But I get something else there, too - angst!
Today, someone mentioned that uneven planner pages make their OCD tingle. I glanced at my planner.
Homemade blank pages. Plan Ahead monthly/weekly pages. Daytimer notes pages. Quo Vadis daily pages.
Hmm, the edges of my planner are a hot mess!
Know what?
I don't care!
My planner works really well for me. I don't have the time, patience, money, or talent to make sure every page is exactly the same size and cut as every other page.
In addition, the slight variation in sizes serves as an additional method of finding the appropriate page quickly. My calendar pages are the widest pages, so I can easily see where my calendar is in the planner. It's not something that I actively think about, but my brain has learned the page sizes and uses that cue to help me use my planner well.
As always, do what works for YOU. If that means perfect pages help you to use and enjoy your planner more, go for it. But if uneven planner pages is better for your life, don't let others' expectations sway you.
Relax...and plan on!
Etcetera.
8 comments:
That is my planner to a "T". My calendar pages are FC Compact, all other store bought pages are in FF Personal. Then there are all the pages from the Target $1 Spot. Add in the different stickie notes and flags, very happily a mess. Someone posted a question and drawing of the different planner personalities, I and my planner are an 'exploded workhorse'.
Hehehe...yeah I get the tingle.
BUT I am way to busy and lazy to spend time cutting pages to perfection.
Still, the struggle is real!!
I don't care if my planner pages are perfect but I do like them to be close. For a while I had some personal size pages in with my compact size pages and that did not work for me. But I don't mind an occasional personal size in my compact planner.
I am a little OCD but only about some things. That's not one of them, thank goodness. I don't need anything else to be OCD about! :)
My pages are nowhere near cut perfectly. They are pretty close in size to each other, so there isn't much difference, but some are much more crooked than the others! And that's fine. Especially since it's the calendar pages - and they won't be in there forever!
I'm currently in the process of coming up with a custom system. I was using a big Mead Family Plus spiral-bound planner, but I got tired of carrying it around, so it now resides on my desk. I took the rings out of a Day Runner eRunner (the rings happened to be removable) and put them into a journal cover/tablet case I got from a friend at work. My idea is to combine my Kindle Fire with some type of paper system, which I'm still in the process of figuring out. I'm experimenting with the free printables I've hoarded from various blogs, email subscriptions, and Pinterest. I don't have a paper trimmer, and my skills with a pair of scissors are lackluster, so you can imagine how that looks right now! lol Basically, though, I'm going to use apps on my Kindle for certain things such as routines, while the paper sections will be where the rest of the planner magic happens. I'll keep y'all posted on my progress! :)
Ugh. Why is it okay to laugh at people with OCD, and/or to dismiss their concerns? It's an anxiety disorder and anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses around. A lot of anxiety disorders come with a big helping of depression just to round things off nicely, sufferers already have poor self-esteem, poor self-worth, and go through their days feeling like they're being ridiculous and the whole world is laughing at them while in significant mental and emotional distress because of their illness.
I've got to nearly 35 years old before my OCD was diagnosed, because I don't do the stereotypical things of checking the taps a million times a day, or being a cleaning freak (in fact I have the opposite - our house is a tip because I know I can never clean it to the standards that my OCD demands, so I lose incentive to clean before I even start, and then fall even further down the spiral of guilt and self-loathing). Looking back I've had symptoms since I was young enough to still be sitting in a car seat in the back of my parents' car. When you've been doing something your whole life, it can be a surprise to find out that "normal" people never worry about that stuff, it doesn't weigh on their minds, taking up mental space and burning through emotional reserves.
I also don't have the time, patience, money, or talent to make every single page the same. But it is actually genuinely distressing to me to look at a mess, so if my pages are like that I'll just stop using the planner. I know, crazy, right? It's crazy by definition, *because*it's*a*mental*health*issue*.
GM
I don't care mostly, how my pages looks like, my planner is also a mess. But the paper has to be the same size! if it is a little weird cutted, no problem, but more mm smaller/bigger, NO! NO! :D I make my insert for myself, plus I have some von Filofax, they are the same size - I have a great cutter!
muzsi - totally reasonable, if that works for you. :) I have my things that I MUST do, too.
GM - Giving in to your OCD is not crazy, nor did I hear anyone make fun of it. You certainly would not hear me dismissing OCD as real, as I am pretty sure I have it. I cope, but the anxiety is real!
However, uneven pages doesn't bother me at all. Now, there are so many things that do! That just isn't one of them! :)
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