Friday, August 4, 2017

Since When is it August?!


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To be a total smartass about it...since Tuesday. It has been August since Tuesday.

August is busy, busy, busy for the Benjamins. 2 days later Ross and I celebrate our ultimate date night, which is the 6th anniversary of when we started dating on August 25th. 5 days after that we celebrate our second wedding anniversary on August 30th...cotton anniversary gifts anyone?! (This also means the bank should prep Ross' loan application papers now...that's a lot of gift giving in one month, let alone one week). Work is also busy, with the push to hit annual goals before the close of fiscal 2017 in September (6 deadlines in 3 weeks and counting). Luckily we have our anniversary trip to Hawaii in early September to look forward to, but that means putting our noses down and getting it done until then.




Stand Tall Darling

In the face of all of this hustle, join me in my August mantra of "standing tall". This means standing up for yourself, asking for help, managing your time and ultimately not getting overwhelmed and overloaded. Give yourself a constant reminder with August's free iPhone, Android and desktop wallpapers. Special bonus Happy Planner "Stand Tall" images available this month! Download them now. After all, its still summer and we all deserve a little fun in the sun.

Obviously changing your wallpaper won't organize your time and deadlines. What will? There are a ton of planner options, both digital and physical. Just walk the aisles of your local craft store or browse the app store and you will know what I'm talking about. Here are my favorites...now is just as good a time as any to get organized, especially as back to school and annual employee evaluations loom in the not so distant future.


Happy Planning

I am a Happy Planner and a Google Calendar super user. For those unfamiliar with the Happy Planner, it is a physical planner that  is whatever you make it, whatever you want it to be. It's really a blank slate. Each planner features 18 months, separated by tabbed dividers. Each month comes with a monthly planning grid followed by weekly breakdowns. Each day is broken into 3 boxes that you can use however you like (morning/afternoon/evening, home/work/fitness, to-do/memories etc).


I use mine for To-Do List, Home/Meal Planning (quick shopping lists, pain/stress/anxiety tracking, etc.) and Blog Planning/Tracking (post shares and likes, daily page views, blog post ideas).  I use the Happy Planner because I can journal and doodle in it freely to track my eye pain and blog progress, where these "non-events" are harder to capture digitally without using a second service, like Evernote. I love taking a break from my screen to decorate each week's pages with washi tape, stickers, stamps and sketches and fill in my days with plans, goals and deadlines. For me, this structured creativity is relaxing yet purposeful, similar to carding. Despite my pretty paper planner, I still maintain my Google Calendar to share with Ross, coordinate with his calendar and receive push notifications for meetings and events on my phone.



More on my Happy Planner at a later date. Check out my Happy Planner Pinterest Board for some inspiration, information and freebies.

How do you stay organized? What are your go to planning methods and favorite apps?