I’m a paper and pencil kinda girl. I love digital, LOVE it.. but there is something about writing things down, feeling paper that I just keep staying with. I can’t quit it. I recently became aware of a thing where people get a paper planner and then they decorate it. Sounded fun, crafty, cute, but they really take it to a level where I just don’t have the time or the money to deal… but I like the creativity that goes into it. In the discovery of this little cult world of “planner girls” I’ve also found that they sometimes have multiple planners going at once.. once girl had like 10 all for different things. I’m just not sure how you do that, how you don’t get all sorts of confused, but whatever.. you do you. The irony is that I find myself in a similar “multiple” planner, notebook situation…I keep my work calendar online and my personal life as well, but I do add in birthdays, important reminders, and such into my paper planner.
So what I have here now is my current planner (stripped Beautiful Mess planner), my new Shinola planner, my (open) work notebook, my workout & food journal, and my spending journal (think checkbook register).
I like my A Beautiful Mess planner, but soon into using it the binding broke and then it just kind got a little floppy, which is fine as it has a bungee to keep it together. I have room until December and could have just kept going and found something else at that time… but all the new planners like Inkwell and other brands come out with one either August or September so my brain started thinking NEW. I didn’t plan to buy one but I came across this Shinola RunWell at Plenty Mercantile in OKC this past weekend and just wanted it. It’s simple, nothing like the “planner girls” but I think it’ll get the job done. My issue with planners that are not academic is that they aren’t academic. My brain and life function heavily in an August to May mode, always have and so this Shinola started in July (I bought in August) and goes until next December.. so at some point I’m going to end up needed another one. I’m not sure how to transition to the new one but yet keep my old ABM one around. I love the color of it in my bag, which is silly 
The smaller Moleskine Cahier journals I use for easier purposes but things I like to keep separate. The spending one is new, but I needed to start keeping track more regularly where I’m spending money each day and not just checking online occasionally. I think writing it down also makes me realize just how quickly I’m spending my paycheck. My workout one is also an accountability thing but also a helpful reflection tool. I can write my workouts down, write how I’m feeling, and also write down how I’m eating. It keeps me honest when I’m like “but I haven’t skipped many workouts lately” and sure enough, I have.
I love writing and need to write more, hence my daily posts to my blog – some are long, some are short, and I’m a bad writer (horrible with the grammar rules and such), but I like to get things out of my brain and I like to share (with the zero people reading LOL).
So do you love paper? Do you have a planner? How do you keep organized? What apps do you use? What planner do you use?
(reminder I am using these as my prompts for blogs and IG posts)