Starting the Year Organized

'Tis the new year, and at this point in time people will have gone back to reality from the happy holidays. Students to school, yuppies to work, and so on.... This is a whole new year where there are new opportunities to grab, new (and not-so-new) tasks to complete, and of course, dreams to continue chasing.

Yes, amidst all of the baggage from last year, the new year can still look to be a blank canvas, or a hodgepodge of tasks and events that seem to be all over the place. So, what to do to erase the fear that comes from the newness of the year, and from the mess of the previous year that spills over to the next?

Why, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to get a planner, no?

Okay, okay, maybe this post is just because this is the first time I actually bought my planner before the year began. I was a disaster with planners, actually. I started using (or trying to use) a planner during my high school years, I think around my junior year, mainly so I can keep track of my extracurricular activities, so I can submit them for the extra points they're supposed to be for. Needless to say, being in high school, and a pretty disorganized and forgetful person, the planner was not of much use, and served more as a journal than as a planner.

During my college years, I trudged on with my attempts at planning out my activities, instead of mentally going over my activities for the following day and being surprised at one thing or another I am supposed to do. I guess the point where the planner started to be somewhat of real use to me was when I got my Powerbooks planner. It wasn't really a planner, I think, but a reader's journal, but being a booklover, I fell in love with the theme of it. I guess that's where my planner preferences also started. The major flaw of that journal was that it did not indicate the dates, so I had to fill them in, and worse, it only had twenty-eight days per month! I had to cram the 29th - 30th/31st days of the month in the notes page. But on the whole, I was satisfied with it.

Source: spot.ph

My 2010 planner was one I really loved. And one I used more often, too! (Can you taste the feeling of self-accomplishment in that line?) At this time, I now used more effort in finding my planner, although I think I got to buy the planner around the middle of January already. But it was okay, because I really fell in love with this planner. Even now that I'm supposed to be done using it, I still can't help but gush about it. Anyway, aforementioned beloved planner is the Navi 2010 planner. There were a number of planners on the market, but I fell for the Navi because it had adequate space, I loved the color of its pages, and it was simple enough for me. Yes, my preferences in planners were already in full swing around this time, and I was quite picky in choosing. I guess that's why I ended up buying it quite late. I still wasn't the best at using a planner for planning instead of recording past events, but it did help me in my thesis, and therefore in graduating, although with the onslaught of law school, I ended up not using it for around two months. Then I reunited with it and ended my 2010 happily with it. Oh, and I also loved the quotes that it had for every week. Very inspiring.

My beloved Navi <3

And so we're now back to 2011. The year is looking to be hopeful, adventurous, and stressful already, and I'm glad I was able to find a planner (well, it says it's a journal, but it's pretty much the same to me) while it was still 2010. So, what did I buy? I bought FreeSpeech Publication's "this Journal will actually change someone's life!!! 2011."

Last year, it was one of my options for my 2010 planner. However, that year's edition somehow looked too dark for me, and the lighter tones and the interesting quips of the Navi 2010 planner won me over. This year, though, it was the Navi planner that didn't work for me, and the Journal was the one that got to me. I actually looked for the Navi 2011 first, but then, compared to the Journal's being too dark for me last year, the Navi was actually too light for me. The light brown pages of the Navi 2010 planner which I loved so much was nowhere to be found in the 2011 edition. The pages were white, and the art was just too bright for me. So I looked for another one, and then I saw this lovely dark green journal. At first I was hesitant about it, but now I just love it. I'm gonna miss the weekly quotes, though.

I still have a monthly calendar which is where I put all the birthdays that I keep track of, although the difference with my Navi is that it has this feature at the beginning of every month, whereas in my Navi it was all in the beginning of the planner, before the weekly planner.

Although admittedly, I am going to miss my Navi quotes, my new Journal has lots of fun trivia, especially about important events all over the world, from national holidays--hey, my birthday is actually Random Acts of Kindness Day! Isn't it awesome?

Just disregard whatever random stuff you can see written on my journal. :P

Also, it has different kinds of writing spaces (strategy notes, stuff, and doodle pages) that give me somewhere to write all my fleeting thoughts. My previous practice was to stick post-its in my planner for whatever random stuff that I have to note but is not actually a planner entry (at least in my books), and I think I'll still do that, but with these features, I can foresee that I'll be doing that less often. Also, I love the mood chart that it has, it gives me a way of keeping track of my days, and prompts me to look back on my day and determine how the day actually turned out for me. I think it's a really cool feature. 

There are other features that I wasn't able to take pictures of, such as different lists and information for every month (like "10 Places I Want to Travel Before 2012), quarterly check-up pages, and a really cute feature where you give coupons to people, for example, to a movie date with you! I think this is a substitute to the coupons that come with other planners (like my Navi), and while it makes the price (I think it's 720 pesos at Fully Booked) quite expensive, considering the lack of treats that come with it, I still say it's a good planner for me, since its features encourage me to use it constantly. 

A good planner, of course is nothing without the right mindset and attitude, so more than having an awesome planner, I am looking forward to a more active, organized, responsible, and fun self this 2011. 

Cheers to an awesome new year!