I have a confession… August is one of my favorite months! It’s a planner’s dream, or at least that’s what I use to justify my love for August. August is my new year, as someone who works in education, but it’s also the last month before we dive into fall, football, and holiday seasons.
I’ve used a number of planners and time management methods over the years and I have to say, I’ve had a really amazing system going these past few years! I use my Brain Dump method daily and use specific calendar for family, work, and my personal life.
After having kids, I realized that a paper planner just didn’t work for organizing family appointments and to dos. I needed another way to keep my husband in the loop. For all family matters; social, appointments, to dos, etc., we use Google calendar and a large monthly calendar we keep on our refrigerator. This ensures that we can both add to the calendar and be in the loop when another adds to it.
For work, I use my Outlook calendar and OneNote. It works so incredibly well keeping work completely separate from my personal life. I used to merge calendars and honestly, it was overwhelming! Work is at work and home is at home! I like it that way!
Lastly, my personal life and businesses. I like nothing more than a paper planner to organize my personal goals, business plan, and to dos. I love putting pencil to paper and taking the time to organize my life outside of family and work.
This year I am using the inkWELL Press Academic Planner and I love it! I started using it last month, in prep for the academic year, and it’s a really amazing planner!
I love the traditional features, like monthly calendar, important dates, and weekly calendar layout. What makes this planner unique however, as the mission board, habit tracking, and project planning pages! They make my planner heart swoon!
The planner is colorful, well organized, and has little additions that make it so easy to use! I love the colorful boxes to the right of each day for those extra notes and the section to write out weekly focus and notes.
After a relaxing summer, a part of me is a little anxious for the academic year ahead. The school year always takes off like a freight train, and although I may not feel ready right now, I love being able to use August to prepare for the year ahead. Today I’m sitting down, planning out the month of August, and getting everything in my head onto paper through my Brain Dump.
The inkWELL planner is so fun to use and I’m excited to use it for planning as I pick up things here on Balancing Today and launch a life coaching business this fall! There’s a lot on the horizon!
