
a stationary store? I was like, Nah, kind of yeah,
where I'm almost like now I kind of want to do that.
Like I just want to close my eyes and like turn behind me.
I'd be really scared I'd knock over ink or something, but like
just touch something that I don't know is there.
Hopefully it's not a open exacto blade and be like you're getting
used right? Like but do that in a way to be
like, OK, yeah, I don't use this color a lot.
Well, I'm going to force myself to use this color and challenge
myself here. I love the idea, like you said
with these stickers, when you have like one or two left and
you're like, what happens? Curate a new collection with a
few of those different pieces or think about a creative way to
use them. I really like this idea.
And also not to get like political about it, but I mean,
if the economy is not doing well, which in many cases things
are much more expensive, we know that shipping has gone up.
You know, I hear that and we see that so much.
I actually saw that a lot in the last episode.
A lot of people commented that something that they're
considering now with what brand they go with is if they can even
afford to send it to you. I know you talk about this all
the time, like sometimes to ship things from the US to you cost
more than the products that you're buying.
So this really, I think also is going to force people to really
second guess. And I've already seen it
happening where they're going. I actually already have a really
big collection of notebooks. I like that design, don't get me
wrong, but like it just doesn't cost efficient for me to do
that. Yeah, no, I think that shipping
is killer. That is definitely one of my
slogans. I have a few.
Have you noticed? But yeah, because it does cost
more to, you know, get the product and ship the product and
availability of products, just all of it.
I think it would be nicer to see people kind of using their stuff
and myself included. The hardest part, and this is
not me trying to make an excuse, even though it's going to sound
like an excuse. So like, don't at me.
But the hardest part is when you put out a video with something
that, like, is just not available anymore.
And then you get a tirade of comments just being like, oh, my
God, I love that. Where did you get it?
And you have to go like it's not available.
I'm really sorry. Just like heartbroken.
Sorry. You can't get the Fairies Nest
Washi tape set from the washi tape shop.
It's really pretty. It happens a lot, I even
happened just recently. I did buy stationary video and
the the multi ball from pilot was I had in there and people
were like, where do I get that? It's amazing.
And it turns out it's been discontinued and I'm like, well,
that's not even something like specialized or seasonal.
Like it's just a pen that they don't make any more.
Like you can't find it online. But I agree with you on some of
those other pieces. I really always feel bad when
I'm like, oh, here's the stamp set that I'm using.
Like where do I get it? I'm like, this is like 7 years
old. Like I found this the bottom of
my drawer. Or again, when you have a lot of
stationary, you just can't rotate through it fast enough.
I'm also having a lot of problems with my markers that
are like getting like the crystallization on them from not
using them. It happens a lot with my acrylic
graphs. But I'm also starting to notice
that on like my tombos that I have and some other markers just
because I'm not using them as much as maybe I used to or I'm
just collecting a lot and I'm just throwing them away at this
point there. I don't think you can bring
those back from the dead unless someone else knows that you can,
but I haven't been able to successfully.
You know, sometimes it looks like something at The Last of
Us. It's got like these layers like,
Oh no, I want to put that down on my page and just like a
little cloud of spores or something.
And it's not to say that I'm living in some like mold ridden
house, but like every so often you come across a pen and I'm
like, well, that doesn't look right.
That looks a little concerning. Maybe I should get a replacement
for you. And I'm sure that like you could
like stoke the tip and alcohol or something like that and then
flush it through with whatever. I don't know, I'm not a pen
doctor. But most of the time it is just
like I use it if I can, and if I can't, it's going to need a
replacement. But I think that's also a really
good point. Like some of these stationary
items expire. Like if you hold onto your tape
for too long, it loses its stickiness and it does not work
anymore. I found that with the tape I was
actually using in my new journal setup for next year.
Is that because I've had it for such a while, it's just like
lost its stick ability, as I was saying in the video.
So I'm like trying to get my glue pen under there and like,
stick it back down and whatever. I mean, I made some choices with
how I was using that tape, though, like cutting very small
pieces off. And it's like, well, yeah, if it
has less contact area, it's not going to stick as well.
So partially a ME problem, but also a ME problem in the sense
that I kept it for too long and now it's not as not as sticky as
it used to be. Yeah, I think it's also just a
really good way just to edit through what you have, your
hoard, your collection and whatever you want to call it,
your curation. That's what I call mine.
It's a curation at this point. But it is a really good way to
do that and just be like, yeah, this.
I haven't used this in so long that it literally has molded or
again, just gone bad. I know the way you store markers
is a big part part of that too. I swore a lot of mine up because
I think the butt end of most of the markers, you can't tell what
color it is. Not that I can always tell the
color when I can see it, but it looks a lot better than it does
when it's upside down or flat or whatever it looks like.
There's just a lot that goes into it.
So that's how I'm kind of utilizing it now too instead of
replacing it, unless it's something that I really just
love and and for whatever reason, it's gone bad.
But the truth be told, if I really love it, it's running out
of ink before it's getting bad or molding over, right?
So then I will replace it because that actually means that
I'm using it versus the other ones.
I just say, OK, so long farewell and if I need you again for
something, I'll just buy it when I get there.
But I'm not going to replace it until I need it as a way for me
to feel like I'm self editing. Yeah, I think that was the
question that we were using in a stream recently.
It's like a, you know, if ever forbid your house burnt down,
would you replace it or the new one I've seen like, you know, if
it got dog poop on it, would you clean it off or would you throw
it away, that kind of thing. Where'd you hear that?
I, I think I heard it on Instagram.
It is a weird one, but it's also like an interesting point.
Like, OK, if you had, I don't know, an item of clothing or
something and it got like dog poop on it, would you take the
time if it energy to like clean it off?
Or would you just be like, no, it's a sacrificial shirt, It's
going in the bin or like something like that?
Yeah, I was thinking just stationary.
I'm like, if you drop your pen, just clean it off, I guess.
But that makes more sense for clothes.
But if you dropped your washing tape, it's not gonna clean off
nicely. Just go get a new one.
Yeah, you're right. I wasn't thinking about that.
There's probably a lot of poorest things that we have that
just are a no go or they're just cheap and you're just like throw
it away anyway. Which is why I usually default
to the house burning down. But it's also like kind of sad,
morbid, like again, knock on wood, hopefully not going to
happen. But like, would we purchase it
again if we have the mains? If we had the same number of
funds and we didn't have the item, would we purchase it again
type of a deal? But maybe that can be like a
little challenge for everybody. Like can you find 25 items in
your stash that you either use up fully or de stash next year?
Now I feel like I need to put this in my journal as a layout.
I was just saying, I think that we need to put it inside of like
a future podcast episode because I feel like that would be a
really fun one to go through as well.
I don't know what to what to think about that a little bit.
But yeah, using up your stash, that is going to be my last kind
of prediction, but it was really interesting hearing about your
spark. And I'm I'm very curious to see
which ones that we've predicted like maybe this time next year,
which ones kind of like came true or like still kind of like
on the up and coming kind of train.
But we'd love to hear from you guys.
What are your predictions for the new year in terms of like
stationary journaling, planning? What do you think we're going to
be seeing more of? What do you think we're going to
be seeing less of? You can leave us a comment if
you're watching here on YouTube. Or of course, you can always
e-mail us at plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com or
hit us up on Instagram at Planner Pals Podcast.
On our next episode, Jess, we're going to have a little bit of
fun. Instead of talking about the
things that we would rebuy, we're going to be listing out
things that we totally regret buying and wish that we never
did. That could be stationary, that
could be notebooks, that could be kind of any kind of fun thing
that we've used in our day today.
And just think about it made a lot of sense at the time, but
then I got it in my hands and I was real disappointed about it.
So that'll be our next episode there.
So I can't wait to share that one with you and talk more about
that. And always Planter pals discuss
them because we all have those things in our collections that
we just don't like to talk about a lot.
But until next time, Planter pals, have a great 1.
See ya.