Lately I've been finding that the more I can simplify things in my life, the better. Case in point: It turns out writing down upcoming plans in three different places isn't the most efficient way to keep track of them (!). (Cue me double-booking plans on the same weekend and having to cancel on a trip with a good friend... ouch!)
I double-book things often enough, not because I'm a social butterfly, more because I've never had a solid plan for, uh, keeping track of plans. I would write events down in the calendar on my phone, on the calendar I have at work, AND on my oh-so-pretty Ban.do planner (above left)—whatever was closest at the moment. But after recently doing that double-booking for the nth time, I was all, *hands up in surrender* ENOUGH! But what was the solution?
Then my sister said the best thing: "Why don't you put all your plans in one place?" She's brilliant, have I mentioned that before?!
So I've been doing that for the past month. No plans go in my phone, no plans go on my calendar at work. Everything goes into my pretty little Ban.do planner, which, to be honest, I wasn't using that much before. Now, it goes everywhere with me. It comes to work with me. It goes in my bag when I head away for the weekend. I take it with me when I go out to meet friends for drinks... haha, just kidding! But you get the point. It's a little heavy, and not as much intuitively with me at all times as my phone, but it's made me feel miles more organized. This little change really works for me. (Ah! I've figured out a little life trick that I can actually implement and that has made my world that much easier!) I've even used it to write down my daily to-do lists, rather than using a million little bits of paper.
The only caveat of the Ban.do planners is they start in August and go until December of the following year (maybe this is normal? I'm pretty sure I've had planners before that were just a year). This year's Ban.do planner (above right) came out this spring (I preordered mine immediately, obvi), and the dates start this August. So that means I'm missing out on five months of pretty drawings and fun scribbled reminders built into the one that I'm using now... which came out last year and goes until this December. (Have I totally confused you?!)
I love that the ones for this year can be monogrammed, though. You can also (instead of your initials) put a simple three-letter phrase on it, like YAY, which I absolutely considered. In the end, I stuck with my initials, HGF. You know what that G is, right? (Galbraith!) So I'm basically this excited (see below) to have my new agenda... that's making my life more manageable (and way less stressful). Dance party! Adulting isn't that bad!
Are you planner obsessed? Do you have a trick for staying organized? Maybe you're leagues ahead of me and you've already got this lesson all figured out. Go, you!
I'm so excited to continue to grow Galbraith. Galbraith is a baby, not even a year old! To give myself a bit more time to expand it in the best direction, I'm going to pull back and do posts bi-weekly for the rest of this summer. It's not something I'm thrilled about, but it's essential to me putting in some efforts to write elsewhere and to also take Galbraith to new heights. I want this to be a destination for you to come for encouragement, for inspiration, for support! Working on growing this site for you is my number one goal. Thank you so much for taking the time to read Galbraith, means the world to me.
Love you all,
Heather xoxo
An ode to giving yourself space to just be.