Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Don't Be Embarrassed by a Messy Planner

There is a lively discussion going on in the Giftie Etcetera Facebook group about whether planners should be nicely decorated or messy. 


planner, messy, decorated planner pages


There is nothing wrong with a decorated planner, in my opinion, UNLESS it makes you scared or reluctant to actually plan.

For example, I am dealing with my oral surgery emergency (see yesterday's post for the grim details) by taking random notes on sticky post-its. It would be silly to recopy these temporary notes.




I also had to scratch out and reschedule work hours for this week. Yes, I have erasable ink, but in this case, I want a record of the hours that I rescheduled so that I can make them up.




While all this drama was going on, my husband asked me to pull our tax documents. I jotted a quick note on my weekly task list. There wasn't really room for it, but I'm struggling with some major dental pain here!




I also had to jot down timesheet entries. Again, barely functional because my tooth FELL OUT INTO MY HAND.


It's all fine. The information is present and where it is most needed.

Even as a person who puts pictures of her planner on-line, I'm proud of them, not because they are pretty, but because they are real and useful!

If you also believe that practical is better than pretty, share this post in social media, like Pinterest or Facebook.


Etcetera.

Linked at:

DIY Vintage Chic

10 comments:

  1. Yep, mine looks similar. Got to do what you got to do. Hahaha Great post!

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  2. Yep, I think practical is better than pretty. I'm fairly new to using a planner (instead of just a calendar) and I'm still struggling to write things down as readable and organized as possible. Decorating would only make that harder.
    And the tooth... I am so scared of all things related to dentists that I skipped that post yesterday, but it seems painful. Wishing you all the best with it.

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  3. I tried to be really clear it was about a tooth, for those with that (COMPLETELY REASONABLE AND TOTALLY LEGIT) phobia!

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  4. Planners are for just that, planning. That should be the first priority. Decorating second in my opinion. If the decorating is most important to you it is a scrapbook, which is fine too but you can't argue with a messy but functional planner. Both types can be so busy and messy that they don't function, which makes the task pointless really. Team function over pretty!!

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  5. Mine is pretty messy - meaning that some days it is pretty, and some it is messy. I love my planner - and I love that it works for me with our without colored pens and flower stickers.

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  6. Hmmm, I had made a note at the bottom of my March page "Print another and start over. Get it together, woman!" I had scribbled out and rescheduled so much...but maybe I will just keep it that way. The month is half over and I can look back and say "Okay, that month was a mess and I made it through" whenever I'm upset that things aren't nice and orderly!

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  7. +1 for team "Function". I use a vertical Wo2P layout. Writing real estate is already limited and any decoration would only be more limiting. Now when the week is over, then I'll go nuts with the stickers and washi.

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  8. I agree, practical over pretty. :) Mostly, it needs to be whatever WORKS for you.

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  9. I have a basic black leather Franklin covey planner. Nothin special. Very functional n comfortable to use as well

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  10. Practical over pretty! I wish I had the time to decorate my planner so neatly and beautiful as some people do. They are pieces of art sometimes! My planner has notes everywhere and I try to keep it neat and use one pen etc., however I usually fail.

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