I’m putting together my planners for 2021. I am changing a bit from what Ive done the past few years. Previously I used a vertical life planner, a daily petite, and a desk calendar. The system worked pretty well for me and I love the vertical planner. It makes sense in my head.
I used the vertical life planner for my daily life: workouts, appointments, to-dos, bills due, etc. I used the daily petite for content planning for my photography business. My desk calendar was a Hodge-Podge of personal appointments and business blogs.
For 2021, Im switching it up a bit.
I had planned to continue the same setup. I received the daily petite planners from Erin Condren and was going to order my vertical life planner during the Black Friday sale. But in the holiday box Erin Condren sent out, I received the new monthly planner. I thought about giving it away but wanted to switch up my planning a bit.
I have a pretty good handle on my photography business content, but I’m struggling with Runs on Espresso. I want to be a better ambassador and affiliate, so I need to put in the work. Ive been experimenting a bit this month (November) with how I will use my planners going into 2021.
For next year I have a daily petite, the monthly petite, a monthly coil and binder, and a desk calendar. I swear I didn’t plan to use this many! It just happened.
As stated, I use the daily petite for content planning. For 2021, I am going to use it as a combo of content planning and daily to-do lists. It was a lot of room for what I was using it for. It makes more sense to use the to-do section for all things I need to do, not just blog or social media related. I have also been transferring my workouts from my monthly binder to each day so I can see it in several places.
I was originally going to use my petite monthly to content plan but changed my mind. I haven’t worked it out yet, but I’m making this my goals journal and tracker. I will use the pages in the back to write out and break down my goals and add notes throughout the year. I’ll use the monthly calendars to track “due dates” for steps of each goal.
My monthly coiled planner will be for tracking my personal stuff like appointments, paydays, and bills do. You know, the fun stuff. I love the dashboard and have made notes of how I’ll use each section (important dates, books read, and business goal tracking). I’ll use two note pages per week and add anything there that I need to remember or do for the week that doesn’t fit on the monthly calendar.
You may have seen my previous post, Who is Ready for 2021?, in which I mentioned my plan for the monthly binder. I have been using this now for almost two months and like it. I can plan out a month of my ultramarathon plan, track my races, weight, and measurements. And when 2021 starts, I’ll add my notes on workouts on the lined pages for each month.
Lastly, that pesky desk calendar. I love how it looks so I order it every year but haven’t really had a plan for it. I’ve changed how I use it throughout each year. But not for 2021! For 2021, my desk calendar will be my content planner for my business and this blog. I already started plotting it all out. I’ll list the blog posts, newsletters, social media plans for each month and week. I’ll note the promos or what I’m “pushing” (for lack of a better term) each month.
Whew, that’s a lot of planners and organization I’ve got going on! If you want to see the planners in action, head over to my YouTube channel where I walk through each of these planners.
