Planning in 2019

I know my usual January 'what planner am I using' blog post is a little late this year but I've been working on a couple of new systems and trying out new products so I wanted to settle into everything before I shared pictures and thoughts. Here goes...

Daily Diary

I've moved away from my Filofax (shock, horror - I know!) and into a travelers notebook system.  I've talked about these before because they suit my need to carry a diary and a notebook with me as a BOAT (Book Of All Things).  I've sized up my travelers notebook this year and I'm using the Trekker from Jofelo that I reviewed here.  I bought my own inserts from The Journal Shop (week on one page with notes) which I use as a diary and a bullet journal and then I have a separate notebook for personal phone numbers, information I need to regularly refer to, braindumps - that sort of thing.

Chorley FM Planner

I was lucky enough to secure a monthly Saturday morning radio show with Chorley FM last year (maybe soon to be twice-monthly?) with my running pal, Rowena. It's called Wake Up To The Weekend. Now, Rowena tends to wing it a little bit but I have to plan every show with a rough outline of what we can talk about.  I use this beautiful notebook from Castelli which has lined paper.  I use a double page spread for each show - left had side for time splits, right hand side for extra notes. I jot down notes throughout the month then plan everything properly a couple of day before the show.

Effici Planner

I was sent the Effici Planner to review a couple of weeks ago.  It's a hard-cover, undated, A4, three month planner designed to help you become more productive and achieve your personal and business goals by tracking habits, defining daily goals and tackling to-do lists. 

Efficiency : noun, plural ef·fi·cien·cies. the state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort; competency in performance [from dictionary.com]

It's a quarterly subscription service so every three months you are sent a new planner with separate daily habit trackers (I wish these were bound into the book but I guess they are separate so that they are portable and can be used on the go.  The pack is designed to look professional so that you can take it anywhere and maximise productivity easily. 

I'm actually going to use mine for my running and weight-loss journey. I can meal plan, route plan, track eating/drinking habits, keep a record of my running times and look back to ensure that I'm always striving for improvement by seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm also going to use it to record my three positive actions each day in line with using my Thinking Slimmer slimpods. 

Family Calendars

I originally bought Shaifq Khan's calendar which is full of pictures of Blackburn. He has a talent for making what I see every day look beautiful.  Then my daughter bought me a llama calendar for Christmas because "she thought it would make me laugh".  She's right - it does!! I'm using both - one is in the kitchen and one in my home office. 

So there it all is. It's probably a bit OTT but this is drastically trimmed down from my old systems.  The "live, love, shine" clipboard in the picture was my Secret Santa present from work and it's a pad of to-do lists so I'll leave that in the lounge for notes. I also use Google Calendar on my phone for reminders on the go and I have a separate diary at work.  I'll stop now because I probably look obsessive about planning! But please do let me know what you're using this year.