Planner Love

Planners are a huge rage right now.  Have you noticed?  It seems like every paper crafting company is releasing a planner for the year along with plentiful accessories.  I have a confession...I love organization and I'm a complete geek for office supplies.  So a pretty planner - yeah that's right up my alley. 
I've always maintained a printed planner despite the electronic options I also use with my family.  I knew for 2015 I wanted something a bit different and when I started seeing previews of new planner releases a few months ago I was VERY excited.  So what did I get?  Well...

The Heidi Swapp 2015 memory planner in black and white.  And I love it!  I had pre-ordered mine from Studio Calico so it arrived just before year end, ready for me to begin in January.  Although, the planner doesn't come with numbers on it so you really could use it any year.  I also got one of their limited addition stamp sets and have really enjoyed using it to fill out my pages.

What I loved most about this one was that there is plenty of space to write things down, it has binders to add more pages or remove them, and it's really pretty!

I also enrolled in the Capture30 class taught by Heidi Swapp at Big Picture Classes.  It's been great to focus on some new goals and get organized to accomplish them this year.  

At the beginning of the class we wrote down 15 things about ourselves and tucked them away in a pretty little envelope.  At first I really didn't want to do this but then I dived in and actually had a lot of fun.  It will be really great to look back on this at the end of the year.  I have a feeling these are the things that are not going to change much.

I've also formulated a goal, documented the areas to focus on, noted possible limitations, and (gulp) wrote out an action plan.  Yes, wow!  I felt so good after getting that done and by tucking it right into the planner I have easy access to remind myself.  And as the year goes on, it's easy to change if need be. 
Another exercise encouraged us to identify the items we needed to do each day to feel successful - to head to bed with out a list running through our minds.  I wrote down five things on a card and move that along with my day at a glance pages as a useful reminder.  And they really do work. 
After completing this exercise I realized I also wanted a place to just pat myself on the back.

I found an old mini memory file, trimmed it a bit, and stitched it up so that I could slide big journal cards in and out of the top.  Inside I've already written down a few things I'm proud of myself for doing this year.  It will be a great place to go to for focus and encouragement.
If you haven't thought about goals in some time, I'd really encourage you to give it a try!   It doesn't have to be for the year.  Any ole time will do but I know you will be thankful you spent some time thinking about it.