I bought a $50 planner and it changed my life

One of the biggest decisions I make every December is what planner I will use for the upcoming year. Every year I go in search of the perfect planner, and every year I am disappointed by what I find. My ideal planner is a one page per day design with both an hourly scheduling section and a to-do list section, plus month-at-a-glance and year-at-a-glance pages. Evidently the people who make planners don't realize what level of busy my life usually is, because I have never found one with the detail that I need.

Enter The Day Designer...

Not available at your run-of-the-mill office supply store

About a month ago, I was poking around on Pinterest and I found a pin of something called the Day Designer. I don't remember what the description was or who pinned it, but I clicked on it and it took me to the Etsy shop of Whitney English. Suddenly, angels started singing the Hallelujah Chorus and a light from heaven shone down upon my computer. THIS was the planner of my dreams. Exactly the layout I had been looking for - it even went from 5am to 9pm instead of the usual 8-6 time slots. The price was the only thing that kept me from buying it that instant. $50 for a planner? It seemed like an awful lot of money. I thought about it over several days and decided it would be worth the money to have a planner that was exactly what I was looking for.

LOOK AT ALL THE OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAN!!!!
It's even got a thought of the day and a place to write one thing you are thankful for!!!!
I'll do another post on how I use the daily pages. Actually, I'll probably do several
planner related posts, because I love it so much.

What I didn't realize at the time was that the Day Designer was more than just your average planner. In the description on Etsy, it said that there were worksheets in the front to help plan out your year, set goals, etc. So I assume she means maybe a financial planning sheet, maybe a long term goals sheet, nothing special and probably nothing I would really use.

Oh, how wrong I was!

When I finally got my new (beautifully packaged) Day Designer in the mail, I opened the cover and was immediately confronted with the realization that these were not your average planning pages. As it turns out, Whitney English has made a business out of helping people develop their personal brands and define their goals, passions, and strengths. She even created a webinar to walk through the Day Designer and how to use the worksheets in the front. She specifically targets women who are creative entrepreneurs, but it really is applicable to everyone, especially if you are in the midst of a major life transition (looking at you, fellow twentysomethings!).

Let me tell you, I was SO FREAKING EXCITED! One of my goals for the end of this year was to do exactly the sort of reflecting and planning Whitney had in mind when she created the Day Designer. With my classroom career behind me, and my clinical rotations beginning in January, I knew some serious soul searching was in my near future. Now I get to do soul searching with worksheets!!!!

How I spent my afternoon - coffee and planning for the future

So today, I went to my new favorite coffee shop (Tamp & Tap), ordered me up a Cannonball Express and some Nutella toast, and began my journey with my Day Designer.

Lovely blank pages ready to be filled with my hopes and dreams for the future.

The worksheets basically take me from brainstorming my big dreams to defining my passions, strengths, and goals.

Narrowing down your goals into 3 Big Ideas that define who you are
and what you want to accomplish in life

"Dream big dreams" - writing down all the crazy dreams and hopes,
even if they seem impossible

Defining core values based on how you spend your time and money.
There will probably be a lot of feelings involved throughout the whole process,
but I think this part will be the most difficult.

Listing your passions. One thing Whitney said in the webinar that I really liked
 was that not every passion has to become a career.
You should keep some passions for just you to enjoy. 

As I watched the webinar, I realized this was not something I was going to do in one day.  So I've decided to do one worksheet each day, so that I have time to really sit and think through each step of this personal development process.

The final project, where it all comes together. Even though I won't
share most of the worksheets on this blog (they are just too personal
to be putting all over the internet), I will post this one when I finish it.

Even if you don't need or want a planner of this magnitude (it's not a small planner, and if you aren't super busy like me, you probably don't need something this extensive), I highly encourage you to consider buying just the webinar download from Whitney's Etsy shop and doing some of the exercises. I thought people were kidding when they said in their reviews that this planner changed their lives. They were definitely not kidding. This planner is going to change my life. I can feel it. And that is so exciting!