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Elyssa Nalani

Elyssa Nalani

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The Ultimate Guide to Paper Planning

March 31, 2022 · In: Featured, GOALS & PLANNING

How to Use Multiple Planners

It’s finally time to talk about multiple planners!

Using multiple planners isn’t about having a bunch of different books. It’s about staying organized. And sometimes staying organized means compartmentalizing things. Just like the cabinets in your kitchen to hold different items, sometimes we need more than one book to hold and organize different information.

(This post contains affiliate links. See disclosure here.)

Assemble Your Team

Cori (The Reset Girl) calls her multiple planners her planner team. So now it’s time to assemble your team.

You did most of your groundwork in the first and second steps . You made a list of categories that make up your life. You’ve tested methods in your notebooks. You’ve looked at the different kinds of planners. Now let’s put them together to make your team.

Maybe a project management planner just needs a lot of space so you choose a large notebook. Maybe your academic planner needs ready-made structure so you choose an academic Blue Sky, or Erin Condren. Maybe you need a run-of-the-mill 3-ring binder to take care of home management (like me!).

And do remember functionality. If you’re out and about a lot and don’t like carrying a big heavy bag, don’t choose a big book for your everyday planner. Maybe you need something compact like a passport Traveler’s Notebook with just your monthly agenda and a space for notes when you’re running errands. Maybe the bulk of your planning and scheduling stays on your desk or at your bedside so you choose a large disc-bound or coil-bound planner.

This is also trial and error. I still don’t recommend dropping big bucks on something expensive yet.

Now that you’ve got your planner team assembled, it’s time to add your your Master Planner.


Set Up Your Master Planner 

A Master Planner isn’t another agenda. A Master Planner is functions more like a journal or notebook. Corie (The Reset Girl) calls this the Master Notebook. She says that when it comes to planning, we need space to brainstorm and write out thoughts and ideas. I completely agree! We need lots of space and paper to work through projects, ideas, notes, and tasks.

Check out what she says about here Master Notebook in her video:

This book is your dashboard, your brain’s central command center, the place from which your planner team operates. You can use it to do some pretty important functions:

  • Your planner team master list
  • Real time information curation.
  • Brain dump
  • Brainstorming

Master List

Cori touches on this briefly in her video. This list is like the table of contents for your planning system. This not only keeps you organized but also gives you a framework that is ready to receive new information. When you have info that needs a place, you’ll find that you already have a space for it or it takes you a few moments to add a new space because your framework is already there.

Real Time Information Curation

No more looking for scrap paper to jot down an appointment, phone number, or meeting notes. You can curate information in real time in this notebook and have it ready to transfer it to the space it belongs.

Brain Dump

Carie Harling says that your brain is for thinking, not for storage (which I believe she got from Getting Things Done David Allen. Our noggins need a place where we dump out all the random thoughts, ideas, tasks, and items that we have floating around. And not only are they floating around, they’re not being acted upon. This is the stuff that oh yeah, we’ve been meaning to do for the past 3 months but keep forgetting to get around to it. These are the awesome ideas that we tell ourselves we’re going to remember but the next day are lost to us for forever. These are the questions you were going to ask at the planning meeting but forgot to write down and now you can’t think of it.

You and I both know how much we forget and lose on a regular basis. Brain dumping not only clears our mind but also catches the useful information we need in the future.

Here are a couple of brain dump videos for you to consider:

Brainstorm

This hardly needs explanation, it’s self-explanatory. Our brains need a space for us to write out ideas, draw pictures, work through problems, take notes and make long lists.


Don’t Discount Digital Tools

I never would have said this as a newbie planner girl but digital tools are definitely necessary to a planner set up. I turn to Google Calendar, Notes, Notion, and AnyList on my phone regularly. But the game-changer for keeping track of all my digital information and big projects is Notion. I will never not use Notion from now on.

Some people only plan and do task management with tools like Notion but I will always be a paper planner girl. So while I am keeping lots of information in my Notion databases, it’s a part of my whole planning system.


You may find other uses for your Master Notebook. Do what works for your brain! This will change and morph as time goes by. I’ve been at this over two years (still a newbie) and I’m still tweaking my system. Life changes and so will your planning. You’ll want to try new books and products. You’ll want to try a new method after watching someone’s YouTube video or seeing an Instagram post. That’s okay! Try new things but don’t get too distracted 🙂

Now wrap it up with some dos and don’ts of paper planning!

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

By: Elyssa Nalani · In: Featured, GOALS & PLANNING · Tagged: full focus planner, goals, planner, planning

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We can all agree that the OT genealogies are great We can all agree that the OT genealogies are great reading matter for insomnia.

Then there are the purity laws.
And the land assignments.
And the censuses. 
You get it. 

It’s not a sin to say that parts of the Bible are boring, confusing, or hard to follow & understand. It just means you have Bible-reading muscles to stretch out and exercise. There are things you have to get used to and it can take time. But in the meantime, here’s one thing to keep in mind when in a less than exciting or inspiring passage of scripture - 

God cares about details. He’s not careless or haphazard. He’s interested in establishing track records because He knows the only way to make His case of love & justice is to offer evidence of His faithfulness in spite of the unfaithfulness of humanity. Nothing is an accident and even when humans don’t listen and jack stuff up, He never loses control over the situation. 

It’s okay if it’s boring for awhile. Stick with it until you see its beauty. It’s worth the effort!
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“What does this have to do with me?” “How d “What does this have to do with me?”

“How does this speak into what I’m going through today?”

“How does change my life?”

These aren’t bad questions, in fact, they’re good questions and we should ask them. We just shouldn’t ask them FIRST. If we’re primarily concerned with what the Bible has to do with US, we’re probably going to pass up the parts that legit will tell us nothing about life as modern humans (genealogies and law codes anyone?). Instead, we have to change our presuppositions - 

1. The Bible isn’t about me. The Bible is about God and His redemptive work in the world.
2. I need to let God’s story tell me about about Himself
3. Knowing who God is, what His intentions are for humans & how He operates in the world makes up the framework I need to understand myself, my value, & my purpose on this planet. 

Don’t get me wrong. the Bible will tell you a whole lot about yourself. But first let it tell you about God. Start looking for glimpses of Jesus & the Gospel. In some places He may be harder to spot than others but He’s there, His plan is there, His love is there. Always ❤️
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• Yes it’s hard
• Yes, it takes discipline
• Yes there may be a learning curve
• Yes there are some parts that are really boring at first

But it’s good and glorious and God’s gift to humanity. If you care at all about Jesus, take the time to read His story. Take the time to figure it out, to ask questions, to be frustrated, to not be good at it. All of those things are okay.  God can handle it all - I promise. Just show up. He’ll meet you there. 
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• If you’ve fallen off your Bible-reading-in-a • If you’ve fallen off your Bible-reading-in-a-year plan, you can still pick it back up. 

• If you didn’t start on January 1st, you can still start now. 

• If you get bored easily, it’s okay, you can learn ways to stay focused. 

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• If you needed a reminder to get in the word today, here it is 😊
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Studying the Bible with @betheyjacobson777 is alwa Studying the Bible with @betheyjacobson777 is always a treat - even when we’re both sleep deprived and I struggling to just make sentences 😆 But God! Have mercy He’s so good and His Word never fails to deliver 🤩😎 If you needed a reminder that studying in community is worth the time and effort - here it is friend. Grab a friend, grab a Bible and have some fun! And yes - Bible study can absolutely be a great time 😉
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I love watching day in the life content. I’ve of I love watching day in the life content. I’ve often wanted to do it but, so many of my days look like this - me at my desk, working and jamming out to my favorite music. It’s not very interesting or varied but it’s my life! Playlists change depending on my mood. Today, I’ve been really feeling the songs from the 80s-mid 90s that I grew up listening to. 

So, nobody asked, and excuse my pitchy vocals but here’s a day in my life 😄😎 Happy Monday!
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