My planner fails

Like many of you, I’m a planner snob. I have tried many store-bought planners (including online), but  pretty soon I get put off that I have to fit my life into their pre-designed template. Everybody’s life and needs are unique, aren’t they? Which is how I liked the concept of the bullet journal. If you’re a person who’s interested in reading this article, chances are that you already know about the bullet journal. But in case you don’t, check out his video:

The beauty of the bullet journal is: It is what you make of it. The customization is perfect for me. I actually skip the bullet part of it as I have seen that I don’t use it that much. The same with the index page as well. But the heart of it are the monthly pages, daily pages and collections.

I would give all notebooks a shot and would find something wrong with it and give up:(This post contains some affiliate links. Please see my disclosures here)

Moleskine: Loved the square paper, which made it easier to draw lines, but too bulky

Leuchtturm 1917: Loved the yellow color and the dot grid, which was less distracting than the squares, but again too heavy to carry around in my bag

Moleskine Cahier: I then thought I’ll carry these lighter notebooks around and have one for each month. I loved these pastel colors. The size and weight were perfect, but it was too much book for one month and too little for two. Plus, I had some information that I wanted to carry over from month to month, which meant too much repetition.

I found out my problem. I wanted some stationary pages – think collections, yearly goals, habits by the year etc. And then I wanted some pages that would change every month. I should just have a different small notebook for each category – a traveler’s notebook! Come, Webster’s pages:

But ughh.. The rubberbands and the books not in perfect alignment would drive me nuts!

I realized that notebooks don’t work for me. The pages are linear and I have to constantly move back and forth to find what I want or use an index which I don’t like to organize. I wanted to be able to move the pages around and have them all together as I saw fit at that moment.

A binder and loose pages – that was the answer! I bought the Recollections a5 binder from Michaels. The floral prints were great. The loose pages concept worked out really well, but the binder itself was too big to carry around. Plus, it wouldn’t lay flat.

My husband jokes that I have spent close to two mortgage payments on stationery. He may even be serious about it! But finally, after all these planner oops, I knew what I wanted – A binder book!

And this is what I ended up with – The Loghot Refillable Binder Notebook:

The color is beautiful and I can easily spot it in my bag. I don’t use the pages provided in this book, but you can buy a5 pages with 6 holes online. Or I make my own pages.  It can be as light or as heavy as I make it to be. I keep all the information that’s required long term and remove any pages that become obsolete. It lays flat too, which I love! So far, it has worked like a charm and I have been using it for more than 6 months. Going by my track record, that’s saying a lot!