Passion Planner

I love my Passion Planner.  I feel like I need to start with that strong statement because I receive some static when I pull it out around people.  My friends giggle and comment that they cannot believe anyone still uses paper planners.  My husband tells me I need to come into the modern world, and my iPhone can do all the same things.  I sometimes feel like I am being ridiculous when I see the reaction that I get from people.  Seriously though, I love my Passion Planner.  I just started my second year of using one, and I intend to keep going as long as they keep making them.

If anyone is unfamiliar with a Passion Planner, let me give you a breakdown.  It is a daily planner, but with some goal-setting twists which make it so much better.  The first couple of pages are dedicated to how to use the planner and some exercises in setting goals for 3 month, 1 year, 3 year, and lifetime periods.  Next, there are 2016 and 2017 yearly calendars.  Then, a two page spread for each month and week.  At the end of each month, there are some questions to help track progress on personal goals over the past month.  After July, there is another set of exercises to set goals and to reevaluate if all goals are still the same.  Then, there is a final questionnaire with some questions to reflect on overall progress over the past year.  The final pages are blank journal sheets and graphing paper to use as desired.

In addition to the exercises and questionnaires mentioned above, each month and each week are designed to help break goals into smaller steps to be done over time and offer some tools to keep you focused and motivated.  The monthly spread has the matching calendar across the bulk of the two pages with common U.S. holidays marked.  On the left side, there is an area to list the month’s personal and professional focus as well as a few boxes for lists of people to see, places to go, and things not-to do.  The bottom left has to-do lists for personal and professional projects.  The bottom right is a blank area to help break goals into manageable steps.  Most of the weekly spread is divided into hourly schedules for each day of the week along with a daily focus box to list the day’s top priority.  The left side of the page has a weekly focus box, an area to list good things that happened, an inspirational quote, and an activity to try that week.  The bottom left is again personal and professional to-do lists.  The bottom right is blank space to use as desired.

I know that my phone has calendars, and to-do lists, and an infinite number of apps to help me do just about anything, but I personally like having the paper planner.  The book in my bag is a reminder to me to take a few minutes each week to reflect on what I have accomplished, what I want to tackle next, and how to go about doing it.  The act of putting pen to paper connects me mentally to the process much better than touching a tiny little screen does.  I especially appreciate the exercises that encourage me to think big about what I want from my life, help me to prioritize which things are most important for me to work on right now, and guide me through breaking things down into doable projects.   In the past, I have tried to focus on too many things at once.  I get bogged down by things that do not matter to me, and I become discouraged by my inability to accomplish anything.  Now I feel much more focused.  I do not always accomplish everything I set for myself each day, week, month, but I keep moving forward and do manage to slowly tick things off my personal goal list.  I think this past year has been reasonably productive, and I hope this coming year will be even better.

As I said before, I love my Passion Planner and someday I hope it will help me to accomplish all my goals.  This year I am focusing on five things:  organize my time better, redo my front room, get my health under control, develop my writing, and take more opportunities to experience life (have fun, learn new things, etc.).  Some of these goals did roll from last year, but personal growth is a slow and ongoing thing.  I will just keep pushing forward and eventually I will get to a place where I am proud of who I am and what I have accomplished.  At the very least, I have the Passion Planners to reminder myself that I did give it an honest try to be the best I could be with the resources I had available.

If you are interest, here is the website for the Passion Planner http://www.passionplanner.com/.  There are a couple of versions available.  Last year, I had the classic and this year I have the compact (the only difference being size).  I have not decided yet which I like better as the classic is a bit bulky to carry around and the compact has many activity boxes packed into a small surface area.  There is also one that follows an academic calendar and one that is undated so it can be personalized, but I have not used either one.

Happy planning!  See you next week!