Happy 2017!!! I hope you are having a great start of the year and you all had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas and New Year with your family and friends.
I have been a bit at sea since our family came to our holiday house in Vilnius. No routines, no meal plans, no to-do lists. My days were totally out of my control. But I have to admit, it felt pretty nice. We are finally back to our home in Dubai. Everyone is busy again and I can finally focus on my routines and get back to my planning sessions.
I think it is good to have such periods when you just let go and flow letting the things play out naturally. Holidays are perfect for this. You become like a lazy bear and all you seem to do is sleep, eat and sleep. I like do-nothing days when you can get your breakfast during lunch time, be in your pajamas as long as you wish and have no plan of the day being ready to take every spontaneous opportunity the day can give you or just spend your time reading hundreds of magazines on every sofa or armchair in your house. I like these days, as long as they don’t turn into weeks and months. It is so easy to be trapped in these lazy routines with the idea that everything will happen the way it is meant to. But you cannot take a backseat in life and expect things to happen for you. Beginning of the year is so good to evaluate your current life and to set new goals for yourself and make an action plan that would help you to achieve your goals with less effort and time spent.
Being without planning for some time have proved to me again that with everyday planning you tend to accomplish more, you focus more on the things that are your most important priorities, and you say “no” much easier to the things that matter less. Planning gives you the clarity and the courage to manage your opportunities rather than to be managed by them.
It was found that most of us can hold not more that 7 objects in the short-term memory. It means that we are not able to remember what all our thoughts, plans and tasks are. We need to move them out of our mind by recording them externally on paper, telephone or computer. Only when the mind is freed from the task to remember everything that needs to be done and it can fully concentrate on actually performing those tasks. For me writing on the paper works the best, although sometimes on the go I use my phone.
I am ready for planning with my new LifePlanner for 2017 from Erin Condren. I was very happy with this planner, which I used in 2016, that is why I could not wait for the new one to come.
It came quite quick, packed in a nice pink box as usual.
It is beautiful, colorful and just fantastic! I chose metallic gold coil, vertical weekly layout, colorful interior color theme and personalized interchangeable cover, of course.
It has some nice stickers included and a zipper pouch that used with the adhesive coil can be moved around the planner to keep important checks, cards, stickers together. You can record all birthdays and anniversaries in a little perpetual calendar that is also included in the back of the planner that helps not to forget all the celebrations and is so handy to have. It also has contacts and password page. In addition, I ordered little mini snap-in bookmarks. They help to mark pages and sections you frequently flip to in your planner.
I was also attracted by the small pocket-sized device that can wirelessly print photos from your phone – Polaroid Zip Instant Photo Printer.
It prints small photos with a sticky back that fit perfectly to vertical LifePlanner boxes. I thought I will choose a photo of the week and stick it to the weekly spread sheet. It is going to be a nice way to document our family life and finish the week.
One of my goals this year is “No day without planning”, except holidays of course. We all need to be off the chain once in a while in order to get our batteries recharged and to be ready to work properly in the working mode again. I think I am all set and ready. Are you?
