And like that…It’s November – 1st Week of November – Minimal for Function

November 1, 2017 9 Comments

And like that…It’s November.

What in the world? It’s November! I just got used to writing 2017 as the year. We are in the thick of holiday season (or very near to the thick – is that a thing?) and I am definitely relying on my minimalistic weekly designs to guide me through this busy time of year. I decided this month to start at the beginning of the month instead of half the week’s spread from October and the other half as November. So I ended up with a couple of half-week layouts.

I had big plans for the start of this month

My big plans were to start this month off beautifully. I even went grocery shopping this morning to get ahead on…well.. life without having to drag my three kids along. All those good intentions were met at every turn with something just trying to bring me to my knees.

You ever have one of those days you know, the day that just won’t quit? That was today for me. I have worked very hard to simplify this next month and show more gratitude. I firmly believe that if I wouldn’t have tried so hard to include these two things in my life today could have quite possibly knocked me down for a good part of the month. It was that bad. I didn’t realize I would gain strength from simplifying my life and having an enhanced attitude of gratitude.

This week has just five boxes on this page plus a ‘to do’ section – it’s strange how a minimalistic design can bring such peace and tranquillity amidst chaos.

What do you do for tranquility?

So I would like to know what you do that helps bring tranquility to your life when your whole day goes awry.

Do you meditate?
Do you exercise?
Yoga?
Eat Chocolate?
Binge-watch your favorite show?

After I post this, I am going to go mindlessly doodle. Maybe it will be amazing. Maybe not. Today it doesn’t matter because I need it to mentally recharge. Regardless of the outcome of my doodles, I feel like because I planned – not just my day but planned my month to live beautifully I am able to overcome and bounce back ready for a new day with renewed resolve.

Dimensions of the Spread:

Here are the dimensions of the single page plan – this could be used for a work week with just 5 days and fit two weeks to a two-page spread.

Tomorrow is a new day hand lettered quote

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully.

Tricia

Starting in the middle of the week with the beginning of a new month? Here is a minimalistic weekly design for your bullet journal, minimalism

Give your Goals & Plans a Defined Timeline

October 31, 2017 7 Comments

End of Year Planning – Don’t Leave it to the Last Minute

Start Early on Next Year’s Planning with a Super Simple Planning Spread – Give Your Goals & Plans a Defined Timeline. November seems like a great time to set some goals for next year. Specifically the first two weeks of November. Why then? Well because Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving or other holidays have not come yet. Visiting family will not arrive yet, and if you are vacationing or leaving, you have some time before the packing begins. There is a certain quiet about this time – the air is still buzzing with excitement that comes from the end of the year activities, but parties and plans have not started up – yet.

Goals & Plans a Defined Timeline - setting up for this month, next month & next year

The other reason it makes for perfect planning for next year is that next year is close, but not too close. You have some time to think. You have some time to reflect. The time is perfect to think about what you want from the next year. I am not talking about achieving anything – though you can certainly include achievements – I am mostly talking about what you want to become as a person. Become what is important to you. Decide to spend your time doing the things that will give you happiness, joy, and peace in your life.

Use the quiet spaces in the month to plan ahead and define your goal timelines | Start your goals with a timeline, not an obscure 'someday'

Define Your Timelines

This is my variation of the short-term, mid-term, and long-term goal planning. I was never good at using those planning terms – I needed a definition for the meaning of short-term, mid-term, and long-term. So I defined the timelines for me. It makes me work harder because I now have an accountability to time.

Short-term for me is Monthly.

Mid-term is something I want to accomplish in the next 2 months (sometimes I extend it to 3 months). In this case, I will be planning to complete by the end of the year.

“Next Year” I define as ‘by the end of next year’ – these are long-term goals**. I will define these more in-depth for the start of the year. This section is actually the reason I created this spread. I wanted to start thinking about my plans and goals for next year so they didn’t get swept away by the flurry of the holidays.

**I have an even longer-term goal type (more than a year) but I did not include that on this spread.

Break Your Goals into Achievable Times

Break your goals down into achievable times – when you expect to get these things done. Start where you are and give yourself a timeline – not an obscure ‘someday’. Stretch yourself a little, be patient with yourself and make goals realistic.

This month with my focus on simplicity, I made a planning & goals page extremely simple so I was not distracted by all the ‘shiny’ things. I tend to flit from one place to another and never get anything done. So I laid out this page with simple functionality in mind. (The bottom picture shows without lines for an even more simplified look).

Start Early on Next Year's Planning with a Super Simple Planning Spread - Give Your Goals & Plans a Defined Timeline

Whatever Your Plans, No Matter Your Goals

Whatever your plans or goals for the coming months or year might be, take a moment to begin your planning for next year, whether it be to spend more time on self-care, cook more, lose weight, de-junk your house, using a planning & goals page is a good place for jotting down your ideas for yourself.

Do this now before life becomes more hectic so when you are sitting down after Christmas laying out your January planner you smile knowingly at yourself and can think “I’ve already set my goals for next year”. Go ahead, call yourself an overachiever. Because you are ahead of the game.

View the entire Monthly Planner Set up

I’d love to hear what you do to plan out your next year’s plans & goals.

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully.

Use the quiet spaces in the month to plan ahead and define your goal timelines.

Tricia

Mid-Month Habit Check – October

October 17, 2017 4 Comments

Need some re-motivation in the middle of the month? Do a Mid-Month Habit Check.

In a habit slump? Do a mid-month habit check to reignite your motivation

I started doing a mid-month habit check a couple of months ago. The beginning of the month I am completely motivated and know that I am going to conquer all of my desires and do all the things. Well, that’s what I intended to do anyway. By the middle of the month, it seems that I have lost steam and I need a boost of motivation.

So the middle of the month, I do a quick assessment of my habits which re-motivates me to keep going to the end of the month. I find this 5-minute assessment does wonders for reigniting the flame that I felt at the beginning of the month.

Questions to ask yourself for re-motivation:

Once I reassess where I am, I spend a couple of minutes thinking of what motivated me in the first place.

I ask:

Why did I start this habit?
What is the end goal?
Do I need to change the time of day for this habit?

A little meditation goes a long way.

Make a Change & Get It Done:

If I find a neglected habit, it probably means that I am not planning for it or I am letting other ‘fluff’ get in the way – things that don’t really matter occupy the time that I would spend on that habit. So I need to refocus and eliminate some of that fluff. If I need to move the habit to the beginning of the day, I do it.

For instance, the I’ve neglected the Show Me Your Letters habit this month. Last month, I missed maybe one day. This month so far, I’ve missed 7 of 17.

Supercharge your habits:

If you notice at the end of this tracker, I have numbers and a blank column on the right side. Th blank column is for the end of the month and I will calculate the percentage of days that I completed that habit. The other column that already has numbers recorded shows how many days of the month I completed the last month. For instance, the show me your letters had 23 days of September that I completed that habit. If I put it as a priority for the rest of the month, I could still meet or beat that number from last month.

I created a post a couple of months ago to “Super-Charge Your Habit Tracker” that talks more about these columns in the habit tracker. You can read it here.

I created a percentage chart so you don’t have to figure it out. Pin for reference later! In October, you would use the 31 days column to figure your percentages. At the end of the month, count the number of days you completed a habit. For instance – if your total days completing a habit was 21, and the month had 31 days, your percentage would be 68%.

For instance – if your total days completing a habit was 21, and the month had 31 days, your percentage would be 68%.

Calculating the percentage helps me really see if I need to change the time of day for that habit if I need to move it to the morning or evening. I love seeing the real numbers so I can give that habit a ‘grade’.

Percentage calculator for monthly habit trackers

Two Categories of Habits:

I actually have two categories of habits that I track. It’s not indicated anywhere except in my mind.

Habits I am actively trying to pursue, and usually the ones I spend the most time on.
Habits I am assessing – these are ‘test subjects’ if you will – things I want to include in my life and are important, I just may not have set goals for them yet. These will most likely become the next set of habits I am actively trying to pursue. Maybe they need a little tweaking, or I need to plan them into my day. It’s like they are getting a trial run on my habit tracker.

Doing a mid-month habit check has been a great ‘habit’ to start, and it gives that extra boost of motivation for the last half of the month.

**Do you do anything during the month to re-motivate yourself? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

What I Need Help With – and What I am Going to Do

October 14, 2017 4 Comments

There’s a question that I glaze over just like a tasty doughnut. I know I have done it and not just once. No, not glazed a doughnut, but ignoring things that I really want to work on or admit what I need help with or “things to work on”. However, one day this last week, I was reading over the #planwithmechallenge prompts for October and this question jumped out.

Since I have started bullet journaling I have seen so many improvements in my life. So I decided to take this question on. I could list dozens of things that I want to improve. But I tend to shy away from making a laundry list of all the things I need to work on. Overwhelm takes over and I already have a tendency to beat myself up about the things I need to do.

This time I decided to think of the first four things that I needed help with. I limited myself to just four. If you are doing this exercise, decide to limit yourself – it will help to keep you from being overwhelmed more than you realize. These were things I could do for myself, I didn’t have to rely on someone else’s commitment. I chose four ideas for my habit tracker, goals, or personal development.

My Things to Work on:

Read or listen to more books
Idea Implementation
Time-block
Confidence

I didn’t just list the things I needed to work on and close this dotted A5 companion of mine. I listed a little blurb about what I meant and defined it further.

Things to work on... Free Printable Exercise deciding what you need help with and what you are going to do about it.

YouTube Video Walk-Through

This prompt was the inspiration for my weekly bullet journal spread – I decided to create a time-blocking spread to help achieve some of these goals. You can read the post here.

I created a video of my set up for time-blocking and the process behind it with an overview of the month’s layouts so far. Watch the video below or on my YouTube Channel here. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for future videos. The first part of the video is my “things to work on”.

For instance:

Idea Implementation – I have so many ideas! I need to streamline ideas. Focus on one at a time instead of trying to do them all. I need to finish projects instead of starting a new one before I complete a project.

Give yourself a why:

Why in the world do these things matter to you? Only you can know that. I want to read more books. Well, because I miss it and like many things I have allowed life to consume all my time. I want those words back in my life. My other why? I love to learn. I want to continue learning. All the things.

Ask: What is holding you back?

I find it is good for me to identify my excuses or my obstacles. For instance – I don’t want to buy more books because, well, we have a problem with clutter in my house as it is. I don’t need more. I don’t like reading on my phone as much. Time is an issue for sitting down and reading. Audiobooks are so expensive!

The biggie: What are you going to do about it?

Sign up at the library already for their free resources to books and audiobooks. They have so many resources. This takes the monetary issue out, I don’t collect clutter, I can listen to the books while getting ready or driving since I download them to my phone.

Measure it! When can you count it done?

So in the case of reading or listening to more books – I will measure in quantity. If I read or listen to just one book per month, it will be an increase in what I am doing. I’ll track for 3 months (a random number I chose) then reassess and see if I need to increase it or if it is working. Maybe I will find another source for books or decide to try audible or read one on kindle.

Notes:

Chances are if you haven’t done something already, there are reasons. Maybe they are just excuses, maybe there is something bigger preventing you from doing what you want. Don’t ignore a concern. Address it. Make a note, figure out what it means to you or what you need to do about it. This is a way to help you be happier with you. There are no judgments – let yourself be you. It’s ok.

I am not sure how I will track “Confidence” as I wrote down in my bullet journal. So I’ll do some research so I can define it and measure it.

Look on the Bright Side – It’s About Perspective | Life in Comics

October 4, 2017 Leave a Comment

Life in Perspective

So this happened yesterday. No, I did not randomly come across snails painting Mona Lisa portraits, but a painting of mine got smudged by a well-intentioned significant other. It was a painting for someone else. There’s no saving it, I will have to redo it. I went to bed last night trying to control my anger. I tried to keep things in perspective – that there are bigger problems in life. However, my subconscious was serving up dreams that would have said that I was angry. My vibrant dreams were riddled with me running away and crying.

Positive Perspective - snails painting and learning to look on the bright side, even after the worst seemed to happen

Perspective is a Choice

But the thing is, I don’t want to feel angry with my significant other. He didn’t mean to. If I were completely honest with myself this painting for someone else and the quality was not up to my expected standard. I would be embarrassed to give it to them. It needed to be redone. It’s just hard to admit that after you’ve spent time and energy producing something that could be classified as just ‘alright’.

I will redo the painting, and this time, I will be proud of the end product. But what’s more, is that this idea of life in comics actually took shape. You see, I have had this idea for a month or so, but how to implement this idea was elusive. So as I dreamt in my restless state, the ideas formed and came together.

I woke up early this morning, even before my 8-month-old woke up. I created what was in my mind in about 45 minutes. Where in the past, it took me hours and I would end up with nothing to show for it. It’s amazing when and how inspiration comes. It was a very welcome change, especially since I’ve been in a slump for really being productive and getting things done.

So here’s to the choice of looking on the bright side and finding good in every situation. It’s all about perspective. And perspective is a choice.