Author: Jenna

This fall Erin Condren wants you to reclaim your space with new productivity tools and home/desk organizers.

As an affiliate, I received this box from Erin Condren with some of the new goodies. I spent some time with the products to make sure I could give you my thoughts. If you want to grab any of the items featured, you can get them here. This is my affiliate link and I appreciate it when you use it! I get a small commission and can keep the blog and youtube content fresh for you!

First up, we have a laptop stand in blush with the mid-century circle pattern. It is also available in black pinstripes, which would be my preferred option! Pink isn’t really my thing. 

The stand is adjustable and you can vary the height of your laptop, depending on where you want to set it up. What is really nice is it folds flat for easy storage when not in use. When flat it is 10.5”W x 10”L x 2.5”H. The stand seems well made. I stood it up and folded it flat several times to test it out. It sets up easily and feels very sturdy. I believe it will hold up well over time. The wood is very smooth and has non-slide feet to make sure it doesn’t move when holding your laptop. That’s pretty important! 

I use a Microsoft Surface which is like a hybrid laptop/tablet. The surface is its own laptop stand. I can use the EC laptop stand with it, it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when I have the keyboard attached. The laptop stand would be a great way to use the tablet as a TV when I’m at my workstation or the kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen, you could also use the laptop stand in there for recipe books! Or even your laptop or tablet if you use online recipes. How else can you use the stand? It will hold a weekly schedule plan, your planner, AND I even put my EC A5 Agenda on it! Check out my reel of it in action. 

Would I purchase this? Due to using a Surface instead of a laptop, I probably would have skipped buying this myself. 

Next up is the weekly desktop whiteboard with storage. This is the same blush color and wood as the laptop stand. It is lightweight so you can move it around your home if needed. It seems well constructed. I opened and closed it about a million times to test. 

The top is a whiteboard weekly schedule with room to hold two EC wet erase markers. The top opens to an open space for an A5 notebook, petite planner or notebook, sticky notes, washi, white out, pens, a ruler, and other small office supplies you may need! EC website states it fits an A5 softbound, not a coil, but I was able to fit a coiled notebook in there. A planner would be too thick. 

You could use this many ways. It would be a great mobile workstation. You can put your schedule, meetings, and to-do’s on the whiteboard and stash your notebook, pens, and sticky notes in it. Then you can work from your desk or take your mobile station to the living room or kitchen!

Speaking of the kitchen… you could put this in there as a meal planning and prep station! Your weekly menu can go on the whiteboard and you can store your meal prep plan and shopping list pads in the bottom, along with some pens and sticky notes for meal prep! Your family will always know where to look to see what’s for dinner and can add anything to the grocery list!

This could also be a bullet journal station, art station,  or budget station. You could use the weekly schedule for bill due dates and store your budget notebook, pens, and highlighters in the storage area.

There feels like endless possibilities. How would you use it?

I would definitely buy the weekly desktop whiteboard but I would get the black version. 

I was also sent the new organizer caddy in mid-century circles. It’s also available in the in bloom pattern. I was excited to see this in the box because it is exactly what I need! I keep a lot of my planner and journaling supplies in my office because I often use them and work on them there. But sometimes I like to work on things during the evening while we watch tv. I schlep out a bunch of stuff, seeing how much I can carry in my arms. I have things in pouches, things in acrylic holders, and move them back in forth, This caddy will be super helpful! Plus in the living room, I can keep the supplies in the caddy instead of spreading out over the couch, side table, and coffee table. 

And let me tell you, there is a WHOLE LOT of storage in this thing.

The caddy is 15”L x 10.5”W x 7.5”H. It is made of sturdy canvas and the handles seem well sewn (I am not an expert on sewing but I tugged and pulled and they seemed good). I also loaded it up with some notebooks, an acrylic caddy full of pens and a couple notebooks, and a pouch with stencils and it seemed to hold up well! 

The caddy comes with two velcro inserts to make the large, main space into three sections. The larger section is 7” x 10.5”, the middle size is 6” x 8”, and the small section is 4.5” x 8”. 

And it has pockets! So many pockets!

Each long side has two pockets, 7” long and about 4.5” deep. They aren’t wide so you can slip in thinner items. An EC softbound notebook will fit but you won’t want anything thicker than that (about .5”). You could fit a notepad, sticky note snap-ins, some sticker sheets (or slim sticker books), and stencils. 

One of the short ends has a similar type pocket but hidden inside is… PEN LOOPS! The pocket is approximately 9” long and 4.5” deep. AND seven pen loops on the inside of the outside pocket material. The other end includes a zipper pocket that is about 8” wide and 5.5” deep. It would be great for smaller items you don’t want to lose. I’d put a couple binder clips, an eraser, and probably some pens/highlighters that won’t fit in the pen loops.

This would be a great caddy for kids to carry art supplies, legos, or other toys. It would also work really well as a diaper caddy. Or a car caddy for your kid’s game days! You could have a little first aid kit, snacks, a change of clothes, and maybe some toys or books for the youngest that gets dragged along (can you tell I was the youngest LOL). It could be a car caddy for storing grocery bags or other items you want to keep organized. 

I could also see this as a great gift item for a wedding or baby shower! You could pack it with a bunch of smaller items from their gift list (for the wedding) or diapers and other baby supplies! 

How would you use the organizer caddy?

I also received the colorblends vision board desk pad. And it is so pretty! If you don’t know, I am obsessed with colorblends. I was excited to see this in the box but I’m not 100% sure how I will use it. It comes with 25 sheets and measures 11” x 17”. Each sheet has a large colorblend area (approximately 11” x 12”) on the left for brainstorming or planning and plotting your vision. On the right are three boxes (3” x 4”) labeled “What this vision means”, “How to bring this vision to life”, and “Next Steps”.

This will definitely be on my work table for when creativity strikes!

I had the desk pad on my wishlist so yes, I would buy this even though I don’t have a plan for it! How would you use it?

Lastly, they surprised me by adding two notebooks and a cover with the new fall designs! I received an A5 productivity notebook with the Spooktacular Spiders cover. I had noticed this design and was eyeballing it, although I was planning on getting stickers as I have a million covers. I LOVE the pink/purple ombre. It reminds me of colorblends. And the lil spiders are so cute.

I also received the metallic autumn breeze. I hadn’t looked at many of the fall covers and stickers because I was trying NOT to buy anything so I hadn’t seen this one before. It is beautiful! It’s a pretty purple/pink watercolor with foil leaves. It is so beautiful in person! The website does not do it justice. If I was going to buy one of the fall designs, this would be it!

And I got the flannel cover in white (background), olive (pattern), and turquoise (accent). At least I am pretty sure those are the colors! This is one I probably wouldn’t have picked for myself. I am not in love with it, even in other color combos. 

Now I am off to fill my caddy and get my desk all organized! Let me know what items you will grab to reclaim your space!

Be sure to subscribe on YouTube for a video walkthrough of all these products and more!

Fall is my favorite time of year and I have a hard time resisting fall merchandise! When I saw Archer & Olive’s fall reset AND the bring back the favorites launch I knew I had to make quite the order! Budget be damned! 

The hardest part was choosing my must-haves and sizes!

I am fairly new to Archer & Olive, I knew I’d want to pick up some of the older notebooks I missed before I knew about them. They were kind enough to release the designs and I made sure to decide on my top three. I knew the favs were only available in A5 so the size was easy, it was picking which designs I had to have.

It was difficult but I knew I had to have the Grayter Good Galaxy. I kept seeing ads for this Archer and Olive company with this beautiful black notebook online. Eventually, I clicked on the ads but I couldn’t find the notebook! Turns out that is the Galaxy notebook and now I finally have it in my hands! The A5 Galaxy notebook has a black vegan leather cover with silver edge pages, 160 pages, and is $37. It is currently still available!

Of course, I had to get the Grayter Good Coffee Cup notebook because, well, duh, I love coffee and everything coffee-related. It’s like a signature or something. Could I keep calling myself Runs on Espresso if I didn’t get this notebook?! The coffee cup has a beautiful brown pebbled vegan leather cover and is still available for $37.

Lastly, I wanted a notebook from the Halloween collection because I love Halloween and these notebooks are gorgeous! All of the Halloween notebooks come with a black vegan leather cover, a holographic design, and silver-edged paper. I got the raven, which ended up being even more unique! The Halloween raven somehow got mixed up with the visitor so you get a Halloween The Visitor notebook! It’s still available and costs $37.

For the fall notebooks, I knew I would get sizes other than A5 since all the favs only came in A5. I reviewed the designs and decided I would get the book stack and camera. Deciding on sizes? That was a little harder. I knew I wanted one 8×8 notebook and decided to do the camera for that one since I am a photographer. I thought it was appropriate. Although, I want to use square notebooks for my book journals so the book stack probably would have been more appropriate. Oh well. You can still get the camera design in most sizes. The camera is a beautiful orange color and the 8×8 is $39.

I debated on the B6 or A6 for the book stack and ultimately went with the B6 over the traveler. I like both sizes but B6 seems more useful. It’s also not too small that you can’t get creative with it. I feel the pocket size is too small. I am currently using a personal size and always wish it was larger. The book stack has a gorgeous green cover and is unfortunately sold out in EVERY size! Seriously, not surprised because it is a beautiful color! I hope they re-stock these so you can grab it! OH WAIT! The traveler’s size ($35) is still available. I’d go grab it now if you want it because I bet it sells out too!

Both the Favs and Fall collections have several other options if these aren’t your jam.

I also grabbed both sets of the fall stickers ($11 each) because I am a huge fan of both decorative and functional. The stickers are a nice way to incorporate all the designs for fall without shelling out for notebooks. There are also two washi sets ($15 each) but I decided to pass on those. I have so much washi as it is and I really only wanted one roll from each set. Look at me being all responsible!

I have not yet used my June sub box wax and seal but I needed that book stack seal and wax! I grabbed the book stack seal and wax because the wax color is gorgeous! I really want to start working with the seal and wax more so this was like my pre-reward! If you are sad you can’t get a book stack notebook, you can still grab the seal for $25. 

Lastly, after much back and forth and seeing the travel pouch in action, I had to grab it. Then, of course, I needed the matching tote. They are both brown vegan leather. The pouch is currently sold out but I bet they bring these back! The travel pouch is $65 and the tote is $75.

When you first open the pouch and tote, there is almost a real leather smell. The vegan leather is super soft and feels very close to real leather. They both seem like very high-quality items! The travel pouch can hold up to an A5 notebook and has a snap-in pouch for pens, stickers, and other small items. You could even use this for toiletries. The zipper seemed to stick at first but the more I have open and closed it the smoother it runs. 

The tote is quite large! I am impressed with the size. There are three pockets inside, two small ones on one side and a large one on the other side. You could definitely carry a lot in here! My only dislike is that there is no closure. I know, I know, totes don’t usually have those! I love ones that have a little magnet at the center. It makes me feel like everything is more secure!

What did you grab? Share your haul in the comments! If you didn’t get anything yet, what are you going to get?

Looking to grab a few of these? Head over to A&O and be sure to use my code Runsonespresso to save 10%! Affiliate link and code – I will receive a small commission if you buy. 

How do you set goals and actually achieve them?

For some of us, goal setting is the easy part but actually determining how to break down a goal into smaller goals and actionable steps can be a challenge. There are many systems and items out there to help you reach your goals but do they really work?

In 2021, I ordered the MakseLife companion notebooks and started using them. They kinda worked. Then I fell off the wagon. I picked them back up in 2022 and have been using them most weeks. They are helpful. Of course, they can’t tell me how to break down a goal or what my action steps should be but they give me a structure to follow. 

Since I moved to the A5 daily duo in the agenda, I decided to separate the companion notebooks, punch them, and keep them in rings. I think that also helped me to keep using them because they are with my daily planner.

Recently, MakseLife had a warehouse sale and I browsed through it thinking I’d grab more companion notebooks for 2023. Instead, I kept going back to the A5 undated daily planner. I don’t need a daily planner but I thought the inserts offered a few things the notebooks were missing that might fill the void I didn’t realize I was missing with the notebooks.

I ordered one quarter in the sale and am going to compare them for you!

Each product comes with a how-to use this, compass assessment, and setting goals. For the notebooks, this all comes in a separate little book while the inserts are part of the inserts. After all of that, they each have a blank calendar, a spot for your monthly goals, and then weekly actions pages for each week of the month.

The companion notebooks have only the weekly actions in the month. The inserts have the weekly actions followed by a weekly overview page. This is what I really wanted. I plan to use the weekly overview page to assign days to my weekly actions. 

After the weekly overview is seven daily pages. I don’t need all of these, as I use the daily duo for my regular planner. I like the layout of the daily pages and plan to use the one page to help plan out my goals even more. The daily pages I removed, I figured I will use somehow. I can use for other projects or for super busy workdays when I want to get all the days to dos outta my head!

After the five weeks both the companion notebooks and inserts, both have a monthly reflection page. This pattern continues for the other two months of the quarter. After three months, there is another quarterly assessment. 

The companion notebooks then have some blank dot grid pages and the back inside cover is a folder. The inserts include an extras section with nine months of future plans then the blank dot grid pages and folder. The inserts also have month stickers for the tabs and came with a sticker sheet. The companion notebooks did not have stickers. I ordered the sticker book to go with my companion notebooks (and never ended up using them)

The differences are small and I could probably recreate the weekly overview page with the companion notebooks. Especially when you look at the price. The A5 inserts are $44 each. For a quarter. That’s $176 for a year! Not sure I can justify that price point. The companion notebooks are $56 for all four. I figured the sale price was a good time to try out the inserts. If they work, I may do the companion notebooks and create my own weekly overview page since I can put them in rings.

Do you use a goal-setting system? If so, which one? Maybe I will look at a new way for 2023!

Interested in the companion notebooks? Head over to my YouTube and watch the video comparing the notebooks to the inserts. There may be a giveaway hidden in the video for my final quarter of the notebooks!

Do you tremble in fear when you hear the word “budget”? Does thinking about your money and finances make you want to crawl under the covers and ignore it all? When your spouse starts talking about cash do you want to stick your fingers in your ears and go “I’m not listening!”. 

Finances don’t have to be scary!

And once you start figuring it out and taking control the anxiety starts to lessen. But what exactly is a budget? A budget is just an outline of expenditures over time. That’s it. It’s not that scary! Let’s break that down a bit. An outline of expenditure is what you’re making versus what you’re spending and saving. Time can be by paycheck, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. 

But why should you create a budget? To give yourself independence and freedom and achieve your goals. To make sure you don’t spend more than you make. To prepare for emergencies and fund your retirement. To really confront your spending. 

Why do budgets always seem to fail?

All too often when we decide to start a budget we go all-in and think we need to cut all spending. We can’t have any fun! We can’t have any debt! We have to do it all and we have to do it all RIGHT NOW! But the number one reason budgets fail? They are too restrictive. Being excited and wanting to get on track with your spending is great! But you don’t have to do it all at once. 

Budgets are not one size fits all. Maybe you watched a youtube video or read a book and want to be like Dave Ramsey or The Budget Mom or whoever. That’s great! But you aren’t them. You don’t have the same hopes, dreams, or goals as them. Learn as much as you can from all the people and then take what works for you and leave what doesn’t. Your budget didn’t fail because you suck. It failed because you aren’t Dave Ramsey or Suzie Orman. You are you and your budget should reflect that.

Maybe your income and/or expenses are variable every month. If you’re a freelancer, own your own business, or work on commissions you may never know exactly what your income will be from month to month. And you have those random expenses that pop up. You feel like you never know what is coming in or going out and you give up trying to budget. 

For some of us, we have conditions, such as ADHD, that may make budgeting more difficult. We may struggle with complicated budgeting systems. Or impulse spending (hello credit card debt!). And setting goals and thinking about the future can be difficult to focus on.

Budgets fail for many reasons. But we won’t let that stop us!

Do you budget? What has been your biggest pain point? Why have your attempts at budgeting failed?

Want to learn how to budget with visuals? Be sure to subscribe over on YouTube to not miss out! 

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and it explains a lot about how my brain actually works and why I feel the need to be hyper-organized and depend on about six-ish planners to keep everything in my life straight and on track. Of course, that is how my ADHD works and I get not everyone has the same symptoms, degree of symptoms, or “hacks” to remember everything.

I have a system that mostly works for me (no system is fail-proof).

One day last week, I impulsively searched “best planners for ADHD” and started looking through the lists. I then had the brilliant idea that I would buy ALL THE planners, review them, use them, and let you know if I thought they were useful for my ADHD brain. Maybe I’d find something that works great with my system and maybe I’d help someone else find their unicorn planner.

A little about me and my ADHD. I am combined type, hyperactive. Most of my hyperactivity is in my brain per the psychologist I saw. My brain never stops. Although I also have problems sitting still and getting restless easily. As a kid, I did tend to be quite active and was called hyper or too much often. I interrupted adults all the time because if I didn’t say what came into my head I would forget it. 

Without medication, my brain has about 32847 tabs open at once. 

I have a hard time completing goals. I can set goals like everyone else. I can start them but then I fizzle out unless there is some consequence (like getting in trouble at work). Over the years I’ve tried setting personal SMART goals and various systems and I always start out strong but never finish. I struggle to break down the big goals into smaller tasks. I recently picked up my MakseLife Companion notebooks and have been working to stick with them. It’s a challenge but I’ve made it part of my Sunday planning routine. 

I have trouble focusing on one task. I am that person that will start washing dishes, remember the towels need to go in the dryer, move the towels, then be like oh yah, I need to clean the bathroom and head to the bathroom and start on that, and when I go to grab the glass cleaner from the kitchen remember that I was washing dishes. 

If I’m watching TV I’m probably reading, scrolling social media, or writing. I can’t just watch TV. I like having things in piles on my desk or tables because if I put them in drawers I forget to use whatever it is. Clear or open storage containers work best.

And yes, I thought this was how everyone was. I never realized my brain was so different!

After years of being yelled at for interrupting, I eventually learned to keep quiet. Mostly. I learned to not be so loud. I often would sit on my hands and bounce my legs to prevent my mouth from blurting things out. I created a lot of masks and workarounds. I really thought everyone else did the same thing. 

While researching ADHD, I realized I am more impulsive than I thought. I have ruined friendships because I would blurt something out without thinking about it. I buy things (hello ADHD planners) because I get a wild idea! After my dad died, I bought a lot of things without really thinking and created a lot of credit card debt. I have shame around that but I am working hard to pay it all off and not create new debt. Everything I buy now gets paid for immediately. 

So that is a bit about me and my ADHD. I could probably write a lot more. Somewhere I have a notebook where I wrote down every symptom I identified with while researching ADHD in women. I wanted to have all my ducks in a row when I talked to my doctor. Turns out I gave her the assessment I took, she reviewed it, asked a couple of follow-up questions, and was like yup, you have ADHD. 

Now back to the planners for ADHD. I plan to do a review for planners recommended for those with ADHD doing first impressions and thoughts. Then I may use them for a while and weigh back in with if my opinion changed if the planner helped or not etc. I will also discuss important points like stickers and what pens work best in the planners.

I have about half a dozen planners now and a bunch saved on my Amazon list wish to do this later. All but one are undated so I can use them any time. I may also give some away after testing. So stay tuned for that if you are interested (because I don’t really need MORE planners so I’d like them to go to a good home). 

I also have a couple of specialized journals on pre-order. So once those arrive I will do the same with those. I ordered The Hero’s Journal and The Anti-Planner, which were both recommendations on How to ADHD.

Here are the articles I used to choose the planners. I picked the ones most applicable to me (I’m not a student) and that I felt were more like planners. There was one that seemed to be a workbook from the Amazon read first and not what I was looking for in this project.

https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/post/five-of-the-best-adhd-planners-to-use-in-2021

https://www.drjohannab.com/planners-and-accessories

What planners have you seen recommended for ADHD that you’d like to see reviewed? Let me know in the comments and if it’s not one I already have on my list I will add it!

Want to see the actual planner reviews? Head over and subscribe to my YouTube channel!