Hi everyone! Only one post this week because we have been on VACATION! This post is a good one though… we have received a ton of unexpected blessings recently and so I’ve been wanting to do something to pass those blessings on, so today’s post includes a giveaway at the end 🙂 But before we get there…

Thanks to my friend Erin for this gorgeous family photo at Disney’s California Adventure!

Let’s talk about becoming organized. Organization will probably always be a problem I am re-tackling from a  new angle, it will probably one of my resolutions when I get to the Os, but for now, becoming organized is primarily needed to organize my time. There are a ton of things going on all at once these days and as my life changes so does my need for different tools. One tool that has always helped me? A planner!

My high school didn’t have this building when I went there but if it did this would probably have been the planner cover…

Back in high school, planners were provided by my school to help keep track of the crazy rotating schedule it was on as well as special mass days or school events. It was easy enough to write in extracurricular and social commitments in the same areas they gave you to record your homework for a particular day. This was probably where my planner obsession really began. Also my color coding obsession.

Yup, this is real…

When I went to college, planners were no longer provided so I moved on to paper planners that expressed my personality or passions. One year I had one that had a new picture of London every week. Another year it might be sassy quotes. Picking my planner each year was a big deal. I’d color code classes vs. rehearsals vs. special days but most of them never had a large enough space for my homework anymore so I’d sometimes add sticky notes or just notes to myself to see other notebooks with homework details.

This calendar is a child’s thing compared to what mine looked like in grad school… while wedding planning…As I moved to grad school, my time was no longer my own in a way I had never experienced before. What I mean is google calendars were a really big deal because everyone operated on shared calendars. You needed to check shared calendars to book rehearsal space. You were given a shared google calendar regarding rehearsal schedules or someone’s office hours. My husband and I began to share a calendar when wedding planning so we would know when we could schedule things that would have both of us available and we could change it in real time so we weren’t both committing to a different vendor meeting at the same time (or a rehearsal and a vendor meeting, or a meeting with a thesis supervisor, etc. etc. etc.) A paper planner no longer served me best during that time and I loved how easy it was to carry a digital calendar around with me everywhere. I still color coded everything. But I never really looked back at paper planners…

Seriously love the positivity and bright colors!

UNTIL this year. Around my birthday I started realizing that the various digital calendars were no longer working for me. At least, not by themselves. Here’s the problem with digital calendars: You can theoretically squeeze in infinite commitments in a day and it doesn’t look like that many based on which view you are in. the space will expand and the only thing you have to worry about is if you schedule something at the exact same time. It became too deceptive and frustrating for me. Plus, on my phone if I didn’t carefully scroll up and down I could miss things I had scheduled when planning the next thing I needed to add. I started realizing that you couldn’t do that with paper planners. I started brainstorming solutions. About a half dozen of my friends pointed me toward their favorite planner: Erin Condren. I got a planner for my birthday and knew I would want to get the same kind of planner for next year.

Another perk of this planner: Note pages for me to brainstorm or doodle about my next theatre project!

Of course, I’m already starting to have dates for next year so I wanted to order early. I customized the cover this time with a cute list of some of my favorite things and was thankful to have escaped some of the major delays other people have recently experienced with their orders. However, when it got to me, I realized they had sent me an 18 month planner instead of just a 12 month for the year of 2016. When I wrote them about it they said I could keep the 18 month planner and they would send me the 12 month without a cover (since mine was personalized and the covers are interchangeable) but this leaves me with an 18 month planner I don’t need so… I ordered a cute little cover from an easy shop and I’d like to give this awesome planner away to one of my readers.

The covers are interchangeable so there are plenty more you can buy on your own, but I really liked this one 🙂

This giveaway is only open to US residents with a current US address (sorry fabulous international readers! I will try to plan a giveaway you can be part of next time!) Leave a comment on this post with your name and what city you live in, along with answering one of these questions: What are you working on becoming? Or what are you most excited to plan in the next 15 months?!

Next week, I will use random.org to draw a winner!
Once again, only US residents are eligible for this giveaway and I am responsible for a replacement prize if anything is lost or damaged in the mail. This is my first time doing anything like this so please be kind if there are any bumps along the way and hopefully I will be able to do something like this again in the future!

This is not a sponsored post and I’m not endorsing EC’s products or business practices, just sharing something that I’m loving right now and that is working for me at this place in life. 🙂