Writing Wednesday - My 2024 'Plan for Planners'

Yes, it is time to start winding up my year in my old planners and move into new planners. And I love me a planner!

Correct - not everything I 'plan' gets done. However, for me and my monkey brain love to dream and come up with ideas. And writing it down makes it a bit more concrete. Over time I may tweak the idea or dismiss it entirely. But having it in writing, in my planner, makes it more possible.

Also - for me, with my tendency toward depression - my planner is a touchstone. I have learned over the years when I find myself neglecting my planners it is a sure sign I am 'slipping' into a depressive state. So writing things down like 'fold clothes', 'vacuum living room', force me to work through the dip in my mental state and work on things which move me forward. 

Anyway...

Here is the 2024 line-up!

This is my 'Live Rich' planner from The Budget Mom. It is a pared down version of her budget planner which I have used in the past. Unfortunately, I am not as 'inspired' to use it as much. But I have 6 more months to utilize. So I will forge forward and then probably do some printable for the last 6 months of 2024 and buy a new one for 2025. But her plan is the plan which works for me when I 'work the plan'. 

The Writual Planner is in my lineup again for 2024. I missed having an actual planner for my daily card draws this past year. One thing I really like about it is there are pages for the full moon and new moon each month. There is also a monthly card draw. Now I need to replenish my stickers for it before the year starts. They aren't necessary, but I enjoy using the stickers.

Another part of my morning routine is my 'morning pages' as described by Julia Cameron. 

First off, I don't always write the 3 pages she recommends. But it does allow me to get up in the morning, I fix my coffee, let the dogs out, and sit down and dump all the stuff out of my brain (some days there isn't much there to dump). It is pretty much a idea book, journal, pity pages all wrapped up in one. 

A couple of 'journals' I use occasionally are my journal journal...

I paste in all kinds of 'stuff' in this journal and expand on something I might have written about in my morning pages. 

Then there is the Hobonichi 5-Year planner.

This is my second year in this journal and I have it covered with a piece of paper I had painted on years ago. I go through this journal once or twice a month and paste in pictures and stuff and write a bit about what happened each day. A lot of days I just put 'worked' or 'it rained'. However, I find it really interesting to see, as I am writing in the journal that last year on that day or three years ago on that day, this happened. This is the second 5-Year journal I have used from Hobonichi. 

I know I keep promising myself I am going to FINALLY complete one of my books which I have been writing on. In 2024 I want to get the memoir/cookbook done and I have an idea of 'serializing' it in some way on my website. And the notebook above has my outline and character info and notes for my 7 Deadly Murders mystery. This is a Stalogy 365 planner. It has the same paper as the Hobonichi and I love writing in it, so I hope it will assist in getting this story out of my head onto paper. Mainly because Parker Jordan is bugging the hell out of Lindsay to join him in his podcasting from the apartment over the stables. Yep, have to wait for me to finish the book to see what this really means. 

Another couple of planners which are more for keeping ideas and a project all in one spot.

This lovely planner will become a 'common place' planner for me. It will hopefully be used to write down quotes and notes from books I read, a place to keep my ideas and lists. Not totally sure exactly what will all go in here. It's one of the Hobonichi HON planners - which means it's a hardback planner. 

But this one has a definite use...

This is another Hobonichi HON and I love the botanical print on the front. Hobonichi has a whole line-up of planners with this type of prints over the past couple of years. 

It will contain the notes for 'A Year In My Garden'!

I really, really neglected my garden this year. Partly due to the heat, but more because of my mental and physical health this past year. I also love reading this type of book. My idea is to really focus on what I am and am not doing in my garden. What I'm growing, purchasing and swapping. I want to take pictures at the first of each month of the yard to show the progression of what is going on in my yard. 

This will also be interesting to see what is successful and what isn't. How much I am harvesting or not harvesting. There is so much I plan for the yard this year and I would like to have a more detailed record.

This is a small A6 Hobonichi Techo. Initially I was going to use it as a Wellness planner, tracking my weight and moods. I may expand it to include either my books read or expanding on my tarot card draws on days when it really hits the nail on the head or something. Not exactly what all will be included in this planner.

And now the two MAIN planners!

The top planner is my MAIN planner which sits on my desk. Everything goes in there. Appointments, important dates, to-do lists, notes on what happened that day - everything! 

The smaller, blue one is the planner I carry in my purse with me. I write down shopping lists, my work schedule, and have appointments in there so I can figure out if I can do something on a specific date or not. 

This is eighth year in these planners from Hobonichi. And I have started adding dates into them already for club meetings (there are 3 I need to note each month), reminders on quarterly project reviews and plans, and already a couple of book blog tours I have committed to. 

I am really happy with my line-up this year and spent some time to consider what I really needed. I am also happy with the fact I have slapped my own hand mentally and stepped back from purchasing other planners just because a YouTube planner influencer purchased and reviewed them. I am trying not to go 'squirrel - shiny object!'. 

Wish me 'Growth' in 2024!