But Do You Have A Plan?

Planning is my love language.

Sincerely. It’s my act of service to the world. It’s taken me 39 years and some therapy to learn that not everyone wants to be organized-this was a revelation to me. I knew that not all people were organized, of course, but I assumed that all people in the world deep down wanted to be organized, and have everything in its place. Coming to terms with the idea that not everyone is at least striving for order-it was (is) a mind-blowing thought.

For me, order is my coping mechanism. I would have been adjusting the drapes as the Titanic sank. The more out of control something feels inside of my life, the more I place my routine around it. See: my hair.

So anyway, this is one of my favorite times of year, middle of August, weather just starting to turn a bit, planning out all of my fall decorating and activities-and, of course, the girls and I getting back into the routine of school and sports and dance and piano. Even though summer is gloriously fun, and it is so nice to have a break from homework and just lay around and swim and read a lot, the three of us do best with a routine, and fall provides that for us.

(We have learned to lighten our schedule in the past year, and concentrate on only the activities that are bringing us joy. But that’s a different blog post.)

Because I basically live my life on a school calendar schedule still, fall is when I buy my planner for the year. In the past four years I have bought an Erin Condren paper planner. I loved the look of Erin Condren. The paper planner lives on our kitchen island, to serve as a reference point for the girls (and sometimes my parents) as to what is going on when. Everyone has their own color so you know immediately if the activity includes you. This suited us.

However, this year when I began my planner shopping, I wanted something a little different (not a lot different). I still wanted the look of the Erin Condren planner-spiral bound and sturdy paper and the vertical layout-but I wanted to customize the layout. I wanted each of the girls to have their own space-I didn’t want to be wedded to using the different colors because, while it’s pretty to look at, it’s time consuming to write everything out in different pens, and really, we are the only people who ever look at it.

I ended up getting a Plum Paper planner and I am delighted with it. It has a similar look to Erin Condren (the only thing I really miss is the rose-colored spiral binding). I was able to break each day out into a space for me, Betsy, and Felicity, as well as a space for work, meal plans, and the blog, which was exciting and somewhat grownup. There’s also space for anything extra that might not fit those categories.

When I added in all of our fall activities, I did use the colors, but I’m fairly sure that going forward I’m not going to-it isn’t necessary anymore, and I actually like the look of the black pen on white paper.

Plum Paper was significantly cheaper than Erin Condren as well (I spent $40 as opposed to $80). Overall, I’m very pleased with it.

The other calendar that I use on a regular basis is the Cozi app. This lives on my phone, and also on Nick and Jenifer’s phones, and Betsy’s phone. It’s a shared calendar so that we know when the girls’ activities are-it would work well for anyone that you want to share your calendar with, but I would especially recommend it for co-parenting. It saves us a lot of back and forth about when the girls are available.

I could go on and on. For me, laying something out is the best and easiest way to know what is coming. It’s cool if planning isn’t your thing. But if you are struggling with balancing your schedule, those are two of the easiest ways that I know of to get your arms around it.

And for now, I’m super excited for football Friday night and the idea that it’s nearly time to get out all the pumpkins and I am most blessed to be going into another school year with my favorite girls, which will surely be full of all the things, and we will hope for more good than bad, and savor all of this time together.