Hi everyone. I have used planners for over 30 years now. I started when my children were preschoolers with the Polestar Press Family Planner. It was cheap, organized and functional for me as a SAHM.
Then I started homeschooling. Let the experimenting begin! I used more detailed block planning for the kids initially. Then switched to mind mapping. Then colour coded mind mapping. Then had the kids keep log books in their teen years, while I kept an ongoing homeschool journal, as well as the separate family Polestar Press planner for appointments (yes, I went back to it).
The girls left home. I started a business. I started using a basic business journal I bought at Staples, but it was more for executives in a big company. I was a one woman shop - an artist. I discovered “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. It was great! I could develop systems to work for me…or so I thought. I developed the systems, but they didn’t work for me. They were more geared to Executive Assistants and, again, larger firms. They didn’t integrate home life with work life. This dissolved into me keeping massive prioritized To Do lists, which led to basic goal setting and doing the Twenty Wishes concept as espoused by Debbie Macomber in one of her fiction books.
Well, it may as well have been fiction. My list grew so long and cumbersome, with sub goals, it was pathetic. I achieved little and the list felt more like a straitjacket to me. I decided the problem was the way I was setting goals. So I studied different ways to set goals and came across the S.M.A.R.T. approach. I tested it. It worked. But I needed to be able to track several SMART goals at once.
Enter bullet journaling. I read about it on a board somewhere on the Internet. I googled it on YouTube. I found lots of pretty spreads that took oodles of hours to complete. I bought the supplies to do it…and then was overwhelmed!
I decided to go really basic. I grabbed a small 5x7 three subject notebook and started recording my days, using a double page spread for the week. It worked, but the book was flimsy and my writing a mess. There was no coding or pretty trackers. I moved to a 5x7 Lechturrm hard cover planner. It was beautiful, but it was also hard to find things. Plus I did not have the time at tge end of each book to rewrite my Collections in a new book. I have those two journals still, and they’re a beautiful glimpse into my life, BUT I moved on due to lack of time to maintain the system.
I googled again. This time I tripped across travellers notebook videos on bullet journaling. I quickly purchased a beginner one 40% off at Michaels and was on my way. I liked the portability of it. I liked the flexibility to add and take out booklets. I didn’t have to rewrite anything. It was great for covering and integrating all areas of my life. A stellar planning tool. Except for one thing…the refills were expensive. The highly graphic approach I had decided to take took too much time to set up.
So…I pulled the plug. I went to Dollarama and purchased a cheap planner for $2.50/3 CAD. It has monthly overview pages at the front with daily blocks big enough to write in. This is followed by weekly spreads on two facing pages. Both monthly and weekly spreads have a column for main goals for the week, or notes. There are lined pages and an address book at the back.
It’s big enough to integrate my home life with my work life. Though I must admit, I still use mind mapping to organize my business and stay focused.
This is waaay too long. If you made it to the end I’m mega impressed! I hope something in here is of use to someone. See you around the forum! 
