I love, love LOVE planners. I have used so many over the years and I know for a fact that they improve productivity. People who write down their goals are 80% more likely to achieve them. How crazy is that?!
Over the past decade, here are some of my favorite planners, and why I like them. I've been known to use more than one at a time, so be forewarned... haha!
The Happy Planner
My current year planner is the Happy Planner. I love this planner because the Happy Planner Company has shapes, sizes, and organized full month/day/weekly spreads in just about every possible combination, so if you're very specific about how you like your life laid out, you can get it here! The Happy planner is great because it awakens your inner child! There are a ton of planner stickers to help you organize your life while staying creative and motivated. My planner currently looks like a unicorn and a 5th grader barfed rainbows and stickers all over the pages, but I LIKE it that way.
The other benefit of the Happy Planner is that the pages are held together by clever ceramic rings that allow you to pull out and interchange the locations of your planner pages. This means I can switch out whole months, or add in special sections for my budgeting, journaling, massive brainstorms, and other projects as they come and go through the year.
AND if you need inspiration there's an active cult following of Happy Planner People and annual ambassadors to help inspire the inspired living!
The Franklin Covey Planner
For many years before this, I needed even more structure, and every four years or so, I go back to the Franklin Covey Planner. In fact, my main Covey planner lives on my bookshelf and acts as a reference for much of my important info. If you're not familiar, Stephen Covey wrote "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." I was first introduced to this book in 6th grade and it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me at the time, because the Covey system outlines everything you need to know in order to organize your life, thoughts, and desires toward a strategy and assured outcome. To this day, I have continued to use the tools I developed as a result of the Covey book and planner (which walks you through everything).
For reference, this isn't really a 6th grade book nor planner. My original book belonged to my grandfather, who was military and then a corporate manager for a large big-named computer corporation at that time. He utilized the skills from the Covey system to deal with employees, managers, and to navigate the politics of being a businessman, father, and elder with family responsibilities.
The We'Moon Calendar
While the first two planners I mentioned are a system , the We'Moon Calendar is truly just a calendar. However, I usually buy it every year in addition to my planner, for several reasons. This planner is filled with moon dates for the year, including:
New Moons, Full Moons, Mercury Retrogrades, Solar Holidays, your yearly astrology read by sun sign, and other planetary relationships. The front and back of the planner have stories, poetry, and spiritual teachings about earth wisdom and being a woman. This is a must-have for witches and wise women. It's filled with beautiful artwork from magical women all around the world, and that art later becomes a part of my vision boards. I also use this planner as a reference journal for my moon-time (aka "Period"), my co-parenting plan, and to track my emotional well-being. While it doesn't get carried around with me day-to-day because I need something with more structure, it absolutely lives on my personal altar and gets pulled out when I need to drop into that sweet, quiet, divine femme part of my being and reflect.
This year my magical friend Vixen gave me the "Coloring Book of Shadows Planner for a Magical 2020" by Amy Cesari so I'm trying that one out instead. What I like about it so far is the strong pagan imagery and space for journal notes--and that fact that it is meant to be colored in! What a fantastic meditation. However, I will probably purchase a form of the We'Moon anyway because I want to support this long standing nonprofit, and I will absolutely use the art in vision boards.
My Shining Year Biz/Life Workbook
Since 2015 I have worked annually with the "My Shining Year Biz & Life Workbook" by Leonie Dawson. She was one of the first big movers and shakers to create a colorful, artistic workbook for year goals, for creative people. At first it was one workbook, but ultimately she developed two separate workbooks, one for Life, and the other for Business. I confess I liked the merged version best, but each year I still purchase both of these. It's worth it to get the physical copy rather than the digital, as these become great references for how you are working with your energy each year.
I recognize that there are now a gazillion other similar workbooks out on the market, and some may even be better, but these babies are fully comprehensive. At approximately 130 pages each, they are tools for your long vision of your year. Leonie walks you through reviewing your last year, what was successful, and closing it out, before peppering the pages with lovely journal prompts to help you discover what you desire and want to focus on in the areas of life, love, relationships, finances, creativity, home, travel, and more. There are great exercises for Vision Boards, Oracle Reading, and Self Care. After each section there are suggested books to read if you realize you need further development in areas of your life. She creates structured space to record monthly goals, and then follow up on them each month with notes about what worked and what didn't. The result is a workbook that really helps you know yourself. Need a bucket list? There's space for one right there, every year!
When I first began working with Leonie's book, it helped me identify desires within that I didn't even know how to access. As a result, this is planner number 3 that I purchase every year. If I don't, I usually create a journal myself with space to explore these very topics.
Savor Life 90 Day Planner
Have you ever heard of a bullet journal? Neither had I! But when I found the Savor Life Journal, I fell in love with it because it takes the best elements of freedom that a bullet journal offers, and combines them with the key points necessary for tracking growth (think Franklin Covey stripped to bone). The Savor Life Planner is unique in that it focuses on 90 day increments, championing the current fad idea that if something can't be accomplished in a Quarter, then you're doing it wrong.
Do I believe that? No. But I do believe that structuring the year into micro-segments of 90 days is a very powerful way to get clear and develop the measurable, structured goals necessary for real success.
The Savor Life planner is considered a Self-Care planner because it leaves tons of space for drawing, reflection, and celebrating simple pleasures and self care in addition to the rest of your every-day life.
After initially trying this planner, I have purchased it for extra focus on specific projects. For everyday use, I found that setting aside a Sunday to vision around my week and self-care was very effective. Most people don't leave enough time to get clear on how they want their week to feel. This planner excels in that area.
That's All, Folks!
I could probably talk about planners all day, but in sharing these planners, I wanted to show some of the many types out there on the market. There are so many creative ways to look at life, and planners allow a container for you to hold the special intention and magic you are creating in your life.
Please share with me below what YOUR favorite planners are! I'm always on the lookout!
xoxo
Dailey
DAILEY LITTLE is a healing practitioner, Ordained Priestess, and Teacher who founded HEALING HEART REIKI to help others navigate life with joy. She teaches classes in Reiki, Goddess Mysteries, Shamanism, and Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics from a magical, peaceful corner of the world in Northern California. For more info see: www.SantaRosaReiki.com
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