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journal

October 19, 2022

Turning your planner into a hub for your brain

Many of you know that the Evergreen Planner system was born from worksheets that Shelby created in one of the most hectic seasons of her life. What is perhaps less well known, is that the beautiful leather cover we sell was born from McCauley’s vision for creating a planner that was both beautiful to look at, extremely practical to use, and would last for years to come.

The first leather covers that we used (pictured above) were handmade by McCauley on her living room floor. But we knew that wouldn’t be a practical way of getting them into the hands of an entire planner community, so McCauley spent a few years searching for a leathersmith who could take her handmade vision and turn it into a beautifully refined handcrafted leather product we could have available to our dear customers.

How the Cover Creates a Hub for Your Brain

Our Annual and Classic planner booklets can be used powerfully on their own, but when bound together in our Cover along with anything* else you need, the booklets are transformed into a personalized system that can stand up to the demands of constant use.

*When we say anything… we mean it. We stuff our covers with stamps, sticky note pads, washi tape, pens, small scissors, etc. Our Covers contain everything we need to braindump, sort and plan on the go! In a purse or loose in your car, this would feel like absolute chaos, but when it’s bound nicely in your leather Cover you can take all these implements on the go without a second thought!

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April 27, 2022

Why You Need A Hub for Your Brain – Podcast Ep 13

Listen to episode 13 on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

A few years ago, I read this crazy statistic that shocked me. It said the average person spends 5,000 hours in their lifetime looking for misplaced items. Ladies, that’s over 6 months solid spent feeling totally disorganized, simply trying to unblock your progress. I think the reason this hit me so hard was that I completely identified with this statistic. I knew it had to be accurate based on how I tended to feel in that season of my life. I also knew that this disorganized, fretful overwhelm was seriously holding me back from accomplishing the big goals I deeply cared about.

I realized I needed a hub for my brain—a one-stop home for #allthethings I was trying to juggle. I knew that if I could capture the important details of life in one place, then I could arrange the tasks I needed to do into my schedule, and my brain would have everything it needed to prioritize and stay intentional with my time. The Evergreen Planner was born out of this desire to finally feel truly organized.

Now, when I’m feeling spacey, I have a single place I can come back to in order to know what tasks I need to tackle next. This tool has saved me so much of the precious time that I used to waste spinning my wheels, and empowers me to be more present in my home, stay on top of my daily todos, and weekly make progress on those bigger goals and dreams that motivate me to stay intentional.

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January 12, 2022

Setting ROOTED Goals: Organically Growing Out of Your Context

Sustainable, Lasting, and Life-Giving Goals Are:
  • Rooted in your core calling
  • Organically growing out of your context
  • Outlined for clarity
  • Tailored to your lifestyle
  • Etched into your memory
  • Developed by Providence

Recap:

Last week, we talked about how to start uncovering the soil of your core calling. Core calling goals resonate deeply, compel you to follow-through on them, and start bearing fruit immediately. The soil of your core calling forms a rich environment for setting sustainable, healthy goals that actually energize you.

Other goal setting systems tell you to close your eyes and imagine where you want to be in 5-10 years—to dream big!—then to reverse-engineer and hustle and grind to make that dream come true.

This system grounds you in reality by helping you figure out the logical next right step for your real life. It starts by embracing your starting point as valid, and then helping you figure out the next right step to take to move you closer to where you’re trying to go.

Step 2 of the ROOTED system is all about setting goals that are ‘Organically Growing Out of Your Context.’

Our culture is obsessed with setting wild, untethered goals that introduce crazy amounts of tension between your desire for change and the realities of your day-to-day life. You may have big dreams. But you are not “behind” on anything. You’re right where God wants you to be to take the best next step to where you’re meant to go.

But if you’re anything like I was at the beginning of my goal-setting journey, you feel like the chasm between these ideals and real life is impassable. When you feel this tension, it’s time to start finding your next-right-step goal.

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December 15, 2021

Cultivating Peace Amidst Holiday To-Do’s

Christmas in ten. days. away. If you’re feeling a crushing sense of overwhelm at everything left to do before now and then, take a deep breath. Grab something warm to drink, and cozy up for some words of encouragement and practical tips before you launch into frenzied action.

We could never outdo Isaiah 9:6-7 or Luke 1:46-55 in an attempt to explain how incredible the Incarnation has been to world history. It is fitting that a celebration of Christ’s birth is a day with so much focus every year. God with us. It’s a profound thought. A revolution. The Light entering the darkness of history and chasing away sin and death “far as the curse is found.” It’s phenomenal.

You want to stay focused on what matters most. But with a hundred things on the to-do list, it’s kind of difficult to transpose the message of “peace on earth” to “peace within.” Here are some tips you can utilize today to step out of your frazzled hurry and into stillness of spirit.​

Practical Tips to Cultivate Peace This Week

  • Declutter your brain. You cannot expect to have the space to relax if your brain has a hundred tabs open and trying to load all at once. Get every single task and detail that’s weighing on your mind down on paper. And then sort them according to their priority. What absolutely has to happen? What is important, but not essential? What is fun, but not important? Having absolute clarity on the things that are most essential, will automatically bring a sense of peace to your to-do list.
  • Envision what you really want this Christmas. Be specific. It helps to journal this out in the flex space of your planner, incorporating and highlighting core value words in your description. Here are some ideas: reverent, calm, cozy, mindful, communion, delight, deep, warm, centered, focused, together, anticipation, hope.
  • Be willing to cut the nonessential. If your vision is a festive and delicious Christmas dinner—stressing yourself out to add variety to your cookie selection will minimally add to the warmth of togetherness. In fact, it could actually be counterproductive as you will struggle to have the presence of mind to relax and infuse peace into your family’s dinner with your own still spirit. The idea that the host has to be stressed out of her mind every Christmas as she slaves to make everything flawless is a LIE. Your family needs your joy more than they need a Pinterest-perfect dinner. Ruthlessly edit your to-do list so that you can show up for what’s truly essential this week.
  • Take stillness moments. When you feel your stress levels rising, don’t just push through. Take a deep breath and remember Who this week is all about! Jesus welcomed Mary to sit at His feet, even while Martha was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. It’s so tempting to say, “I’ll find my center in Christ after _____.” That doesn’t have to be your story this Christmas season. Christ came for you to lay down your burdens, too. He’s not worried if you forgot to order your Advent calendar in time, or if your kids have their matching pajamas clean on Christmas morning. So every time you feel your Martha coming on, choose a Mary moment. Take a long drink of water, settle the kids, and then take a moment by yourself to just Abide. Don’t get on Instagram, but instead set a timer for 5 minutes. Put on a playlist that ministers to you. Breathe deeply, keep your eyes closed, and lean into a conversation with God until the timer goes off. It doesn’t take much to recenter on what matters—but it does take intention.

Christmas is ten days away. That’s ten days to cultivate peace in your home. Ten days to knock out the essential things and let the rest fall away. Ten days to prepare to celebrate the greatest moment the world has ever known.

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Need a tool to help you plan the holiday season effectively? Our free day planner is a great way to help you get out of your head, sort your priorities, and let everything else fall away.