Best Laid Plans

Ep 102: Digital Planner Peace & My Mid-Year Review Process (& Tools)

July 11, 2022

Planner Peace

Beth was kind enough to leave a long message AND share some photos! Here are the images of her digital planning setup. She uses Artful Agenda (which integrates with her Google Calendar).

monthly view
weekly view
daily view
tasks

I personally cannot imagine leaving paper behind, but I absolutely see the appeal and the flexibility available in this kind of setup – while still retaining aesthetic appeal. Thank you so much for sharing, Beth!

Keep the PP submissions coming – I learn so much from you all!

Mid-Year Review!

There is a lot of attention by some to goal setting at the END of the year, but less attention to how one plans to actually remember those goals!  I personally tend to look at things formally monthly + by quintile, but mid-year seems like a good time too (plus Laura would never agree to 5 goals eps per year. HAHAHA).

Things to consider:

– How has the year gone overall so far?  

     Different than expected?

     Themes that have emerged?

     Unexpected challenges or opportunities?

– Look at your 2022 goals list!

     Which (if any) are completed?

     Which are not done, per se, but on track?

     Which are seeming less realistic?

     Which are no longer exciting or appealing?

– Think about adding a couple of ‘replacements’ esp if you’ve moved on from some of what you previously identified!

Also good to look at right now:

– School calendar for next AY

– Travel plans – firm up anything soon (reservations, hotels, etc) and then also look at holidays, winter break. (You can tell I took a deep dive into this with all of our winter break planning recently!)

Tools Used

  • 2022 goals list in Todoist
  • Used the Cultivate What Matters mid-year refresh to triage the above, color coding with Kuretake Zig clean color dots 🙂
  • Used THIS to create my July goals list in Cultivate
tending list page
  • Also filled out my Erin Condren Daily Duo’s 6 month page to get a broad understanding of what the rest of the year looks like and to go through PTO days.

EC Affiliate Shopping Link here — (if used, I earn a small commission. Sadly no accompanying coupon deal currently! They do currently have 10% off for all verified teachers + students).


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Finally – keep the Planner Peace submissions coming! I’m running low, so if you’ve ever considered sending yours in, now is a great time.

14 Comments

  • Reply Amanda July 11, 2022 at 11:58 am

    Thank you for all these photos as I wasn’t quite understanding what digital planning was. This looks amazing. Going to try the 2 week trial. I cut my 2022 goals way down at this halfway point. I think it’s too easy at the start of the year to have all the plans; I’m much more realistic come July so that I can actually finish the year strong with what really matters to me.

  • Reply Megan July 11, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    Just wanted to say thank you! I’ve been reading your blog and listening to your podcast for over a year, and I have struggled with finding the right planner for me (I’m a CPA who works from home at a FT job and a PT job and I have a 14 YO, 11 YO, and 9 YO). But you have so many good ideas and you are really inspiring with your goal-setting, so I’m slowly incorporating more forward thinking and planning and not just constantly reacting to life each day. I just ordered myself an Agendio for 3 months figuring I can try it out and see what pages/formats/sections I like and which I don’t use. I’m hoping this will help me get to a good planner for 2023! I’ll definitely submit a planner peace if this works out. 🙂

  • Reply Lisa of Lisa's Yarns July 11, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    The digital planner the listener uses is really pretty! I am too tactile of a person to use digital but it’s fun to see how someone else uses it!

    I really appreciated the mid-year review patreon episode. I also have you to thank for introducing me to the W222. Without it, I would have drawn a blank on what I accomplished in the first half of the year! In the monthly review sections, I have a list of what I achieved and a list of highs/lows so that really helps me remember what we did.

    Re: photobooks! I used to do them all in one but the last several years, I’ve worked on them throughout the year in 2-4 month chunks. It makes it way less overwhelming! Every month in google photos, I make a folder of favorite photos from that month. It makes it easier to make my photobook since I’ve culled the photos for myself. I’ve only done Jan/Feb so far so I have some catching up to do, but I plan to work on Mar-Jun this month so I am half done!

  • Reply Grateful Kae July 11, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    You look like you’re doing super well with your 22 for 22 list! Only 4 blue/behind dots!

    I haven’t done an official “review” of mine yet, but I don’t even want to, because I know I’m doing terribly. 🙁 Not sure if I set bad goals, or unrealistic goals, or if I’m just turning into a wimp who doesn’t follow through on things, but I just don’t think I’m hitting many of my targets. I haven’t even done a great job of LOOKING at my 22 for 22 list, so… I guess not surprising that I’m not completing them. Ha. Things have just felt really busy? But that is a lame excuse… I don’t know! I haven’t listened to the episode yet (probably will at the gym in a little bit!)) but I’m interested in using your template to do a little mid-year review (and probably/ maybe a re-set. Or else slash my goals list down to a more do-able, much smaller list?)

  • Reply Jackie July 11, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    are you using the a5 or the larger daily duo? I was considering trying one.

    I also struggle with daily planners as I’m an inpatient RD so my work hours don’t need planning really. Everyday is different and I don’t know what it’s going to be like until that day.

    But my kids now have 52 activities and orthodontist appointments, etc and I need something more than just a weekly layout.

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger July 12, 2022 at 5:37 am

      I am using the A5!!

  • Reply Jessica D Fraser July 12, 2022 at 11:31 am

    These photos are so helpful. This was a great episode and inspired me to do a mid-year review. I do customized planners, (from a variety of places) but I’m also an enneagram 7 who craves a lot of variety and get bored or find fault with my design after a few months. I’m thinking about using your quintile system to design smaller planners that include more notes pages and goal tracking pages so that I can change up my planner design more often. In a weird way having so many options and choices does feel like planner peace to me. On another note- I was researching goofy “national days” like national hot dog day, things like that because my family is going to start sending “holiday” cards out randomly (mainly to accomodate my inability to ever get them out on time – but still wanting to send them and recieve them) ANYWAY- I ran across this and am wondering if anyone has heard of this and does anyone know who started it and why Aug. 1: https://nationaltoday.com/planner-day/

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger July 13, 2022 at 5:40 am

      I’m guessing August 1 because it’s the start of many academic planners! Incidentally it’s also when Hobonichi usually starts showing previews of the next year’s lineup!

  • Reply Jessica July 13, 2022 at 6:21 am

    That makes sense!!! Can you remind me when you start Q5… Kids fall break maybe?

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger July 13, 2022 at 7:17 am

      Nov 1 🙂

  • Reply Beth W Gupta July 19, 2022 at 11:05 am

    Sarah – I’m Beth, the one who shared the digital planner peace! It was so fun to share Artful Agenda – I was so excited when I realized you’d shared it. ☺️ Also I’m so sorry that I somehow dodged a 90-second cutoff on speakpipe – I had no idea there’s usually a limit and it just let me keep going. 😂

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger July 19, 2022 at 11:35 am

      Don’t be sorry, I was happy about it!

    • Reply Jennye August 9, 2022 at 9:35 am

      Do either of you have an Artful Agenda referral code?

  • Reply Beth W Gupta August 9, 2022 at 11:04 am

    RB71269 – there you go for the referral code, Jenny!

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