December 2020 - The Planner Wire

#PlannerCRUSH – 2020 Year In Review

by The Planner Wire | Plan, Connect, Inspire

We are so excited to share our “#PlannerCRUSH” – 2020 Year In Review. All throughout the year, we have featured inspiration from so many amazing people in our planner community. We are talking about scrolling the IG feed and binge watching all the PWMs. From decorative to functional or colorful to minimal, each of these planners has their own unique style and inspiration to share. We have enjoyed featuring each and every one and look forward to a new year of planning and connection with more of you!

Here is a look at the past year:

@saray_plans

@rledzn

@hancanplan

@stephanyhappilyplans

Here’s to 2021!

ShopFINDS – Coil Planners

by The Planner Wire | The Ultimate Haul

ShopFINDS is our ongoing series that features some of the latest products we love coming from our amazing shop owner community. From neutral and minimal aesthetics to simple grid layouts that are totally customizable, so many shop owners are launching their own version of coil planners. With an eye for design and a pulse on the community, each shop brings a fresh perspective with their own unique style and flair. Don’t worry, the paper quality is amazing, there are extra note pages and of course plenty of room for stickers. So if you haven’t finalized your 2021 planner stack, you may want to take a look below and see if one of these coil planners will work for you.

Bonus: you support a small business in the process 😉

PAPER PANDUH

The new 2021 planners have gold coils (wire-o) with hard bound linen covers in a selection of soft, neutral tones. They are A5 in size with quality 120 gsm paper. There are monthly and weekly (horizontal) layouts plus pages for goals, vision board, projects, notes and perforated lists. There is also a double-sided folder included. All the pages are designed with a simple, minimal aesthetic.

CRICKET PAPER CO. & SWEET KAWAII PLANNER

Launching Today…This ultra cute planner collab is specially designed for sticker lovers! Brought to you by Erica & Tesia, these new planners are a total blank canvas for you to get creative and use all the stickers. They are 7 x 9 undated with monthly and weekly layouts (vertical or horizontal) with clear divider tabs plus plenty of dot grid and lined notes pages in the back. Use your stickers to totally customize your spreads the way they work for you. There are two hard cover options with 120 gsm paper and wire-o coil. Both shops will be carrying the planners on their websites.

STICKER GURU

Created with your Big Plans in mind. This planner was designed to be neutral and simple on purpose. It has a plastic laminated cover with rose gold foil accents and wire-o coil. There are monthly and weekly (vertical dot grid) layouts that are undated plus dot grid note pages and a yearly overview spread. Plenty of freedom to let your creativity and style shine. The size of the planner is 7 x 9 with 120 gsm paper.

LIGHTS PLANNER ACTION

Known for amazing planner inserts, Lights Planner Action jumped into coil bound planners full force. There are tons of functional layouts available in a variety of sizes. But our fav is the recent designer coil series featuring one-of-a-kind collab layouts – The KAD, The Britne, The Sarah, The Margie, The CJ and The Shelby. The planners are also available in three sizes – A5, B6 and HP Classic.

PLANNING ROSES

These new coil planners have a functional and minimal design. They are A5 in size with 120 gsm paper and beautiful linen hard covers (in five neutral colors) with rose gold coils and foil accents. The inside pages include undated monthly and weekly layouts (vertical) with habit trackers each week plus extra note pages, bucket lists, monthly and yearly overviews as well as “Find Your Focus” goal setting pages. There is also a sleek book bound version available.

THE FABULOUS PLANNER

This beautiful blush planner is A5 with wire-o coil and features monthly and weekly spreads with vertical layouts. There are also goal setting pages, vision board pages, meal planning, mood and habit trackers, monthly review, yearly review and three pages of stickers. Also, ten percent of the proceeds from the sales of this planner benefit girlsinc.org

PRINT PRESSION

Simple and functional, these planners are customizable with your choice of cover, coil color and tab colorway. There are undated monthly and vertical week-on-four page layouts that are blank for you to create and design your own spreads. Several other shops have also specially designed collab sticker kits and covers to fit the unique layouts. Available in a variety of sizes.

Best Tips & Takeaways From Cultivate Your Year Live

by The Planner Wire | On The Wire

This year’s Cultivate Your Year Live online event was filled with goal setting, laughter, tears, dancing, encouraging words and more. About 2,000 people signed up to jump right in and prepare for 2021. After this year, who doesn’t want to the turn the page and have a fresh start!

Led by Lara Casey and members of the Cultivate What Matters team, the event was created to help you set yourself up for success by walking you through the Power Sheets prep work. The prep work, in case you are not familiar, refers to the section that comes before the monthly goal setting pages in the planner. Digging in and doing the work helps eliminate the guesswork and anxiety often associated with goal setting. It also gives you the confidence to move forward and take action on what matters most.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tips and takeaways from the event:

BEST TIPS FOR DOING THE PREP WORK

Whether you are a seasoned goal setter or a newbie, doing the annual prep work in the Power Sheets always seems to overwhelm so many of us. Being in community with like-minded people, at the event, helps you push through and support one another. If you were not able to attend the live event, but did purchase the Power Sheets, the new Goal School is an amazing resource to help guide and motivate you through the process. There is a video series to help you get started.

Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind:

✨ Just start! Something you have heard so many times before but is still true. You can go back later and make adjustments and refresh

✨ Don’t be afraid to make a mess, it’s doesn’t have to be pretty. Goal setting works best when you dig down deep to uncover what matters most.

✨ There are no right answers, there are no wrong answers – only your truth.

✨ Using stickers draws attention to things and triggers your brain to focus on it.

✨ Areas with lower life evaluation scores leave the most room for opportunity, growth and change.

✨ Take breaks, especially if you are doing it all in one day. Writing out all your thoughts and feelings can be a bit draining but so worth it.

BEST TIPS FOR CREATING YOUR VISION BOARD

Vision boards are a great way to have a tangible roadmap to where you are going. It’s a visual way to keep your eye on the prize, so to speak. Fill it with images that you relate to most and want to have present in your year ahead.

Here are some helpful thoughts to keep in mind:

✨ It’s not about the pictures – it’s about the purpose. Choose pictures that speak to your why and what’s important

✨ Create a board for you – not for Instagram

✨ Make the pictures encouraging and not discouraging. It should motivate you to take action not make you feel less than.

✨ Schedule some time to be intentional about your board but don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make it perfect

✨ Get creative with stickers, colors, pictures, quotes and more. You Do You!

✨ Keep it visible in as many places so it can be a reminder of where you are going

BEST TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EVENT

It’s important to make sure your mind and heart are aligned when setting your goals and intentions for the new year ahead. If you know Team Cultivate then you know the day was filled with many encouraging words and “FIRE UP” moments to jumpstart your goal setting journey.

Here are some of our favorite takeaways for you to think on:

✨ Focus on the purpose not just the plans

✨ Live in the now, not in regrets about the past or fear of the future

✨ Make space in your heart and mind for what’s to come

✨ Changing your limiting beliefs can change the course of your life

✨ Living with less makes us grateful for what we have

✨ Dreams become decisions when you cultivate them

✨ Comparison is the thief of EVERYTHING be mindful of where it shows up in your life

LOOKING AHEAD

Team Cultivate shared some exciting news for what’s to come as we look ahead into 2021.

✨ January 16th at 1:00 pm – How To Plan Your Year – FREE class with Lara Casey to take your next step after the prep work

✨ T.E.N.D. Video Course coming soon inside Goal School

✨ Goal School Premium coming this spring. A monthly membership filled with mentors to help encourage you to reach your biggest goals.

Take the time to do the work – your future self will thank you.

Planner’s Guide: Digital Planning

by The Planner Wire | On The Wire

Are you thinking of adding a digital planner to your planner stack for 2021? Or dare we say, going digital all together! For a long time digital has been a “dirty” word in the planner community (side eye) because of our devout love of all things paper. But several things have come to pass that have made digital planning more appealing than ever before.

Here are a few:

📱The never ending expansion of technology and development of computer tools and software

📱The influx of a new tech savvy generation of planners

📱The ease of use and portability of a tablet vs. paper planner

📱The increasing demand for customization in planner systems

📱More planner brands releasing digital versions and/or accessories

To clarify, for the purposes of this article, we are talking about digital planners in the sense of full digital planner downloads not digital planning on a Google Cal or iCal. That said, let’s get into what you need and what you need to know if you are starting a digital planning journey.

GETTING STARTED

Anyone can use a digital planner and it is not as complicated as it may seem. Similar to paper planning, digital planning doesn’t really require much to get started. Considering most people have a variety of devices and tools at their fingertips already, it is not that much of a stretch. Here are the basics you need to jump in and get planning:

📱a tablet (preferably an iPad)

📱a pencil/stylus tool

📱a digital planner of your choice

📱an app to access and use your planner (Good Notes, One Note, Notability)

There are many ways to set up a digital system with more designs coming out all the time. You can choose to purchase an entire digital planner and upload it to your tablet, just purchase templates, build your own or subscribe to a online app. The best thing about it is that you can make updates, changes, move things around or insert pages where ever you want and of course there are stickers.

We are taking a look at a few options to help you get started:

PLANNERS

Passion Planner introduced it’s first digital planners this year which feature the same layouts as the popular print versions. The Weekly Planner (dated and undated) and the Daily Planner (undated) are all available in digital versions plus four awesome sticker books. The digital versions also have interactive tabs which help you navigate through the planner easily plus Note sections for dot grid, lined and grid. And if you need more pages, not a problem, just add them in. The popular downloads from the Passion Planner library can be used in the digital planners as well.

Passion Planner Women Empowerment Digital Sticker Book

Passion Planner Self Care Digital Sticker Book

Passion Planner Nature Digital Sticker Book

Bloom Daily Planners first jumped into the digital world by offering their fun and colorful sticker packs through their Etsy shop. Recently, they have expanded their digital product line up to include the Classic Planner (dated), the Teacher Planner (undated) and the Dot Grid Journal. The products have been very popular so more digital versions are in the works for 2021 including a new Classic Planner and a Vision Planner (a favorite among the Bloom community). The files are most compatible with the Good Notes app but PNGs are available as well. For 2021, all the digital products will be compatible to use across multiple apps. Bloom also has a collaboration with Notability where some of their stickers are available directly inside the app.

Bloom Female Empowerment Digital Sticker pack

The Zinnia Journal App is designed with the bullet journal lover in mind. Zinnia Journal is it’s own app available in the Apple App Store which includes everything you need in itself to begin your creative digital journaling/planning journey. Once you download the App there are two digital planner options, a pre-made journal with planning templates already designed or a blank page to start from scratch. The app is easy to use and features a variety of cover options for your journal, writing/drawing tools and color palettes to work with. In The Studio, an online library in the app, you will find an endless amount of elements that can be added into your journal including stickers, templates, frames, dividers, washi strips and more. There are even some templates designed by Amy Tangerine (@amytangerine) and Nicole Barlettano (@plansthatblossom). The user interface is so simple and fun to use plus you don’t have to worry about messing up your pages and wasting an entire notebook. You can watch tutorials and inspiration videos on their YouTube Channel, some of which are hosted by Mark from @menwhobullet.

INSPIRATION

While paper planning is not going anywhere, digital planners will probably continue to expand as far as options. A quick search on Etsy will turn up a large variety of digital planners and even more digital sticker options. The Instagram community is also up and coming with more people beginning to explore digital planning and shops and brands beginning to offer more digital products.