By now most people who’ve passed by my blog probably realize how attached I am to my planner. It’s been almost 20 years that I’m using a planner and still keep trying to find better ways to organize myself. Just so you know, I don’t think I’m giving up on this endeavor anytime soon.
I’ve mentioned before that last year I changed my planner almost 11 times. It was a challenging year for me…. I quit my day job and started consulting. I think a lot of uncertain emotions were reflected in my constant planner change. Through all the changes, the only thing I managed to keep steady was my calendar because I needed it everyday.
This year has been better and I’ve only changed my planner once, that too since August because I couldn’t carry around the weight of a larger planner.
The one thing I’ve re-introduced since mid-year has been a catch-all section. I realized that I always had a section like this in my planner and amidst all the changes, I missed keeping this up.
This section gives me a lot of comfort. It’s a place for my thoughts and it doesn’t have to be organized. But, the irony is that it keeps me more organized.
What is this Catch-All Section? It's not a brain dump section, it's not for tasks, it's not for notes. It's probably similar to a commonplace book. It's a completely random section for: - Journaling - Drawing - Random info (like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal) - Drafts of Blogs - Quotes - Stuff I want to look up online
There are a few reasons I brought this back:
Journaling and Drawing: I don’t think I feel all that stable with everything that’s going on around us. Sometimes I start to get quite anxious at work and bit of journaling or doodling can actually help with working through the feeling. I can’t carry my regular journal to work, so this is where I write.
Random Info and Things I Want to Look up: We are constantly bombarded with so much information. I’ll be reading an article or a post, and I want to look something up. I just start googling it immediately and then I lose track of what I was reading the in the first place. So, instead of jumping to a new tab on my browser, I’m writing it down.
Quotes: Just because…
Drafts of Blogs: Well, part of it anyway. I don’t like typing out long paragraphs on my phone. I’d much rather just write it out and type it up once I’m home.
I know most people use their phone for stuff like this and I do too, on occasion. I really liked using Google Keep for a while. But, I just prefer having this space in my planner.
Looking through a frosty window... 