Every December I begin my shopping spree for a new planner. Ok, who am I kidding, I usually start in the summer when Student Planners come out and I long to be back in school. Yes, I still use paper and pen, but I also keep track of things online, but since I am a planner, I plan for the event that I lose power to my electronics or can’t access the cloud and then I will be lost and not know where I am supposed to be for that day. Yes, it does take a bit more effort, but it’s like a double check so I know where things are. This year, I’ve decided I am going to try and make my own. I say this because after spending hours in the office supply aisle at several different stores, I always end up walking out empty handed. So instead, I am spending hours sifting through my collection of downloaded planner pages in the hopes of creating a useful book.
When I’m at meetings I love to see what other people use and how they stay organized. Right now I’m reviewing my blogs (it’s a long list) and creating editorial and content calendars, wondering how I can put all the required information on one sheet per day, as well as other additions I want to monitor, like social media stats. I also need a place to take notes from my variety of meetings and room for a to-do list of the items that pop randomly into my head.
December also signals a time for review and reflection on what you’ve accomplished from the year, so you can begin planning bigger and better things for the next. Planning your “season” if you will. When is the deadline for that play competition? When is Fringe? What holidays or events are coming up that I want to discuss or work on? When is so-and-so’s production start and end so I can help out on that? These are just some of the things I need to think about. A planner is also a great place for all your worlds to collide. I use it as an opportunity to look at the different jobs and events that I have planned and see how they can come together to help out one another. If I’m working on so-and-so’s production, how can I use my time there to help out another production. 
A planner keeps me on task and keeps all my to-dos in one place. As the year slowly comes to a close, my January and February are already filling up. Now it’s only a question of where I’ll be writing everything down.
I’m hoping Santa brings me this planner so I don’t have to think about it anymore. I’d love to hear how you stay organized, where do you keep track of everything? My quest is never over.
