[part 4 of Cori’s Planner Pieces series]
My long-time planner was a DayTimer Avalon 7-ring simulated leather, 8 ½” x 5 ½” (compact size). When my life got really hectic, I upgraded to a Desk size Avalon, which took 8 ½” x 11” paper. I didn’t think this through very well because the Desk size also had the 7-ring set up. There wasn’t an extra hole punch around for me to permanently set up for 7 holes, and I couldn’t afford one buy one that did have that option. Also, I would have had to do a custom order if I wanted paper with 7 holes—again, out of my price range.
When life slowed back down, I switched back to my compact Avalon, but found the rings were too small to hold everything I needed. A colleague had a planner the same size, but with bigger rings. She had a Franklin Covey.
The planner I currently use is a Franklin Covey Sierra simulated leather binder, measuring 5 ½” x 8 ½” in black. It came with a starter pack that I haven’t used because at the same time I had purchased my 2015 inserts, plus I still had my 2014 inserts.
My 2014 inserts are the DayTimer Coastlines, week on two page set up. I’ve been using this format for a few years, and it works pretty well for me. When I was still commuting to university twice a week, I actually bought an appointment book and used that to keep track of when I was driving, in class, working my part time job, and trying to have a life at the same time. I really liked the columnar set up and how much stuff I would write on it.
So when it came time to order my 2015 inserts, I searched to see if DayTimer, DayRunner, and Franklin Covey (FC) had a similar set up. I already knew I was switching to a FC planner. I needed the bigger rings. FC did offer the columnar format, so I bought a set of those in the Blooms ring-bound weekly.
I am soooo happy with my FC Sierra! It is very similar to the DayTimer Avalon, but with bigger rings! The bigger rings allow me so much more room for inserts!
Okay, so now that you have this background, here’s how mine is set up:
- Inside left from cover: the pockets are full of random pieces of paper that need to by organized.
- My dashboard is a business card insert page that I attach sticky notes to.
- After the Dashboard is a General Reference section. I may remove this section at some point.
- Yellow Divider: my first section is by Budgeting section. I keep a ledger of how much money I have in the personal and business checking accounts. Since I always have my planner with me, it seemed like a logical place for it.
- Purple Divider: This is labeled as my Projects Section. This is more of a General Notes area than projects. I have two main project categories, and they each have their own sections. Notes in here are about upcoming events and needed information, outlining ideas for Christmas 2015 (Yes, I’m already thinking about next Christmas.), other misc. stuff.
- Orange Divider: This section is for my side business: Crafts by Cori (CBC). I jot down craft ideas, reminders, To Dos, and anything to do with the business, except blog posts.
- Green Divider: This section for my Writing. Story ideas, blog post ideas, CBC blog ideas (writing topics about the business are separate in my mind). There are a few book ideas I’ve been toying with and they each have their own pages.
- Between the projects section and the calendar section, I put one of those cardboard backings as a divider.
- Now onto the calendar section!!!
- I still have November and December 2014 in here, and I went ahead and put my 2015 inserts in as well. These calendar inserts have two different styles.
- Here’s a look at how DayTimer and FC have formatted their inserts.
- What I’m really looking forward to with the FC inserts is all the space each day to put To Dos. I’m an overachiever when I comes to how much I believe I can get done in a day. I’m not so ambitious that I’d get the 1-2 page per day inserts, though. (I would also need to buy a bigger planner AGAIN!)
- Behind the calendar is another cardboard backing I use to protect the calendar pages.
- In the back, I don’t usually keep much back there because it’ll throw off how the calendar lays. Right now I’ve got some correspondence from a club I’m the secretary of and I need to file them. Also, something else that is always in my planner is the eulogy I wrote when my beloved grandfather died. Because we didn’t do a funeral, only a celebration of life, this was a way for me to grieve and work through things.
So that’s my planner! Like everyone else looking for planner peace, mine will probably change up when I need it to.
© Cori Large December 20-23, 2014
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