My planning styles change throughout seasons of life, including the Lilly Pulitzer planner, Passion Planner, and Tidbits Planner so far.
Lilly Pulitzer Academic Planner
I used to stick to academic planners (like the Lilly Pulitzer academic planner) since I’m a teacher, but then I switched to the Passion Planner in 2020 after my daughter was born. She was born right at the beginning of the pandemic, and so I was teaching from home, my husband was working from home, and we had a newborn to take care of. That was a crazy time and it is such a blur.
Passion Planner
I ordered a Passion Planner because I needed a layout with half-hour increments to figure out who was taking care of the baby at what time. I color-coded each member of the family:
My husband- red
Me- purple
Baby- pink
I used PaperMate Flair Tip pens to draw lines to show who was taking care of our baby at what times. Then I would take a picture and text it to my husband. I used to color-code based on event when I was just planning for me in college/ right out of college with the Lily planner, using one color per class I was taking, plus orange for any Clemson game I wanted to attend (Go Tigers!).
I loved how detailed I could make plans in the Passion Planner, and I really like the goal-setting pages at the beginning- I still actually use their method for long term goals today. Basically, you make a graphic organizer with the following categories: Lifetime, 3 Years, 1 Year, and 3 months. The Passion Planner encourages you to reach your goals sooner by changing the categories.
For example, changing 3 months –> 1 month.
However, I missed the bright, happy colors of the Lily Pulitzer planners, so I started adding stickers. I really love the Paper Studio stickers from Hobby Lobby, especially when I find them on sale.
Tidbits Planner and Google Calendar
I seem to have a pattern of switching planners and planning styles when I go through a major life change. This past summer, our daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. I switched to the Tidbits planner because it has the half-hour increments, but with more space for daily to-dos, which was perfect for writing in medicine doses, PT exercises, and other tasks that had to be done on particular days. The Passion Planner has a large open space that I used for weekly to-dos. This space is designed for work on long-term goals, which didn’t serve me at that time.
I still use the color-coding system for each individual’s appointments, meetings, events etc. Also, blue is the color for whole-family events.
My husband and I also have a shared Google calendar–I add events that affect him and whole-family events.
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