I have finally received my Life Book Diary and I am very excited. I have used it for a few days now. There are a lot of things I like about it but there are also still things I am trying to figure out as there is a lot of different sections and I just wanna organize it so that I get the most of the diary. Does that make sense?
Before we begin I want to apologize for the quality of the pictures, I thought they were quite good when I took them. Clearly not.. haha!
Before we begin I want to apologize for the quality of the pictures, I thought they were quite good when I took them. Clearly not.. haha!
The first page is a personal information page. Basically if you lose your diary or if anything happens to you it has information on the first page. I had mine filled in so I just blurred it out.
See what I mean about bad quality pictures? Haha, never mind!
On this page you can write down useful numbers, such as your doctor's number, nursery or school, etc. I only have two number written down so I should probably fill that in.
I like that there is a page with simple calendars. This diary starts in August 2015 hence the 2015 calendar. I just used the 2016 calendar to circle the dates I am getting paid as I get paid four weekly and it's nice just to have a quick glance!
I wish I knew what to do with this Weekly Planner page. There are about four or five of these I think so you could probably write down a weekly cleaning routine or just a general weekly routine. I would love to fill this in but I don't work the same hours/days each week which means our routine changes depending on when I work. It's a very useful page though and I'm really contemplating using one as a weekly cleaning routine.
This is basically the main part of the diary. It has seven sections, I divided mine into a section for myself, Graeme, William, Brendan and work. I have two spare so I can put things in if I run out of space, etc. For example, in the upcoming weeks I have stickers down for upcoming birthdays which I stuck in the column next to the work column. This page also has a meal planner section and a to do list. I thought these little squares would be too small to fit everything in as I'm used to just having everything on one page, whereas now I put main events/activities/appointments, etc on this page and then there's a to do list section for this month which I will show you below and out of that monthly to do section I can then write things to do in the weekly page. Does that make sense? Probably not. Okay.
I just wanted to add this picture to show you my meals planned out as I didn't have any in the last picture as that was the week I got my diary. I just check what I have in the fridge/freezer and make up dinner ideas for the week to use up the food. It's Monday today and we had a beef stew and chips.
This is the monthly planner section which is what I was talking about above. They have a page like this and others for each month. This is where I would write my to do lists now and then in the weekly planner for the week if I like.
This is the other part of the monthly planning pages. It has a budget page and an Income & Outgoings page. I haven't filled this in yet as I've bought the budget book from Organised Mum too so when I fill that in I can have a less detailed version in my planner so that I can glance at it without having to take my budget book out if I need to.
This one is quite self explanatory really, it's just a monthly planner. I'm not sure how I want to use it yet to be honest. There's also a notes section on the side. One thing I do have to say about the side sections though (to do lists, notes, etc) is that the columns are quite narrow so you don't have much space for writing things in.
I think it's really cool that there is a separate Christmas & Holidays section! You can now be the most organized person at Christmas! I'm far too happy about this, haha! Anyway, there's a section for Christmas Plans. I don't know whether I'll use that or no but we'll see.
Christmas budget page look really helpful. You can actually work out how much you would like to spend on each person or up to what amount and add it up and then you could save up through the year.
On the next page you can write down all the cards you need to write if any. I find this helpful because last year I had lots of different pieces of scrap paper all over the place with present ideas, budgeting, cards to write, etc.
Summer holiday planner as discussed above. This will be useful extra space because obviously during summer holidays we tend to do more activities, days out and such.
I laughed at this section when I first saw it! The page on the left is Thoughts & Plans for 2016 and the page next to it is the Thoughts & Plans for 2017. I laughed because I thought, TWENTY SEVENTEEN? I barely know what I'm doing next week! When you think about it though, you could write down you goals for those years and your reflections on past year, see what you'd like to change, achieve, etc and then you can look back at that. I feel like when you write things down you're more likely to do it and if there is something you really want in life and you feel like giving up, sometimes when you're flicking through your diary you might just come across these pages and keep on going and keep on trying to make your life be what you want it to be. I think that's what I'm going to use it for.
The last section of the planner are shopping lists which you can tear out. I have a shopping list written with the things that I still need to get for Pixie (our pug puppy that we're getting in February).
We have extra simple calendars for 2017 and 2018. At the back there is a little pocket in which you can keep your stickers, address book (comes with the diary) and whatever else you like. Sticky notes, maybe? I love the stickers and I have actually ordered some more from their website.
What are my thoughts then? I think that just like with every planner you have to get used to it and use it in a way that works for you. I chose this planner because it was already organised if that makes sense? For example, with the Filofax organizers you have to arrange pages yourself, choose what works best for you and so on. This planner/diary came with just what I needed. I admit that some sections are very small and it puts you off putting anything in them in case you have to write in something else and won't fit it in but that actually hasn't happened before. I really like this diary and I'm slowly getting the hang of this but I am still at the experimenting stage with planners and I feel like I might try the Filofax next year. Filling this planner in, deciding what sections I want used for what has kind of made me realize what I need from a planner. Don't get me wrong, I love this planner but I'm looking forward to trying out the Filofax planners and putting together a diary that works perfectly for me.
If you would like to see any of the sections mentioned above in a few weeks time when I have them filled in, let me know. Planners/diaries look amazing when they're filled in! Just me? Okay..
Organizing dust from Me to You,
Love, Daria
xoxo
