Planning in Different Seasons of Life
Our founder Michelle is, not surprisingly, a huge fan of planners. But the way she’s used her planner has changed through different times in her life. One of the biggest shifts for her was when she transitioned to being home with her kids full time. We sat down to talk with her about that transition and the ways she found her planner to still be important and useful in her daily life.
What has your schedule been like in different phases of your life?
Growing up, I didn’t live on a super rigid schedule. It was pretty standard—I had a couple of activities after school and my mom kept track of everyone’s schedules. I became a planner person when I went to university and had a really full schedule. Every single minute of every single day was planned! My planner was really time-based—everything I did had a time slot and I lived by that. The planner I used was a standard one from the university with only 10 to-do slots.
It was really jarring to shift away from that after graduating, moving away to support my husband’s schooling and not having a job. I honestly felt like I couldn't be a planner person anymore, so a huge part of my identity was stripped away. It was a huge transition for me—the rigid schedule of my day was no more.
Now that I’m a few years into running Golden Coil, I live a really task-based life where everything that I do and the way I organize my days is built around tasks that I need to accomplish and to-dos I need to do, rather than having daily appointments. I’m sure that will change even more as my kids get older and have more scheduled activities that I need to get them to. I feel like my experience shows how just one single person is going to need a planner that changes with them in different seasons in their life.
Do you feel like a planner has always been useful for you regardless of the type of schedule you're working with? What's the main purpose a planner fills for you?
I do think a planner has always been useful for me. There’s definitely some more difficult times where you’re transitioning from one phase of life to another and figuring out what works for you, but regardless of my schedule and lifestyle, a planner has always helped me to have clarity and to get things done.
My current planner manages all the things I need to do for work, home, and church. It’s my second brain (mom brain is real!). Now, instead of keeping all those things in my head, I get them down on paper for the week. I use the Horizontal Half 2 Weekly layout because it has so much to-do space and I separate my to-do list by those different responsibilities. My planner is very task-based but as my toddler has started preschool and is making friends, I find that I’m starting to schedule more for school and play dates. So again, my planning needs are changing and I’m really glad that I can adapt my Golden Coil planner layout each year to facilitate that!
Getting everything out of my brain is majorly helpful! Just because I don’t have many appointments doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot to do. It’s been really relieving for me to realize I don’t need to live a life where I feel anxious or stressed because I’m trying to remember everything I need to do. I really enjoy getting everything out of my brain and seeing it on paper. I feel like it gives me a lot more direction in what I’m doing and it helps me prioritize the things I need to do. Getting everything written out helps me see what things don’t need to take up space in my brain or even in my day. Sometimes once I’ve written something down, I’ll just cross it off because after looking at it I’ll realize there are more important things I need to spend time on.
Do you feel like a planner is for everyone?
Yes! Whether you live by schedules or tasks, whether you manage your own schedule or multiple people’s schedules, a planner will help make your days more clear and peaceful. It will help you to find purpose and prioritize. I personally find that using a planner helps me live more intentionally because it helps me identify the things I want to do and I don’t have to second-guess anything.
My experience with planning illustrates that each time of our lives serves a purpose. And while it can be jarring to go through those transitions and figure out how to organize your day in a new phase of life, a planner helps you continue to move forward and make progress in your life. Whether your schedule is dictated by appointments or open and fluid, I know there are tasks, goals, and bucket lists you want to be knocking out. Getting everything down in a planner helps you to visualize it and stay accountable to it. Some seasons of life will be really busy and other phases will feel slower, but no matter what, each of us have a lot to do.