Well Planned Life

We are at the fifth and final week of celebrating my 5-year blogging anniversary ! This past spring we visited family.   My sister-in-law had bought a Chocolate A5 Classic (previously known as the Cross) from Filofax but decided that she didn’t want it.   So she passed it along to me in the hope that I would find a good home for it.   Currently, I don’t have a need for an A5.   So I asked if she would mind if I raffle it off as part of my 5-year giveaway. You can see the features of the binder below: A full set of blank tabs. A5 notepaper. An A5 Today ruler. Perfectly aligned rings. One sheet of four open-top pockets. A pocket for a note pad at the back. This binder is in near-perfect condition and has not been used. This is a very generous offer from my sister-in-law, so I do ask one thing of all who enter the give-away: Please do not enter the contest just to turn around and sell the plan...

We are at week four of celebrating my 5-year blogging anniversary ! I don’t decorate my planner pages.   While I like the look of some decorated pages, I find it too distracting to use myself.   However, I am all about the color-coding so that topics for all of my entries jump out at me, even before I read what I have written down. Currently my color-coding system is: Red – work schedule and notes Aqua – personal appointments Purple – food tracking   Light Green – exercise tracking Dark Green – due dates Orange – random general notes, including blog information Brown – weather tracking and unimportant notations (like the New York Giants ) Pink – important notations such as medicine and birthdays/anniversaries General blue is used for all personal tasks and writing; general black is used for all work tasks and writing. This system allows me a quick visual of what area(s) need attention on a certain day. My pen(s) of choice for my ...

We are at week three of celebrating my 5-year blogging anniversary ! Another favorite product of mine is Post-its by 3M .   (You can see some of my collection here .)   I especially love the different designs they have come out with in recent years.   I have yet to see all of them, but I’m working on collecting as many as I can just because it’s fun.   I have, however, managed to get up a small collection for one lucky winner! Here we have mushrooms, acorns, and hedgehogs.   I also found this little daily/weekly sticky pad (made by Studio 18, not Post-it brand), which doesn’t seem to have its own website.   But you can see a range of their products at Amazon .   What you see is one sheet per week, broken down into daily sections.   These notes would be great for daily/weekly to dos, kids’ chores, meal planning, or any other idea you can think of.   And Post-its make great stocking stuffers if you’re looking for ideas there. ...

We are in the middle of celebrating my 5-year blogging anniversary ! The give-away for week 2 is Washi tape from Michaels . To Enter : Be sure to leave a comment below, as that’s the only way to enter the give-away.  Entries are open to everyone, worldwide.  Only one entry per person; any additional entries will be deleted.  (I do approve comments, and sometimes it takes me a while to get to them.  Don’t be alarmed if your comment doesn’t show up immediately.) Deadline:   All comments must be received before Friday, December 5 at 11:59 p.m. (United States, Eastern time). Winning:   Winner will be chosen at random using Random.org on Saturday, December 6 .   I will announce the winner at the bottom of the comments below this post; be sure to subscribe to the comments so you are notified. To Claim:   The winner must claim his/her prize by Monday, December 8 at 9 p.m. (United States, Eastern time) by emailing me at wellplan...

December 20 of this year marks 5 years since my very first post .   Five years of blogging.   I never thought I’d make it this far.   In that time I’ve “met” some wonderful people, some I’ve met in person, some I’ve yet to meet, some I see on a regular basis.   One I’ve even become very good friends with, who knows more about my life than many of the people I actually see on a daily basis—you know who you are—I am forever grateful for your friendship.   I’ve gotten support in many areas of my life from this community.   What started out as a hobby has become a major part of my life, and one that has opened doors I didn’t even know existed.   So while it started out as planners, it has grown into much more than that. In the past 5 years, there have been many changes, too.   I had to change the name of the blog once and feared I’d have to do it a second time.   I have reconfigured the layout of the blog.   I have created n...

If you read my last post, you know how I use my email to help me stay organized.   Compared to some—many, perhaps—I don’t get a lot of email, and most of what I do get comes from me, articles I want to read to things I want to research or videos I want to watch.   Even my work email (used in a similar fashion to my personal email) isn’t that overloaded.   Still, it helps that each time I open either account, I clean out what I don’t need. However, there are people who are inundated with emails, people who have to schedule specifics times—and limits—for checking email just because of the amount of emails they get. Google has created a new email interface called Inbox .   Still in beta, you can only get Inbox via an invitation, either by requesting one from Google or receiving one from someone who has already gotten their invite, just as they did with Gmail when it first came out.   It took me a few weeks to receive my invite, but now that I have, and h...