The only way I’m surviving this current season of life?
Writing everything down.
That’s it. That’s the post.
To say life is full is an understatement. There’s a lot of transitions behind the scenes, and some big shifts coming that I’m not quite ready to talk about yet—but I will soon.
For now, I’ll just say this: my brain has been going a hundred miles an hour, and the short-term memory loss I’ve joked about having is feeling more real than ever. If I don’t write something down, it’s gone with the wind. Instantly.
Appointments, projects, ideas, millions of basketball practices, piano lessons, 4-H meetings, conversations, SOPs, processes, what I’m making for supper, what I need to order… etc, etc, etc.
I’ve been using EVERY text-capturing method at my disposal lately:
The Notes app on my phone.
Google docs (which I organized last night because the folders were a disaster).
Post-it notes. Everywhere.
My journals (I have three going simultaneously right now).
The backs of envelopes.
But most of all, my planner.
I’ve been using the list pages in the front like nobody’s business. The blank pages in the back are filling up with plans, brain dumps, and moving pieces. The monthly and weekly spreads are catching appointments, to-dos, deadlines, and all the little things that would otherwise circle my brain at 3 a.m. and steal my sleep.
This is not about “look how organized I am…” It’s about: “this is how I’m keeping the wheels on.”
(And yes, I know this may sound convenient coming from someone who sells a planner. But I write about what I’m actually living, and this is very much it…)
It’s also why I created this planner in the first place 5+ years ago.
I didn’t need something cute.
I didn’t need something to decorate with stickers and markers.
I wasn’t trying to build the perfect routine. (What even is that, anyway?)
I created it because I needed a place to hold real life. The kind of life that is layered and messy and full of moving pieces.
I needed something sturdy enough to help carry the mental load with me. And right now, I’m so grateful I have it.
So this is partly me sharing a real snapshot of my life lately, and partly me telling you: if you’ve got a hundred tabs open in your head and trying to hold a lot together this season, I get it.
It has the pieces I come back to over and over again: tabbed months, hourly weekly pages, list sections, project planning pages, room for goals and notes, meal planning, garden and seed tracking, food production logs, and space for all the things life hands us.
It’s practical. It’s durable. And it’s not precious. It’s a workhorse, which is exactly what we all need right now.
So that’s the real snapshot from my little corner of the world.
A little messy. A little full. A lot of writing things down.
And for this season at least, I’m grateful to have somewhere to set it all down.
-Jill
What a gorgeous planner! I feel like my mind is always going in a million directions. It is good to put things on paper, get organized, have a purpose.