planning

do you remember this post? well since october i've been in search of a new day planner.  searching and searching. you see i needed something that was going to make life utterly & completely organized...so that i never forgot an appointment, to-do item, idea, phone call (ha!).  but more importantly, as an intentional discipline as we started this new year - as a way of processing and preparing for all that is whirling in my head, heart and prayers for the year.  planning...

i gave the electronic / smartphone way a whirl...nope, i'm a pen & paper girl through and true.  i gave the pretty paper to-do list a whirl ...nope, since there was no accompanying calendar i was double booking my days left and right! i gave the wall calendar a try...but that doesn't work a lick when i'm away from home.

i picked up every single planner i could find at target, paper source, staples, etc and was finding issues with all of them.  too small.  too flimsy. ugly. boring. too many bells & whistles.  not enough bells & whistles. not great for daily to-dos and gym workouts and work, school, home stuff and big life stuff. but then i found this...the erin condren on-the-go life planner.

the layout is great - the days, weeks, months are broken out in a way that makes me eager to plan, make goals and cross those things off the to do list.  oh...and it's so so pretty!  the colors, text and little quotes throughout are so fun and inspiring. i love it!

i'm also using this in my quiet time, prayer and journal life...the daily draft by ann voskamp.  a sort of "set-up" to what gets added in the planner above...and a single piece of paper to carry around to jot down my thankful tuesday list and other bits, like a relationship to focus on or a verse to reflect upon.  i love it's simplicity...and that i can throw it in my back pocket or wallet on those days when the planner needs to stay in the car or at home so that i don't inevitably leave it at the playround, work, grocery store, etc (because that would for sure happen!).

i'm so very thankful for this renewed discipline and all the fruits that i'm sure will follow.  what's working for you - please share!

"for i know the plans i have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." jeremiah 29:11