I hope you all are enjoying October and the beginning of fall so far! I am currently sitting with my feet up cozied up next to a huge wood fireplace in beautiful Lake Tahoe. Arthur, Aria, Percy, and I took our first family vacation up here for the weekend and we are loving the cooler temps and fall foliage! It has been nice to get away and enjoy some different scenery. I honestly love northern Nevada SO MUCH. We are now talking about maybe moving up here or near Reno in the future!
Anyhoo, I love that I have been able to just relax and ultimately get super organized for the upcoming busy holiday season. I am a big list maker and love to plan my days in advance so today I am talking all about organization. So I get a lot of questions from you all asking how I stay organized and what tactics I use to stay on top of my busy days. I want to share my biggest trick for organization and my most recent obsession, Erin Condren Lifeplanners!
What Planner Do I Use?
My first Erin Condren planner I got as a gift from an old co-worker. I had never heard of these life planners before then and remember being SO in love with my first one. I spent 1-2 hours every week setting up my week and loving every second of it! Since then I have tried using numerous other planners I have purchased or picked up on a whim here and there and nothing has ever compared.
I recently got my new Erin Condren planner and I am so happy in love! Some of the beautiful things about these planners is how customizable they are. You get to choose the cover and have it personalized with your name, business name, nick-name! You name it! (Pun Intended – teehee). Beyond that you can change the layout inside to hourly, vertical boxes, or horizontal with lines. I ordered mine with the horizontal lines just because I am able to write neat and it appears more organized. I think the hourly layout is really nice too! You can also change your theme to be colorful or neutral, both are super pretty! And you can choose 12 months or 18 months, and even pick the coil color (Platinum, gold, rose gold, or black)! So many options!
Where Do I Get My Stickers?
Aside from being able to customize the planner before you even get it in your hands, once you do, you are able to decorate it with stickers and just have fun making it all yours. Erin Condren Lifeplanners are made with using stickers as additions in mind. There is plenty of room, and the way it is laid out it is easy to decorate your daily to-dos and make them at least appear more fun then they may or may not be! I actually really enjoy this part of setting up my planner each week and look forward to adding the stickers.
Truth be told, never in my life did I ever think that I would invest in stickers… But they can quickly become addicting! And honestly taking the time to set up my planner each week truly keeps me more organized than simply scribbling down a list on paper, or cat-scratching the family calendar. Some of my absolute favorite sicker books are listed below. They run about $10-$12 a piece and come packed with tons of stickers. Each sticker book lasts me probably 2-3 months but because I own several of them I only purchase them now every couple seasons.
Organization Motivation
Staying organized and motivated using my planner is simply a matter of setting aside the time each week to just fill in my planner. I also use 15-20 minutes a day updating and adding any appts/meetings that may come up. My husband used to pick on me so bad because I would sit down to work, and spend the first hour each day just writing down my to-do list for the day/week and getting organized before I started working. (He is more of a ‘just dive in and get organized later’ type of personality!).
In all reality though, I get more done when I have everything already laid out and I can clearly see what deadlines I have, what needs to be done, how I need to prep for an appt. or meeting, and when I need to be ready for a holiday or event. Taking the time to get organized and fill in my planner saves me time later when I may have forgotten something and ultimately I am much more productive.
I am 100% sharing this specific life planner because I really love it that much. And I am in no way encouraged to say this, and I actually reached out to Erin Condren myself because I was wanted to write this post regardless. I will never go back to using any other planner, and I will never give up my stickers! I hope a close look at how I plan out my weeks and what it looks like gives you the same inspiration I have to sit down and take that time to get organized for yourself and be able to have fun doing it!
SHOP THIS POST