a peek at my planner

I love calendars and planners.  I'm a list maker, a list checker, a measurer of productivity.  I'm a planner, a mapper of my day, and I like to know what I accomplished at day's end.

So today, I though I'd share a little peek into the planner that I use.

I purchased this cute floral binder at Target last fall.  It measures approx 7"x9" and is the perfect size to fit in my large purse and holds 5.5"x8.5" pages (a half sheet of paper).  I used to have separate notebooks and calendars for each of these: a to-do notebook, a calendar book, a blog idea binder, etc.  But this little binder keeps everything organized in one place, and lets me remove pages each month or year, and refill as needed.

I divided my binder into 6 sections:

1. big picture (monthly calendars)

2. days gone by (weekly calendars)

3. list maker (to do's, house projects, grocery lists, wish lists...you get the picture)

4. blog (blog post ideas, schedules, posts to write, etc)

5. make stuff (crafty projects to make, crochet patterns I'm writing or using, crochet projects with hooks and yarns)

6. design ideas (sketches, drawings, color schemes, etc)

I created my pocket dividers using this file from the Silhouette online store

I resized the scalloped border and slash pocket ones to fit the binder and cut them from double-sided Bella Blvd paper.  I then mixed and matched the pockets and trimmed the scallops off to create binder tabs.

The first section contains a monthly calendar printed from here.  I am choosing to focus on my One Little Word in this section of my planner.  I have color-coded the different areas of my life that I am working to Nourish this year, and making a point to document how I nourished them each day.

This section ends with a monthly page where I will log each book I read.

For the weekly calendar pages, I created a printable customized to my week:  Mon, Thurs, Fri are my work days, so I can't plan a lot for those days.  The rest of the days are segmented out by the hour.  I have found that this is the best way for me to manage my time--it's not for everyone but it works for me.  I also have space to joy some notes, a quote or some sort of inspiration I came across that day, notes about my mood for my blanket, things I definitely need to accomplish that day.

Next up is the "list maker" section:

I'm a list addict.  Sometimes it's daily, sometimes it covers the span of a few days.  But I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I can check things off.  Also, I have a terrible memory and will certainly forget it if I don't write it down.  Making a list helps me get it out of my head and onto paper.  This section also holds any long-term projects I want to work on and break-down lists of how I will accomplish them.  

The "blog" section contains more lists and general blog planning ideas.

The "make stuff" section helps me keep track of projects I'm working on.  Crochet patterns, crochet projects with yarn and hook sizes, hand-made gift ideas, things I want to make, brainstorms anything that centers on making stuff.

And finally, I filled the "design ideas" section with grid and lined paper.

Here's where I can sketch out design ideas, chalk art, layout and card sketches, blog design ideas (want to do my blog over this year), and any other design ideas.  This is also where I would keep my Project Life design pages (but not this year).

So there it is, a look at my planner and how I organize it.
Do you keep a planner, or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl?