It may sound a little weird talking about planners here at The Creative Cabana- I mean usually I focus on specific projects like photos, videos, DIY, etc. I guess I'm trying to say that having a good planner is a great fundamental tool to help keep your projects aligned with your schedule, budget, and if applicable- deadlines. Personally, I have been using a planner (or I guess I should really say agenda) since 6th grade.
From 6th to 8th grade, my school provided each of the students these customized agendas and it was required that we use it to keep track of assignments, activities, and school events. A lot of kids thought the planners were a stupid concept, but for someone like me who enjoys keeping an organized schedule, I thought it was a great idea! Then in high school, I simply purchased my own planner from a retail store. In high school, I was involved in a little bit of everything so writing down all of my practices, club meetings, and homework assignments into my planner was a blessing.
During all four years of college I purchased my school's planner, which contained plenty of organization for writing down assignments and already included important dates for campus events, finals week, and holidays. So naturally, planners and agendas have almost become a second language to me. Even after graduation, I took the art of agenda writing with me when I started my first "big girl" job. I bought me a great planner to use for work, but when my employment got cut my planner for 2013 didn't get much use after that.I decided that for 2014 my goal was to be more organized and improve preparation skills for this blog, so I decided to once again invest in a planner. I work in a mall and one of the stores in the mall is a really cool calender store that was having this great sale on all planners and calenders- 75% off! So before I went to work I stopped at this store and bought this great (and cute) planner for about $3.50.
There's no secret to finding a good planner, it's all in preferences and what style you like. I like the planners where there's a full calender section, and then you can write on "weekly" pages. This allows me to quickly scan a month for events, and then I can be more detailed in the weekly sections. I also like planners that have handy references in them- which this one has a lot of because it's based around a girl's routine life. So each month has little facts and tips to follow. For example one month has tips for dressing for interviews, another month is dedicated to DIY projects (yeah, that's gonna be fun!) What about you though, what kind of planner to do you like to use?
It may sound silly, but finding a good planner can sometimes be a little challenging because you have to decide how much organization do you want your planner to have. Are you looking for something that's strictly professional or would you like to have a little bit of fun in it? Personally, I look at an agenda the same way I think of ringtones. Someone with a fun personality probably has some silly sound or song for a ringtone, but a stern individual might prefer something simple and basic. Planners can be the same way, but you can add some flair to a planner even if you stick with a more traditional style.
One year for Christmas, I bought a planner for Mom to use for school. My Mom loves music so I tried to find a good planner that had a music design to it, but all I could find were standard planners that were formatted nicely for her, but had no creative design to it. So, I bought stickers! Yes, I said stickers. Specifically stickers that are commonly used for scrapbooks. I found several musical stickers on sale and bought those to decorate her book with. She loved it!This is just a great (and budget-friendly) alternative to giving your planner a little creative, and fun edge! Don't spend $20 for a planner that has One Direction or Star Trek on it. Find some cool stickers to place around the cover of your planner instead. You can also create a collage on the cover of your planner book using newspaper or magazine clippings as well. A creative planner for a creative mind can lead to excellent planning, better budgeting, and effienceny in your projects. Now that I've informed you about this great creative planning tool, it's time I used mine to start preparing for next weeks posts. If you ever have any creative ideas you'd like to share with The Creative Cabana please feel free to leave your suggestions on this post or visit us on Facebook and Twitter. Until next time, have a terrific Friday everyone! TGIF!
*Images of the "Gal's Guide" planner and the gray planner with musical stickers, are my own photographs and each planner is part of my own property. All other planner images were collected from search results on Google Images. No Copyright Infringement Intended.
No comments:
Post a Comment