Using a Paper Planner to Organize & Love Your Life— PCP 019

Today I want to talk about using a paper planner to create an organized, happy life. It has made a huge difference for me, and I want to share with you how I use mine.

Using a paper planner has helped my creativitiy, my intention and my gratitude to help build a life and business that I love.

Big thanks to this episode’s sponsor Family Routines. If you’re looking into getting safe routines that gives you more margins for the chaos that having a family brings.

Mentioned in this post:

• I use the Happy Planner (you can get good prices on Amazon)
• Using a Paper Planner with a Digital Calendar

Other posts on planners:

• Best Pens for Planners
• Best Planners for Moms
• Planner Tips
• Making your own stickers
• Best Life Planners

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Transcription:

Hilary Erickson 0:00
Hey guys! Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. On Episode 19 we’re talking about something that fulfills both my love of stickers and it kind of gives me a little bit of myself back from when I started having kids. So let’s untangle it! Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast, where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting, home routines; even some family travel. Because, Heaven knows, our lives are tangled. I’m your host Hilary Erickson. Okay guys. My true love in high school, (I didn’t really date a lot I know that comes with a huge shock I seem so socially appropriate.) I didn’t do a lot but, boy, oh boy, did I love my Daytimer. It went everywhere with me. It was my wallet. It was everything and I continued that tradition well into college. I loved using a daily sheet of what I needed to get done and just being able to look at my calendar. I loved it. When I got married. We kind of had a paper calendar that we used together and then we had a large calendar where I put workdays and stuff like that on the wall.

And then I found my next true love — Google Calendar guys. Oh, just the idea that my husband could put something in his calendar and it would transfer to mine. It was so nice and I loved Google Calendar. But the longer I started to use it, and I still, I still love Google Calendar. Don’t get me wrong, you guys, I love it. But the longer I started using Google Calendar, I just kind of started to feel like something was missing. I wasn’t putting down to-do lists as frequently and I kind of missed being able to see the big picture, you know, that’s just kind of written down. And so, I started to think about using a paper planner, also, at the same time, I was starting my own business and so I kind of had some more “me” things versus just like kids activities, because when kids are little, a lot of your life just centers around them. But, I was starting to have more “Hilary” things versus just like “life” things. So today I wanted to share five things that I love about my planner, I use a Happy Planner, but you can use lots of different ones. I have a few planner articles that I’m going to link to in the show notes that you can maybe kind of tell which one might work best for you.

This episode of the Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by Family Routines: How to Automate Your Housewife Life. Ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids? Being able to spend less time at the mundane tasks and more time teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need? Family Routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy. Save 15% with a coupon code UNTANGLED. You can find it at pullingcurls.com and the menu under courses or in this episode show notes.

So the first thing I love about a paper planner is I love to decorate it. Now, if you kind of miss the sticker stage of your life, there was a store called the Sticker Shop at the University Mall and, oh my gosh, I loved it so much. My mom one year for Christmas gave me a sticker membership where every month I could go and pick out $5 worth of stickers and it was like everything to me. I just loved it and then I became a scrapbooker and I’m actually a published scrapbooker, guys, but then I kind of got away from that. I do still do some good digital scrapbooking, but I just kind of missed the paper and the stickers and fonts and all those kind of different things. And so paper planning actually gives me an outlet for creativity that I really needed in my life.

The second section I use to set intentions. Now, that kind of sounds a little bit “woo woo” right? But for me, it really helps me if I’m going worried about something to just say, “this is what I want.” So let’s say we were buying a car and I was kind of concerned about how we were going to get it and all those kind of things. So I wrote the intention that we wanted to pay X amount of dollars for a blue Honda Accord that was less than a 2016 and had this many miles. And I put that as an intention. And we paid $500 more than that intention. And so, part of me feels like by setting that intention, the back of your mind works to make that intention happen. And maybe there are angels that kind of help make that intention happen in your life as well. But I do like to set my intentions. And helps me to just put things out into the universe and then just kind of see what the universe brings back. For me, it also helps me kind of prioritize what my intentions really are. Because sometimes it’s really easy to get wrapped up in you know, some numerical thing where your actual thing that you really want is something different than those numbers. And so setting the intention kind of helps you to think bigger picture.

I also, in the third section, I write down to-do list and that really helps me in the top I write the things that Do for my blog. And in the bottom, I write the things to do for my house. And it helps me easily kind of jump back between those two things because my mind likes the variety of working on blogging and then working on home things. And I also put in any appointments or activities that I need to do that day. And so my paper planner allows me to kind of filter out all the different things that my kids need to do. Every once in a while I’ll add something new or different that the kids are doing just that week. But I don’t have like kickball practice on there. I just mostly have things that just I am doing and I need to kind of pay attention to. And so it helps me filter, my huge Google Calendar and the things that are just really important to me. And that kind of helps me feel like I have a little bit of my own life because I think as a mom, it can be really hard to be like, “I’ve got pickup and drop off and pick up and drop off and pick up and drop off.” But really, you can build a life in between pickups and drop offs. And so it allows me to visualize what that life can be like.

Now, if a paper planner doesn’t work for you, I 100% don’t think everyone needs a paper planner. But if you like writing things down, if you miss that sticker state of your life…? And sometimes, if you need to kind of just focus on you and realize that you have goals and plans and intentions for your life, I really think that a paper planner can be good for you. Now, like I said, I use a Happy Planner, there’s Erin Condren, there are so many different planners out there, you can even go back to the old day timer. Like, there are plenty of business planners and life planners and I think it would be important to maybe just find a store where you could flip through what the different options are, and pick one that works for you. For me, it’s really important to have a nice paper. That sounds kind of dumb, but I just really like a nice pen and nice paper. It just kind of sets me in a good place for my life. So there’s lots of things to consider when you pick out a planner.

Thanks so much for joining me on today’s episode about planners. They are one of my favorite things. It’s really changed how I view my life and how I plan for the future. And so I think it could really help you out too. If you’d like to know more about planning. I have tons of links that I’m going to throw into the show notes. You can find it at pullingcurls.com/podcast, this is Episode 019 and you can find that on that page. Or you can go to pullingcurls.com/episode019 and that will take you directly to this episode. Big thanks to our sponsor of family routines for making this episode possible. Planning is definitely one of the routines that has really helped me and my family and just help me to keep everything in order. You can find out more about that and getting in other routines in the show notes. If you like today’s episode, please share, subscribe and review. It really does make a difference. I’d hope to have you with us next time. We drop new episodes every Monday and until then I hope you have a tangle free day!

I love washy tape, you guys, I love it so much. I have way too many rolls, but paper planning just really kind of filled that spot in my life. Now, my planner is split into three sections. I think most people use it for activities in the morning, afternoon and evening. But I split it into three kind of different areas. The top one is for gratitude, and I just did a podcast about gratitude that you guys can go check out, but the top section I write things that I’m grateful for. And I do that every morning and it just really helps me to center me to realize that life is really great. That the glass is, you know, way more full than I think that it is and I just love it. I just think it gives me a way to really think about how great my life is before I dive into what I want to do each day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai