I’m a planner.

Well, no. That’s not entirely correct. What I mean to say is that I’m a natural worrier which is a bit like planning but involves spending much more of your time thinking up outlandish worst case scenarios than actually doing anything to prevent them. But I do own a planner.

That’s something, I suppose.

I bought a physical planner this past fall for the first time since I was in college. I’ve tried to manage things off memory, caffeine, and a smartphone for years between graduation and then and while I don’t know that I’ve missed any critical life events, I did miss last year’s annual association meeting for my neighborhood. For which I am the secretary. And required to be present to read meeting minutes from the previous year and take minutes for the current year.

We had our 2017 association meeting this evening which meant I had to cop to my absence from the prior year and explain to my neighbors why I chose to have a date night on the same evening in 2016. Which really shows you how terribly I need a planner since my husband and I date about 3 times a year, give or take. What are the odds that it would coincide with the one time a year I’m committed to my neighbors?

Joke’s on me though because they took the opportunity to reelect me to this position for another 3 years. Well played, neighbors. Well played.

So here I am. Nearly 30 and going back to the school aged’s lifeline: the planner. And I love it. I’ve absolutely been more prepared in the past several months than I’ve been in ages.

Every Sunday, I go through my phone to copy down work events into my planner to get me thinking about what my week will entail. I look up the weather for the week and write down the highs and lows for each day. I take that book with me nearly everywhere so I can stay up to date with appointments, events, and reminders. And it’s not always that I’m entirely organized. Sometimes I start writing down my To Do / To Call / To E-mail / To Buy / To Focus for the week and I come up with blanks.

But do you know what blank spaces beg for? Something to fill them. It’s a natural call out to a life that’s slipping into maintenance living. Unintentional and carried away.

I have a few more months with my Sugar Paper academic planner and then I’m switching over to my pre-ordered Passion Planner. And I’m so nerd-ing excited! There’s something wonderful about starting fresh midyear! Yet as the bloggers at Day Designer reminded me this week, we can really start fresh every single day…