New Routines - Up and Running?

Today is the start of a new routine for me - mainly because tomorrow is a return to my regular 9 hour work days with little to no changes except that I will have to wear a mask for twice as long...oh dear, hadn't thought about that. Here come the headaches. I am taking this change as an excuse to start some other new routines, and, you guessed it, I am using my bullet journal to organize myself.

I finished up my last journal - actually, it was a Passion Planner that I got as a gift. It didn't really do what I wanted it to do, but it was absolutely beautiful and I learned quite a bit from using it. I learned a bit about what I wanted to do with my planner as well as what I didn't want to do with my planner. I looked at the website to see if I wanted another one from this company, and I like what I saw - they donate one planner for every planner purchased - but I decided that I just didn't use the one I had enough to justify getting another one.

I had a different idea in mind for what I wanted in a planner.

Now, if you found this post because you were looking for bullet journal things, you will shortly find out that I do not really do bullet journaling the way that Ryder Carroll does bullet journaling. Bullet Journal Method purists would argue that my way of doing things is not really a bullet journal - it is a planner - but I don't really care. I do what works for me, and that is the purpose behind having one of these systems, finding something that works for me!

During this entire year (the amount of time that I've been using my Passion Planner), I've been thinking about what I liked about the format and what I didn't like. I liked having one week per spread. I didn't like having time frames in the daily boxes. I liked having a weekly quotation and habit to think about, but I didn't like the way the weeks started with Monday instead of Sunday. My work week starts on Sunday, so I like a Sunday-Saturday weekly format instead of a Monday-Sunday format. I like having a monthly calendar but I want those calendars to be embedded in the entire planner rather than having a separate section for monthly calendars and weekly calendars.

I wasn't able to find the type of planner that I wanted (and I looked at ALL sorts of planners and journals and all that stuff), so I decided to make my own.

I bought a cheap dot grid journal from Amazon and then stared at it for many months. The brand is Kelkaa, and I bought the 5inch by 8.5inch, 195 paged, dot grid notebook. I bought mine in the black faux leather cover version, and I have started to use this notebook as of today!

Now, the pages that I am going to post here are the result of some preparation that happened before today. When I get excited about books and journals, I tend to jump the gun when it comes to planning things out. I started formatting this journal about three months ago, and I have waited for the time to start writing in it on a daily basis. As of right now, I have three months completely finished in my planner. The other months of 2020 are penciled in, and I've started to wonder if I would be able to keep this book for the next 12 months or whether I should not plan so much in advance just in case it gets filled up faster than that.

Here are my chosen formats...

Monthly calendar - you'll see some boxes for each day, some stickers from my sticker stash, and some space to write goals or track habits or whatever. Right now I haven't filled in those things for July, but I am getting ready to get things coordinated for the upcoming month. I find that this format is familiar and helpful for me to remember deadlines and appointments. I also like using my stickers for something that makes me smile. Decorating these pages helps me feel like I am creating something but having a specific format keeps me from falling into the pattern of trying to make things less functional and more pretty...

As you can see, I have a colorful calendar to look at. I selected some cat stickers from a book that my sister gave me (the source of the Passion Planner as well), so I used these stickers as my theme for the month of July. Every week in July will have one of these stickers. This next picture, however, is not part of July, so there are no cat stickers on this weekly format...

Weekly planner - So, this is the page where most of my stuff gets recorded and used. There is a half-page sized box for every day of the week - Sunday through Saturday. I also have a task box on the left side, some open space for brainstorming and planning, and lots of places where I can write things down. I am doing an informal mood tracker at the bottom of each daily box so I can watch my mood. This format is something that I think will be really good for me. It gets rid of the hourly format that I didn't like in the other planner, but still gives me space to outline my day, if I want to do that (which I often do not). I found myself changing my Passion Planner to be this type of planner, so I am hoping that I will use this the way I want to use it - for tracking some things and planning out other things and just keeping track of my life.

I am working hard on making positive changes in my life, and one of the things that I really want to do is to use my early evening hours more effectively. I have tried to schedule in relaxation time but then I spend most of that time falling asleep. This has been a struggle, but I am still working on it. This format will help (I think) since it gives me some structure and lots of freedom as well.

I want to establish these things as routines for a couple of different reasons. First, I want to have a bit more energy in the early evenings. I don't like being someone who is exhausted at the end of the day, so I want to shift some of my patterns to help me find that energy. Second, I want to get things done around my home! I think I will have more energy to do things like chores if I do them in the morning rather than putting them off until the early evening. I do not have neighbors right nearby at the moment, so there shouldn't be any problem with the noise of the steam cleaner or the loud garbage disposal. I will wake up tomorrow and do some sorting of stuff or dusting or vacuuming before I head to work. Perhaps I will find something that I can use at work during my early morning foray into cleaning.

The early evening hours will be reserved for blogging, crafting, talking on the phone, leading webinars, and working on the computer before winding down by writing in my bullet journal and then reading a bit. I've set a Goodreads goal of reading 150 books by the end of 2020, so I need to be reading a bit more than I have been - though, I have gotten back into the routine of reading rather than just staring mindlessly at the television. I haven't tracked my reading until now, so I know that I am farther along on my current goal than the application has listed, but I do want to keep that going as part of my routine - hence the goal!

So, today's late afternoon post is the first in my new routine. I will occasionally update you on my routine building process...if you aren't interested in this type of post, just skip anything labeled "bullet journal."

Well, it is time to move into my early evening pattern. Right now it is time to eat dinner (already did that since it is Sunday and I was home all afternoon) and blog. After this time, I am going to go into my craft room and do some crafting of some sort, then I will do some work on the computer before heading to bed for some reading.

New routine - day 1!