The dreaded planner itch - and a mid month remedy.
By Cocoa Daisy
So what do you do when, halfway through the month, your planner just isn't doing it anymore for you? What happens when instead of being excited and inspired by the loveliness that's on your desk, you feel a little, well, simultaneously overwhelmed and underwhelmed by it? How do you make it feel inviting and fresh, ready to work for you again? What do you do when you start to, ahem, eye up other planners online and fantasise about how they would fit your every need? Dear reader, I must confess - I regularly suffer from these sorts of symptoms, and there is a name for the ailment to which they point.
Planner Itch.
My remedy for this dreaded condition has previously included several things - such as buying a whole new planner; changing my insert size/ layout; watching many YouTube reviews and flipthroughs of planners; filming your own series of planner reviews; testing pens on paper long into the wee small hours; messaging planner friends to ask what they're using and exactly what their current planner philosophy is and why (in great detail). I mean, goodness me, opening a sticker shop was part of a particularly frustrating bout of it!
Now, one of the lovely things about using Cocoa Daisy inserts is that you can switch your insert size (take a peek at the FAQs for how to do it!) and with so many choices, you could easily spend over a year going through them all! And with undated pages, that have flexible layouts, they're great for trying out different ideas.
But I have a far simpler solution to offer as an option at this time - because if, like me, you've spent a long time planning, then it probably isn't the format in which your planning that's the problem. Rather, you just crave something slightly different in how it looks.
Let me explain - if you plan using a weekly view because you like having an overview of the week then you're never going to get the same benefits from a daily view. Likewise - if you're a daily planner, who enjoys having space to journal, reflect and plan in detail, a weekly view only is not going to give you what you need. (Unless it was on something like A3 size paper!)
My planner itch has crept up on me slowly this month. I am, at heart, a combination of magpie (ooooh shiiiiiny!) and squirrel (look over there!). And so, it began with the now familiar feelings of 'it's just not quite right', and 'I wonder if THAT size would be better', and even 'I don't want to plan anymore!' (It happens - it's OK). This time though, I decided that I would simply change one thing. Just one thing.
Yes, that's right...
Just.
One.
Thing.
(Ok, technically maybe more than one, but the principle is that it's just one!)
I changed the planner cover I'm using, and switched out some of the dashboards and decorations.
That's it!
My system works. I've used it for several years, and I know how it works and I trust it to work for me, and (more importantly) I trust myself to make it work for me. So I realised (and part of me can't believe I'm writing this!) I didn't need a new planner, I just needed to fall back in love with the one I have.
The whole process took about 30 minutes, which I did film, and there's quite a bit of pondering and debating involved, but at the end of it, I have my planner peace back. I have my system which is both familiar and new, thanks to some tweaks to the set up and what surrounds my planning pages; and for now at least, I am content.
I hope you enjoy my video in which I share how I refreshed my planner and ridded myself of this latest bout of planner itch - and I'd love to know, do you get that too? If you do, how do you combat it? Share in the comments below - it might just help someone else!
Rachel xx