7 Reasons Why I Use a Paper Planner

I post about planners a lot. I know many of you probably think I'm ridiculous. And I am--unapologetically. But even though decorating my planner has become my hobby (some people scrapbook, I buy washi and planner stickers), I don't do this for the relaxing hobby. That's just a side benefit. The real reason I use one is because it's vital to my day. I'm running a business, writing, and being a wife and mom. It's a lot to keep track of.

But why a paper planner?

1. I have the memory the size of a garden pea.

I blame pregnancy. After I had my son, I think he took my memory with him because he can remember EVERYTHING (like to a freakish degree.) And I can't remember last week. But if I don't write something down, it's gone. The planner keeps me from forgetting the important stuff.

2. Electronic calendars don't work for everyone.

Yes, they have all kinds of fancy calendar and productivity apps and programs. That's what I tried to use before this. I learned quickly that once it's typed in, it's dead to me. I'm extremely visual so if it's not in my face, it doesn't exist. And when I set reminders, I'd just close them and then forget again. However, once I write something in my planner, even if it's not in front of me, I remember things better. Research has shown that writing things down helps us remember them and process them better, so there's some science to that. 

3. I can't hide from it. 

Yes, technically I can close my planner, but I don't. It sits open in front of me all day. There is no ignoring it. I can see clearly what I should be doing and that "mess around on twitter" is not on the To Do list.

4. Checking things off is highly satisfying.

It just is. I do something. Check mark! Maybe this comes from being a please-the-teacher student as a kid. I want the A. I want that checkmark. I don't want to look down at the end of the day and be left with a bunch of empty boxes and pending items.

5. Planning out each week makes me more intentional with my time.

Instead of sitting down and thinking, What should I do today? I already have my plan in front of me. On Sunday every week, I sit down with my planner and map out the week. Yes, there are surprises that will come up, but I have an outline of what I want to get done that week. How many words I need to write. Who I need to email. What promo I need to do. When I need to blog. What I'm cooking for dinner. What's going on with the family. With all those decisions out of the way, it clears my mind to do what I need to do and to be creative.

6. It keeps a visual record.

When did I turn in that thing? When did we go on that trip? I told you about my memory. So it's very helpful to have a physical record of what I've done. I can look back and see how many words I wrote in a month, what derailed me, where my time went, etc. And flipping through pages is way easier than scanning through an electronic calendar looking for that stuff.

7. Pretty things motivate me.

This may not be important to everyone, but for me, having something lovely that holds my plan makes me more likely to use it and stick with it. I look forward to decorating it and making it fun. It makes me smile when I see it. 

Those are my main reasons, but there are so many more. The key is finding what works best for YOU. My husband is a die hard electronic calendar guy and it totally works for him. (He also has a great memory, so that helps.). Other people rather a simple list on a steno pad. Whatever works.

But if you want to give the pretty planner a try, it's launch season for 2017 planners. Here are a few that launched this week and some others. (IWP and Day Designer are affiliate links but I don't rec anything I haven't bought for myself and loved. And I haven't been asked to feature them.)

New 2017 Planners

1. Inkwell Press (Get 10 dollars off with my link)

This is my planner of choice right now and is the one I've stuck with the longest. I just ordered my 2017 one and I couldn't be more excited. Gorgeous design. Thick paper. And the layout totally works for me. I use the three boxes each day for Blog post, Dinner, and Word Count (see the pic at top of post), but you can use them for whatever you want, which is the beauty. And I divide each day down down the middle to separate appointments or events (on the left) and my to do list (on the right.) 

2. Day Designer

I used Day Designer for a while and it's a beautiful planner and is perfect for someone who needs a daily layout instead of a weekly. So if you have a lot of daily appointments or you like to write out your full schedule along with your to do list, this is a great option. It's also nice to track your time after the fact to see where your day went.

3. Happy Planner

You can get these at Michael's and Hobby Lobby, often with a 40% off coupon. They are colorful with great paper and designs. It's also a disc bound system so you can move pages around. I used a Happy Planner for a while and really liked it, but eventually figured out that a horizontal layout worked better for me than vertical. They've since come out with a horizontal but I like the Inkwell Press layout better still. This is a great option though and is cheaper than many of the others.

4. Erin Condren

I haven't personally used an Erin Condren, but I've looked at them at Staples and they are lovely. They are also the first brand that launched the decorative planner thing.

5. Plum Paper Planner

This is another one I haven't used but have heard great things about. You can customize with a number of different layout options and I've heard the paper is very high quality.

Hope that helps! Anyone getting a new planner for 2017? Do you use a planner? An electronic calendar? How do you keep your life straight? 

Managing the Ebook TBR Pile - An Impossible Task?

Okay, folks, usually I try to blog about recommendations or solutions to things, but today I need your help with something because I haven't figured out a good answer. If you're here, that probably means that you love books like I do, which also probably means that you have a big to-be-read pile.

Mine is ginormous both in print and even more so in ebook. Hundreds and hundreds of unread books. It's both a blessing (yay, my own library!) and a curse (so many books, so little time.) And yesterday I mentioned on Twitter that lately I've found myself obsessed with hardcover books (which I've typically hated all my life) and have leaned more toward reading print this year than ebook. And I wasn't sure why.

Now, that's not to say I have problems with reading ebooks. Obviously I don't because many of my books that I put out there are ebook only. I love the convenience of ebooks and the sales. However, after thinking on it, I realized that the reason I'm reading more print lately is because I can SEE my print TBR pile. I can grab books off my shelves, flip them over, remind myself what it's about and choose one. With ebooks, that is really hard. Scrolling through hundreds of books on my Kindle with tiny black and white covers (because I prefer e-ink) isn't overly inspiring. And then it's not a quick process to read the back cover. So unless I just bought the book and remember what it's about, it languishes there. 

Part of this, I think, goes back to how my brain works. Y'all know about my love for paper planners. They have saved me because electronic calendars don't work for me. If it's out of sight, it's out of mind for me. I need hard copies of things in front of me to remind me. So when my ebooks go off the first page of my Kindle, it's like they're dead to me. And that's frustrating because I know there are amazing books on there that I wanted to read. 

So, I need a solution. How do I organize my ebooks in a visual way that works? I've tried separating into folders based on genre. That made it worse because then they were two steps away from being visible. I've tried Calibre, but it's not automatic and I'm not good at keeping stuff like that up. And a spreadsheet won't work because I need to see the covers, not just the titles.

I'm not even sure that there IS a solution, but I figured I would ask if any of you have any ideas that have worked for you? I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

And anyone else having this same issue?

Unboxing the Inkwell Press Academic Planner (with VIDEO)

Earlier this week I featured 4 Gorgeous Mid-Year Planners. I've ordered the other two on the list that I didn't have, and the Inkwell is already in! So I thought I'd do a walkthrough video for those who may be interested in seeing what this planner has to offer.

Also, things you realize when you tape an up close video of your hands--how chipped your manicure has become. >.<  But anyway, here you go! If anyone is interested in buying one of these or anything else from Inkwell, I have a referral code that will get you 10 dollars off. :)

I know that I've had a lot of planner and organizational type posts lately. Be assured that in the background, I'm writing and planning new books for you guys. :)  But let me know if you like these kinds of posts and if you want more/less. Also, I'd like to know if you enjoy video posts. I'm just learning YouTube stuff, but I think it could be a fun thing to do a video a few times a month (on all kinds of different topics, not just planners), so let me know if you have any interest in that AND I'd love to know what you want to hear about in the videos -- about books, writing, office supplies, planning, etc. 

Thanks, y'all! Hope you have a great weekend!

Quick Hanger Trick to Streamline Your Closet and Wardrobe

I've been knocked down with some medical stuff this week (and am a little foggy-brained from medicine), so I'm just stopping in for a quick tip today.

I know most of us probably go through our clothes on a semi-regular basis to make a donation pile of things we don't wear anymore, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between what we *think* we wear regularly and what we *actually* wear. I read somewhere that we wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. And I knew that was the case for me.

So one day I ran across a tip in an organizing book. I can't remember which one, unfortunately. It was probably one of these. But the tip was to turn all of your hangers around the wrong way. Then, when you wear something, turn the hanger back around. At the end of six months, reevaluate what hangers are still backward. Get rid of things at this point if you wish. I culled a few things at that time, but I gave it another six months after that to account for seasonal clothes. Then at a year, I could easily see what I hadn't worn. Some of it was surprising. Like I never would've guessed I hadn't worn certain things in at least a year if I hadn't been keeping track.

So once I saw what was still backward, if it wasn't some special occasion thing (like a cocktail dress or something), I ditched most of it. The few items I couldn't part with, I left the hangers backward and gave it another 6 month stay of execution. After that, it's gone. Because if I haven't worn it 18 months, I'm never going to wear it.

It's been really nice to whittle things down because it's made room in my closet and now I can easily see all the things I love to wear most.

So here's the quick and dirty:

1. Turn all your hangers backward.

2. Set a timer on your calendar to go off in 6 months.

3. When the timer goes off, reevaluate what is still backward. Ditch and donate some stuff if you want at that point.

4. Set another 6 month timer.

5. When it goes off, get rid of the clothes you haven't worn in a year. Someone else can put them to better use.

That's it! 

Do you have any quick trick for organizing?

Tackling the TBR: How To Organize and Choose Books From Your Out of Control To-Be-Read Pile

I have a problem. I suspect it's one a lot of you reading this have as well. The epic TBR pile. I have had this problem for many years and it only seems to get worse with time. In most aspects of my life, I'm a minimalist. With books, I'm a gimme-gimme, more-more-more person. And now that I'm an author, not only do I have to deal with my own out of control book purchases. Now I get FREE books at conferences--lots of them. Lots of bright, shiny new books just brimming with stories. That kid inside me who used to think trips to the library were better than trips to the mall can't resist. Books, books, everywhere! And that's only the print books. The ebook one-clicking is out of control, too, because Awesome Looking Book + Sale = Roni having a twitch in her index finger. Click!

So what has that left me with? A TBR pile that stands at about 500 e-books and 300 print books. Yeah. It's a problem.

And I'm a visual person so if something is not in front of my face, I forget about it. That ebook that is 7 pages in on my Kindle? It may as well not exist. And even if I go scrolling through, then I've forgotten why I bought it. What's it's about again? And my Kindle doesn't make it all that quick to get the blurb. So that book gets passed by for the newest, freshest in my mind book. Meanwhile, great books languish in the pile. Same with print books. Once it's on a shelf, I kind of forget about it. 

So last weekend, I decided to do some research on how to tame the beastly TBR pile. The most obvious solution touted everywhere is "Get rid of most of your books since you probably won't get to them anyway." Yeah, let's not talk crazy now. I am all for doing a yearly culling of print books. There are libraries and Goodwills that happily take books. But the only ones I part with are the ones I've read that didn't make it onto my keeper shelves and ones that I've accepted I'll never read (maybe I got it free, maybe it was an impulse buy, maybe I read another of the author's and didn't love it.) But the ones I still have good reason to read, I keep those.

So the next obvious advice you see everywhere is "Stop buying new books." Uh, yeah. That's not going to happen either. First, I want to support the industry I'm in and the authors I love. Buying books helps the health of booklandia and helps insure that those authors I love keep writing and those series I adore continue on. Plus, books are my main indulgence. A girl has to impulse buy something, right? ; )

Which meant--I still didn't know how to handle this outrageous TBR pile. And the articles I read didn't really give me any tips that resonated with me. I did like the idea of the TBR jar, where you write all the titles down on slips of paper and put them in a jar then randomly pull one out. But I promise you, there's no way I'm sitting down and writing out 700 slips of paper. Not gonna happen. This is probably a solution for someone who has a TBR pile of say--30 books.

So where did that leave me? I wanted a way to randomize my choices. I have my books tracked in Goodreads, but that doesn't help me CHOOSE what to read. Which means, I inevitably choose the newest thing. I wish my e-reader or Goodreads had a "Surprise Me" or randomizing feature, but it doesn't. So I wanted to figure out a way that helped me randomize things but also left a little flexibility for choice/mood. 

Enter the concept of multi-level categories and a few office supplies. And if you know me, you know I love office supplies. : ) 

This is going to be personal to everyone because we all read different things. But here's what I decided to go with for my little random Pick-a-Book game. I made three levels of categories. 

1.  Genre or sub-genre
2.  Format
3. When I purchased the book. (Current year or Before current year)

I made color-coded index cards for each of the three categories and wrote one index card for each of the sub-categories. 

Pink cards (genre) : Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance, Non-Fiction, Thriller, New Adult, General Fiction/Women's Fiction, Historical Romance, YA Contemporary, YA Paranormal/Horror, Suspense, Paranormal/Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ, Horror

Orange cards (format): Ebook, Trade paperback, Mass market paperback, Hardcover

Purple cards (age): Old (pre-2015) and New (2015)

So now when it comes time to read my next book, I'm going to pick one card from each category. That gives me what I need to read next: New Suspense Ebook or whatever. And if you're crafty, I'm sure you can get decorative with this. I didn't need fancy just functional so mine is pretty bare bones.

But what about the organization?

You may be thinking--yeah, category cards are great but then I'll have to cull through all my books to find that. No. That's where the organization comes in. This takes a little work upfront but will make things loads easier once it's done. You'll need to organize your books by whatever your Top-Level Category is. Your top level is the one that is most important to you and ideally has the most subcategories. My top-level category is genre. So I needed to organize my books library-style by genre.

For print: I grouped together the genres, often giving them each their own shelf. This will make it easy to grab, say, a YA Contemporary if that's what I pick with my cards.

For ebook: Do the same thing on your e-device if yours has the ability to make folders or categories. I made a category/folder on my kindle for each of the genres I listed. Then, one night while watching TV, I went through all 500 of my books and sorted them into the correct folders. Yes, it took time. But no, it wasn't hard and it's a relatively passive activity while you're hanging out. Also, it helped categorize books whose genre I couldn't pinpoint based on cover alone (and God knows, I didn't remember the blurb.) Now, instead of everything organized by New and Shiny first, I have genre folders, which is nice and feeds my visual self. And if your e-reader or phone doesn't allow for categories, you can do this on one of the book sites like Goodreads or Booklikes. 

Now you're all set. And it's up to you whether you remove cards from rotation each time. Like if you want to give each genre a fair shake, you can put the suspense card aside once you've read a suspense book. Or you can even shuffle and pull 10 different combos in a row. Then you can make a list of the next ten books you're going to read. Whatever works for you.

What if my categories don't fit you?  For instance, what if you only read thrillers or only read ebooks? Then you can come up with different randomizing categories.

Some suggestions for alternative or additional categories:

• Year of publication
• Length (short story, novella, novel, doorstop)
• Alphabet as the random factor (then you have to choose a book or author that starts with whatever letter you pulled)
• Color (This works better for print but you could pull random colors and then have to find a cover that has that color.)

What if you don't want to go through the organizing but still want to randomize your choices? Here are a few "hacks":

• Choose a random page in your e-reader and select a book off that page or sort by author to rearrange the order and get new books on that first page.
• Find a Reading Challenge that gives you a list to tackle. For instance, the Push Your Boundaries challenge I created last year is an easy place to start.
• Sort your TBR pile by a random category like ISBN number in Goodreads. Just go to your list of to-read books, click settings, and it will let you sort by all kinds of things. Then you can select the book that comes up first. (This, of course, assumes that you've entered your TBR already into Goodreads. If you read ebooks from Amazon, it does sync with your account and you can load the books automatically, which is how I did mine. So this captures my ebook TBR more than print.)

One extra tip: Don't be a chronic finisher. If you have hundreds of books in your pile, don't waste your time with one that isn't working for you. I find that when I force myself to finish reading something I'm not feeling, it slows down ALL of my reading because I keep putting it down and won't let myself move on to something else. I try to give books 3 chapters or about 50 pages. I know that's more generous than some, but I've found books that have been slow starters that have turned out to be great. However, if I hit page fifty and am still not feeling excited about it, it goes into the donation pile. Life's too short and my TBR pile is too long.

So that's what I'm going to be using to see if I can be more systematic in my reading selections. I know there are some fantastic, amazing books languishing in my pile, and I'm hoping this will bring them back to the front of the line. I'll let you know how it goes.

How do you handle your TBR pile? Are you as overwhelmed as I am? Any tips to share? I'd love to hear from you!