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September 22, 2021

Simple Ways to Make Your Planner Beautiful

We’ve always admired the way the bullet journaling community lives in the junction of practical and stunning. A simple Pinterest search will show you the many ways habit trackers can turn into full blown works of art, and how monthly spreads can become masterpieces. Don’t let these searches overwhelm you: you don’t actually have to sink your life’s savings into art supplies. In fact, when we first began forming layouts, we copied what we saw others doing and used the scrap paper and supplies we already owned.

The key to making your planner lovely is to keep it fun and to keep it YOU. Below are seven tips that will help you do just this.

1. Embrace YOUR handwriting.

Don’t waste time hating something that is a part of who you are. If you need to, slow down and focus a tad more to increase tidiness and readability. Paying attention to spacing and line height (our bullet grid can help with this!), or giving a little extra thought to particular letterforms can go a long way.

2. Two words: WASHI TAPE

The uses for this magical art supply are truly endless. Edge your daily or weekly spreads to quickly add a splash of decoration. Divide notes on your bullet flex space, create headers, or chart out space on your time-blocker. {Pro tip: start with rolls of solid colors with muted tones, and then choose one or two patterns that coordinate.}

3. Highlighters

Your favorite pastel highlighters can be used in many of the same ways washi tape can. Edge your planner pages, box out a quote or list, or create a colorful system of time-blocking. If your ink is smudging, try highlighting before writing.

4. Boxes

Utilize boxes to create a visual representation of different categories of notes (errands, work tasks, grocery lists, etc). These boxes can be outlined with highlighters, washi tape, or a thick pen. Add an over-sized sticker in the corner of a box as a simple way to spice it up.

5. When you “mess up” your planner

A glue stick is great for those times you feel like you’ve “messed up your planner.” Simply grab a piece of paper (brown paper grocery bags work great) and layer it over whatever you want to cover. By tearing the edges of the paper, you can add a little texture to your spread. Now take a deep breath, and start again.

6. Paper, paper, paper

Grab a piece of scrapbook paper, graph paper, a paper grocery bag—really anything (no joke—we scour junk mail regularly for interesting colors or patterns)! Glued to your spread, you can create an interesting header or special background for an important list, adding a bit of layering fun at the same time.

7. Getting Fancy

Want to up-level your spreads? Use a label maker for quick headers or inspirational messages. If you have a printer at home, you can also print custom headers or list titles, especially for those lists you make over and over again.

Interested in our favorite planner accessories? Check out our accessory inspiration page here. And don’t forget to check out our Pinterest page full of beautiful spreads!

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The Evergreen Planner system is comprised of three unique pieces: the Cover, the Annual and the Monthly. Here at Evergreen we believe in self-compassionate planning and want to inspire women to craft a lifestyle that both fuels their dreams and serves their daily rhythms. Learn more about our system here!

September 15, 2021

Planner Hack: The Amazing Paperclip

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

One of the biggest pain-points we personally had during the years that we were testing out #alltheplanners was simply this: it was too dang easy to get lost in your own notebook!

The most amazing brainstorming session would get lost in a moment as we moved on to fill out the next prompts and schedules, rarely to be seen again. This was annoying at best, and actually radically complicated our lives at worst when our week’s agenda was inaccessible in the moments when we needed to make quick decisions during the course of our days. We solved this problem in a big way with our innovative dutch door layout.

As we became more skilled in the use of our own planner, we began using a simple tool – a paperclip – to aid us in our ability to navigate, mark and reference various key pages. This one hack put an end to getting lost in our own planner for good, making the navigation of the Evergreen Planner a real dream. Our planner system is minimalistic, yet dynamic. We love that you can effectively use a simple ballpoint pen to get your thoughts organized on paper, or that you can just as well bust out your entire collection of microns and washi tape for beautifully curated designs.

Our paperclip hack follows that same principle that makes our planner system gold—you can go simple or you can go elaborate—either way, the functionality remains.

Here are some ideas on how to leverage the paperclip to up-level your planning game:

Bookmark this Week: A paperclip can also be used to mark the current day on your vertical week’s agenda (and hold old weeks closed).

Bookmark Today: Hold the extra day spreads closed so your Monthly easily opens up to your current day!

Secure Keepsakes: You can paperclip keepsake papers or polaroid photos to the pages of our Monthly or Annual & turn them into memory books.

Flag What’s Important: Ordinary paperclips can be customized using your favorite washi tape and they can be used to flag specific pages.

Maximize Cover Functionality: You can paperclip receipts or other bits of paper you need easily accessible onto the outside of your Cover’s pockets!

Keep Them Close: Paperclips can easily be stored on the back cover of your Monthly, ready to whip out whenever you need one!

The paperclip provides so many great advantages to the planning process. We are constantly grabbing paperclips to use in different ways, which is why we’ve curated a fun and varying collection to include in our subscription boxes.

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September 8, 2021

Time-Blocking: Your Framework for Productivity

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

One of the most essential features in our Monthly booklets is the time-blocking section on the day spread.

When researching how to increase productivity — especially when needing to balance multiple roles in one day — there was one practical skill that came up again and again: time-blocking.

It’s highly recommended by productivity experts, and after using it in our own lives, we get why. When you make space to get realistic about your time availability, set up habits and rhythms, thoughtfully organize your tasks, apply prioritization and batching methods, and pad everything with ample margin—your productivity will increase.

With our Monthly booklet, the time-blocking feature on the day spread is completely customizable to your unique schedule. You can write in each hour to reflect your ideal rise and sleep schedule, or focus on only your working hours.

Think through your body’s energy, productivity, and rest rhythms (and for mamas, the rhythms of your kiddos). Then line out your tasks accordingly. Do you have the most creative energy first thing in the morning? Slot your most creative and important work during that time. Are you working during the day and making progress on your side hustle in the evening? Focus your time-blocking on those evening hours, writing in the key project you plan to tackle in the to-do column. Do you capitalize on your kiddos’ nap time to get work done? Slot that as your predictable working hours.

New to time-blocking?

A great way to develop this habit is to start by writing what you did do at the end of each day. Do not pass over this tip, it may seem simple, but it is a powerful tool for tracking the rhythms you already operate in. The truth is, you can’t wipe your current rhythms away and start over with a brand new schedule you think would be awesome. We are creatures of habit, and it simply won’t work. You have to begin to make change by first evaluating what you currently do, and then incrementally adjust the things that need adjusting. This will also help you see what is currently working well in the way you go about your day, and continue those life-giving habits you already have. By writing down what you did, you will be able to:

gauge what is realistic for you to accomplish in this season
spot the areas where you could use some discipline (we all have them!)
note the days or hours you tend to run errands, plan appointments or take care of home tasks
chart out the natural rhythms you (& your family) already operate in (meals, naps, school, work, etc.)

A few days (or even weeks) of this, and you will have loads of insight you can then use as you start to plan days before they happen. The practice of writing down what you did is a trick you can pull out again and again whenever you hit a season of transition (new job, new baby, new home, etc.). When things feel a little off, just take a few days to evaluate your rhythms and see what insights you can gain about what is working and what needs changed.

If you’ve never made a habit of time-blocking, start today! Flexibility is always required, but you’ll be amazed at how much time-blocking will enhance productivity. It’s the gift that just keeps giving.

Want to keep it fun? Highlighters, colored pencils, or even washi tape can be great ways to visually track the different sections of your day.

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September 1, 2021

Using Prompts Effectively: Self Care, Movement, Seasonal Goals & My Why

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

Last week, we looked at the first four prompts located on the day spread of our Monthly booklet. If you missed that post, it’s worth a read, but here’s a quick recap of the “why” behind these prompts:

We built these prompts around the best habit practices productivity gurus regularly write about, and we’ve seen huge benefits from using these prompts daily. When something feels off in our planning rhythm, it’s often because we’ve let the habit of using these prompts slide. Using these prompts again and again and again and again each day will build initially small, but long-lasting habits around creating targets and goals, reflecting on your days, and pivoting where needed.

Today we’re going to look at the final four: Self Care, Movement, Seasonal Goals & My Why.

A quick reminder before we jump in…

If seeing all of the prompts overwhelms you, start with 1-3, commit to practicing them regularly, and see what happens (you can even cover the others with washi tape while you get into a good mental groove with the ones you’ve chosen). We made this planner for you, so use it in the way that best fits the season you are in today.

Self Care

Such a simple phrase, and yet we have attached so much meaning to it. Sometimes, we feel guilty for taking the time do something so… positive. Other times, we make self-care too complicated, or we obsess over it. Self care doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s simply embracing the job you have to take care of yourself, so you’re in a place to serve vibrantly. If you find yourself staring at the “self care” space wondering what to put down, take a deep breath, push away the cultural expectations you’ve attached to that phrase, and write down what you need. When you cultivate abundance within, it overflows into your world without effort.

Movement

Unlike any other time in history, the majority of us in first-world countries can live our entire lives sitting on a couch. We can run an entire business empire while lounging in bed. We can order all our groceries without even getting up from our desk, and then pick them up without getting out of the driver’s seat (or have them delivered straight to our door). But movement is key to keeping us grounded in the real physical world. Exercise pumps fresh oxygen to our brains, detoxes the body, lowers stress levels, and can help balance hormones. It can re-energize us in a way no podcast or motivational video can. Movement doesn’t have to mean running 10 miles every day. It can be as simple as having a dance party with the kiddos or strolling through the neighborhood after dinner, but can also be used to track seasons of intense physical training. Do you—but make sure you’re incorporating movement into your daily rhythm!

Seasonal Goals

Have you ever spent days, caught up in the fervor of resolutions and possibility, pondering all your goals for the new year…only to get to May and realize you’ve made little to no progress on any of them? We’ve all been there. The reality is this: unless those big, life-changing goals are in front of you every single day to inform your decisions, you’ll never have the space to follow through. We included a “seasonal goals” prompt every day in our Monthly, so you can get serious about what it’ll take to make your dream a reality.

By daily envisioning a life-giving future, you’re providing for your mind an anchor for you to focus your creative efforts and problem-solving energies. You’re giving yourself a target at which to aim when you set up your schedule and develop your boundaries. You’re leveraging your God-given gift of imagination in order to do something that only you can do to cultivate abundance in a space that only you can fill. You’re taking your most noble hopes out of the realm of daydreams and formulating a plan of action.

My Why

Connected to your “seasonal goals” is the prompt that asks you to put into words your motivational “why.” The value of this question cannot be overstated. If you don’t know the “why” behind your alarm is going off at 5:30am, you’ll push snooze. If you don’t know the “why” behind the budget sacrifices you’re making to chase that side hustle, you’ll spend money haphazardly. Stating your “why” each day is going to fuel you on the days you make massive progress and help kick you back into action on the days you’d rather binge Netflix.

Your “why” is an opportunity to consider your core calling, and make sure everything you’ve planned for the day is aligned with that. There have been countless times when we’ve decluttered our brains onto our day spread, and by the time we get to our “why,” we can see our priorities with such clarity that we adjust our plans then and there, pivoting immediately into a stronger day. The quality and effectiveness of the activities that fill up your day is directly linked to the strength of your “why.” As you lean into purpose, you’ll find your resolve growing stronger.

The daily rhythm of planning with each of these prompts is a domino-habit that can serve to keep your goals and intentions in front of you so they can sink into you, and begin to influence your decisions. Get your thoughts organized so that you can build a working memory around the things that matter most to you in life. This kind of quiet work builds a foundation for the will power it takes to make those many small but vital choices you have to make, hour-by-hour, that train your time and your focus toward your priorities.

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