I tend to find a lot of tried-and-true systems just don’t work for me.

Maybe I’m too disorganized for even the most casual of systems. Maybe I’m not mindful enough of the process. Maybe I’m just plain ol’ ornery.

Whatever the reason, I find myself scoffing at organizational methods that even my idols swear by, ignoring suggestions of methods that sound perfectly logical and poo-poohing the advice of those far more put-together than me. I’ve tried many things, but I find that they just don’t cut it in my messy existence.

Until this month, that is.

Like everyone else on this miserable planet, I felt like 2016 was a rough one. While I had some personal successes (a promotion, among others), I struggled to feel my joy between all the collective suffering as the year wore on. I didn’t make a ton of progress on many of my personal goals. My emotional progress with vulnerability faltered, and in fact found new emotional struggles to face. And, as my boyfriend pointed out, I’m forgetting what self-improvement benchmarks I set for myself as quickly as 24 hour later!

Day planners have been a “miss” for me in the past. I’m awful at remembering to enter important information in my planner, awful at remembering to check it, awful at remembering to carry it.  Or at least that’s been the case in the past. But with new work obligations, a list of personal goals, self-improvement to get down on and memories I’d actually like to keep… I guess it’s time I hunkered down and made myself be a little better at this.

I purchased Llewellyn’s 2017 Witches’ Datebook for myself. It has a chunk of pages with articles about witchcraft and pagan concepts, but I really like that it includes some of the stuff you might find in the Farmer’s Almanac, like suggested days for planting, moon phases and some fun astrology tidbits. There is definitely wiccan iconography involved, so it’s not for everyone, but each week includes a recipe, information about a gemstone or fun pieces of lore, which gives the planner more value than any other stupid calendar. I also like that it’s spiral bound so I can set it out in whatever configuration of pages is most comfortable for the day.

As far as how I’m doing my journaling/planning, I’d compare it to extremely lazy bullet journalling. I’m marking down some thoughts on the day, doodling the weather, adding notes about important schedule items, and writing down a goal for the day. I plan on letting it stay flexible: I’m not going to force myself to meet some imagined requirement of what my planning should be. And, surprise, it’s more inviting for me to play along! So it’s working for me for now, and

How do you plan? Are you more of a journaler or a day planner?