Paper Planner Picks for 2019

I can't believe it's already that time of year, but today is launch day for a few of the popular planner brands for their 2019 lines. If you've followed me for any amount of time, y'all know I love a paper planner. Planning on paper has really been a game-changer for me. There's a lot of power in writing something down and having it in my face instead of tucked away on my phone. I've tried a lot of different systems over the years and am always tweaking, adding, and subtracting from my current system, but I thought I'd go over what I've been using and what I plan to use in 2019.

My Current System and What I'll Be Using in 2019

Day Designer for Daily Planning

What today looks like in my planner

This year, my main planner and the hub of my system is the Day Designer, which provides a page for each day along with monthly and yearly spreads. I've found that, especially when I'm overwhelmed, I do best just looking at one day at a time. No distractions about what's coming up the rest of the week. What am I supposed to do TODAY. I also like that the Day Designer has a neutral scheme of white and gray so I can decorate it how I want (or not at all), and I'm not trying to coordinate with whatever color is in the planner. It also lets me change how it looks every day (and gives me a place to use all those stickers and all of that washi tape I collect, lol.)

A view without any washi or writing (photo courtesy of Day Designer)

So because the Day Designer has been working for me this year and in years past, I've ordered another one.  (Note: my link is an affiliate link, which means I earn a little commission if you buy through my site but that doesn't cost you anything, and I haven't been asked to promote it. I buy one every year.) They launched today if you want to see the 2019 designs. This is the one I picked. Isn't it so pretty? And I love that the inner liner on this one is navy blue.

Goal-Setting

In addition to my daily planner, I also have been using the Powersheets for a goal-setting planner. This is different than a daily planner of To Dos. This is a planner specifically geared towards long-term and monthly goal-setting. I've used this system for three years now and have found it tremendously helpful. I'll be buying another for 2019 (they go on sale in October). I work the whole system, setting annual goals (which you get a chance to update every quarter) and monthly/weekly goals that you monitor on what's called a Tending List. I keep this tending list open on my desk at all times to keep my goals in my face. Here's an example of one of my tending lists. I decorate with stickers but you can keep it simple if that's not your thing.

*One note I'd like to make about the Powersheets. The creator, Lara Casey, has a number of religious items in her shop. The Powersheets, however, are not religious, so don't be worried about it being a Bible planner or something. It's definitely not.

90- Day Business Plan

A new one I've just started using is a 90-Day Business Plan where I set business goals for the next 90 days and then record not what I have to do but what I've done. So a Done planner. I modified a Happy Planner Teacher planner to make it work for me. I separate out the days into categories so I can make sure I'm covering goals that fall under a number of different areas in my life. If this system works well, it may end up being one I can use to replace the Powersheets or merge with them in some way, but I'm still playing around with it. I've also paired it up with a new Kanban board that I made that is focused on the 90-day goals. This planner and the kanban board are ideas I got from writer, Sarra Cannon, who has done some fantastic videos on her system if you want to check those out.

I may do a more extensive blog post about this 90-day planner and the kanban board to show you exactly how I'm using it, but for now, here are a few pics.

Happy planner hard cover 

Each day has 7 columns. The categories I'm using are Writing, Readers, Business, Yoga, Input (basically how I fill the well), Budget, and Home.

I have this fully filled with post-its now but this is how it looked when I first made it. This is focused strictly on the three main goals of my 90-day plan.

Other Options

Inkwell Press

Though I'm not ordering one this year, I've used Inkwell Press for a number of years, and they're beautiful, high quality planners. There paper is to die for. This year they're introducing a disc system for the first time along with some new inserts for goal-setting, meal planning, and daily planning. If you're interested in checking out what they have, they launched the 2019 planners today as well. If you use my affiliate link, you get 10 dollars off your first order of $50. If I ever go back to a weekly layout, I'd go back to Inkwell. I also still use their meal planner.

Photo credit: Inkwell Press

Happy Planner

Happy Planner is one I know a lot of you are familiar with because they are everywhere these days: Michael's, JoAnn's, Target. I always end up buying at least one Happy Planner a year to use for some purpose (like the teacher planner I mentioned above.) I love how they're always innovating and trying new layouts and designs. They're also the most economical of the planner choices, especially with store coupons. This week they're doing some Instagram reveals of their 2019 line, so if you're interested in them, be sure to check that out. Y'all know I'll be buying ALL the sticker books from them. I have a little bit of a sticker problem... lol.

So that's the system I plan on using in 2019. Are you getting a planner for 2019? What's been working for you?

Roni Recommends: Suspense with a Dash of Horror & A Twisty Ending

The other day I wrote a post called You Might Like My Book Recommendations If... that was all about reader personality and book recommendations. In that post, I told you which five main things I personally look for in a book how my recommendations are going to skew in that direction. Well, this recommendation actually falls a little bit outside of that sweet spot because The Last Time I Lied only hits 3 of my usual 5 things I'm looking for, BUT it did the other three so well that I ended up not minding that this was a plot-driven book instead of character-driven.

So why did I pick up this book in the first place when I know that thriller/suspense novels are usually not as much in my wheelhouse as a reader? Well, first, it was a Book of the Month club pick and they usually don't let me down with choosing books. (By the way, if you're looking to expand you're reading horizons, I highly recommend joining BOTM. The cost of the hardback is cheaper than you can get it on Amazon, and you can skip months and not get charged if none of the five picks appeals to you. Plus, they offer a good variety each month. Note: the link is an affiliate link but I pay for my subscription and have not been asked to promote it.) But secondly, I picked up this book because I'm a sucker for horror movies and though this book is not horror, Riley Sager's thing is to turn horror movie type premises into thriller/suspense novels. So when I saw this summary (below) and realized it was the classic scary summer camp set up, I was totally in.

In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.

Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera--the only one on the property--pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.

Cool premise, right? And I have to say that the setting descriptions were so fantastic that I felt like I was in the forest or on the lake or huddling in a cabin late at night. The descriptions made it an immersive reading experience. This story is also a dual timeline (a technique I love, as those of you who've read my books know) and it follows the story of what happened fifteen years ago and what's happening now when Emma returns as a counselor. The shifting timelines really help build the mystery and plant so many red herrings and possible suspects that I ended up suspecting like five different people and still didn't figure it out lol. So if you love a book filled with clues and misdirection, this will hit those buttons. As I mentioned above, the main character (the only POV we get) wasn't as layered as I usually prefer, but she was sympathetic and I didn't mind spending time in her head. I also had trouble keeping track of some of the other characters at the camp and had to check back for names a few times, but really that was my only issue.

And then the ending, y'all... I had some fears going into this book that the twist would be of a certain type that is super popular right now (and one that I've grown really tired of), but I am happy to report that it is not the case! The ending of this book was SO satisfying and totally got me to send this GIF to my friends:

Shocked GIF from Shocked GIFs

I love, love, love when a book tricks me and when I don't figure out the ending early. So this immediately made me want to pick up Sager's other book (which I already own) Final Girls. So though this is a little outside my normal recommendations, I think those of you who like a great creepy thriller with a good mystery should pick this one up. 

What have you read lately that you loved?

You Might Like My Book Recommendations If...

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know I love to recommend things...books especially. I depend pretty heavily on other people's recommendations to choose what I read next, so I like to try to provide the same service for other readers because omg, SO MANY BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM AND NOT ENOUGH TIME. #readerproblems And generally, I haven't given my personal recommendations much thought beyond "I loved this and I hope you will too!" 

However, I recently took a writing class with author R.L. Syme (she gives the BEST writer classes--if you're a writer, go take it. You'll thank me.) and one of the lectures was about how what different readers are looking for in their books is based on their own unique personalities. This may seem like a "duh" concept at first shine--we all are unique and are going to like different things. But it's much more layered and complex than that. We like things in books as readers (and if we're writers it guides our writing too) because of our personality strengths/qualities guide what we value in a story.

So, for instance, one of my strengths (according to a super fascinating test called the Strengthsfinder) is Individualization, meaning I have a particular ability to understand the "unique qualities of each person" and am "impatient with generalizations." This probably contributed to me wanting to become a therapist--seeing all the layers in people. But it's also what guides much of my writing. If you read my books, you'll (hopefully) see that I spend a lot of time on characterization, on building each person layer by layer, giving in depth backstory, making their motivation and feelings clear. That's what I love to do. Plot always comes second to me. Character-driven fiction is my thing. But not just as a writer, this class made me realize it's also what I seek as a reader.

This is why I'm often disappointed with the latest thriller everyone is raving about (whatever it may be) because I read it and can't see what others are so excited about. But that's because often in thrillers, the characterization doesn't have to go very deep (though it can and certain writers do that well) because people aren't reading it for that. They're reading a thriller for the tension, the twisty plot, the surprise ending. So to someone with lower Individualization, they don't even notice that the characters may have been depicted in very broad strokes with not much depth. That doesn't bother them at all if the plot and story are fantastic. (I realized this is why a good friend and I often can't recommend books to each other because we're looking for totally different reading experiences.)

So, this got me to thinking about the book recommendations I give (and the ones I seek out.) If you hear me saying that is a book is fantastic, it probably means that most of the following key points were hit because those are the golden nuggets I'm searching for when I pick up a book. (And it's also what you'll hopefully find in the books I write.)

1. Very layered characters - I need fully fleshed-out characters with backstories and flaws and motivations that make them feel real to me.

2. A character I can root for - Unlikable characters can be done well, and this isn't a dealbreaker for me (I've even written some), but I've found that, in general, I need at least one character who is likable or sympathetic (meaning I understand why they are acting the way they are) and who I can spend a whole book with. I want them flawed because that's human, but I don't want to hate everyone in the book because then I don't care what happens to them.

3. A page-turning pace - As much as I love deep characters, I don't read a lot of traditional literary fiction because I still need stuff to happen in the story and for it to move at a good pace. Slow books can put me in a reading slump and I hate that. 

4. A non-ambiguous ending, preferably happy - I'm a romance writer. I love my happy endings. I don't mind if a book puts me through the ringer if I have some hope and happiness at the end of it. I don't read to be depressed. That's not to say I always have to have a bright and shiny ending, but I at least need a satisfying, clear one. I don't want to be left wondering what the hell happened. The couple needs to end up together. The killer needs to be caught. Revenge needs to be had. Whatever it is, wrap it up.

5. Great writing - I'm a writer so I just can't help evaluating the writing. Plus, part of my personality profile is being picky and perfectionistic. If the writing is weak, even if the premise is interesting, it pulls me out of the story. 

So those are my things. If they are yours, then I'm probably a good person to trust for book recommendations (and hey, you'll probably like my books, too!) However, if you're a reader who is more interested in a twisty plot or intricate world-building or lots of back to back sexy times with no time wasted on character history/relationship development (hey, no judgment!) then my recommendations might not land as well with you. It's important to find the friends/book reviewers/recommenders that match up with your tastes.

If you'd like to keep up with my book recommendations, you can find them in a number of different places. Come join me!

• Sign up for newsletter and get my recommendations straight to your inbox (along with blog posts like this one and other fun stuff)
• Follow me on BookBub where I'm starting to post my reviews and favorites
• Follow me on Goodreads where I post everything I read

What makes a book a "must read" for you?

What I'm Watching This Summer

Summertime is the time of sunshine and the outdoors...well, in other places. Here in Dallas, summertime is full of sunshine and unbearable heat. Today it's 90 and it feels like autumn to me because we've been dealing with 105-110 temperatures for over two weeks and 90 truly feels like relief. We'll get a few days of this before the temperature races back up again.

But all this is to say that in summer, I often end up catching up on TV watching because we're indoors hiding from the heat. So I thought I'd pass along what I'm watching this summer both on TV and YouTube. And I'd love to hear what interesting shows you've found recently!

For pure soapy reality TV

Big Brother on CBS

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know that I'm a long time Big Brother fan. I look forward to it every summer, and it's become a family tradition. Hubs and I love all the strategy and personality dynamics. Kidlet loves all the competitions. (We fast forward through any not-safe-for-10-year-olds moments.) It's quite a commitment with three episodes a week, but I eat it up like candy. My favorite contestant this year in Tyler. I love that he came on and was all "I'm just a dumb, cute lifeguard" and has turned out to be the most socially strategic and smart player so far. The writer in me loves characters, and Big Brother always gives me good fodder for analysis.

Fun for the Whole Family

The Middle

Last summer kidlet and I picked a show to binge watch together for device-free summer. Last year was The Goldbergs, which has become a family favorite (and kidlet obsession) now. This summer, we've picked The Middle. (Side note: finding a truly family friendly modern sitcom is a challenge! But this one fits the bill.) We're almost done with season 2 and are really enjoying it. If you want to binge watch this one, it's not streaming anywhere for free (last I checked) but Freeform and the Hallmark channel have been running the seasons marathon style and we've been taping them, so look for that.

For the Music Lover

The Big Interview with Dan Rather

This is one hubs found on one of his favorite channels AXS. Dan Rather interviews famous musicians. (He may interview more than musicians, but the ones we've watched have all been musicians.) These interviews were taped a few years ago, but they are fascinating. Dan Rather is a master interviewer, and if you love music, you'll love the stories he pulls out of the people he puts in his interview chair. So far we've watched interviews with Greg Allman of The Allman Brothers, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Even if you don't know much about the particular band/artist (I knew hardly anything about The Allman Brothers) the interviews will pull you in. Highly recommended.

For Nostalgia or a Peek Inside 90s Teenhood

My So-Called Life

I mentioned a while back that I was so excited that one of my favorite podcast duos were starting the My So-Called Podcast where they rewatch episodes of My So-Called Life and then comment on them. This has been so much fun--to rewatch one of my very favorite shows from my teen years through adult eyes and then follow each episode up by listening to Jillian and Patrick pick apart the episodes in a funny yet respectful superfan kind of way. It's made it such a multi-layered experience. It's made me laugh a lot but also has made me wonder what the hell I was thinking loving Jordan Catalano (played by Jared Leto) back when I was 14. I mean, yes, he's beautiful, but dude, he was SUCH a jerk on that show. Adult Me totally wants to yell at him for his behavior. Anyway, if you want to rewatch or watch for the first time. Here's where you can stream it and here's where you can find the podcast.

For Your Brain

The 2000s on CNN

CNN has made series about many of the decades and every time, I am so here for it. I believe they started with The Sixties. That's the first one I watched at least, and they've gone on to make a series for each decade. This summer it is The 2000s. The show is produced by Tom Hanks and is done in such a great way that I get hooked every time. Each show will take one topic of that decade and do a deep dive. So, for instance, the episode we watched this week was all about technology and the "I-Decade"--the iPod, iPhone, iPad, social media, etc. Even though we all lived through it, it's fascinating to look back and really think about how much has changed so quickly. There was also an episode on TV shows in the 2000s and then there are the political ones (9/11, the Iraq War, etc.). I believe there is a music one coming up. All very well done. And if you haven't watched the previous seasons--60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s--they've all been fantastic.

For Your Body and Mind

Yoga with Adriene

I am trying to create a yoga habit, but I have trouble making it to classes because the timing never works out. So I've started doing yoga in the mornings at home. There are tons of free videos on YouTube, but I've found that the ones I like the best are from Yoga with Adriene. The videos are well shot, the routines are doable, there are lots of routines of varying length if I don't have a lot of time. Plus, Adriene is easy to follow and comes across as very down to earth. If you're looking to get some yoga into your life, check out her channel.

For the Planner Lover and Writers

Heart Breathings with Sarra Cannon

Y'all know I love a planner and anything having to do with productivity systems. I recently returned from the RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference where I met up with the writer/planner group I'm in online. So fun! And I happened to sit next to author Sarra Cannon who had brought her 90-day planner. I loved her set up and found out she has a YouTube channel where she talks about all things planning and writing. I blame her for the kanban board I put together this week. But if you're a planner girl (or guy!) like me, her channel is worth checking out. 

That's all I've got for y'all today! Tell me what you're watching and loving this summer. : )

The One You Fight For Cover Reveal!

I'm so excited to finally be able to share Taryn's cover with, y'all! Today USA Today's HEA blog is revealing the cover of The One You Fight For along with four other new covers coming out from Amanda Heger, Kait Ballenger, Samantha Chase and Connie Mann!

Pop on over to the HEA blog to see Taryn's cover. I'm so in love with it, y'all! The model looks so much like how I imagine Taryn--so much so that I ended up changing the hero's hair color to match the guy on the cover with her, lol. Shaw was originally dark-haired but when I saw this cover option, I was like welp, guess he's going to turn blond! Plus, the guy on the cover is hot so no hardship. ;)

Click here to see the full cover along with the rest of the cover reveals!

And if you want to make sure you don't miss the release, the book is now up for pre-order!