Planner Peace

When I first started tracking calories, I used a cool app on my cell phone called MyFitnessPal. I loved that it entered the calories for me and tracked calories over time...until I never used it. My phone was charging in the room. Or I couldn't turn it on because I was in court or teaching a class. Or the app stalled, just a little, and I was not happy with it.

I used to put my emails into my Outlook calendar and sync it with my smartphone. I never turned on the phone to find out what I needed to do. There was no way to cross out items that I completed without them either disappearing or staying there, barely checked off, forever. And ask me if I ever looked at that darn list? No. Never.

I would grab a post-it note or slip of paper to jot a grocery list, since that was easier than entering all those groceries on my phone or into my laptop. I would lose the list. Every. Single. Time.

I lost all of my receipts and never knew whether we were going into debt each month.

I missed meetings, even though my cell alarm rang, because I had switched my phone to vibrate in church (okay, in a sushi bar for Ladies' Night Out...shush).

I was an anxious, worried, overworked mess.

I quit my job. (Seriously, I figured I'd get a new one within a year. Who knew that I am either underqualified or overqualified for EVERY JOB IN EXISTENCE?!?)

And I started using a planner again.

Planners had worked for me in college and seemed like the way to go to calm my life. I was scared. I had to keep up with the household, job applications, my writing and blogging, my health, and everything else. Could I do it without alarms and repeating tasks and the CRAZY that is technology constantly in my face?

I could. I did. I love technology, but I am a better person sipping mocha and doodling in my planner.

I know where my grocery list is these days. I know what I ate and what triggered my asthma and were I need to be Saturday at 5 p.m. I know what I have to do before I go to bed tonight and what I have to do in the morning. I still enter my calories, but I do it at my laptop, all at once. I track on paper, which is a much better system for me.

Everything is in my planner, so I don't have to carry life's burdens in my soul.

Etcetera.