yes, planning is my hobby

 

When people talk about their hobbies you get a variety of answers; running, drawing, playing sports, etc. But for me when I think about what I love to do it is planning. Now I know what you are thinking, “How can planning be a hobby and are you really so boring that your favourite thing to do is plan?”

YES.

I love to organize and I also love being creative which means that planning has become a perfect hobby for me and it is something that keeps me on track and know what is going on in my life. Now today you get a look into my planner, something that I don’t tend to show most people as I think they would think that I was crazy if they saw what it looks like.

One of my favourite parts of the year is picking out the planner that I will use for the upcoming year. I currently start a new planner every August/September, but that is because I still exist on a student schedule so I am expecting that to change in the upcoming year. For a few years I used the big Ban.do planner which was really fun and worked really well for me, but this past year I was needing something new. This year I went for a Studio Oh! planner (find on chapters website here).

There are many things that I like about this planner including;

1. All the monthly spreads are at the beginning of the planner. This means that I can see all the months at once and they aren’t spread out through the planner.
2. A sidebar on the weekly spread. I like this for tracking my blog posts, school tasks for the week, and all the things I need to do that do not have specific days attached to them.
3. Boxes on the bottom of each day. I use these boxes for meal planning, my workout schedule, and Nigel’s schedule and it is really easy to see and plan out throughout the week.
4. Saturday and Sunday are the same size as the rest of the week. In so many planners the weekend is half the size as a weekday which doesn’t make sense when you have so much stuff going on on the weekend.

How I Plan: (This generally starts on Wednesday of the week before)

• I start with a blank slate and I pick the sticker set and theme that I am going with throughout the week. I have some favourite sticker shops that I love and know that they will always have stickers that I love and that will work for me. These shops are Oh Hello, Stationary, Planner Penguin, and PeacefulmindDesign
  

  
• I do the base decorating for my planner that I do every week. This includes washi tape, checklists at the start of every day, and headers on the sidebar
• I look at my monthly view. This is where I put any big events that are happening throughout the week such as assignments, meetings, and my volunteer jobs and I add those to the schedule                   
• I put in Nigel’s schedule, this doesn’t change much so I know when his days off are and what days he is working which we then can plan our week around
• I don’t typically write much until Sunday as then I know more about what the week will look like. This is when I meal plan, schedule out my workouts, and also fill out the checklists for the first day or two for things such as school work and other tasks I need to do throughout the day
• I am never truly done planning, I add things throughout the week and of course I check off the tasks as I finish them 

Now you know a bit more about my crazy, nerdy hobby. I know it is not something very traditional, but it is what gives me joy and it keeps me organized to boot.