Free For All Friday No. 937 by Eve

 The Planner Graveyard

With Halloween around the corner, let's explore the planner theory of the carefully curated collection of abandoned planners, half-used inserts, forgotten notebooks, and “perfect systems” that lasted anywhere from three months to approximately one optimistic weekend. 

I think most planner people eventually end up with one. A drawer. A shelf. A basket. Possibly an entire closet if things got out of hand for a few years there (cough, me, cough).

The planner graveyard. Dun, dun, duuuuuuun!

Every planner in the graveyard once represented hope, “This is the system that will finally fix my life", “This is the planner that will make me consistent", “This is the planner for the version of me who meal preps.”

Spoiler alert: I still do not meal prep.

The funny thing is that every abandoned planner made perfect sense at the time. We had reasons. Very logical reasons.

This one was too bulky, that one didn’t have enough writing space. One was beautiful but impossible to carry, another was practical but had the emotional appeal of corporate tax paperwork.

Social media makes this worse. Online, everyone seems to have perfectly consistent systems that they use beautifully and they showcase beautiful system after beautiful system. They aren't called "influencers" for nothing, am I right?!

Meanwhile, many of us are over here closing Instagram or FaceBook thinking, “Maybe if I completely redesign my planning system at 11:30 PM on a Tuesday, everything will finally come together.”

But honestly, the older I get, the less guilty I feel about the planner graveyard. Every abandoned planner taught me something useful, and even if I did have to eat Ramen for a month after buying a new one, I had fun filling up that closet!

Maybe the planner graveyard is just part of being interested in planners. People who love cooking own unused kitchen gadgets. People who love crafts have unfinished projects. Planner people own notebooks full of unrealized potential and at least one set of inserts they were certain would change their personality.

Ok fess up, how big is your planner graveyard? What planner did you swear would be “the one” before quietly abandoning it? And does anyone else keep certain planners because “I might go back to it someday,” despite absolutely no evidence suggesting that will happen, or is that just me?

As usual, on Fridays you are free to discuss anything ring planner related. Have a great weekend everyone! 

Free For All Friday No. 932 by Eve

 

It's Planner Shopping Season

Every September we start to see the new planner releases come out for the upcoming year. This is our time! It's exciting and we start buzzing about what we are going to use next year. Those of us who have been perfectly happy with our planners all year start, well, planning.

Not switching, obviously. Just looking. Just seeing what's out there.

Planner theory says that very quickly this can turn into watching release videos late at night, comparing paper types like we’re writing a doctoral thesis, and developing deeply personal opinions about planner covers we absolutely do not need. 

Every year I say the same thing, “I’m definitely staying in my current system next year and this time I am not buying a zillion different refills, binders, sizes, brands. I'm just NOT.”

Then approximately 48 hours later, “Well… I mean, I’ll at least look at the new binder colors.”

There’s just something about planner release season that makes us all giddily believe we are on the verge of becoming dramatically more organized people. It feels hopeful somehow. This will be the year!

Meanwhile, my 2026 planner contains crossed-out tasks, messy grocery lists, random notes, and at least one entry that says “make dentist appointment” over and over for several weeks.

I also think planner shopping season causes temporary memory loss. I completely forget every lesson that I learned the previous year and start reconsidering planners that already know won't work for me.

Maybe this FC Monarch will suddenly feel more portable.
Maybe my handwriting will magically become small and neat and look great in this cute Pocket size.
Maybe I can resist getting every size Hobonichi when I never end up using them for very long.

Yeah, maybe.

So, has planner shopping season started for you yet? What are you getting for next year?
Do you ever repeatedly convince yourself something might work this time despite available historical evidence to the contrary?

As always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything ring planner related. Have a great weekend shoppers!

Free For All Friday No. 927 by Eve

 

Why Empty Pages Can Feel So Intimidating

Let's talk more planner theory. Does anyone else get weirdly intimidated by a brand new, freshly opened planner? 

At first it feels exciting, right? Fresh pages, clean layouts, untouched tabs, all that possibility laid out in front of you. Your handwriting is suddenly neater. Your life feels about 12% more under control just by opening the thing!

And then somewhere in the back of your mind, this little voice starts whispering, “But what if I mess it up?”

One crossed-out task, dab of white out or mis-spelled word and suddenly the illusion is broken.

I think a lot of us do this, especially with expensive planners or particularly beautiful ones. We hesitate to write in them because we want them to stay neat, consistent and aestheticly pleasing. Thanks to social media, this has slowly become the definition of a planner “done properly.”

Which is funny when you think about it, because planners are literally designed to contain our messy human lives.

I don't know about you, but my life has scribbles, rescheduled appointments (oh so many rescheduled appointments....), half-finished lists, bad handwriting days, random notes jammed into margins, days or even weeks where everything falls apart a bit.

But somehow cracking open a new planner full of empty pages makes us feel like we’re supposed to become our ideal selves overnight. You know, that other you: the person who meal plans every Sunday, tracks 14 habits, journals daily, never misses a workout, and somehow has perfectly spaced handwriting at all times.

Meanwhile, most of us are just trying to remember whether we already bought toothpaste.

I also think there’s something about a blank planner that feels emotionally loaded. It’s a fresh start. A reset. Proof that maybe this time we’ll finally become the organized/creative/luxury lifestlye/whimsical (insert whatever adjective works for you here) person we imagine ourselves being.

But then life happens, and the planner starts looking… lived in. As I work to let go of my own perfectionism, I’m more comfortable saying out loud that that’s the whole point. 

Some of my favorite planners I’ve used over the years have looked terrible by December 31st. Bent pages, crossed-out tasks, tea stains, sticky notes hanging out everywhere, notes I can't read anymore but knew exactly what they meant when I wrote them. Those planners carried my real life. Frankly I wish more of those types of planners were shown on social media!

What about you, do you hesitate to “mess up” a new planner? Do empty pages motivate you or stress you out a little? 

When you look back at old planners, do you prefer the neat ones… or the ones that clearly got very well used every single day?

As always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything ring planner related, and have a fantastic weekend!