Planning to plan.

I'm ready to being a new. Ready to start planning for what's next. So I bought a new planner this year which I hadn't done in a long time. All of the scheduling I needed to do was either in my head or on my phone. Usually both. The only problem with that is that you don't always pay attention to your plans when they are hidden away on electronic devices and the narrow corners of your busy brain.

I had seen one particular planner several times on social media. The creator of this planner is from Oklahoma, so that alone made it seem like the obvious choice. This planner however makes you, like, really plan. It's not just a calendar, it's a life designer. The Day Designer. It's no joke people. It's three pounds of wake up and get your shit together. The first 4 pages are all about your visions and goals for the year. What kind of life do you want in 2016 and how are you going to schedule your life in order to make those things happen? That's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of planning. I am up for the task.

I have always been a planner by nature. My dad taught me the 5 P's: Piss-Poor Planning Produces Poor Performance. Be a planner, my parents said. Planning is necessary. Planning is good. Smart people are planners. I wanted to be a smart person, so I became a planner. I'm also a consummate rule follower, a neat freak, and a little anal retentive when I wanna be. Planning fits right into my personality.

I remember having my first planner in college. It made me feel all grown up and important. And then I actually grew up and for reasons I'm still unsure about, stopped using a planner. Wasn't I fully capable of keeping up with my kids' schedule and my schedule and my husbands' schedule without a silly planner? Sure, you are capable, but you won't be very good at it. Suddenly you find yourself dropping your 10 year old off at school on a no school day. Getting up at 6AM when you didn't have to sucks. The 5 P's, people.

I've been using it for six whole days now, and let me tell you something. It works. Something about writing things down is totally holding me accountable. I wrote that I would walk the dogs on my planner for today, so I have to walk the dogs! I wrote down that I would do the laundry today, so no way can I put that off until tomorrow! It's weird.

I also spent sixty bucks on the thing, so I'm damn sure gonna use it. The neat freak, anal, rule follower in me wouldn't have it any other way.