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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!