Welcome,. I hope all is well with you and your family. I am a little late getting this post out to you all. But, better late than never. I know most people had this post out at the beginning of the year. However, things have changed so much in the last few weeks it just didn’t happen.
What happened, you asked?
My husband, Cliff, and I had to move because I got a new job. Yep, I am now the Manager for two RV Parks. It was a sudden move, like within a day move, there was no time for planning. Yes, it was a bit overwhelming at first, but we got everything moved. It took us a little while, but we are now set up in our new spot. We both love it. Cliff set up a fire pit in the back corner and placed all our outside chairs around it so that we can enjoy a fire at night. The other night we roasted marshmallows and made smores. Some days the new job is a challenge when people destroy things. I am grateful for my husband as he has helped out with the repairs. Otherwise, the people here are friendly. I have to say I like our new home.
Even my Cliff got a new job this year. I am grateful that he did. For his new job is less stressful than the old one he had, he’s in a much better mood.
Well, I told you I would share with you my planner for the year with my goals. Already as I am writing this post, my goals have changed just a little, don’t fear. I actually have gotten blessed with a job that I mentioned above. With the extra income coming into the household to help with the funding of the next couple of books. Yay!!!! Yes, I was a bit worried about how we would afford all of this, but you never know where good things will come from. At the beginning of the year, I claimed this was going to be our year. So far, it is off to a bang. I pray it continues not only for us but for everyone else as well. May this year be much better than last.
Ok, now to move onto the topic at hand. Planning. At the beginning of last year, I got a Weekly/Monthly Planner Notes by Mia Chavio for Blue Sky. I loved the fact it wasn’t too big, so it was easy to carry with me wherever I went. From the start, it was great. However, as the year went on and my business grew, I quickly ran out of room. I knew then I needed a bigger planner for the New Year to plan out all the events I needed to accomplish. My little planner just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
When I watched Sarra Cannon’s videos on planners on YouTube. Now, she does a quarterly one plus several others. Sarra even takes a few and adds them together to get the planner she wants. This seemed like a lot of work when I barely have time to get things written down, more or less take something apart to put it back together again. My hat is off to her; maybe one day I will get to that point where I can have the time to do it as well. But for now, I am running with the planner I choose.
Then I talked to a friend of mine, Grace, who made a quarterly planner, which was great. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a binder to keep it in. I didn’t want a huge planner, and I didn’t have a small one with the metal rings that open to put one together. So, that was out.
I wanted a planner to be able to keep everything in one place. So, I looked on Erin Condren to see what they had. I found a Life Planner. It’s kind of like my old planner last year, but it had more space with stickers to make it fun. Plus, I love the encouragement pages at the beginning plus, New Beginnings – New Mindset – New Focus / New Start – New Intentions – New Results. It is a great place to plan out the goals for the year. I loved the fact you could customize it with your name. I even got the cover to put my planner in with pockets to hold things on the inside.
When I order the softcover that zips up, I expected it to be a little more studier than what it is. I have to say I don’t use it much for anything. I am always taking my planner out of it, for it gets in the way when I try to use the planner. There is no way to secure it on the left-hand side, so the cover flops everywhere. The only thing I use it for is to carry my planner and some other notebooks inside for my new job. I have to say I am not impressed and would not recommend it, I feel it is a waste of money.
Now back to the planner, which I do recommend. There is a monthly calendar where I keep track of all our bills. Next comes the page that breaks down the month to summarize what you need to accomplish within the month to break it down week by week. The pages afterward are the daily calendar for the week. It’s split into three sections. The top is my morning, the middle in the afternoon, then the third is nighttime. Yes, I even work at night, because it is necessary. When it is quiet, I get to knock out writing my blog post while the family is watching television. Usually, I schedule this time for the family to don’t feel as they are being unloved.
I have to say, I love the stickers. It is so much fun to decorate up the daily section of the planner. It makes it easier to track the things that need to get done throughout the day. Plus, it has lines on the side and at the bottom. I used the lines on the side toward the bottom of the page to make a meal planner. Left the top for a to-do list. On the bottom, I use essential information like how much I made for each job for the day. It’s a great way to track jobs that did well on which day.
One of the first things I did was go through the planner mark every birthday with a birthday sticker; it is a great way to make special events stand out, so it is easy to see. It has stickers for many things. I am excited, feeling like a kid with a new toy. It’s so much fun, plus, everything doesn’t run together like it did last year. I used different color pens to keep track of things because everything was so squashed tighter it blended into each other. It was an inconvenience having to carry all the different colored pens with me.
To make it even more colorful, I bought extra stickers to help color code and have different shapes to help categorize things to stand from the others. I am sure it will change several colors or stickers for each category until I figure out exactly how I want it.
The biggest challenge I’ve faced with this new planner is figuring out when to schedule everything before the due date. Good thing I have lots of whiteout tape. Plus, I had to figure out when to get things done to have my blog post go out on Friday, and I want to start my YouTube channelI have planned for blogs to go out on Friday. I am trying to start up my YouTube channel to have a video go out every Wednesday.
Then I have personal things as well—Rosalee homeschooling, which needs to get done. The good thing is I plan on getting her a tablet. She will be able to work on her schoolwork while doing my editing—nothing like knocking out two things at once. As it is now, I write my post on my phone while she does her homeschooling.
Another thing I have taken to put on my schedule is time to walk. I am determined to lose some weight this year. One to stay healthier, the other is I want my clothes to fit better. Plus, I want to look fabulous for my videos on my YouTube channel. Especially after my granddaughter called me her jiggly grandma as she poked my stomach. That made me realize it was time to get tone up.
There are a few things I have planned for this year. You’ll have to follow along to see what they are. I am not sharing them at this time; they will be a surprise down the line. If you want to know what they are, well, you’ll have to follow along to see what I have in store.
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Karen Carnahan 