• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Your Visual Journal

Journaling + Sketchnotes + Bullet Journal Ideas

  • Start here
  • Topics
    • Art Journaling
    • Bullet Journaling
    • Digital Journaling
    • Faith Journaling
    • Gratitude Journaling
    • How to Journal
    • Journaling Supplies
    • Motivation and Inspiration
    • Peek inside a Journal
    • Journal Prompts
    • Planners and Planning
    • Sketchnotes
    • Travel Journals
  • Favorite Supplies
  • About
  • Take a course
  • Contact

Why daytimers and planners never organize your life

Last updated on April 12th, 2022 • Planners and Planning

You bought in.

You grabbed all the supplies. Set up your planner step by step.

You crafted your goals. You detailed your habits.

You did everything your planner asked you to do. The initial pages were in perfect order.

But then all those magical promises about organizing your life?

It just didn’t deliver.

And worse, you wind up blaming yourself. After all, if you were doing it right, it would work, wouldn’t it?

What if the problem isn’t you?

Here are 4 reasons that your paper planner fails you:

1. It’s too awkward to carry it around everywhere.

Planners that sit around don’t serve you. Yet, many planners are huge, bulky things that are a major hassle to carry around.

Planning is something that happens in real time. So when you schedule an appointment, or scribble a thought, it needs to be at your fingertips. (After all, if you could remember all the things, you wouldn’t need a planner in the first place. )

Planners come as sleek as passport size to as big and bulky as an old school dictionary. When you choose a journal or planner, it has to be portable.  If you don’t carry a briefcase every day, then go pocket sized. If you regularly sport a purse or messenger bag, you can go larger, but definitely not heavy and thick.

Choosing something that’s convenient to carry everywhere means you have what you need when you need it–which is wildly more effective than having it sit back at your place gathering dust.  

2. Your planner is too much like Sheldon Cooper.

The reason analog planners can be more effective than digital ones has to do with their emotional quotient. Beauty, color, handwriting, and art connect with us at a deep level. They engage our emotion.

But, if your planner is limited to the facts and figures of appointments and task lists without feeling–much like a favored character on The Big Bang Theory–then it has no power. You may as well just log things into your phone and call it a day.

The saying goes that “logic produces reason, but emotion produces action.”

If you want your planner to affect your life, it needs emotion. This can come through art, gratitude, the physical act of handwriting, inspirational quotes, vision casting, or a focus on “a why that makes you cry.”

Planners become impotent when they lack emotion because that’s the piece that sparks the action.

3. Your planner triggered a stationary addiction.

Our brain’s job is to keep us safe. So, it would rather focus on anything other than doing what we need to do to stretch ourselves to achieve our dreams–including spending hours deciding what plannner accessories to buy.

Our brain’s job is to keep us safe. So, it would rather focus on anything other than doing what we need to do to stretch ourselves to achieve our dreams–including spending hours deciding what plannner accessories to buy.

Who doesn’t love pens, paper, stickers, ink pads and dividers? With the vast array of planning supplies in gorgeous patterns and formats, it’s easy to run up an embarrassing credit card total.

The thing is that planner manufacturers know this about us. So much so that paper products for planning are a multi-million dollar a year industry. There are even huge conferences revolving around it.

Here’s what’s insidious about all of the clever products:

Our brain’s job is to keep us safe. So, it would rather focus on anything other than doing what we need to do to stretch ourselves to achieve our dreams–including spending hours deciding what plannner accessories to buy.

Our brains will gladly focus on whatever is new and shiny rather than doing the work of outlining the steps we need to take to get where we want to go.

It feels way safer to shop, than to think about things that will push us out of our comfort zone. Plus we get to rationalize that shopping is part of the planning process.

Remember, the first step in getting healthy is admitting you have a problem.

4. Your planner doesn’t think the same way you do.

All of us are wired differently. We have unique gifts. Different ways of seeing the world. (And quite frankly, different definitions of what an organized life looks like.)

Plus, our daily rhythms can be radically diverse. A single dad has a much different schedule and task list than a med student. (Though I’m pretty sure it requires the same amount of hours.)

A tool you are going to use daily to manage everything has to fit your life. Which is why one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. If your planner forces you to enter information in a format that doesn’t fit, there will be huge swatches of it that just aren’t relevant.

But it’s more than just fitting your life, it also has to think like you do.

Planning is putting thoughts to paper. If the planner lays out things in a way your brain doesn’t like, then it’s never going to harmonize with what you want to accomplish in the world.

Here’s the thing…

The main reason daytimers and planners will never solve your organization problems is that:

It isn’t the planner that gets you organized. It’s your brain, your eyes, and the paper.

Paper can be a powerful tool in getting things out of our heads so we can see them. And that shift from internal to external processing is a game-changer in getting control of our lives.

When we pull out a blank piece of paper, we can:

  • Mindmap an idea.
  • Pour out the random tasks pinging around in our head into a cogent list.
  • Remind ourselves of what’s important.
  • Journal jumbled thoughts until they become clear.
  • Diagram a plan.
  • Spill gratitude in the margins.
  • Vision board where we want to go.
  • Hatch mark habits to see progress.
  • Add color, artistic touches, and inspirational quotes to engage our emotion.

Which is why the most powerful planner is just a simple notebook with blank pages.

Why?

Because it gives you the freedom to not only think on paper, but to keep those thoughts, scribbles, and connected dots for reference later.

For sure, pre-printed planners can work like training wheels. But if they aren’t working for you, it isn’t that your planning is bad.  It’s that the tool doesn’t match your need.

You don’t need a better planner. You need something that helps you think, visualize, and remember..

Now, look at you getting organized!

Is your daytimer or planner failing to organize your life? Would it surprise you if I told you its the planner’s fault and not yours?

Why Daytimers and 
Never Fix Your Organization Problems
This is a handy Pinterest graphic so you can save it there

Doesn’t it feel great to have a tool that actually does what you need it to? To feel more organized in your head because your brain has a place where it can process the things that stress it out?

You have pages that only do what you need them to because you created them. You didn’t have to stress trying to pour your life into someone else’s boxes.

(And maybe your desk is even a little lighter because it doesn’t have an unused planning tome sitting on it anymore.)

Most importantly, you now no longer work for your planner.

Your planner works for you.

Which is what it was always meant to do.


Want tips on how to journal? Get the free ebook on How to Journal with 28 ways to journal and hundreds of resources so you can find the method that is right for you.

About Cathy Hutchison

Cathy Hutchison helps people get more joy, meaning, and freedom in a world of demands through the practice of visual journaling.

  • Get social

You may also like

  • 8 Ways to Visionboard without Cutting Up a Single Magazine
  • While it seems like there are endless ways to approach a weekly spread for your bullet journal, all the ideas actually fall into just a few categories. (We’ve sorted the ideas to help you focus in on the approach that works for you.) Bullet Journal Weekly Spread | Focused Ideas to Plan Your Week
  • Your Visual Journal - Woman Planning Why you may want to plan in a 13-Week cycle
Previous
12 Beautifully Easy Bullet Journal Fonts to Take Your Journal to the Next Level
Next
How carrying a notebook and crayons erased burnout, improved my career, and delivered on my dreams

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rosemary

    11/07/2018 at 9:18 PM

    Hi Cathy,

    I’m beginning to get the hang of a journal but don’t you need to carry round a big book for a planner? What would recommend for something really small that you can tuck into your handbag (purse) and that doesn’t pull your shoulder muscles out of their sockets?

    Reply
    • Cathy Hutchison

      11/07/2018 at 9:39 PM

      I find the A5 size of the Moleskine or Leuchtturm works really well for slipping in a purse or messenger bag. If you want to go smaller, look at the Midori Traveler. The traveler works off of inserts so you only have with you what you need. If you want to go even smaller, Midori has a passport size.

      Reply
  2. Michael F. Knowles, CPSM

    11/02/2019 at 3:20 PM

    OMG! Where was this my entire life??? I’ve bought every organizer known I think! I even have a shelf with those really cute Executive notebooks you get at conferences lined up. This whole time I thought it was me that was the problem, and it wasn’t!… for once 🙂
    I think I’ve finally found my sweet spot with organization. Got the right book, nice size (I like Executive size) and just got a cover that holds items like colored pens for drawing (Thanks Cathy).
    Not perfect, but getting there little by little. And each time a guy says something about my purple cover I just smile a big Texas grin… why? Because they will remember that cover and me from that moment on. Who wants to blend it anyway… that’s easy to do and boring…
    Keep Lighting the Way Cathy!
    Michael

    Reply

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Footer

Follow me on Instagram

cathy.hutchison

Cathy helps people
simplify complex info
boost creativity
and solve problems
by journaling with sketchnotes. 🖌
Get the free Quickstart guide here

CathyHutchison | VisualJournal
This book! I read The Buy Nothing Get Everything This book! 

I read The Buy Nothing Get Everything Plan at the intersection of: 

+ Feeling overwhelmed by how much plastic I use (and learning the severe limitations of plastic recycling.) 

+ The extreme cost of alternatives like toothpaste that comes in tablets, biodegradable plasticware, etc.

This book is SO PRACTICAL! Not only did it connect me to the Buy Nothing app which has resulted in some great gifts with people in my neighborhood, but it also reminded me that our grandparents didn't use all this stuff. (Commercials changed the way we live.) 

This book reminded me that: 

1) My mom brushed her teeth with baking soda as a child. (I put some in a diner-style sugar dispenser with peppermint essential oil and the cleaning results are pretty great.) 

2) Homemade salad dressing is easy and WAY more delicious than what comes in a plastic bottle.

3) Tons of things can be repurposed. (And Amazon doesn't need to be my first move.) 

I highly recommend downloading the free @buynothingapp and grabbing a copy of this book. (I first listened to it on my library's app, then decided to buy a copy so I could mark it up and use flags on the pages where I want to implement the ideas. 

#sustainability #plasticfree #artjournaling #yourvisualjournal #booksofinstagram
This is the most complex #urbansketch I’ve compl This is the most complex #urbansketch I’ve completed to date. Saturday, my @starbucks was crowded. I started with a quick pencil sketch, but the reality is that the scene kept moving. People standing there are amalgamations of those who came and went. 

It's interesting the decisions you have to make to simplify what's there so the drawing communicates, but still remains authentic to the scene. (ie. there's a lot of stuff missing behind the counter) I'm deeply enjoying this practice of drawing everyday scenes. 
#urbansketching #urbansketchers
#yourvisualjournal #artjournaling
Ever hear something that resonates so much you hav Ever hear something that resonates so much you have to write it down in your #journal word for word? #artjournaling
I'm finding that the more digital my world becomes I'm finding that the more digital my world becomes, the more satisfying it is to touch pens and paper. It's part of why I'm enjoying practicing #urbansketching.

The thing about urban sketching is that you learn it by doing it. I have a small pouch of pens and #watercolors with me all the time, so when I had some wait time at the Arboretum I tried to capture what was right in front of me. It became the backdrop to a #journal entry.

#yourvisualjournal
I carry my notebook with me everywhere and capture I carry my notebook with me everywhere and capture whatever feels significant or particularly charming. Because it is such a hub I keep my calendar here as well. It gives me a visual overview of the month and the doodles make me smile when planning. #journaling #yourvisualjournal #bulletjournal
Wine and I are not friends. (Yes, I know. Shocking Wine and I are not friends. (Yes, I know. Shocking.) 

However, I do enjoy wineries (= sitting on patios in beautiful locations talking with friends.) 

So, this weekend, I went with my wine friends which gave me the chance to practice #urbansketching in new locations. 

I find I keep focusing on the people and ignoring the scenery. By far to me the best part of any “place” is the people who are part of the fabric. 

It’s been fun exploring this type of #visualjournaling
Sometimes when faced with a whole #journal page it Sometimes when faced with a whole #journal page it’s easier to draw a smaller canvas to work in. Plus botanical #doodles are fun. #artjournaling #yourvisualjournal
I love capturing moments in a conversation in my j I love capturing moments in a conversation in my journal. This page was captured while sitting around Melanie’s kitchen table drinking tea.
Yesterday I went out solo for lunch to practice mo Yesterday I went out solo for lunch to practice more #urbansketching. This is such a fun challenge trying to build the skill.
Lately I’ve been practicing #urbansketching in m Lately I’ve been practicing #urbansketching in my visual journal. It’s a fun challenge and can be done with a brevity of supplies.  #artjournaling #journaling #leuchtturm1917
Holiday morning means time to journal at Starbucks Holiday morning means time to journal at Starbucks ♥️ #yourvisualjournal #journaling #artjournaling #artjournal
This year, BFF Weekend was held @lynettesug's brot This year, BFF Weekend was held @lynettesug's brothers house at Lake Tahoe. This area remains one of the most beautiful places I've ever experienced. I tried to capture it in my journal. 

Of course, a favorite part (besides just getting to be with these women) was sitting on the deck watching birds come to the feeder. There were Stellar Jays, Juncos, and--what I drew--a Mountain Chickadee. 

#traveljournal #yourvisualjournal #journaling #artjournaling #leuchtturm1917 #watercolorjournal #watercolor
Load More Follow on Instagram

Disclosures

Some links on this site are affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The author receives a  small (really small) commission if you happen to buy something.  Funds are used to support journaling supplies & four crazy sweet Aussies who bark for treats every time I come in the door. (To be fair, I have a pattern of giving in to them.) I write about all kinds of journaling, and if Bullet Journaling is your thing, I’m here to support you. But if you want to go deep, go to the original source–Ryder Carroll, who created the system, and started it all at bulletjournal.com. I use the method daily which is why I started writing about it here.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

© 2023 Cathy Hutchison • Theme by MG