Planning like a boss

Earlier this month I told you about my plans and goals for 2015. I'm excited, but over the years I've learned that mere excitement doen't get me anywhere. I need to keep track of where I stand, where I'm headed, and what the next few steps are in order to be successful.

Enter my 2015 planner. Around the time I started thinking about what kind of planner I wanted for the new year, Caylee and Vanessa launched their Pretty Documented planner. I jumped on board right away, and got myself the floral version (they also offer a minimalist version). You get a TON of files that you can mix and match to create your perfect planner, which is both awesome and overwhelming at the same time. So I printed the November and December pages and stuck them in my a5 filofax to test what I needed. Turns out an a5 filofax is just too big for me to lug around day in day out. Back to the drawing board I went! In the end I printed the pages I needed, using this tutorial Caylee shared, and had it bound professionally. I LOVE it.

I have a pretty basic set-up: I start with a sort of divider for that month, followed by an overview of that month and a page where I can jot down my goals and intentions for the month. Next up are the 'normal' 2 pages per week calendar pages. Plenty of space to keep track of whatever I have planned. I end each month with a "notes" page, and then we start all over again. Simle & easy. See for yourself:

However, a year planner does not make a goal planner. Not for me, anyway. So I was thinking and pondering and thinking some more about how I was going to keep track of my goals. Then, as if she heard my desperation from the other side of the equator, Caylee sent out her Goal Management Kit as a thank you for filling in her blog survey. I took one look at it, and I knew that this was IT.
I was really happy with my procrastinating self for a change, because since I hadn't made the time to get my planner bound, I could just add this baby in.

My goal tracking section is another case of easy does it: I printed out a calendar for each month, and will just add my runs, the books I read and the projects I crafted along the way. I plan to include some information about each, like where I ran, how many pages the book had, what kind of craft project it was.

All the way in the back I added a few pages of Elise's goal tracker. Other than trying to excercise on a daily basis, I have no plans for these yet. Knowing myself though... I'm sure I'll be coming up with new trackable projects during the year (I expect at least a few month-long habit projects), and now I have one place to track whatever I want to.



So that's my planner set-up for the year. We're about 4 weeks into the new year now, and I still love it to bits :)

One of the things I learned while preparing this blog post? Do not photograph mostly white paper on a dark background... Lesson learned.