Meet Your Planner Professional
Welcome to Planning Mindfully! My name is Rachel! I am a full time working wife and mother of one. I’m excited to share my knowledge about planning with you and help you to find a planning system to organize and enhance whatever you choose to work on. I’m also here to help you through your personal roadblocks to maintaining a planner consistently.
What brought you to start Planning Mindfully?
My journey with my first successful planning endeavor actually goes hand-in-hand with my mental health recovery journey. While mental health isn’t the focus of this blog, some of the skills I learned in conjunction with maintaining a planner have proven to be invaluable. I believe these skills are necessary for those who struggle maintaining a planner. I actually call this ‘Positive Planner Mindset’, something I’ll refer to frequently in my posts.
I’m also huge on self-research and problem solving. I actually think it’s rather inconvenient to not share my knowledge with others. I want to offer what I’ve learned along the way to help other people learn how to plan their lives successfully.
Who are you hoping to help?
I’m hoping to help people who want to get their lives organized but struggle to maintain it consistently. I find that people who struggle tend to fall into two categories.
1. Either they struggle to maintain a proper mindset to be successful
AND/OR
2. They’ve only tried limited options that don’t work for their personality
Whether you fall into either category, or both, I want to provide my expertise so you can start taking the reigns of your life.
Whether you want to organize your general life, your work, your family, your blog, your fitness, you name it! I’m going to help you find the right planner for it.
Do I have to maintain my planner exactly like you to be successful?
Absolutely not! Your journey will not mirror mine, though I hope to influence yours through articles, email, and social media groups who focus on maintaining successful planners. I will give suggestions based on personal preferences as best I can.
How many planner systems will I need to maintain?
If you are new to keeping a planner, I’d suggest starting out with one.
However, how many is going to be something you’ll figure out with time and energy. Be mindful of what isn’t working in your planner just as much as what is. It may be something that small adjustments in your current planner will suffice. You may find that you need to try something in addition to what you currently use.
Do you really have information about all planner systems out there?
Not yet, but I hope to have a large collection of information someday! Planning Mindfully will continue adding reviews and articles as I’m able to access and play with different types of planners.
Part of my adventure I get to share with you is my direct experience and insight trying new things, along with sharing what I already love.
Do I need to be as artistic as you to keep a planner successfully?
Not at all! You can go all out and buy all the stickers and pens and markers… or you can just use a black pen and a $3 planner from Target. Planning Mindfully does not judge, you get whatever you need to keep a planner!
Ultimately, I’ll be here to provide all options with pros and cons. All you need to do is figure out what seems to groove best with your personality. Whatever that ends up being, well, as long as it works for you I’m happy!
Have you used a planner most of your life?
I wish I could say yes, but it took a lot of adjustments with my mindset and expectations. Let’s just say I could still probably find half a dozen barely started journals and planners floating around my house.
What was your first successful planner?
In 2016 my therapist introduced me to the Bullet Journal, created by Ryder Carroll. The moment I got a chance to research after that particular fateful visit was the start of a beautiful journey.
What is a Bullet Journal?
The Bullet Journal, created by Ryder Carroll, is a customizable and forgiving organization system. It serves as a to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary. Likely, you will utilize multiple aspects, if not all of them.
Do you still use that system today?
Yes and no. The Bullet Journal system is great for my general life planner needs. Getting the opportunity to create my own structure is very empowering and makes it much easier to keep moving forward. The beauty is creating exactly what I need when I need it.
I’ve also learned that maintaining more than one at a time is a very time consuming task, and that some aspects of my life aren’t maintained as well in the Bullet Journal system. For instance, I struggle to maintain my fitness in my Bullet Journal. So I started to explore other systems that met my needs in other ways.
What do you currently use for a planner system?
As of right now (July 2017) I use 4 planners in 3 different systems.
Bullet Journal- I currently have two! I use one more extensively and creatively for general purposes, and I use a much simpler version for my full time job. I use the Leuchtturm1917 dot grid series.
Happy Planner- More specifically, the Happy Fitness Planner I use this to track my meals, my fitness goals, and my exercise.
My Blog Planner through Designer Blogs – This is actually a printable planner that I use exclusively in a small binder. It’s perfect and straightforward, which is exactly what I need for managing this blog!
Wow, you must be super organized!
Haha, just don’t come to my house!
Thank you SO much for stopping by to read more about Planning Mindfully! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected]
