Moving to a New Planner

Planners Vary by Color and Design

Pablo Picasso said "Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act.  There is no other route to success."

Every January it is time for me to move into a new planner.  I know, many of you have gone completely digital, but let me just share my experiences with that.  I own a smartphone.  But it isn't that smart.  My first smartphone inconveniently forgot how a touch screen works.  No touch screen, no smartphone.  Smartphone #2 had battery issues.  It wouldn't do anything except phone or text.  No battery function, no smartphone.  I am now on a new incarnation of phone and battery, but I have trust issues at this point.  Being slightly negligent in the back-up department, I am reluctant to trust too much information to that phone of mine.  Paper planners may be dated, but they have NEVER let me down!  So, if you are all digital, good for you!  I am, however, completing my January ritual of moving in to a fresh, new planner.

Plain, but practical.

Planners are personal.  And I believe I have to like my planner or I won't use it.  I am not a slave to my planner.  I easily leave large blank areas in all my planners, but when I need to track a lot of details, my planner is invaluable.  This is my 2013 planner.  It is pale purple.  It wasn't my first choice based on appearance, but it had the features I wanted.  First, it isn't too thick, and it fits into my purse.

A Monthly View

Secondly, I have to have a monthly view in a planner.  I do most of my calendering, tracking, planning, etc. on this page, so it is important to me.  Many calendars just have a weekly view, but I often don't use the weekly pages, so those planners do not work well for me.

Family organizer

Time of life impacts planner usage as well.  When I used these family-style planners, keeping grocery lists and planning menus were as important to the function of our busy family as all of the sporting events and music lessons.  This planner had sidebars dedicated to those two things.  Life has altered a bit now, and I have abandoned the thick family organizer for a slimmer model.  Although I am a casual planner, I find I get more done when I commit it to paper.

Weekly View

My new planner has weekly pages behind the monthly view.  I paper clip the month page to the current week and can find my plans quickly and easily.  I preferred the artistic design of a couple other planners the day I bought mine, but they lacked other features.  This planner has January 2014 in it, always a plus.  It also includes planning pages, contact pages, and a few blank pages for note taking.  This additional capability and versatility made me choose the "plainer planner."  Function over form, in this case.  

There is something hopeful about moving into a new planner.  I choose which things to carry over from the previous year.  I can let the disappointments go, and not move them in to my fresh, new pages.  Each new planner is a fresh start. I can do better this year.  I can put in the plans that really matter to me.  I find this annual ritual to be an act of optimism!

Planning or dreaming?

Despite my best intentions to plan, blank pages exist frequently in my planners, old and new.  Are the blanks lost opportunities?  Could I have done more if I filled them in?  Maybe.  But maybe the blank spaces are where the dreams hatch.  I liked this quote by Gloria Steinhem:  "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities.  Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

What type of planner do you use?  What helps you accomplish things in your life?  I wish you the excitement of possibilities this year as you plan and dream!

The Art of Optimism

Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon

"...I've found that there is always some beauty left--in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself, these can all help you.  Look at these things, then you find yourself again, and God, and then you regain your balance.  And whoever is happy will make others happy too.  He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!"

--Anne Frank, from The Diary of Anne Frank

An elderly gentleman in our neighborhood recently passed away.  In his obituary, it indicated he had been a member of the Optimist Club.  I had never heard of this club, but found the idea intriguing.  So, I started thinking:  am I a glass half-full or a glass half-empty kind of person?  Would I be a candidate for membership in an Optimist Club?  In actuality, the real Optimist Club is a service oriented club where adults work to empower young people by mentoring them in service opportunities.  But what if it were a club where membership was based on attitudes?  Would you be able to gain membership? Something to think about.  And to entertain yourself while you are debating if you yourself are an optimist, here are a book and two movies you may want to try.

I took this book off my shelf and re-read it this week because of its title:  The Optimist's Daughter,   This novel by Eudora Welty won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1972.  It is the story of  Laurel, an adult woman living in Chicago, who travels to be with her aging father in New Orleans, where he has gone for medical treatment.  Laurel's mother passed away previously, and her father has married a much younger woman named Fay.  Laurel's father passes away, and Laurel travels back to her small Mississippi hometown with Fay.  Fay is a shrill character, and seems incapable of any depth of understanding.  Laurel, meanwhile, explores her childhood home, stumbling across many memories, and coming to some realizations about her parents, and herself.  Was Laurel's father really an optimist?  The story indicates he became one during her mother's illness.  Do we put on a false optimism when faced with difficulties?  As I re-read this novel, I concluded that it really isn't about optimism as much as it is about the difference between the past and our memories.  Welty concludes that the past is impervious--that it just exists and "can never be awakened."  Memory, however, "...is the somnambulist" and wanders into our lives "demanding its rightful tears."  Laurel's journey home is a journey into not only making peace with her past, but also taking possession of her memories.  This is a wonderful book and is a quick read.

Reading about the Optimists' Club also made me think of optimism in entertainment.  Pollyanna comes to mind as an optimistic character, as well as Little Orphan Annie singing "The sun will come out tomorrow."  What about more recent offerings?  Several years ago, Will Smith starred in "The Pursuit of Happyness."    This movie portrays a down-on-his-luck young father (real-life Chris Gardner) who, in the midst of extreme financial difficulty, loses his girlfriend and his home.  On the streets with a young son in tow, he works hard in a competitive internship to make a better life for himself and his son.  The odds are stacked against him, and this movie has some tense moments as Chris tries to keep his son safe on the streets of San Francisco.  The acting is solid and the movie is based on a true rags-to-riches story. Overall, it is a story of someone who succeeds out of sheer hard work and determination...and this message has resonance today.

I also enjoyed the 2011 movie, "Larry Crowne."  Tom Hanks plays Larry, who loses his job at a big box store.  Divorced, facing foreclosure, and unemployed, Larry seems to have as good a reason as anyone to be depressed.  The thing I found so admirable about the character is that he remains open to new things despite all of the bad things going on in his life.  He starts taking classes at a community college and is accepts a rather unlikely offer of friendship from a fellow student. He works hard in his classes and applies the things he is learning in his life. Larry takes a job at a diner.  He had been a cook in the Navy, and really didn't want to return to that line of work, but wasn't afraid to do what was necessary to stay afloat. There are so many times during this story where Larry could complain or get upset, and yet he stays positive and works his way through difficult circumstances.  Despite what could be depressing subject matter, this movie succeeds as a warm comedy, with a delightful group of supporting characters.

So, back to the whole glass half-full/half-empty thing.  I don't necessarily think I am pessimistic.  I prefer to think of myself as a realist.  Sometimes it is easy to confuse the two.  I think, as a young Anne Frank advised, if we recognize beauty in life we can keep our balance.  Cultivating optimism is worthwhile, and I do admire those whose optimism seems genuine.  If you aren't feeling particularly optimistic right now, watch a movie about someone who is, and see if it is contagious.  What are the things you do to lift yourself when you are feeling low?  Good luck this week being more optimistic!  You can do it!