Synthesis Sunday: It Is Time To Start Planning For 2022!

The author holding a black journal.

It is fascinating to me how quickly the end of the year always approaches! I mean, it feels like it was the beginning of the school year about two weeks ago, and here it is, already November 21st! It just does not seem possible that it is late November and time to get things set up for the next calendar year!

As you know, I am a bullet journaler (sorta - I use this term mainly because I use a jumble of planning and journaling techniques to keep myself somewhat organized!), and I like to use up my books completely before starting another one, so I will not be starting a new journal in January. I tend to use up my journals in June or July, so I will stay in my yellow, rainbow journal until the end of May 2022. At that point, I will be able to start up a new journal. Waste not, want not, am I right?

Anyway, just because I am not starting up a new journal doesn't mean that I am not getting some new things going in the pages! I found my word of the year yesterday, and I inked it into my 2022 starting pages. (I will reveal that word closer to January 1, so be on the lookout!) I will be giving myself a series of "quests" this year - AKA, things I want to do and get done during this calendar year. I am also adding a "year at a glance" type of spread - a place where I can track specific things based on the days of each month. It's hard to explain, but I will show some pictures when I figure it all out. I think I will be able to track things like my new bill schedule and my cycle and all that. I am still figuring it all out. I will have my quarter in review for the end of 2021 and my quarterly brainstorming elements for the first quarter of 2022, so things will be happening in that journal, I am sure! That reminds me, I did not make space for my quarterly reviews and planning in between March and April - that will use up the last few pages that I had found after the entire planning format happened...

I use my journals for both work and for my personal life. I keep those two things separate on purpose. I firmly believe in providing myself with boundaries between work and home, so one of the ways that I do this is by having one book for home (that stays at home and has my part-time job obligations and everything for home in it) and one book for my full-time job (this stays in my backpack and travels between work and home - it is also where I do more "traditional" bullet journal stuff). They look and feel different on purpose. My home journal tends to be more colorful and less formal, but it is also in more of a calendar format than my work journal. My work journal is more lists. I do not plan too far ahead in my work journal.

Each morning, at work, I sit down with my favorite pen (yep, I have a favorite pen - right now, it is a Sharpie gel pen in 0.38 nub!) and write out my events for the day. I put in checkboxes for documentation, for sessions, for meetings, and for any tasks that I want to get done during the day. I rarely get the additional tasks done, but they are there to mock me! I have been experimenting on how to be more effective with my tasks, and I am using some different types of trackers to help me out with this goal. I have not found the way of getting these things to work for me...yet.

My reasons for using these books are plentiful. I have always needed a calendar of some sort to keep appointments. My mother used the refrigerator calendar system as I was growing up, so I think I just expect that there will be a calendar system of some sort. Since I do not have to track what multiple people are doing in my family, I can use a paper planning system. I know many people use things like Google calendar to track where all their family members are at any given time, but all I have to track is me, so paper works just fine.

I am fascinated by the art journal/planning community. If you go onto my YouTube account, you will find many different artists who use their journals to paint and create wonderful themed months. I do not do that. I usually choose a color scheme and then I use all sorts of materials to make my weekly calendars (in my home journal, that is). I love stationery items, so I have all sorts of strange stickers and tapes and post-it notes to use, and I am starting to use them more often. I will never watercolor in my journal or get too stressed out about making everything match! I am just not that type of planner - I tend to be more functional than artsy in my books. I keep my artistic stuff for other media!

I tend to do my monthly calendar set-ups about three months in advance. I find that getting January's weeks ready in my journal now gives me some space to put in upcoming appointments as I hear about them rather than having lots of places where I write things down. I decided that my "theme" would relate to my word of the year, so I started with that idea in the back of my head as I worked in my book yesterday. I was a bit hampered because all of my crafting stuff is waiting for the movers to come on Wednesday, but I was able to make due for what I need at the moment. 

Once I uncover my markers and my stickers, I will fancy things up a bit, but for now, I have what I need - the monthly calendar is done! I have already marked my new trash and recycling days and will be putting in my first mortgage payment as well as any additional things as they arrive in my mailbox and inbox. Once I find my markers, I will be able to finish up my weekly calendars and will then transfer all of the stuff on the monthly calendar to the weekly pages. I tend to look at the weekly pages more than the monthly page, but I find that I still want and need the monthly page to be able to see everything at one glance so I don't double or triple book myself. 

So, for my planning process for 2022, I am going to stay in my same journals, but I am going to change some of the things that I am doing in those journals. In my home journal, I have a new word for the year. I will add a yearly tracker for some of the things that I want to be able to see all together. I will also be using a theme for the entire year that is based on my word of the year (to be revealed at some point, I promise!). In my work journal, I am going to continue to try different ways to track my progress on my extraneous tasks - things like making YouTube videos for my students and organizing my visual aids and office and trying so much to use more digital resources in my music therapy interactions with clients. These are things that I keep putting on my to-do lists that do not get done as much as I want them to - I am now thinking that I might make a bookmark to prompt me to do these things. Now I need to find my fancy stickers and my laminating film so I can make this bookmark!! Since the stickers and film is buried in one of the boxes, I think I should write my ideas down so I don't forget them. I happen to have a pad of post-its, but no pen down here...hmmm. That's something that I can remedy pretty quickly...first, though, my first shower in my new house.

Do you track things in a paper format or do you use a digital planner? Do you do both??