Planner "Hack" For The Blehs

Or, getting some fresh air into your planner, and the old and stale air out!

If you remember from a few posts ago, things have been feeling kind of "ugh" lately. And, luckily, that feeling has moved on. However, it has been a...travel of sorts...to get beyond it.
There have been a few awesome realizations in the past week or so, most of which I will hold out on sharing until things are a bit more concrete (read: lasting longer than a week!).
However, there is one thing that I think is easy to overlook in regards to feeling better almost instantly: your planner.

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I mean, sure, if you need a quick pick-me-up, the best thing you can do is write down everything that you've gotten done that day (I'm quite fond of this myself, and have been running mostly on a what-I've-done list for the past two weeks). It's much more rewarding to see what you've accomplished, instead of what all you need to get done.
If you need to get over a case of the "ugh's" this is a great tool to use to your advantage.

But another way is just as easy.
Archive your older pages.

I've been using my Happy Planner since October (which I realize I've not actually talked about on here yet, and I probably should at some point, yeah?) and have kept all of the pages in it. The pages from before I got the planner, and all the way up until now - it all has stayed in.
I have been feeling bleh, thinking that I wasn't doing enough and that I'm not being enough and, and, and...
So, I took out the weeks that have already went by.

It's like starting from scratch!
Which sounds overwhelming, but it's really more so about not having any prior anythings holding you back, or sneakily influencing you.
There's no lists with things unchecked hiding away in prior months. And while you may not see them, if you're just flipping to the week that you are on, you know it's there, whether you look at it or not.
You have the magic ability to get rid of that subconscious awareness by simply getting rid of those pages. You could chuck them, you could hide them in a drawer, you could find an awesome filing system for old pages that you like, they could live in a box (I store mine in one of these on the top shelf in my closet), or under your bed (though, probably not the best option, so far as feng shui is concerned!) or anywhere other than still in your planner.

Think of when you get a new journal, and all the pages are fresh and clean for whatever you want to fill it up with - the promise of a full notebook is awesome, but knowing that you have so many possibilities to fill it up can be motivating. Or, if that's not your cup of tea, a newly opened pint of ice cream that you haven't dug into yet - it's going to be delicious, and you can enjoy it bit by bit, versus a half-empty pint of ice cream that screams of sadness, because it means you're almost out of ice cream. Or your favorite soap! A full squeeze tube of the best body wash is an awesome thing, because there are so many showers you can have that will smell amazing! Until you get towards the end of the bottle, and you have to try and remember to buy more and that adds pressure into your showering process.
It's like that.
You can take out the old inserts in your planner, and basically have a new planner! Fresh! Ready to tackle the day! Full of possibility!
There are no past screw ups or missed tasks to hinder you, there are no ideas of what your week or day should look like.
The promise of trying again cam sometimes be pretty motivating, all on it's own. But it's best done when starting from scratch.

That's a pretty awesome thing you can do for yourself.
I highly suggest it.

Do you have any easy planner-hacks that make you feel better instantly? Let me know in the comments!

~Havok

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