And sometimes, time flies even when you are not having fun. I certainly didn’t plan to be sharing my next post nearly a year and a half after the last. And while I’ve not been using what most of us think about when we say “planner”, knowing what planning tools we need in the current season of life and implementing just those we need most, can see us through.
In March of 2023, I was busy trying to write ten posts for this blog. The perfectionist in me wanted them to be perfectly wonderful in every way. I had plans for new products – long lists of ideas to work on. I was using my more traditional weekly planner consistently. Then my granddaughters came for a visit and no work happens when the Sweet Gingers are here because we are far too busy creating and crafting all the things they imagine and having fun for Nana to work.
I’m not even sure what happened to the rest of April and all of May. Then in June, I was needed to take care of the girls for a couple of weeks. I had my computer and planning materials, but there was no time for working. Visits with my granddaughters come with visits to my parents either before, after, or both before and after. Time was slipping away; I was not getting those post written or creating new products.
In July, I started working on a new planner design and discovered some new ways to design it and have a template that I could more easily update from year to year. I also added new features to make it customizable by the user with fill-able headers. Of course new features require new instructional documentation and being a perfectionist, writing instructions to explain how the user can change the font style, size or color became a road block and suddenly it was August and I had made plans to help out my son’s family by spending the first several weeks helping out as the girls headed back to school and needed feeding, dropping off, picking up, and caring for while my daughter-in-law was working through the week out of town.
I had originally planned for four weeks, but it stretched into 10 weeks. I have been planning for some time to eventually move there, so I was spending time attempting to come up with a rough plan for what type of home I’d like to have. (Ok, I was sketching house plans in SketchUp.)
I had still been using my regular paper planner through most of the summer. Unfortunately, it stayed in my backpack the whole time. But I needed something to keep me on track and a tiny sketchbook became my “planner”. It is a sewn book measuring 3 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ with a heavy paper cover. There’s 60 pages counting fronts and backs. I carried it in my purse and around the house with a pen clipped to it. If I needed to remember anything for more than 5 minutes, I wrote it inside: grocery lists, school supplies, 4H meetings, info to access Class Dojo for school info, meal plans, and Halloween costume ideas/supplies. By the end of the 10 weeks, I’d used just about all of it front and back. It did exactly what my planner would have done, but in a format I could manage at the time.
I came home just before Halloween and immediately after creating Halloween costumes for the Sweet Gingers. Before I could catch my breath, I was turning around and heading back to my parents house because my mother had finally learned the root cause of her severe pain that had been increasing over several months and the diagnosis was cancer. November and December were spent going back and forth to my parents home. I went to appointments with them and tried to help however I could. My mammogram was scheduled in between trips. That led to a biopsy, but it was fortunately all fine. Just super stressful. I got through those months with another tiny sketchbook. (They come in packs of 3).
Suddenly, it’s January 2024. Mom is doing well with her treatments and I’m back at home and vowing to get back to writing and designing. I was also ready to get on with de-cluttering and packing up this house and get closer to the goal of moving close to my son and closer to my parents. Mostly, though, I just wanted to rest and be on my own and not have to be responsible for anything or anybody.
Then it’s March 2024 and here come the Sweet Gingers for Spring Break and a year has gone by and I’ve still not finished those 10 perfect posts. Still dreaming … still going to design more planner stuff, still going to write those posts, still going to grow my business … still dreaming.
I had my health checkup in mid April. I’m a Type 2 Diabetic and through all the stress and whatnot, my numbers were not good and my doctor threatened more medication … one step closer to insulin dependence. I asked the doctor to submit the prescription request for CGM (continuous glucose monitor) sensors. My insurance company will cover the sensors if my phone could be used as the reader. Since April, I have been wearing a CGM and learned quickly that most carbs are not for me and have revised my diet to somewhere between Keto and Carnivore – high-protein and very low carbohydrate. My numbers are looking good and I’ve dropped some weight. I’m looking forward to seeing how my numbers have changed with my next labs.
I’m getting a good handle on this new lifestyle now and feeling more energy than I’ve felt in a long time. This week, I have been working on the business side of things. I have picked up that planner design I was working on last July and have updated it from August 2023 – December 2024 to August 2024 – December 2025 and plan to have it ready for myself to use before 1 August. I’ve started setting up a YouTube channel for Sweet Ginger Designs where I can post visual instructions for doing things that are hard to describe in words.
I also need to stop trying to write the perfect blog posts and just talk about the things I’ve learned about planning over all my years. One of the first planning tools – I think I got it in a Time Management course – was not much more than that tiny sketchbook. Planners do come in all forms and what works for one use may never work for another of us and what we need changes with the seasons of our lives.
Happy Planning!
Linda
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