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MarilynW
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| Posted: April 28 2014 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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I am reviewing planners again. I would love to hear what you are using. This year I used a Franklin Covey Page A Day Botanical - pretty and well organized, but I ended up not using it as much as I thought, and not really justifying the cost.
I would really like to find a planner with space for daily journaling. I am considering the Simply Charlotte Mason When More is Less. I would love to hear your thoughts on this if you have used a SCM before. I really like the place to journal, write down books being read etc
I could also go back to using Michele's Daily Catholic Planner which I have used for years. I just wish there was a bit more room to journal, a section for books being read etc
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Marilyn
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 7:02am | IP Logged
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I'm doing the same, Marilyn! I was just looking at the Franklin Covey Botanical refills. I'm afraid I will have the same issue with not using it enough to justify the cost though.
I'm always happy with Michelle Quigley's planners but I didn't order one last year. Instead, I kept my wall calendar up to date and just used a pretty, hard cover notebook. I used it for my journaling and every day just wrote out a list of to do's and ponderings. I even decorated the pages with stickers, washi tape, etc. on occasion when I had the time and inclination to be creative. It's worked really well, but I'm thinking it would be nice to have something with both the calendar and the pages for journaling combined.
I'm anxious to hear what other's say about the SCM planner.
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 7:24am | IP Logged
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Well, I just spent some time looking at both Michelle Quigley's planner and the SCM When More is Less planner. The space for journaling seems about the same for each - one page per month. The SCM planner does have what look like nice articles to read, but on the other hand the benefit of Michelle's planner is that it has the feast days already noted, and the Mass readings.
This was all done by looking at samples and picture on line though, so I don't know if there is more to the SCM planner that I'm not seeing.
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Becky
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 7:42am | IP Logged
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I find it essential to have the feast days. I tried the Franklin Covey...my favorite layout is the Textures (although I hate the loudness), but I spent so much time writing in the feasts that it wasn't worth it.
If you get a planner binder, you can supplement with extra paper or forms to journal or plan and add to the current week.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 8:06am | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
If you get a planner binder, you can supplement with extra paper or forms to journal or plan and add to the current week. |
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Why didn't I think of that! Excellent suggestion!
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Becky
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MarilynW
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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I generally find binders cumbersome. I have some nice leather ones from the years I was a Franklin Covey user. But I find a spiral bound easier to carry around and use.
A couple of years ago I made my own planner. I loved the organization as I had all the forms etc I wanted in a very pretty binder. But it was a letter sized and so I ended up not using it much.
Becky - I took a look and have figured that you are right about the space with Michele's and SCM. I could use the month pages to write down books reading etc.
Another one I have always wondered about is this Catholic Saints Calendar and Academic Planner but I have never seen the organization and layout or found sample pages.
I am thinking about what I want a planner/journal for:
1. Calendar for feast days, planning, appointments, birthdays etc
2. Somewhere for my daily "things to do" list that I can check off and refer back to
3. Somewhere to write a short reflection at the end of each day.
4. Keep a list of books I am reading
5. Pretty and inspirational would be bonuses
My lesson plans and menu plans I tend to do separately and do not keep in my daily planner.
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Marilyn
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 8:40am | IP Logged
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We are opposite, because I am always needs scraps of paper and extra notes and find the binder the best. I don't need to keep all the months in the binder, either, just keep the month pages and a quarter of the year in the binder.
This page has an overview of the saints calendar. I think you could use this mainly as a place to put a reflection for the day.
Everyone is different. My planner is for me. I keep all the public appointments on the wall calendar and my iCalendar....I will put some in the planner, but it is tedious to rewrite everything all the time.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 3:18pm | IP Logged
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I'm a complete convert to the Erin Condren Life Planner. I shared a ridiculous number of details on why I really find this style planner useful in a review on my blog.
* This planner would not be suitable for daily journaling, but lends itself very well to the practical details of the day.
* I spent a couple of hours one Sunday evening customizing my planner to include things like adding Liturgical year notes to the top of days. It was an easy addition. I'm considering ordering a set of customizable stickers with the big feasts pre-printed on them for my next planner (these can be ordered through Erin Condren as well and I like that I can customize the sticker color to coordinate with the liturgical year).
* I waffled back and forth on ordering customizable stickers for frequently recurring events when I ordered my first planner, but I will probably do that for my next planner. The sticker really makes an item stand out.
* I mentioned it in my blog review, but I love the size and durability of this planner - I bring it everywhere and write all over it. It's been a FANTASTIC daily tool!
* LOVE that the color and cover is so customizable! And the layout of the day is very intuitive for me.
* My planner acts as the HUB for our family. My teens check my planner every Monday morning as part of our Morning Basket meeting as they get their own planners set for the week (one teen uses an Erin Condren planner - I'll let you guess which of my teens that might be!  And the other teen uses iCal but both springboard off my planner as a checkpoint). And for my husband...who does NOT have an Erin Condren Life Planner ...the weekly tasks that I enter on my planner make it onto our family shared iCal (which he uses all.the.time!), which alerts all teens and parents of upcoming events.
* This is an expensive planner. No two ways around it. I consider it an investment in our family organization and use of time, and as such, I like a tool that's intuitive, workable, inviting and REALLY durable and practical. Having found one, it helps to consider the investment over 12 months - so the planner is $50 -- using this link you can get $10 off your planner cost, reducing the price to $40 -- and spread out over 12 months means you can organize yourself and the family for $3.33/month with this planner. Family priorities get to determine whether this planner cost might fit within a budget or not. I *considered* making my own planner - I really did! But by the time I started calculating paper, ink cost, and MY TIME (which has a value!!!)...and then started weighing the options of those things that were really important to me like layout, rigid and thick laminate covers, very rigid coils that don't flex - well it became clear that the cost to build my own might come pretty close to purchasing one with more features than I could provide on my own (for example, I can laminate my covers, but not thick enough so that they're super rigid and don't bend at all).
* Right now is an excellent time to just try it on to see if this type of planner is a good fit. They are clearing out the 2014 stock, so you can get a planner that contains May - December for a much reduced price ($30 as opposed to $50 for a full price planner...and if you go through this link you will get $10 off the planner, which means you can try this current May-Dec planner out for $20). (Obviously, the planner will be slimmer than a planner containing the full year.)
Annnnnnyyyyyyyway.....this isn't necessarily a fit for exactly what you're looking for Marilyn, not a planner that can function as a journal, but I did want to throw it out as a consideration in case it might work for someone else planner-shopping.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 29 2014 at 3:24pm | IP Logged
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Ugh -- forgot to say...
I did divide up the NOTES section of my planner and I use a few pages for my booklist as a sort of *books read* section like you mentioned, Marilyn.
As part of subdividing my NOTES section, I also list some personal goals for myself (like virtue goals, and even books I want to read next). Since I use the planner so often, I also keep family goals in the Notes section and when my husband and I go out for coffee we bring the planner and review goals and update them. I do like having that NOTES section which I can use as a place to jot down ideas and goals - so.....not sure if that's exactly what you meant by journaling or not, Marilyn, but I thought I'd mention that NOTES section.
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Jen Mackintosh
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 01 2014 at 6:03am | IP Logged
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I happened to think that I used to belong to a co-op that ordred MomAgenda products, and everyone loved these planners. I'll bet there are youtube videos with people explaining how they use them.
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Lindsay
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 01 2014 at 6:07am | IP Logged
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Also, have you considered a disc bound system? It is sort of a hybrid between binder and spiral in terms of bulk, it is very flexible, and you can move smaller to-do lists through to your current page. Levenger has a number of customizable extras, and martha stewart has some pretty notebooks and inserts as well.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 01 2014 at 6:10am | IP Logged
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Oh, and I asked michelle if she could send my calendar un punched so I could try it dic bound, and she said that wouldn't be a problem. I still haven't decided whether I want to do that or switch back to the smaller size spiral and just have my discbound notebok separate.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: May 01 2014 at 7:19am | IP Logged
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I decided to go back to "tried and true" for me and ordered one of Michelle's planners. I went with the binder type this time and plan to use Jenn's suggestion of just adding pages for journaling purposes.
I also ordered lesson planning pages. I don't normally do that since my lesson plans are usually kept separate from my planner but I think I'm going to try using them for the subjects we do together at morning basket time and tea time. These are mostly lists of books I will read aloud to the kids. I always struggle with where to write these plans and, once they are written, where to keep them. Maybe this will do the trick.
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Becky
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 03 2014 at 5:39am | IP Logged
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It doesn't really help you this year, but Marilyn, you might ask Michele about adding journaling pages as an add on option to her planner. It would likely just be in the back, but it would still be contained.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 03 2014 at 5:51am | IP Logged
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One option that just occurred to me is ordering the planner un punched and then finding journaling pages you like (lots of printable and printed build your own planner options from etsy) and then take it to Staples and have it bound.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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MarilynW
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| Posted: May 05 2014 at 9:00am | IP Logged
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Like Becky - I am ordering Michele's planner - on my list to do today. My college dd too is returning to this after a year of Covey's Botancials. Tried and true is good this year when I am aiming for simplicity.
Lindsay - I like all your suggestions. For this year I am going to just use the planner as is, spiral bound.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I have made notes on everything. Erin Condren's planner looks just lovely - and I am going to research and think about it over the next year. If I am faithful and well organized with my planner this year, maybe I will reward myself with a Condren one in the future!!!
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Marilyn
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: 2014-15 Planners (with journal?)
