Latest / JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain / 284: Stop Hunting the ‘Perfect’ Planner: An ADHD Guide for 2027

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284: Stop Hunting the ‘Perfect’ Planner: An ADHD Guide for 2027 · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

• 0:00
  I haven't talked a lot about planning recently, but as we get really close to
• 0:07
  2027, you may have already purchased your next planner,
• 0:12
  or you may certainly be noticing that they are coming out in stores,
• 0:16
  being advertised all over the place, and you're starting to think about what
• 0:20
  is that perfect planner that I am in pursuit of for my 2027 planner.
• 0:26
  So if you haven't purchased one yet, hold off, listen to this,
• 0:33
  just for some things to consider so that you can walk into that stationary store
• 0:38
  prepared to purchase the planner that you feel is a best fit for the way your brain works.
• 0:47
  And if you've already purchased your planner, don't despair.
• 0:51
  You are able to modify just about anything.
• 0:55
  But definitely worth things that I want you to take into consider from one fish
• 1:00
  brain to another. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about with fish brain,
• 1:04
  make sure you listen to the intro.
• 1:06
  A wise person once said, everybody is a genius.
• 1:09
  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole
• 1:13
  life believing that it's stupid.
• 1:15
  Well, Fish, quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys.
• 1:21
  It's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your life.
• 1:26
  I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow Fishbrain.
• 1:31
  If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement,
• 1:34
  and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks,
• 1:39
  then I'm glad you're here.
• 1:40
  Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique.
• 1:46
  Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
• 1:51
  We're going to dig straight into it and just jump into some various tips in no particular order.
• 1:57
  But tip number one, and the thing to keep in mind, is a planner will not change,
• 2:04
  who you are or how you function.
• 2:07
  I know it is in our nature to believe that if we could just find the right planner,
• 2:14
  that is going to solve all of our problems of
• 2:18
  missing appointments and forgetting tasks and figuring out how to prioritize
• 2:23
  and getting things just right.
• 2:25
  A planner will not solve those problems.
• 2:29
  A planner will reveal how your brain already actually works.
• 2:33
  And so I know that probably sounds super disappointing, but at least it takes
• 2:39
  away that effort to be in this endless pursuit of this perfect planner that
• 2:44
  is going to fix you because A, you're not broken and B.
• 2:49
  A planner's job is not to do that.
• 2:51
  So we're going to take all of that off, de-stress about that,
• 2:57
  and we're going to look at the other tips that actually are going to be helpful.
• 3:00
  So tip number two, the more bells and whistles a planner has.
• 3:08
  That is not an indicator of it being even more functioning, functional,
• 3:14
  and even more helpful to your lack of discipline.
• 3:18
  It probably actually means the opposite.
• 3:20
  Case in point, think about how much of your phone's capability or your.
• 3:27
  You know, watch's capability even.
• 3:31
  Any piece of technology you own has endless amounts of bells and whistles that
• 3:37
  you could be utilizing and ask yourself how much of it you actually utilize.
• 3:42
  The more that is there, unfortunately for our fish brains, the more excited
• 3:49
  we're going to get about it, the more we believe that will be the answer.
• 3:53
  And then the first minute our inconsistent selves drop the ball,
• 3:59
  the more glaring it becomes that we are struggling to keep up yet again,
• 4:05
  that we're not fulfilling what we'd planned to fulfill, that we spent a lot
• 4:09
  of money on all of this stuff and we're not doing it.
• 4:12
  And these pre-layout type of designs with all of the pages, with the dates,
• 4:20
  and every time we decide, okay, this week's the week I'm going to pick it back up.
• 4:25
  This week's the week I'm going to get back on track and we have to turn seven
• 4:30
  unused pages and clip them off, those seven weeks worth of stuff feels like failure.
• 4:37
  Even if it's one missed week and we're turning this wasted, empty blank page
• 4:43
  because it's predated and it's screaming that we are not keeping up,
• 4:50
  that is a recipe for failure.
• 4:51
  So I get that the cute stickers and using highlighters and having little things
• 4:58
  we can color in about our mood and our, you know, habit tracking and our.
• 5:05
  Task prioritization, which is what our, you know, executive functioning,
• 5:09
  struggling brains need, is going to be so helpful.
• 5:13
  But guys, it is a shiny object that is not going to be what you're hoping for it to be.
• 5:20
  So I would love to steer you away from a very complex planner.
• 5:27
  So when you pick it up and you see all of these pre-done layouts and you think,
• 5:32
  that saves me time, that jogs my memory about what I wanted to be tracking,
• 5:37
  take a breath, step away.
• 5:40
  Step away from that planner. All right, tip three.
• 5:45
  The only thing that you actually need to have structured is the actual dates in the year.
• 5:57
  For this reason, I highly, highly recommend that you look for the most basic,
• 6:04
  nice big boxes, months only planner.
• 6:11
  And guys, guess what? You could also print this out from somewhere online and
• 6:17
  staple it together and use that if you want to.
• 6:19
  You don't even have to purchase it. But if you're like, I want something that's
• 6:22
  kind of cute, that's fine.
• 6:24
  I am using that right now. I found a nice, beautifully big boxed months only 2027 calendar,
• 6:34
  that happens to have a little strip of, you know, lines down the side where
• 6:41
  I can sort of brain dump my thoughts for the month each time a new month turns the page.
• 6:46
  And I can mark off known vacations, known holidays, known times when kids are coming and going, when,
• 6:57
  we planned our vacation out, when big events are coming up, when I schedule
• 7:03
  the doctor's appointments.
• 7:04
  Anything that's actually time bound can simply be placed in a months only.
• 7:11
  And the reason why I'm stressing months only is if you're walking down that
• 7:15
  calendar planner aisle and you see months and weeks, months and days and weeks.
• 7:22
  2027 daily, 2027 weekly, you only need the months. It's all you need.
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  All right. Which leads me to tip number four.
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  The only companion that you need to this monthly calendar is month.
• 7:41
  Basic notebook. This can be a one-subject spiral binder like your kids have at school that is,
• 7:53
  I don't even know, I don't know how much they cost anymore, like two bucks maybe.
• 7:59
  Maybe they're a dollar at the dollar store. You tell it's been a while since
• 8:02
  I've had to just go purchase one of those.
• 8:04
  But you don't need more than that. You might even have one in your house.
• 8:09
  You may even have something that's even cuter than that, that you bought to
• 8:12
  become a journal one day or whatever.
• 8:15
  If sitting on yourself, it's not doing you any good. So shop your home first,
• 8:20
  grab any blank notebook, blank journal, blank diary, blank anything.
• 8:27
  It, your best companion to the month, the monthly calendar is just a notebook.
• 8:35
  All right. And if you are just determined that it needs to coordinate and you
• 8:39
  really want it to be cute and cute makes you happy, I'm not above that.
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  So grab either a dot grid or a basic line grid that isn't a color that looks
• 8:50
  pleasing to you next to the monthly calendar you found that was cute.
• 8:54
  If you want to purchase that kind of thing, go for it.
• 8:57
  Have at it. But don't get something that is pre-dated.
• 9:03
  A couple tips back. I let you know that when things are predated,
• 9:07
  other than that monthly calendar, every time we leave one of those blank.
• 9:13
  Takes a hit to our brain. It takes a hit to our belief in ourselves.
• 9:19
  It makes us feel failure when there is a blank page that has to turn.
• 9:26
  When you have something that is not predated, you can walk away for two weeks
• 9:32
  and come back and you're using the next page. You just put whatever dates are of that week down.
• 9:37
  You walk away for three months and then you go, you know hey,
• 9:41
  I feel like planning again, and you step back in, and every time you step back
• 9:45
  in, it's a fresh page, fresh start, and it's the next page.
• 9:50
  I'm telling you, it makes so much of a difference, all right?
• 9:54
  Tip five, our brains actually love writing things down with paper,
• 10:01
  with pen or pencil. You can still use cute stickers. You can still use highlighters.
• 10:05
  You can still color code.
• 10:07
  But there is something about writing things out that our brain gravitates to.
• 10:13
  I know there is neuroscience about this. I did not look it up prior to hitting record.
• 10:17
  If you want to research that, you will find it. But there is a healthy,
• 10:22
  connection between actually using our hands and paper and pen or pencil to write
• 10:27
  things out that is really connective for our brains, our fish types of brains.
• 10:34
  So get comfortable with using that kind of a system.
• 10:38
  It is still okay to then transfer those two alerts on your phone,
• 10:41
  two alerts in a digital calendar that you have to share with work or you have
• 10:45
  to share with your family or you have to share however.
• 10:48
  That's okay. But start it on paper and then give yourself a set every week that
• 10:56
  you work on your calendar. You then transfer things in that you need as alerts.
• 11:01
  All of that is lovely. Okay.
• 11:03
  And then, and this will be my most important tip and the reason why I'm having
• 11:08
  this conversation with you in
• 11:09
  November of 2026, when you're thinking about how you want to handle 2027,
• 11:15
  Use what's left of this year for a grand experiment.
• 11:21
  Create versions of what you would like to try out in that basic,
• 11:28
  plain, spiral notebook.
• 11:31
  One week, try tracking with fun little boxes here, there, and everywhere.
• 11:36
  The next week, try just starring out everything that is a time-bound commitment,
• 11:42
  Monday through Friday, and then do just a running task list. list.
• 11:48
  Try checkboxes. Try highlighting. Try.
• 11:54
  Fun little graphics. Try a sticker. Try different layouts in your plain notebook,
• 12:03
  and see what speaks to you each week. Your brain may actually just enjoy that
• 12:07
  every week is different.
• 12:09
  And that's okay. That's lovely. Pick and choose different features that are
• 12:14
  something you really actually enjoy and you feel added value to the amount of time you spent on it?
• 12:22
  What was holding you to task on actually showing up at the things you needed to show up at?
• 12:28
  What held you to task on accomplishing things on any certain day?
• 12:32
  I can dig deeper into what I've started leaning into, which I enjoy and I've
• 12:38
  spoken about in different podcasts in the past.
• 12:41
  It is ever evolving. It is ever changing. But I am wanting you to experiment
• 12:45
  with what pleases your brain.
• 12:48
  I will say, if you are actually purchasing something to experiment in these
• 12:53
  next two weeks, then consider purchasing a dot grid type thing.
• 12:59
  And you may be like, I've never used the dot grids. I don't know how I feel about that.
• 13:04
  They're actually pretty cool to use as far as being versatile without.
• 13:11
  Aggravating if you have like this tendency towards perfection.
• 13:15
  So I could say just, just staple together like 10 blank copy pages.
• 13:22
  You know what I mean? The, the things you run through your.
• 13:26
  And you can draw boxes and you can draw lines and you can, but if you're the
• 13:30
  kind of person who's like, this looks like, you know, a first grader did it.
• 13:35
  And if that's going to bug you, then okay, you can actually look up on your
• 13:39
  computer to print out through your printer some dot grid pages and just experiment with a little bit.
• 13:46
  Grab some of your kids' construction paper, staple to the front and back, make your own notebook.
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  But the cool thing about dot grids is you can create boxes and you can write
• 13:57
  in straight lines along those dots,
• 14:00
  in so many different formats that it may be worth experimenting for the rest of this 2026.
• 14:07
  Because then after experimenting for a few weeks, you can waltz into the planner
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  aisles ready to purchase your 2027 planner.
• 14:20
  And I'm not going to say it's going to be perfect sailing the whole year,
• 14:24
  but I am going to say that you're going to be more prepared to not have fooled
• 14:29
  yourself into believing you found this perfect solution and then
• 14:33
  getting frustrated at yourself all over again because you can't follow it.
• 14:37
  So if I can give you the biggest takeaway from this podcast,
• 14:44
  it's find yourself a good monthly.
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  Only planner and find yourself a great blank notebook and waltz into 2027 with those two things as.
• 14:57
  You get to be the creator of your own version.
• 15:00
  You get to be your own perfect planner, creator.
• 15:05
  And I'm also going to add in the show notes a video I found that kind of talks
• 15:13
  about a lot of these things.
• 15:14
  He's a little businessy, technical kind of guy, but it's not a long video and it's worth sharing.
• 15:21
  Listen, if you're interested, the YouTube video, it's called Mark Your Pages.
• 15:27
  And the particular title of this video is called I Think We've Been Building
• 15:32
  Our Planners Backwards.
• 15:34
  So you can search Mark Your Pages. I think we've been building our planners
• 15:38
  backwards on YouTube and it will pop up. Or like I said, I'll add the link in the show notes.
• 15:43
  Yeah. So if that is something that you enjoy hearing about, continue to listen, follow along.
• 15:52
  I do talk planning here from time to time, and it is definitely a passion for me.
• 15:59
  I have some old podcasts where I have talked about some different things I've
• 16:03
  used in a bullet journal fashion, and I still use variations of those.
• 16:07
  They're worth experimenting with.
• 16:09
  So you can research back in my 300 plus episodes of when I did planning.
• 16:17
  I also on my website, joylovinghome.com, have all of my old podcasts turned into blogs.
• 16:24
  And you can search in there planning and those ones that had to do with planning will pop up.
• 16:30
  All right. If you're interested in connecting with me in any other way,
• 16:34
  I'm joy at joylovinghome.com.
• 16:37
  You can message me on Instagram at joylovinghome, and you can find everything
• 16:41
  else on my website, joylovinghome.com.
• 16:44
  We are busy in our membership group, tackling tasks with accountability.
• 16:50
  And if that's something that sounds interesting to you, you can find more about
• 16:53
  that at joylovinghome.com slash membership.
• 16:56
  All right. Until next time, continue to choose joy.