The Planner

niched-down perfection

i am a planner person.

This planner was born out of many years OF using many different planners, AS WELL AS GOING THROUGH MANY OTHERS ONLINE WITH A FINE-TOOTH COMB, before deciding not to buy.

There were things I really appreciated about each, but none quite fit the bill for the uniqueness of ME (and perhaps YOU?).

Here are some pertinent facts about me that drive the criteria I’ve been looking for in a planner:

if you are soul-sister (and i suspect you might be!) i present to you...

a planner for entrepreneurial, unschooling, big family mamas (like us)

1- I’m a mom, and a “big family mom” at that. I don’t just need to keep my own ducks in a row, but also the ducks of 6 children 

2- We unschool, so I don’t need curriculum planning space like conventional homeschoolers, nor do I need academic/school space in my planner

3 - I am someone who is trying to grow in my faithfulness regarding home management, and particularly housework. I find that planning that out goes a long way in making sure I attain my goals.

4 - I believe in menu planning and wanted a page where I could lay it all out each week and use the menu plan as a guide for my grocery shopping list.

5 - I’m steward a small business/ministry. I like some degree of separation between work and the rest of my life, but I also don’t want two separate planners for these two arenas. 

6 - I’m an avid budgeter but I use YNAB for that and don’t want it in my planner.

7 - I love lists. The satisfaction of checking or crossing things off lists never gets old. It keeps me focused and on track.

8 - Tracking my cycle so that I can live in tune with its gifts and limitations has become really special to me, so I wanted to be able to keep notes about which phase and day of my cycle I’m in each day.

9 - I’m interested in the impact of weather on my mood and have always wanted to keep track to notice correlations. Plus, the forecast tends to influence what foods I put on my menu plan.

10 -Though there are some time-specific events in our life to block off, lots of it is flowy and flexible, so I wanted a bit of space for time-blocking, but just as much for jotting down tasks that can be done at any time of day, when I find a window of opportunity.

11 - I like a daily sheet. The reminders and to-do lists are fresh every morning, right?! 

12- It’s important to me to integrate my faith into my life and one small way to do that is to record a focus verse each week as well as to take time to practice gratitude and count my blessings daily.

13 - I’m working on forming wholesome habits because habits make up a life. Hence, a habit-tracker felt useful.

14 - I desire to be holistic in my approach to life. I wanted to include a rubric for proactively plotting out how to tend to all the aspects of a well-rounded life each week.