Having A Planner Elevated My Life In 5 Ways

Do you use a planner? Have you noticed how much having a planner has elevated your life? I have always used some sort of planner throughout my childhood and into my adulthood. To be honest, I didn’t start intentionally using one until 2021. I wanted something that would keep me accountable towards my goals. Something that would push me to honour the commitments and promises that I made to myself.

In the last three and a half years, I’ve been lucky to find some good brands that create planners that align with my values, as a person, and fit my lifestyle. You don’t really think about how choosing the right product will elevate the experience of your day to day. I can certainly tell you that it was not my intention, but the impact that it has made to my life feels different. I love the idea behind it so much that it got me thinking about creating a similar product around that concept.

Planners To Use

Even if you don’t use a planner, there are two small brands called Notes To Self and Lethally Her that got me started on my journey. They are both very different in their own right but the one thing that they prioritise is personal development as a journey and moments of self care. Lethally Her comes with a variety of calendars and planners in different sizes and colours, including A5, a Self-Care Checklist, to name a few, but the one that I used was their A4 one.

Notes To Self is the one that I currently use now. There are two products including the NTS journal & planner and My Week At A Glance. I felt that it was more compact. It also gave me more space for writing and reflection. What I truly love about this planner is the daily and weekly check ins, the commitment prayers and affirmations. Those check ins are flexible and more manageable than doing it once a month.

A Planner Allows You To Be Creative

As much as I thrive off routines and love them, being creative and finding inspiration around me brings me the most joy. Why not transform my daily planner into a work of art? The one that I am currently using is minimalistic in design. Black and sleek. It’s titled ‘Dreams to Reality’. And don’t I dream big! Anything that I see around me that gives me some sort of inspiration gets added to this planner. Flipping through the pages, seeing my small wins grow into big wins adds to my overall quality of life. I can see the beginnings of my creativity where I felt a little lost to now, where I’ve grown into my confidence within that space. Using a range of colours within my planner keeps me organised, makes it look more beautiful and better represents who I am today.

Fits My Lifestyle

As I mentioned earlier, I like to keep myself accountable and honour my commitments. That’s not to say that I’m on it all the time, that would be a lie. I have my days, my weeks, my months where I struggle to keep myself accountable. After all, I am human. However on those days where I feel disconnected, I strip down my day to focus on what truly matters. Number one: my faith to keep me grounded. Number two: opening my planner to get me back into the rhythm of accountability. Lastly, number three: pockets of self care throughout the day.

A Planner Celebrates Small & Big Wins

The great thing about using a planner is the ability to track and celebrate both the small and big wins! It is so much easier to focus on the big wins and celebrating those over the smaller wins. Having a planner allows me to celebrate both. I get to embrace the work that I put in for that day and that day only. If I do something every day and embrace that work, all that work compounds and becomes a reference point to celebrate the bigger win. It is something that I tell myself quite often to celebrate all my wins no matter how big or small they are. It teaches me that my work has meaning and value, even if I can’t see it on a day to day basis.

I hope you know that you can dream a big dream and make it into a reality. You can sculpt, craft and carve out your dream life, with a mustard seed of faith of course. The way that I do that is by adding things that will enhance my current life, but also elevate my life in the direction that I want it to go. A planner allows me to romanticise that daily. The magic is in the execution. If you are debating whether a planner will help you stay focused, give it a try. You’ll never know unless you try.

Habits, Routines, Productivity

One of the good things about having a planner is the ability to track your habits and the routines that are important to you. Do you need to track your habits each day? Not really. While it’s not necessary, I feel like it puts you into the right mindset. The mindset of regularly checking in with yourself and it encourages intentional productivity. As far as I’m concerned, fitness for me is an elevated practice. It’s something that I enjoy and prioritise in my scheduling. However, I did have a few months last year where I had to really push myself to go to the gym. Tracking that habit through my planner daily, alongside my other health habits, allowed to me regularly check in with myself and see the growth.

Elevated Practice

Being able to flip back through the pages of your planner to see how far you’ve come is a different kind of encouragement. Action will always beat planning and empty words. You can always plan to do better or start something new. If you don’t actually take that first action step and keep yourself accountable by tracking that habit to make it into a routine, you will be stuck and remain in the planning phase. Building processes and systems through a planner elevates your planning experience and that is how it makes a difference in your life.

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Do you prefer to use a planner or live life as you go? I hope that this post has given you ideas on how a planner can elevate and enhance your life. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community and never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.

Until next time,

Folakemi