A look inside my notebooks

A behind-the-scenes tour, from the calendar I plan launches in to the journal that lives on my nightstand.

Different kinds of thinking seem to need different kinds of space for me. The happy list can’t share a page with launch planning. My garden journal would feel wrong next to client notes.

Over the years I’ve ended up with eight notebooks (and one thing that isn’t a notebook at all)—each with its own role and function in my life and business. So: here’s the tour.

Planning and brainstorming

Calendar

It’s a cliche, but I do my best thinking on paper—and that goes for planning as well. Like many of us, I tried living without a paper planner, but just couldn’t. So now I have both.

Whereas a as a student I used a daily calendar, I gradually progressed from that to first a weekly overview to now a monthly one. The calendar I currently use does have weekly pages, but I rarely use them. It’s all about the function: my digital calendar is for appointments, my paper one for creating overviews and planning—for big-picture thinking on the monthly pages. The brand is Hightide, but I can’t find a single link for this particular calendar.

In these monthly spreads, I plan out when I’ll send out my paid and free newsletters, when paid features will go out, and when any launches will take place. I’ve gotten in the habit of using these cheerful erasable pens to keep the mess to a minimum.

I tend to plan in monthly blocks, although I usually keep a broader overview in my mind. And whenever I feel flustered, untethered or not connected to my business, my calendar I where I first go to get some clarity and reassurance.

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