End of the Year Planning Tip #6 – Plan a Planner’s Get-Together With Like-Minded Friends

With Christa, the Christmas Elf with a Plan – 6 December

On the 6th day with Christa, I discover her hanging out with her Peeps. I understood the scene she was setting when I read her End of the Year Planning Tip #6 – Plan a Planner’s Get-Together with like-minded friends. She can be so puny! But I think it’s a great idea. Team Sleigh All Day!

If you’ve just discovered Christa’s End of Year Planning Tips, you can jump back to Tip #1 here.

What is a Planner’s Get-Together?

A Planner’s Get-Together is just a small group of friends or acquaintances that all use planners to manage their lives (or are trying to anyway). It could include new planners just trying to figure out how to get started, people with a bit of practice and those with years of experience. It would be an opportunity for all to share successes, ask questions, get new ideas, and share unneeded supplies with other who might need them. You could even have plan-along where you get together and all work on your own stuff, but with company.

How to Started

If you have two or three friends who you know use planners, all you need is to choose a time and location that works for everyone. Those friends may have other friends of family to grow the numbers a little. Small groups are likely easier to plan for, but if interest builds perhaps a regularly scheduled meeting at a local library or other available space.

Setting a few rules or guidelines can be helpful. Two areas that immediately come to mind are:

• Everyone is unique – there’s no right or wrong way to use a planner.
• Decide if selling within the group is allowed. Some people prefer to try and sell their unneeded items rather than give them away. But it can sometimes cause problems.

What If Your Friends and Family Are NOT Like-Minded When It Comes To Planners

If you can’t easily tag enough planners in your social circle, you’ll need to look outside.

As I said earlier, I think having get-togethers with other planners is a great opportunity to share and learn from one another. I used to be able to easily find groups of like-minded people for my hobbies. For example, I was was a member of 3 or 4 different photography groups on the Meetup app and would join other photographers at various locations. I was very much a novice was able to meet and learn from some seasoned photographers. But it seems that most of the face-to-face meetings have disappeared.

I did not have any luck locating any groups anywhere within two hours of my home. Perhaps you’ll have more luck than me there. I have discovered a little stationery store about an hour away that I plan to check out. I also plan to ask if they have, or might consider starting, a group for planners.

Classes can be another way to meet like-minded people. But all the classes that I have been able to find are online only. It is possible to make connections and share ideas online, but there’s something extra that comes with sitting down with people round the same table and having a conversation. Conversations are completed in minutes in person, but may spread over days when posting messages online. To me it feels more authentic; you get to know someone more easily in person.

Online Planners Groups

Social media sites, like Facebook and Reddit, have plenty of planners groups you can join. Some are public allowing you to jump in and see if it’s a good group for your needs and others are private groups that you have to request to join. Some are specific to a brand of planner system, some are associated with a locale, and others are everybody and everywhere and every combination of those you can imagine. Most do have some sort of rules or guidelines you are expected to follow.

I have joined or follow several groups on Facebook. I have also joined and left several more because they were not well managed. Most of the post were not relevant to the topics of planners or planning processes. I did search again today and found two groups that are local groups, but neither one appears to be active. One was started eight years ago and mentions “meetings” in it’s description. It may have “died” during the pandemic. I may try and join both; perhaps they just need someone to come and and “turn the lights back on” so to speak.

Summary

I still think Christa’s End of the Year Planning Tip #6 is a really good. I hope you have some planners in your social circle that will join you and working together to lift each other up in your planning efforts. It’s good to be able to celebrate each other’s successes and share ideas when anyone needs them. I’d love to hear how you get on with this tip. If you set up a Planner’s Get-Together or find a local group that’s already established, please share in the comments below.

Happy Planning!

Linda