The 2022 [Un]Planner

Hi, my name is Cat, and I am a huge fan of planners.

At least, in my mind I am. In reality, I’ll buy a beautiful planner and have all these good intentions of using it daily to track appointments, birthdays, and to-do lists, use it for a few weeks, and then let it collect dust for the rest of the year.

When a new year begins, it’s pretty common to start thinking about goals you’d like to achieve. Whether that’s weight loss, improving your organizational skills, or taking on a new hobby, it’s often hard to find the motivation to keep up once reality hits.

That’s me with planners.

Planners are so beautiful and the idea of being that organized is really something I strive for. But I am a natural procrastinator, as well as being forgetful, which doesn’t add up to being an organized person. You’d think that a planner would help someone like me, but what actually happens is that I forget to use it. When I think about the planner, I think, “I’ll write that down later.” And then, later comes and the planner remains on my desk, unopened, mocking me with its swirly gold lettering.

For 2022, I decided not to bother buying a planner. As we have established, I have a long history of not using them, so this year I’m not even going to pretend that I will. I’m choosing to work on improving my organization in other ways:

• Properly utilizing Google Calendar for all appointments outside of work, and sharing the calendar with my husband so the responsibility is shared.
• Making lists using Microsoft OneNote (the one organizational tool I consistently use) to ensure I complete my weekly tasks.
• Using my downtime better to do things like clean the house (ick) and do laundry (folding and putting away included!) in smaller increments so it doesn’t pile up and stress me out.

Do you use a planner? Any other organizational tips to help me get my act together in 2022?