A Momentary Planning Crisis

A bit of an over-statement, honestly, but in the moment, it seems like the right thing to call it. A time when one doesn't want to use their planner, or their planner or system isn't working for them, nothing is getting done, nothing is being worked towards. Just a moment of "ugh, I have to take that with me?" or "why did I get in here again, there is no reason to be in this thing" or "well, I guess its handy as a calendar." And that is not a nice place to be.

In all actuality, it meant I wasn't getting anything done. I need lists. I need order. I had neither. So I did nothing. Which, of course, leads to lots of naps, a lack of sleep at night, which leads to more counter-productivity and and an over abundance of time spent lounging about on Twitter.

It all started at the beginning of May, actually, with a slowly increasing "distaste" for the "pretty planning" you see all over the internet. It seemed to be too busy on the pages, not enough room to get things done, a waste of time and supplies and all that nonsense - hint: this is false.
And then I switched over to time tracking. Which is great. And the many variations of the chronodex are quite lovely. But, in not having a color-coding system set up, it was mainly just me tediously keeping track of every single thing I did each day. And then, trying to use two different colors to go through at the end of the day and marking everything on the chronodex - which gets to be far too much work when you have multiple things to be "coloring in" that are of 5 minute intervals (like dishes, or laundry).

This led me to just hating the whole thing.
I hated my pages. I hated everything in black and white. I hated how bulky everything was, and how much I didn't actually have in it (spare paper is a drag, apparently!) and just...so much hate. So much.

So, once again, I switched.
I am now in the pages that came with the darn thing - the Filofax week on 2 page inserts. Granted, I've only been using them for four days now, but I'm quite happy with it. For the moment.

The spaces for each day are small enough to not worry about overloading my days, but yet with plenty of room for multiple to-do's.
Having the whole week in view means it's easier to plan around appointments and activities (which I have had more of lately, as I have been doing some babysitting) - without having to worry about looking at the month on 2 page pages, which had been quite cramped and depressing!
And, adding some stickers and washi tape has helped spruce up the place.

Yeah, catch that last part?

This whole thing started because I thought decorated pages were nonsense. And here I am, with decorated pages, because I missed having colorful things about. Le sigh.

I also thinned out my planner - I don't even really remember what I took out, but most of it got archived, old grocery lists got chucked, and now Mr. Finsbury is a very slender man.
I've a new dashboard - and, actually, almost a theme for the beginning of my planner. Which is, of course, Pokemon - because I'm an adult.

And a new section that is much more fleshed out and ready for awesomeness...more on that later!

Basically, I tricked myself into not liking something (and not really trying it!) because I thought I wouldn't like it or be any good at it. I told myself I would be fine living in black and white. Which, duh, is totally wrong.
I didn't want to decorate my pages, because I can never match things, and certainly don't have the funds to go get things that do match. I didn't want to because mine would never be "awesome".
So I forwent all color, basically, except for black pen, blue pen, and pencil. And man, that was a bad idea!

And while, no, my pages will never quite be the "normal" version of awesome, I'm quite pleased with how all these turned out.
They are bright, they are colorful, and they are energetic. And that's kind of all I need right now.

~Havok