I hope you all had a happy and safe New Year’s Eve and day….Rich and I spent a quiet evening with the dogs, watching old movies…By old movies, I mean movies from the 1990’s—-I guess they’re considered vintage now.  You probably don’t remember either of them…one was Dave, a movie about a presidential look-alike, who is called to replace the president after he’s had a stroke.  It doesn’t sound like a romantic comedy, but I think that was what it was labelled as…It’s a sweet movie and one that reminds you of movies with wonderful music throughout…A movie you can watch and not feel like you have a worry in the world.  The other was An American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening..The movies came together in a DVD set at Walmart, and I remembered liking both of them, so bought them and finally watched them on New Year’s Eve.

I’ve never been big on celebrating on New Year’s Eve, even when I was young…it always seemed like a night when you’re playing Russian Roulette, with others driving drunk..I think I was always an old soul and never liked risking it.

And so for crafty things, I’ve been working on a planner for several days.  I’ve never been a user of planners, so will be giving this one away, but wanted to make one just for the experience.  I’ve never made a sewn binding before, and found it to be really simple. I might have done it wrong, but if I didn’t, it was much easier than I expected.  I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the experience and think others should give it a try.

On the other hand, I think if I was creating my own planner, I’d use a three-ring binder so that I don’t have to do anything but punch holes.  Simple and effective.

I’ve been reading the ideas of what people think are important to have in their planners, and realize I’m old.  I wouldn’t have considered most things in today’s planners to be important enough to monitor, and one woman said (on YouTube), that she likes to take her daily plan out of her calendar and keep it on a clipboard that she carries with her all day (in her home).  In a million years, I can’t imagine how anyone could find their planner to be that important.  I watched her create her daily planner, from what she eats for every meal, to the number of glasses of water she consumes, to whether or not she went to the gym that day, and just don’t get it.  She wasn’t dieting, but said she likes to monitor what she eats.  She says she eats healthy, so if that’s the case, then it’s not like she’s consuming a bag of chips and a box of donuts, so why does she need to write it all down?  I’m at a loss.  I think the planner generation of today is creating a planner to justify their existence..Is that too harsh?  Maybe, but it still makes no sense to me.

I was never a planner girl.  When I worked, I carried a small pocket calendar that had all of my meetings/appointments and what office I’d be working at on a given day.  Since I spent a different day in a different branch, I sent an email to everyone at the beginning of every month, letting them know where I’d be on what days.  That’s the extent of my “planner.”  If we had all day meetings and I’d get bored or had an idea I wanted to explore, I’d make myself a “to do” list.  That was during the time of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and my boss was consumed with it.  He made us read the book so we could be more “effective.”  I read it, but got to the fourth “habit” before I realized I’d missed the first three.  It was long and involved, and had a planner that you’d buy at Franklin Covey..it was big and thick and not my style, but I loved watching other managers use them.  One woman in particular would write her “to do ” list, and it seemed like she just moved the exact same list from day to day without ever crossing anything off.  I was of the opinion that if you made a list, you actually did something with it.  I also had a theory that someone (a previous boss) taught me, called “touch it once.”  That meant if you opened your emails, you did whatever the email required before you moved onto your next task.  If you made a to do list, you did the items on the list and then moved on to whatever was next.  It kept me organized and I never struggled with time management.  It’s not a process that everyone can adapt, but it worked for me.

As for the planner I’m creating, I’ll be giving it away…I should keep track of what I eat and drink, but in the end, it would only make me feel bad about not eating healthy, so it’s better off being a secret.

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