Let me start by saying something controversial: The perfect planner doesn’t exist! But, the perfect planner for you does exist. It’s out there. I want to help you find it. To find your perfect planner, we need to understand why you haven’t found it yet. In other words, we should ask ourselves why have our past planners failed us?

Maybe you receive a planner each year from friends or family as a holiday or birthday gift. Perhaps you get swept up in planner launch season and buy your favorite brand’s newest planner, regardless of the layout. Do you stick with what you know, or bounce around between planning systems? Behind each of these situations is a potential reason why your planner isn’t working for you. I’m telling you this because I’ve experienced each situation personally!

Learn from my mistakes, some of which I’ll share with you. When you get started searching for your perfect planner, there are five pitfalls to avoid–five main reasons that our planners don’t work for us. I see these manifest again and again within my own planner journey and the vibrant community of planners I call friends and colleagues. These things get in our way. They prevent us from finding a planner and planning system we love.

The first major reason that planners don’t work for you: They hurt you instead of helping you.

The hurt I’m talking about here is metaphorical–though you should always watch out for paper cuts or the sharp edge of a metal coil ! Our planners hurt us in a few telltale ways. Here are some of the questions to ask yourself. Is your planner realistic to the life you live right now? Is its design simple enough to understand how to get the most out of it? Do you have fun planning? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your planner may be hurting you. A planner is a tool to help you squeeze more juice out of life. If your initial reaction to any of the above questions was negative, it’s time to find a planner that helps you.

The second major reason we can’t commit to a planner is because of FOMO (fear of missing out).

There are a million different planner companies. Each has their own design methodology and array of beautiful and functional planners. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see everything they offer. However, what’s realistic for our day-to-day life? I may own 10 planners, each for a different purpose in life, but realistically I only use two or three each day.

If there’s something you love about another planner, just steal the idea and add it to your planner! For example, I LOVE habit trackers in planners. While habit trackers are finding their way into more planner designs, you better believe I add habit trackers to each of my planners. The weekly spread or notes pages are great places for a habit tracker, which I insert either by drawing it or buying a habit tracker sticker! You can combat FOMO with these little planner hacks.

We think our planner has to be perfect.

Some people use their planners to show on social media. I love that! Social media, however, is just a glimpse into our life. Don’t let the perfection of a beautiful spread get in the way of using your planner to accomplish what you want it to. Life is messy. Life is full of mistakes and crossing things out. I used to use whiteout liberally, but not anymore! Our planners are a window into our life, so it’s silly to think you’ll never make a mistake in it. Embrace the white space, the scratched out line, and the mistakes you will inevitably create in your planner. Treat them as an opportunity to create a new plan.

The flip side of this is for my decorative planners. If you are a decorative planner, perhaps big white spaces aren’t OK to you. In this case, find good correction tape to paper over any mistakes quickly. This way you can move on.

Another reason your planner doesn’t work for you is because you don’t have a planner process!

How often do you check in with your planner? Is it in a place that is well-trafficked and prominent, and therefore conducive to getting noticed and picked up? The best planning happens when you plan every day. I mean this. While we consider each day a new opportunity, the reality is life doesn’t respect neat, 24-hour chunks of time. Projects take weeks or months to finish. Sporadic planning can spell a disaster for staying on top of your goals, habits, and routines. So my one suggestion is to make planning a habit. If you aren’t checking in every day, consider carving out 5 minutes before bed each night to wrap up your day. By habituating a planning process, you get more out of your planner. Just five minutes each day. A few months ago I co-created a bundle with bloom daily planners to help you find a planner routine that works for you!

The fifth reason you can’t commit to your planner is because your plans aren’t realistic.

Sometimes I feel like planners give me the superpower to be the most productive version of myself. And you know what? Somedays, that is true. And some days, it’s not true at all. It is enticing to fill every inch of white space in your planner with tasks and to-dos, but for me, a 14-hour day of non-stop tasks and to-dos is unattainable and, frankly, unbalanced. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve written out a long morning routine and scrapped it almost immediately. You have to assess the season of life you’re in: If you have more slack to give to your task list, add a to-do list into your planning spread. If it’s busy season at work, build in more buffer times and white space. I promise, this time will get filled by worthy tasks 🙂

The sixth and final reason is we believe planning takes too much time.

It doesn’t have to, I promise! My rule of thumb is this: If planning for tomorrow takes more than five minutes, perhaps you’re planning too many details. Five minutes a day is all it takes to incorporate daily planning into our routine! You can do anything for five minutes.

Let me start by saying something controversial: The perfect planner doesn’t exist! But, the perfect planner for you does exist. It’s out there. I want to help you find it. To find your perfect planner, we need to understand why you haven’t found it yet. In other words, we should ask ourselves why have our past planners failed us?

Maybe you receive a planner each year from friends or family as a holiday or birthday gift. Perhaps you get swept up in planner launch season and buy your favorite brand’s newest planner, regardless of the layout. Do you stick with what you know, or bounce around between planning systems? Behind each of these situations is a potential reason why your planner isn’t working for you. I’m telling you this because I’ve experienced each situation personally!

Learn from my mistakes, some of which I’ll share with you. When you get started searching for your perfect planner, there are five pitfalls to avoid–five main reasons that our planners don’t work for us. I see these manifest again and again within my own planner journey and the vibrant community of planners I call friends and colleagues. These things get in our way. They prevent us from finding a planner and planning system we love.

The first major reason that planners don’t work for you: They hurt you instead of helping you.

The hurt I’m talking about here is metaphorical–though you should always watch out for paper cuts or the sharp edge of a metal coil ! Our planners hurt us in a few telltale ways. Here are some of the questions to ask yourself. Is your planner realistic to the life you live right now? Is its design simple enough to understand how to get the most out of it? Do you have fun planning? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your planner may be hurting you. A planner is a tool to help you squeeze more juice out of life. If your initial reaction to any of the above questions was negative, it’s time to find a planner that helps you.

The second major reason we can’t commit to a planner is because of FOMO (fear of missing out).

There are a million different planner companies. Each has their own design methodology and array of beautiful and functional planners. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see everything they offer. However, what’s realistic for our day-to-day life? I may own 10 planners, each for a different purpose in life, but realistically I only use two or three each day.

If there’s something you love about another planner, just steal the idea and add it to your planner! For example, I LOVE habit trackers in planners. While habit trackers are finding their way into more planner designs, you better believe I add habit trackers to each of my planners. The weekly spread or notes pages are great places for a habit tracker, which I insert either by drawing it or buying a habit tracker sticker! You can combat FOMO with these little planner hacks.

We think our planner has to be perfect.

Some people use their planners to show on social media. I love that! Social media, however, is just a glimpse into our life. Don’t let the perfection of a beautiful spread get in the way of using your planner to accomplish what you want it to. Life is messy. Life is full of mistakes and crossing things out. I used to use whiteout liberally, but not anymore! Our planners are a window into our life, so it’s silly to think you’ll never make a mistake in it. Embrace the white space, the scratched out line, and the mistakes you will inevitably create in your planner. Treat them as an opportunity to create a new plan.

The flip side of this is for my decorative planners. If you are a decorative planner, perhaps big white spaces aren’t OK to you. In this case, find good correction tape to paper over any mistakes quickly. This way you can move on.

Another reason your planner doesn’t work for you is because you don’t have a planner process!

How often do you check in with your planner? Is it in a place that is well-trafficked and prominent, and therefore conducive to getting noticed and picked up? The best planning happens when you plan every day. I mean this. While we consider each day a new opportunity, the reality is life doesn’t respect neat, 24-hour chunks of time. Projects take weeks or months to finish. Sporadic planning can spell a disaster for staying on top of your goals, habits, and routines. So my one suggestion is to make planning a habit. If you aren’t checking in every day, consider carving out 5 minutes before bed each night to wrap up your day. By habituating a planning process, you get more out of your planner. Just five minutes each day. A few months ago I co-created a bundle with bloom daily planners to help you find a planner routine that works for you!

The fifth reason you can’t commit to your planner is because your plans aren’t realistic.

Sometimes I feel like planners give me the superpower to be the most productive version of myself. And you know what? Somedays, that is true. And some days, it’s not true at all. It is enticing to fill every inch of white space in your planner with tasks and to-dos, but for me, a 14-hour day of non-stop tasks and to-dos is unattainable and, frankly, unbalanced. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve written out a long morning routine and scrapped it almost immediately. You have to assess the season of life you’re in: If you have more slack to give to your task list, add a to-do list into your planning spread. If it’s busy season at work, build in more buffer times and white space. I promise, this time will get filled by worthy tasks 🙂

The sixth and final reason is we believe planning takes too much time.

It doesn’t have to, I promise! My rule of thumb is this: If planning for tomorrow takes more than five minutes, perhaps you’re planning too many details. Five minutes a day is all it takes to incorporate daily planning into our routine! You can do anything for five minutes.

Let me start by saying something controversial: The perfect planner doesn’t exist! But, the perfect planner for you does exist. It’s out there. I want to help you find it. To find your perfect planner, we need to understand why you haven’t found it yet. In other words, we should ask ourselves why have our past planners failed us?

Maybe you receive a planner each year from friends or family as a holiday or birthday gift. Perhaps you get swept up in planner launch season and buy your favorite brand’s newest planner, regardless of the layout. Do you stick with what you know, or bounce around between planning systems? Behind each of these situations is a potential reason why your planner isn’t working for you. I’m telling you this because I’ve experienced each situation personally!

Learn from my mistakes, some of which I’ll share with you. When you get started searching for your perfect planner, there are five pitfalls to avoid–five main reasons that our planners don’t work for us. I see these manifest again and again within my own planner journey and the vibrant community of planners I call friends and colleagues. These things get in our way. They prevent us from finding a planner and planning system we love.

The first major reason that planners don’t work for you: They hurt you instead of helping you.

The hurt I’m talking about here is metaphorical–though you should always watch out for paper cuts or the sharp edge of a metal coil ! Our planners hurt us in a few telltale ways. Here are some of the questions to ask yourself. Is your planner realistic to the life you live right now? Is its design simple enough to understand how to get the most out of it? Do you have fun planning? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your planner may be hurting you. A planner is a tool to help you squeeze more juice out of life. If your initial reaction to any of the above questions was negative, it’s time to find a planner that helps you.

The second major reason we can’t commit to a planner is because of FOMO (fear of missing out).

There are a million different planner companies. Each has their own design methodology and array of beautiful and functional planners. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see everything they offer. However, what’s realistic for our day-to-day life? I may own 10 planners, each for a different purpose in life, but realistically I only use two or three each day.

If there’s something you love about another planner, just steal the idea and add it to your planner! For example, I LOVE habit trackers in planners. While habit trackers are finding their way into more planner designs, you better believe I add habit trackers to each of my planners. The weekly spread or notes pages are great places for a habit tracker, which I insert either by drawing it or buying a habit tracker sticker! You can combat FOMO with these little planner hacks.

We think our planner has to be perfect.

Some people use their planners to show on social media. I love that! Social media, however, is just a glimpse into our life. Don’t let the perfection of a beautiful spread get in the way of using your planner to accomplish what you want it to. Life is messy. Life is full of mistakes and crossing things out. I used to use whiteout liberally, but not anymore! Our planners are a window into our life, so it’s silly to think you’ll never make a mistake in it. Embrace the white space, the scratched out line, and the mistakes you will inevitably create in your planner. Treat them as an opportunity to create a new plan.

The flip side of this is for my decorative planners. If you are a decorative planner, perhaps big white spaces aren’t OK to you. In this case, find good correction tape to paper over any mistakes quickly. This way you can move on.

Another reason your planner doesn’t work for you is because you don’t have a planner process!

How often do you check in with your planner? Is it in a place that is well-trafficked and prominent, and therefore conducive to getting noticed and picked up? The best planning happens when you plan every day. I mean this. While we consider each day a new opportunity, the reality is life doesn’t respect neat, 24-hour chunks of time. Projects take weeks or months to finish. Sporadic planning can spell a disaster for staying on top of your goals, habits, and routines. So my one suggestion is to make planning a habit. If you aren’t checking in every day, consider carving out 5 minutes before bed each night to wrap up your day. By habituating a planning process, you get more out of your planner. Just five minutes each day. A few months ago I co-created a bundle with bloom daily planners to help you find a planner routine that works for you!

The fifth reason you can’t commit to your planner is because your plans aren’t realistic.

Sometimes I feel like planners give me the superpower to be the most productive version of myself. And you know what? Somedays, that is true. And some days, it’s not true at all. It is enticing to fill every inch of white space in your planner with tasks and to-dos, but for me, a 14-hour day of non-stop tasks and to-dos is unattainable and, frankly, unbalanced. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve written out a long morning routine and scrapped it almost immediately. You have to assess the season of life you’re in: If you have more slack to give to your task list, add a to-do list into your planning spread. If it’s busy season at work, build in more buffer times and white space. I promise, this time will get filled by worthy tasks 🙂

The sixth and final reason is we believe planning takes too much time.

It doesn’t have to, I promise! My rule of thumb is this: If planning for tomorrow takes more than five minutes, perhaps you’re planning too many details. Five minutes a day is all it takes to incorporate daily planning into our routine! You can do anything for five minutes.