Episode 22: My Favorite Planners and How to Choose the Best One For You
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
Before you click buy on a new planner or implement a new task management app, let's make sure you know what you need your planner to do for you. With the new year around the corner, it's exciting to think about a fresh start and finally getting your life organized. But as someone who has a stack of half-filled planners, I know too well what it feels like to buy a planner hoping it'll change your life, only to realize that the problem was never actually the planner, it was you. In this episode, I walk you through seven critical questions to consider before you make any changes or purchase anything new and I also share my 4 favorite paper planners in case you're in the market.
And if you want to start fresh in 2025 and learn how to manage your time, plan intentionally, and create space for more than just work and parenting, join me for a small group coaching program exclusively for working moms. Click here to learn more.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
00:44 Planning for the New Year
02:42 Choosing the right planner and tool
06:33 Seven questions to consider before you implement something new
20:55 My favorite planners
29:23 New group coaching for working moms in January 2025
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
Free step-by-step guide for creating an effective to-do list
Interested in my January 2025 group coaching program for working moms? Click here to learn more
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You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode
Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of the podcast.
If you're listening to this in real time, we are closing in on the final few weeks of 2024. And I've had so many conversations over the last week, two weeks, or so with clients who are starting to think about the new year. I'm doing it too. I am. As much as I want to be present and, of course, finish up all of my to dos for the end of the year, there's still so much on my list despite, having Set the best intentions and prepared as much as I could with the Stress Less This Holiday workshop.
I am thinking about the next year. I did a little business planning last week, which was really fun to think about what I want to offer, how I want to serve clients, what's working, what's not working about my business right now, and Love having the conversations with clients as well who are thinking about their intentions, some of their dreams, the things that they've learned this past year that work really well or that don't work so well.
And so maybe you're there as well thinking about the fresh start that comes with the new year. Maybe some new intentions that you want to set, maybe some goals. Do we still do goal setting? I don't know. I go back and forth. I think there are elements of goal setting that I do still appreciate and that resonate with me, but also I just crave and honestly need so much more flexibility in my life these days.
So I'd love to know what you do. Maybe we'll have to do a separate episode on the evolution of goal setting and how I approach it now. But I yeah. Even bought our 2025 wall hanging calendar. I have one of those big paper calendars in the kitchen because of course we're getting schedules and invitations and requests for January, February, March already.
And so Whether you are the type of person who loves a calendar, a paper calendar, a paper planner, or not, you have transitioned over to more of a digital setup, you're probably thinking, , about what those systems, about what those tools are going to look like for you in the next year. And particularly, if you are eyeing a new planner, a new notebook, some sort of tool.
Maybe you're like me and you love a great pen or a really thick piece of paper, right? The quality of what you use to write with or write on matters so much.
Before you click buy, before you add anything to your cart or set up a new tool or process whether it's something that's brand new, or you're just getting the same thing that you had but just with the updated version, or maybe you're new to using a planner or a tool of this kind, or maybe you're just getting back to it after taking a break or, having a hiatus last year, there are a few things that I want you to consider first.
I get asked all of the time about what planner I use or you know, what planner should I buy? And I have so many ideas and recommendations. I'm going to share some of those with you here in this episode as well. But I will admit, maybe give you the freedom to admit as well, that I do have a pile of half used, half completed planners and notebooks.
And so I know all too well what it is like to rush into solving a problem without truly first understanding what the problem is. I'm reading The Plan right now by Kendra Adachi, if you are familiar with The Lazy Genius, as I'm sure so many of you are, and she describes so perfectly that big trash bag energy where something is not working in your life And so you want to scrap everything throw it all out and start fresh Which of course as we know from experience just creates more work and more trouble down the line And I see this a lot with people wanting to get a new planner to solve a problem All of their issues with double booking themselves or overbooking themselves, or just trying to accomplish too much or losing sight of deadlines or goals or projects.
And a planner is an amazing tool for sure. I have used one since, I don't even know, maybe college earlier, probably earlier, but at least college, but it is just a tool and it's important. Before you start fresh, or recommit, or just continue using something like a planner. To consider how you'll use it, where you'll use it, what you'll be tracking, and just your preferences in general.
I can tell you that today, as I'm recording this, and I change quite regularly the tool that I use, but I am currently using a custom planning PDF page that I created myself, as dorky as that sounds. And I love it. I love it. I import it into my Remarkable so that I can write on it without buying new notebooks and planners all of the time.
But I might not recommend that for you. In fact, I did share it with a client who started with me recently in the last month or so, and having a new tool that would support her in this new way that we're working on to keep track of her to do items in her projects at both work and at home. She wanted a planner, and I shared this as a potential template, a starting place for her, and it didn't work.
She didn't like it. She was bringing it into her iPad to use it, and that gave us so much great data. And just goes to show that what works for me may not work for you, and what worked for her might not work for someone else. It really depends on what you hope to get out of your tool, out of your planner in the first place.
I've compiled seven questions that I think are really helpful to consider and think about before you commit to a new tool, to buying a new planner, or just getting the updated version of your planner. Let's make sure That it still fits your needs, fits the season of life that you're in and is going to solve for the problems that you are looking to solve for.
So the first question is to ask why. Why do you want this new tool? Why do you want a planner? And it's totally fine if your answer is because they're pretty. Or I want to be the type of person who uses a planner. Those aren't silly reasons. Wanting a planner because you think it will change your life, it might be setting you up for disappointment.
Because a planner, like we just said, is just a tool. How you use it and how consistently you use it will be more important than anything else. That is what will actually change things for you and how organized you feel. So think about things, like, does writing things down help you remember? Do you want to time block your day?
Are you curious if being able to preview your week and see things like the meals that you have planned or the household tasks that are coming up might be helpful? Do you want to do a better job of tracking progress? on your goals or habits? Do you want a place to keep track of or list all of your potential to do items?
These things will matter when it comes to choosing the style and layout, but knowing upfront Why it is that you want a planner. What you're hoping that your planner will help you with is most important for you to ultimately be able to be successful using that tool. Question number two is to examine what about your current system for time and task management is not working.
So whether your current system is a planner, whether it's. an app or just using your maybe Google or Outlook calendar on your phone. If it's lists somewhere that you keep either in a notebook or in your phone, think about the types of things that fall through the cracks. The appointments maybe that you double book, the deadlines that you've missed.
Why do you think those things happened? Where is your current process breaking down? I want you to be extra clear on this question so that you can be sure you're getting a planner that will help you solve those problems. There are all different types of tools out there, different spreads, different apps that help you with one facet of planning and time and task management, more so than others.
And so
really understanding what things you are, Missing or forgetting or feeling frustrated by will help you when you go to search for the solutions. And then the last question in this number two question about what is not working about your current system is kind of a tough one, but I'm going to ask it anyway or have you consider it under this umbrella of what's not working is for you to think about, is it the system or is it you?
Is it the system or is it you?
Maybe you get through all of these seven questions today and you realize you actually have a really great tool and it's you being consistent, it's using it, it's seeing and envisioning how it fits into your day to day. That's really good to know, and that's actually something I can help you with. It would be a great topic to bring to a planning intensive.
We could pick out the planner if you don't already have one, revisit the one that you already have if you do, and think about where this fits in your real everyday life so that you can be successful using the tool that you've already got or that you know could work for you.
Now, question number three is when you have something important to remember, where do you store that information so that you won't forget? Okay, this is about uncovering those natural tendencies. Do you reach for your phone to jot something down? Do you grab a post it? Do you go right into your calendar?
And add something in your calendar as a commitment. Do you open up an email to yourself? Do you reach for something digital or do you reach for a pen and paper? I will always reach for pen and paper. That is just what I grab. Now, I used the Remarkable today, but I still call that pen and paper because it has the act of using a pen and writing on, my digital tool.
But for me it's never going to be pick up my phone or grab my laptop. I want to write it down. There's something there that solidifies it for me. I don't want you to be buying a paper planner if your default is to put things into your phone and vice versa. This is not about doing something so drastically different than what you're used to, because that will just add an extra barrier to you being successful.
That's one more thing that you have to learn how to do in addition to learning this new tool. Now, maybe you end up with a hybrid model like me. So yes, my default, my natural tendency is to write things down. That is where I capture, you know, the endless lists, the things that I'm thinking about that are coming that I need to decide or want to remember.
And that's also where I sit down and choose each day. How much can I fit in? What's a priority? What am I going to work on in my time between sessions during the day? But I use a digital calendar because we live in a very digital world. I use a digital calendar for my commitments, events, and big, big deadlines that I absolutely can't miss.
Those are things that I can pull up on my phone when I'm at the doctor's office, scheduling a follow up appointment. I can share and invite with my husband so that we are synced. And it's both for me, it's paper for the things that I love to write down with a pen and paper and it's digital for the things that are just easier to be digital.
So, what are those natural tendencies? What is your default? Question number four is I want you to think about where do your to do items currently live? Now, I ask this because I think there is some confusion out there between to do list management and planning. So, do you have a centralized place for those to do's already, yes or no?
If you don't have a process, a centralized home for your to dos, that is the first problem that you need to solve because not all planners have built in to do list management. If you don't have a consistent centralized place, you're going to need to either create Because the planner that you love or that's going to solve all your other problems doesn't have that capability in it.
Or, make sure that whatever planner you get has the space for that, because not all of them do. So that will limit which tools you can look at or consider. If you don't know about making or creating a running to do list, make sure that you grab the guide that I have available on my website that walks you step by step how to do this and how to find a home for all of those to dos.
You can grab that on my website at themothernurture. com forward slash resources. So Where do you store to dos right now? Does that need to be a part of your planner? Or do you have a process already because you store them in an app or you keep them in, I don't know, a digital notebook or the notes app on your phone?
So consider that because that will dictate what type of planning tool you can use. Question number five is to look at your day to day. So are you on the go or are you somewhat stationary throughout your day? Right, this answer will help you determine a couple of things. If you go a paper planner route, it will help you determine the size and format of your planner.
Or maybe it will. Really shed light on the fact that you're going to want a digital option or a hybrid option, someone who sits at a desk for most of the day, like I do, I sit at my desk during my workday. I work from home, so at most I'm carrying anything from the third floor of my home to the first floor, occasionally in a to go bag if I'm working from a coffee shop or, visiting family and working remotely.
I can use, or anyone who works at a desk can use a larger or heavier planner, something that you can really spread out and have open. Not a big deal. But if you are on the go a lot, you may want to be looking for something smaller. If you're going the paper route, You're going to want to look for something smaller that fits in your bag that you can carry with you.
And so knowing the size as well will help you reduce your options. Maybe you go the digital route, for something you always have access to. So think about the nature of your days. What on average do most of your days look like? I've had some clients then who really are committed to a paper planner.
The spread that they love is a larger one. Well, then we need to make sure that you have a bag that fits that planner as well. So we just want to remove all of those barriers and make things as easy as possible for you to have the tools that you need in your daily life so that you can be successful.
All right. Question number six is how much control do you have over your So for example, are you working at a job where maybe seven or eight hours, if that's a full workday for you, right? A full day, mostly is accounted for because maybe you see clients or patients almost every hour. Maybe you are a teacher or a nurse with very little, , quote unquote free time during the day to work on anything that's not just doing your job, right?
being with patients in the classroom, I'm sure there are other examples, carrying mail, where your work is really dictated for you. If so, you probably don't need a planner with, for example, like a daily or hourly schedule in it, where you've got, , half hour increments from 8, 830, 9, 930, all the way through your day.
Because What are you going to put there? You're just doing your job during that time. Maybe for you, a weekly overview would be just fine so you can look at the main priorities for each of those days or track the meals that you have planned or the tasks that you need to get done for the home or for the family in the evening after your shift.
That might be enough. If you have, though, I don't know, what do we call it these days, like an information job, a desk job, where you have essentially chunks of time each day for you to actually do the work when you're not in meetings. Well, then you might benefit from a daily spread with the time breakdown where you can put tasks into those specific time blocks.
So, you know, today you've got, for example, for me, I have 30 minutes. Three client sessions today. That leaves me with several hours for me to work on other priorities like recording this podcast, or, working on an interview that I'm going to be doing tomorrow.
I want to choose those granular daily spread might work for me. So think about your day, how granular or detailed do you want or need to be versus, , not, and more of a broad overview that will also help you in choosing your tool. The last question, question number seven to consider before you choose a new tool, a new planner, is how committed are you
to the success of your new planning system. So whether or not a planner is successful is more about your consistency than it is about planner design. I say this so often, but it's true. You could plan with just a piece of paper. You could plan with just a piece of paper, with one of those old notebooks, a scrap piece of paper from your kid's art table.
I have so many of those half used composition notebooks that come home at the end of the school year that aren't quite full. I could grab that, and it's actually a great place to start. I could grab that and plan out my day tomorrow. I know that I need to choose my top three priorities. I need to look at my schedule and figure out how much time I actually have.
And then I just need to decide, when am I going to do those things? It's a great place to start in building the skill of consistently planning your time. From there, you get to just recognize that a planner might make it easier. It's got the spread already there for you. You don't have to redraw it every day or create it yourself.
But ultimately, you are the one who's responsible for its success. You are the one that opens it up. It opens the app, the tool, the page. And fills it with information. You are the one that opens the page and puts down for consideration what your priorities are. Who's going to write down the things that you're focused on that are most important to you right now.
And are you committed to the success of this new tool that you choose or recommit to? Alright, now I promised to walk you through some examples of planners that either I have used and loved over the years or I've got one on here that a client who I really trust has used and loved as well. I want to share those with you.
I am in no way, an affiliate of any of these. I'm not getting a commission on any of these. I, I probably should for as many times as I recommend them to others. I will put links for all of these and anything that I've mentioned in the show notes, you can always grab those on my website at the mother nurtured.
com forward slash podcast. Just look for episode 22 and all of the links will be there. All right. So the first one, if I were to go back to purchasing a paper planner, as opposed to my custom one that I use right now. I would probably get this one. It's just beautiful. For those of you who are on the go, want something smaller, this is a great option.
The downside to sometimes the smaller planners, depending on whether you're doing a daily or weekly spread, is that I think for the monk manual, that's the one I'm talking about. It's called the monk. manual. I think it's only 90 days or three months at a time, right? Otherwise it'd just be super thick. So you do have to replenish or replace them fairly frequently.
I love the monk manual with its daily spread. It has the hourly schedule, really helps you constrain and focus in on just your top priorities. There are some great just intentional check ins throughout the planner as well. I love the philosophy behind it. I think it's a great one. It's really beautiful.
Again, small to carry around with you. The other one that I used for years and still recommend quite regularly to clients. It's a little bit, less expensive. It's last you a little bit longer, so you don't have to replace it so often. You can grab it on Amazon as well if you need it. It's called the Panda Planner.
They have both a weekly layout and a daily layout. So again, depending on what your goals are, the problems that you're trying to solve for, you can get either version. There are a couple of different sizes as well. I always went with the bigger one because I always love those daily spreads and I need more space for that.
But there are options here and I have a number of clients who use this one and are very successful with it. So that's a great one. Probably my first planner that I got when I had my big girl job in corporate America was the Passion Planner. At the time, they only had a weekly spread, but since they have released a daily spread option as well, and I've looked at the layouts, I think it's fantastic.
What I love about the Passion Planner is it's really good at walking you through goal setting. and thinking about bigger picture dreams and possibilities for yourself and your life. So if that is something that you love, this could be a great option for you. They are a little on the larger side, so this would be better for someone who's going to, be at a desk for most of the day or doesn't have to do a lot of commuting.
Maybe you work from home. Great option in the Passion Planner. Now the one that a longtime client of mine has used consistently for years and really likes is called the Full Focus Planner. I've not used it personally but it is a really beautiful planner that does a great job of again, those, those check ins, more perspective and goal setting as well.
, this client uses it very much for her professional life and, and also her home life. I would coach anyone to do a blend of both. I think there is really no delineation or line between our personal and professional lives anymore. , but this is a great option as well, the full focus planner. Before I switched to using my Remarkable, which I was just.
reminiscing on. I've had that for a little over a year now. I used just a plain notebook, a bullet journal. I don't want you to think that I was one of those people who was drawing beautiful layouts. There are so many of me get lost down the Pinterest rabbit hole of looking up beautiful spreads, of bullet journal pages.
I had sort of the same layout week after week where I would choose my priorities and my intentions for the week and then plan my days inside of a bullet journal. I know it sounds crazy that I did this when my kids were younger, but there was something about just sitting down and drawing the layout, right?
The lines , and putting the different sections that I wanted in my bullet journal. There was something about that process that felt almost meditative to me, kind of like the way puzzling does as well for me today. And even though it was more time. That it took for me to draw that as opposed to having a planner where it was just printed and on the page for me, there was value in that for me.
And so I did that as well. I share that because I want you to see that it really, truly can be done. I did that for, , I think two years. I should go back and look. I have so many notebooks filled with that bullet journal style that it really can be done with just a scrap piece of paper.
There's nothing special or fancy or expensive that you need if you want the paper version, and there are many free apps that you can use as well just to get started. I have had clients, , use Evernote, OneNote, , digital notebooks to create sort of a checklist of things that they would do each week. I have clients who.
rely almost exclusively on their digital calendars, their Google or Outlook calendars and anything as they go to plan their day in the way that you would time block, they put the tasks into their digital calendar and then they keep a notebook on the side or a digital notebook as well of just all of their running to do so they have that place to revisit and choose their options or priorities for the week.
I had a client years ago who was really on the go. She was a winemaker and was constantly moving throughout the facility, on her feet, moving around. And she just used a clipboard with a note card for each day and what were her priorities and what did her loose schedule look like? And would Jada need to do's that she thought of on the back and transfer those over to a running list?
There really is no right way to do this. And when I think about planning, I love a good planner. I love a really well thought out tool that supports me. But planning ultimately is being intentional with your time. It's thinking just a couple of steps ahead. What do I want to accomplish? What's most important to me?
What is coming up in my life, in my work right now? And it's that moment to pause those five or 10 minutes. Really the way that I teach planning is, is a simple and short process, but it's those five or 10 minutes to just think and collect your thoughts, think about and anticipate what you can knowing that you won't anticipate all of it and just be intentional.
So I know that I've shared a lot with you today and you may feel the urge to skip these questions and just click purchase or add to cart on whatever it is that you're looking at and I get it. I get it. When you are feeling either that fresh start energy or you're feeling overwhelmed by the way things or are unhappy with the way things are working now, you just want to solve the problem.
But I want to challenge you to think about what if you purchase a tool that adds to your overwhelm because you haven't gotten to the root of what the problem is that you're actually trying to solve. You haven't looked at the question of whether it's you or it's your tool. If you start with these questions, you'll be light years ahead of where you would have been if you didn't.
The routines, the systems,
and the mindset shifts that you create to support your new planning tool are where the magic actually happens. Where you get to feel like you have plenty of time for the things that have to get done and The goal is to have some for your family, for you, and for those projects and passions that you've been dreaming of getting back to.
If you want more of that in 2025, more of the intentional planning, the tips, the resources, and the coaching, and putting together a small group coaching experience exclusively for working moms that will kick off in January. I'm so excited. The group is limited to just five working moms and we'll be looking at your relationship with time, how you plan and manage it so that you can move through your days more intentionally, freeing up space and energy for, yes, the projects that need to get done, but also the people and passions that matter most.
The small size of the group is designed so everyone gets individual personalized coaching and support with my eyes on your schedule, on your routines, and just how you do life. Plus you get the added bonus of hearing from other women who truly get what it's like to manage a career, a family, and a home.
If you're interested, if you're curious to learn more, I'd love for you to visit my website at themothernurture. com forward slash interest, fill out a short form, and I will be in touch with more details to see if this could be a fit for you.
All right. I hope this was helpful as you're thinking about your new year, about being more intentional with your time, and I will talk with you soon in the next episode. And until then, take care.
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