The Podcast

BLP Ep #200: May Q&A: Margins, Travel, Laurel Denise Planners, and Avoiding That “Am I Missing Something?” Feeling

May 27, 2024

Prelude: THANK YOU for all of the love in the comments section yesterday post marathon! I am feeling very sore but very happy today!

ALSO: HOORAY for 200 BLP eps!! THANK YOU all for listening, what a fun milestone!

In today’s episode, I answer questions + shares some listener tips sent during the month of May! Topics include:

  • Laurel Denise Planners (question from a mom/healthcare provider with a lot going on!). Link to prior mini review here!
  • Travel — packing list tips, Wanderlog app, and the resources I use most for travel planning
  • Advice for a listener struggling with capturing and feeling like she is missing things
  • Thoughts on brining margin into the day

I also mention the 5/31 newsletter, which will contain some summer planning tools!

Subscribe at theshubox.com/newsletter – always free.

Episode Sponsors:
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PrepDish: Check out PrepDish.com/plans for two weeks of meal plans FREE!!
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5 Comments

  • Reply Lisa’s Yarns May 27, 2024 at 10:20 am

    I love these Q&A posts since you cover a wide range of topics. I have a similar approach to packing lists and can’t imagine not using apple notes to pack for trips! It is nice to not have to store all that info in my brain!

    I think about margin A LOT. It has helped me set boundaries and be realistic about what I can do. Pre-kids Lisa said yes to way too many things and worse herself out in the process. Now I need to be very careful about protecting my margin and overall energy levels. Plus I hate setting a goal and then not achieving it. Most recently I was asked by a friend if I wanted to run a 10 mile race with her. It sounded so fun and tempting but then I thought about how I would shoehorn all the training runs in and still get enough sleep and make sure I wasn’t exhausting myself too much in the process, especially now when my RA is not well-managed… I could fit it in but that soak result in so little margin in my mornings and I don’t have margin to begin with… so I had to say no and my friend completely understood.

  • Reply Meredith May 28, 2024 at 9:42 am

    Congratulations on 200 episodes! What a fantastic achievement!

  • Reply Jen May 28, 2024 at 11:18 am

    Congrats on 200! (oh and your BQ this past weekend!)

    For the listener interested in Laurel Denise – I bought one for 2024 and it is super cool! I had been in an Plum Paper with almost the exact same layout as the EC Sarah’s been using (the MAE layout) and really wanted to be able to see my monthly things more easily. This is accomplished and such a cool thing about LD. I am still using it and really liking it. I got the horizontal weekly and I would definitely get another. I really like it. The size is big when it’s open and sometimes it means I don’t use it quite as much depending on my space when i bring it to the office or when on the go like when i am sitting on the pool deck for my kids swimming. But for my main weekly planning I’ll open it out on my kitchen island and its fine. The other drawback is that it needs set up. It’s really flexible which is great but i now break my weekly view into 4 columns (schedule, to-do, meal plan and workout plan) and for the month, i make a weekly task tracker, shopping list and monthly goals. I also draw pencil lines on the monthly AND the weekly pages which is a bit of a job. I like having lines but on the Facebook group there doesn’t seem to be this concern for others.

    I hope my experience helps!

  • Reply Brooke May 28, 2024 at 9:17 pm

    For the first question, I think the listener was looking for a weekly/daily combo which was not in the EC daily duo. The new release does include a weekly overview so if she loces her EC otherwise it would be worth checking out their updated duo.

    For me, margin is not about scheduling it in, but not over scheduling in the first place. We limit how many activities the kids can be in for this reason, as well as how much we take on personally. Also, I feel this margin gives us room to be spontaneous. I get frustrated when we are so booked up that we can say yes to last minute fun. COVID really taught me how much we all need some downtime and I’m trying hard not to lose that.

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger May 29, 2024 at 5:43 am

      Love that different take on margin! And YES so love that EC added those weekly pages. I still don’t find it as easy as paging though a weekly book but it’s definitely a great option for someone who really wants the daily view to be together with their weekly!

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