I always use the new year to refresh my planning approach. The first step to this is recognizing the year's theme. For 2018, that theme is follow-through. One of my weaknesses is starting a project, but then getting excited and moving on to a new project before the first one is finished. I want 2018 to be all about follow-through and completion. My planning approach is vital to creating an environment where this theme can be successfully taken on. To align with the 2018 theme, I need to have a planning approach that focuses on accountability. The following is the approach I took toward designing my 2018 planning approach.  

1. Review the Approach from the Previous Year

I had gone into 2017 underwhelmed by the success of my planning routine. My 2017 planning approach focused a lot on trial and error. I tried as many techniques as possible so that I could figure out what worked and what didn’t. I really appreciate that I took that action as it has helped a lot in solidifying an effective planning routine for 2018. This year I'm looking for consistency, and a more clear-cut approach. Last year, I used the 2017 Ink + Volt Planner for my scheduling. While I appreciated the goal planning approach, I wanted more reflection options and no journal prompts. My reasons for this were that, for me, accountability requires a lot of reflection, and I prefer journaling in a separate notebook. After reviewing everything, I knew that I needed 3 notebooks for my print planning approach: a planner, a day-to-day bullet journal, and a writing journal.  

2. Designing the Planner Spread

After taking time to search for other options, I found that no planner had everything that I was looking for. I decided to order a , and create the spread that I was looking for. My first page is an inspirational quote for the year that says, "Dreams don't work unless you do". I kept it simple by only having 4 pages for the overall year planning before the January 2018 spread started. The first page is a 2018 calendar view. The second page is an 'Important Dates' page. I decided to only sketch out the January spread, so that I could change my approach in February if I didn't like it. The 'Important Dates' page provides an area to jot down events for future months before their spreads are created. The 2 pages that follow are my 2018 goal-setting pages. They are absolutely identical to those found in the 2018 Ink + Volt Planner, so they deserve all of the credit for these. The first asks 3 questions:
  1. What do you want to leave behind this year?
  2. What are the things you want to learn this year? How will you improve yourself in the year ahead?
  3. What would it look like if this year went perfectly? What would you have/be/do?
The second lists my 2018 theme and 10 goals for the year.

My monthly spread consists of 4 pages for the monthly overview and 4 pages for each week of the month. The 4 monthly overview pages consists first of a monthly spread. I keep this simple, and only add a motivating quote and a focuses section. Then there is a January goals area, and a monthly challenge page. The goals are simply a list of 10 items that I'm hoping to accomplish within the month. The monthly challenge page is where I list something I want to do for the next month, why I want to do it, what my plan of action is, and then a list of the number of days, so that I can circle them as I complete the challenge. This is another spread pretty much identical to the 2018 Ink + Volt Planner.

  The 4 pages for each week of the month consist of a weekly goals, reflections, and a weekly spread. The goals page is again just 10 things in the week that I'm aiming to get done, along with a celebrate section, so I can keep track of good things that happened in the week. The weekly reflection page is meant to be filled in at the end of the week.     It has 4 sections:
  1. What isn't working?
  2. What am I avoiding?
  3. Values check-in
  4. Brain Dump
The weekly spread breaks up each workday into morning, noon, and night. Of course, this is the area that I write appointments and meetings, but it's even more so the place that I write what I'm doing throughout the day. I'll get into this more later.  

3. Bullet Journal and Writing Journal Uses

The bullet journal is a place where my day-to-day actions get put to paper. This is where I flesh out project plans and lists, but it's more about planning each day. The night before I write out my schedule and routine for the day, and list my top 3 to-do's to get done. The writing journal is a sacred place for a stream of consciousness. I aim to write in it at least once a day. All these elements used in combination are the print-forms that I'm using to enhance focus and accountability for the 2018 year. So far, they have proved to be incredibly helpful. I've previously been extremely focused on duplicating any parts of my systems, but this system does have some repeating. I've actually found that through repeating elements, I force myself to be incredibly aware of my actions and their consequences. One example of this, is the day before I’m writing out my schedule for the day in my bullet journal. As the day goes forward, I am either checking or marking off different elements, then tracking the things that I'm actually doing in my weekly spread in my planner. When things go right, I am checking off something that I'm then writing down. When things go wrong, I'm marking off something I should be doing, and writing what I chose to do instead. This holds me accountable in how I'm spending my time. This really worked for me this past week. I was much more likely to follow through my original plan, rather than succumb to laziness, because I had to face myself. What about you? What planning approaches are effective for you? Next month I'll be putting up the second part of this post with the digital elements that I tie in with the print approach to be as productive as possible.