Monday Check In

Last week:

Writing Related: I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to unofficially participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. The object is to write 50,000 words (approximately 200 pages) in the month of November. To be on track I should have about 39 pages written (not including today) by now. I had a crazy hectic week last week so I only managed to get 20 pages done. I'm hoping to pick up the extra pages I'm behind as I go along so that by November 30th, I will have those 200 pages done.

Motivational Quote:  "Failing once doesn't mean you'll fail every time. You will fail, however, if you don't learn from your mistakes." ~ Tabitha D'Umo

What I'm Reading: I'm currently reading Surrendering to Hunt by Jennifer Ryan. This is the second book in the Wyoming Wilde series. While I'm enjoying the book, I feel like there should be a trigger warning either in the front of the book or in the blurb because it does deal heavily with domestic abuse.

Random Things: I can't believe we have less than 2 months left in this year. I guess what my mom always says is true - The older you get, the faster the years go by.

Random Photo:

     My new planner for 2023. I'm old school and prefer a paper planner over a digital one.

2018 Planning...or Should I Say "Planner"

I purchased a 2018 planner. Rather than purchase 3 separate planners, one writing related, one every day life related, and one health and wellness related, I'm going to frankenplan the one I bought. (In case you think it's crazy to have separate planners for different things, I know some people who keep 3 or more separate planners and manage to keep track of them all. Personally, I'd probably go crazy trying to keep track of more than one.)

Because I want to do a better job in 2018 of staying on point with goals and meeting objectives, I decided I need to keep better track of what I need to do and where I am in relation to those goals on at least a monthly, if not weekly, basis so I'm adding pages to my 2018 planner, hence the frankenplanning.

Frankenplanning if you're not familiar with the term is where you add, subtract, or glue pages together to make the planner what you need it to be. It's really a way to customize the planner so it best suits your needs. Some people buy one or more planners and combine them in some form or another.

I'll be using my planner for every day life stuff, but adding sections for writing related and health and wellness so I can keep track of all three in one place because each of them are equally important to me in the coming year. I'm using the Happy Planner by MAMBI (Me and My Big Ideas) for 2018. It's a disc bound planner that makes it easy to add or subtract pages, add dashboards, journal cards and the like.

Do you use a paper planner or do you use the calendar on your phone?

This I know for sure...

Although it's still August, even if it's the last Friday of the month, I'm already looking into buying a new planner for 2017. While I liked the brand and style of the planner I'm using for this year, it's spiral bound and I'm finding that the pages are getting harder to turn because the used pages are so full and fat.

I'm looking into either buying a planner case from Franklin Covey or Day-Timer and then just having to buy refill pages every year, but wow, even the imitation leather cases are $50 or more. I don't think I'm necessarily cheap, but the refill pages run about $30 for the monthly/weekly pages which is what I like to use. I realize the first year will be the most expensive since I'd have to purchase the case, but I don't know if I want to pay out that much money and then decide I don't like using something that's not spiral bound.

A friend uses the MAMBI Happy Planner and loves it. I've been looking into it and they run about $30 for the planner itself which is about what I paid for my 2016 planner. The nice thing about it is that they're sold at craft stores such as Michaels and Hobby Lobby and you can use their 40% off coupons to purchase them so they're a bit cheaper.

I'm all for saving money when I can. I'm thinking I'll get the Happy Planner for 2017 as soon as I'm back on my feet. They're available now and run 18 months from July 2016 thru December 2017. I like that I'll have a few months to try it out since they have a vertical set up and I've only ever used a horizontal set up. And if I don't like it, well, I'll can always print out do it yourself planner horizontal pages from the internet.  :o)