This article was originally written for submission to Paper Planning Magazine, but as a new issue hasn’t been published in over a year, I think it’s time to post it on my blog instead.
Also note that as this publishes, I’m currently either heavily pregnant or in a post-partum haze, so the polish on this previously-written article does not reflect the current state of my brain. Apologies again for the time between posts right now, and for any lack of communication if you’re trying to get a hold of me. I should be myself again soon.
I’ve been in a “planner funk” once or twice in my planning career, and I bet most of you have too.
You know the feeling, even if you can’t quite put your finger on it. Maybe you’re frantic because you’re unable to understand your goals no matter how many layouts you try. Maybe you find yourself flipping through your project pages for the fourth time in a day, just looking for something to work on, but never quite able to figure out the best thing.
They call it a funk because you can’t really describe what it is you’re experiencing, or–critically–why.
But I started to notice that I was experiencing two different categories of planner funk, so I pulled out a blank page and tried to come to terms with it.
I propose to you my thesis, that planner peace is simply an elusive balance between things that need to be done and time you have to spend in your planner. Stray too far from that balance, and you start to feel, well… funky.
The Razor’s Edge
Obviously, the quantity of time or number of tasks will vary from person to person, but we’re all striving to find the middle, where every second spent in our planners is productive and we’re getting the most done in our day. This balance is by nature precarious though because things will always pop up that could throw us off. That’s why I call this the razor’s edge; you don’t have a lot of wiggle room.
The Sweet Spot
The sweet spot is where you really want to be. It’s where you have just a little bit more time to spend in your planner than you technically need. That gives you a few minutes to do a brain dump, or gather next action items from your project pages, with a couple of seconds left over to breathe.
Planner Ennui
But give yourself too much planner time, and you might find yourself in the zone of planner ennui, flipping aimlessly through a seemingly useless planner.
I get in this zone often when I’ve just finished a big project. Something that was taking a lot of my time is suddenly taking none of it, and planner strategies that were indispensable now feel like overkill.
It’s simple, but what you need to do when you find yourself in planner ennui is either
- Give yourself more to do:
- Decorate your planner for fun
- Schedule ahead for the next busy period
- Practice a hobby
- Or simply plan to do less. I often forget this, but it’s important:
The goal of planning is to have nothing left to do.
If you find yourself in that state, congratulations! Take a minute to appreciate it. Take a deep breath. Enjoy your family and your home. And don’t worry, the busy period will come again whether you want it to or not.
Planner Overwhelm
The final state of planner funk is probably the most common. So much to do and so little time: planner overwhelm.
When I find myself here, I’m too busy to even check my daily page, and you know that can’t end well.
The first step when you’re here is to do your best to actually sit down with your projects and inventory what you have on your plate. Sometimes what feels like a lot is actually just a massive jumbled pile that will feel small and manageable once it’s folded up neatly.
Once you know what you actually have to do, you can work on tackling it, deferring it, or delegating it, to free up space for yourself.
The major planner problem here though is that maybe before you got to this busy season, you had an hour to spend planning out your day every morning, so you spent it with a cup of coffee and a roll of washi tape, and you filled out a full-page monthly tracker, and you drank 2 gallons of water every day and you kept track of your steps and you practiced your calligraphy with an inspirational quote on each daily page. All of those things are great, but they take planner time, and they can push you into the red zone when life gets hectic. They risk making your planning feel like yet another obligation to dodge, and guilt is counterproductive when what you really need is to be in that planner.
It takes courage to abandon a habit tracker halfway through the month because it doesn’t fit you anymore, but it might be what you need to do to trim down your planning and focus on the important things going on outside your notebook.
You’ll never find a planning balance that won’t eventually shift off course.
Our lives ebb and flow, and a good planner system can account for that, but it might take some work and introspection.
The feeling that your planner is working against you instead of being a productivity tool is unsettling. That’s why when it happens it’s important to take a minute to figure out exactly what needs to change.
