I confess: I'm addicted to planners...

I've had a little bit of an addiction since late July/early August. I'm an addict...to planners.

It started when I had friends on Facebook sharing these adorable photos of their planners. They decorated them with washi tape and stickers. All I could do was think...I WANT TO DO THAT! I had a $5 walmart planner I'd been using, but wasn't religious in using it. Many of my friends were using the Erin Condren Life Planner. It's a very nice planner, but to pricey for me if I'm being honest (struggling writer and all). I ended up going with The Happy Planner. It's set up the same way as the Erin Condren, and its disc bound so you can add pages and remove, unlike with spiral bound. And I was happy. I loved my Happy Planner. I've been so much more organized since getting it. Staying on task, etc.

​So what happened?

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Periscope happened. Periscope is a fairly new social media site. You watch people live or on a replay for 24 hours after their broadcast. You can kill some time on this site, and when you're an author stuck in a rut with too many hours on your hands and kids at school, you live on it. It was then I discovered the Travelers Notebook--ok, I blame my good friend Lindsey for that one. She has the most adorable system that works for her. See her Instagram HERE. So of course, I had to try her system. However, it didn't work for me. I use my travelors notebook now as just a folder full of booklets to jot ideas for books, a brain dump station, and place to jot down goals for myself, life, and work. I didn't find planner peace in it. It's adorable though, this is the one I have. It's from SewWhatElseIsNew. The link will take you to her Instagram to see all her adorable fauxdoris. A link is in her bio to her Etsy shop.

 What came next?

I kept seeing people putting their Happy Planners into A5 ring bounds, such as a Carpe Diem or Kikki-K. I do NOT have an A5 and it's been hell resisting getting one. I've had one in the cart so many times, but for some reason, I just haven't clicked purchase.

Sigh...

But my confession isn't over. Did you really think I'd just settle on just my Happy Planner?

 do have another planner system I've been forcing myself to love. Forcing? Sounds crazy, huh? Due to periscope, followed by too many YouTube videos, I became obsessed with the personal sized planner. I have two, a Webster Pages Color Crush and a butterfly Kikki-K.

I love the customization of these binders. They are small though. They look much bigger in the photo, trust me! The pages are 3.75 inches by 6.75 inches. Tiny, but I got used to it. I liked making dividers and bookmarks so I could easily get to areas. I then decided to put my person life in this binder and use my Happy Planner for work. Two weeks later, I HATED having two planners. I'm not a two planner girl, I'm a one planner girl.

So, I ditched my Happy Planner and got inserts for my personal life and another set for author life. For two days I was happy. Everything was in one binder, I had a section for my to-do list, finance stuff, calendars, etc. But damn it! I HATED flipping from one section to the next and found I was forgetting to get stuff done in either my person life or work life. I needed everything on one page and the personal sized planner is not going to offer that. It's just too small. I also felt as though I needed to it be smaller so I could take it with me.

I NEVER LEAVE ME HOUSE. I work from home and the only time I leave is to go to the grocery store, coffee with friends, the rare two times a year I go to the doctors. Why do I need to bring my planner with me? I don't! The few times I have taken it with me, I didn't use it, other than to look at the grocery list. And do I really need a planner for a grocery list...no!

And to be honest, I have missed my Happy Planner. I started with her (yes, it's a girl). I've bought a way too expensive cover for it. I can customize it since it's a disc bound system.

However... (yeah, did you really think I could be happy?)
I feel like my unicorn of a planner would be a Plum Paper Planner vertical lined (no times) or a The1407Planners vertical lined. What I don't like about the Happy Planner is the boxes. I just want a single column line. A part of me is wondering if I should purchase one of those. I'm leaning toward The1407Planners because I like the added sections she has in the planner itself. But then I go spiral bound, and I wonder if I'd like it. I think I wouldn't care because...time to be honest again...I haven't added anything to my Happy Planner even though it's disc bound.

Is it possible to find planner peace? I think in my quest so far, I have found that I need the bigger planner and need only one. Idealy I want a vertical set-up, lined column with no boxes. To spend the $40 to find out if that's what I need or just use my Happy Planner for the rest of 2016?

Seriously, I told you, this is an addiction. Anyone reading this a planner girl/addict??? What would you do?

Need to see my whole process so far, check out my Instagram HERE.

My daughter likes to plan too

My design for Christmas in my Happy Planner