Tag: planner

My Holiday Planner Pages

It’s snowing as I write this. It looks so magical. I’m watching the big fluffy flakes fly past my windows, sipping coffee out of a festive snowflake mug.

The time has come, my friends. The time has come to start planning for the holidays. And I am so ready. So today, I want to share with you my holiday planning pages.

I celebrate Christmas and Yule. The Darling Husband’s birthday is also in December. And my best friend is Jewish, so I at least acknowledge Hanukkah and help her celebrate it. So this month is just bursting with things that need planning.

It’s fun! (Eye twitching)

Now, if you read my post a few weeks ago, it might surprise you to learn that I’m making paper planning pages for this. I just started keeping a digital planner.

And yes, I love my digital planner. I love Artful Agenda, and it is helping me organize everything. So let’s first talk about why I’m making a paper planner in addition to this and why you might consider doing so as well.

First of all, I want to make a paper planner. Having my holiday plans down on pretty paper gives me such a burst of endorphins. Checking off gifts as they arrive is just fantastic. I should also point out that my pages aren’t in a normal planner. They’re part of my memory-keeping scrapbook. So it’s part planning, part journaling.

This is something I’m going to rely on in the years to come. My previous years of planning helped me prep for this year. I can look back and see what I planned, what worked, and what didn’t work. What I planned to do that didn’t get done. What I thought I wanted to do, but realized after I really didn’t care to. Even better, I can see things I’ve always planned to do and really want to, but never get around to. With all of this information, I can plan better.

All of this planning is essential if you’re going to make the holidays happen without losing your mind. Because we all know that the holidays don’t just happen unless you’re a child. If you want the beautiful peppermint-flavored glowing moments, you have to make them happen.

So the planning has to happen. But when I scrapbook and handmake my planners, it makes planning into a holiday activity in itself. One just for me.

The holidays are about family, and that’s great. But to me, the holidays are speckled with little private, quiet traditions. Moments that I look forward to almost as much as the family events. I get to sit down with my scrapbook toys and a cup of good coffee. I get to set everything up and savor the anticipation. It is fantastic.

Finally, you all know I’m big on memory keeping. I love being able to look back at the warm, glowing holiday moments. That’s why I keep a memory scrapbook to start with. And this is the most important part of making a holiday scrapbook planner. I am building an infrastructure where all of my lovely memories can be collected. Otherwise, I’m moving too fast to capture anything for later.

Now, let’s talk about the pages themselves. These are the ones that I find most useful, and generally create every year. I’ll be including pictures as well.

Holiday events calendar

The first page, aside from the cover page, is a bullet journal-type holiday calendar. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. I write all of the days from Black Friday to New Year’s Day, and then any holiday events that are happening. I don’t think I need to go into more detail about this. It’s a calendar. We’re good.

Gift list

I probably won’t share a completed gift list page here, because at least two people I’m shopping for might stumble upon this. But it’s a decorative list of all the things I’d like to get for people. I also put an envelope full of decorative paper. So when I go out for the always popular Christmas Shopping trip, I can make a cute little list to take with me.

My holiday bucket list

I love making a bucket list for every season. They help me keep track of things I want to do, and help me make time for them among all the things I have to do. I track holiday books I want to read, movies and specials I want to watch, and all the things I want to do. Things like making mulled wine and creating an ice altar.

Holidays are busy as hell. While it might seem silly to write down things you want to, it helps. It makes these fun things a priority. And they should be.

My Yule Good Deeds List

I am a witch. And witches take care of their community. While I try to do this all year round, Yule is a time for me to really double down. So every day from December 1st to Yule day (Usually December 21st or 22nd), I try to do something nice for others. I’ll give extra donations, leave heartfelt comments online, and put Christmas cards out in public. Just something fun or nice to lift someone’s holiday spirits.

I like to keep track of these, first off, to keep myself accountable. But also because I inevitably am left with no ideas for creative good deeds by December 14th. Having a list of things I’ve done in the past is super helpful then.

If you’re a witch, or even if you’re not, you might also enjoy doing 21 days of Yule kindness. Put a little love into the world. It’s sure needed.

New recipes

I like collecting recipes in my holiday journal. First, because it’s easier for me to look at a piece of paper than a screen when I’m baking. Second, because I like to keep track of what I tried from year to year. It’s another form of memory keeping.

Journaling pages

Finally, I have several pages decorated for the purpose of journaling. For collecting pictures, I take. For lists of the best memories, best moments. For the best gifts, both physical and not. Because those are the things I’ll treasure in the years to come. Not the food, which will be gone in a flash. Not the things we buy each other. But the memories of loved ones enjoying time together making the darkest days of the year the brightest.

I hope this post gives you some ideas for making your holidays more organized, more joyful, and more centered on things you and your family actually enjoy doing. Now, it’s your turn. Let us know in the comments your favorite holiday tradition.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what I do here, please consider liking and sharing this post and leaving a comment. You can also support me financially on Ko-fi.

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Preptober planner, 2024

August is now upon us. This is a liminal month here in Western PA, probably in other places. Signs of fall have started to pop up. Some leaves are beginning to turn, but most are still a vibrant green. The Steelers preseason is starting soon. Kids are going back to school. And while the days are still stifling hot, the nights are getting cooler. The days grow short, the nights grow long and my soul is coming alive.

Pumpkin spice is coming, my friends. Pumpkin spice is coming.

And while we’re all either soaking up the last weeks of summer or counting the days until chunky sweater weather, one thing remains the same. Nanowrimo will be with us before you realize it. And it’s time to get ready for Preptober. As such, I have updated my preptober planner for 2024.

This year’s version sports a new, darker color and updated coffee cups throughout the whole thing. More substantially, it includes two new planning pages.

Our first new page is a character injury page. I think we’ve all read or seen something in which a character is injured in one scene, only to be perfectly fine far too soon after. Was this done for convenience? Or did the author just forget about the injury?

The new planner page will help you avoid this. This includes a male and female presenting outline so that you can keep track of the bumps, bruises and breaks that your character suffers along the way.

Our second new page is a map page. I am a visual person. And it might surprise you to know that I often draw maps of my story locations so that I can keep track of things. Especially stories like Station 86, which included several levels of the space station that I needed to keep track of. I also had a map of the apartment building in Quiet Apocalypse so that I could remember who lived where and across from who.

These two pages bring us up to eleven total pages of planning goodness. You can print the planner out or just download it and write directly on the document. And while you could follow along with everyone planning on October, there is no reason you can’t get the planner now and begin your novel writing adventure.

I love this planner so much. Every year it gets better, in my humble opinion. You can get it right here now on Ko-fi for only $1.50.

Happy planning and happy writing everyone!

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Preptober Week One

Here we are, week one of October. And it’s, let me tell you, a busy week.

The first week of spooky season.

Banned Books Week, in case you missed my angry rant earlier today.

Fat Bears Week.

And, of course, it’s the first week of Preptober.

As promised, we’ll be walking through each page of my Preptober Planner together until we reach the big event in November. Because everything is better as a team.

Don’t forget, you can get my Preptober Planner on my Ko-fi store now to print out and play along all month.

Week one is all about making a plan. We’re going to answer some questions, make some lists, and get signed up on the Nanowrimo website.

First, some questions. Let’s make a plan for when you’re going to be writing, and how you’re going to make that time.

1. When are you going to write?

2. What projects do you need to wrap up before November to make space for writing a novel?

3. Are there any days I know I won’t be able to write? What days can I get in extra words to catch up?

4. What are the other obligations that you still need to meet like work, school, or home care?

Now, we’re going to consider the other people in your life. First, let’s make a list of the people who can help you this month. Who’s going to cheer you on? Who can pick up some extra work around your home? Who might bring you a coffee?

Now we’re going to make a second list of people. These are your fellow writers who are participating in Nanowrimo. Who are you writing with? Who can you meet up with for writing dates?

Next, we’re going to consider the physical things you’re going to need to write your novel.

Do you type or write on paper? Do you need index cards or post-its for organizing and brainstorming? How about a file folder for notes? Make a list, it’s time to go stationary shopping.

Finally, it’s time to go onto the Nanowrimo website and announce your project! It’s an exciting moment if you’ve never done it before.

That’s it for this week. We’re on our way to a successful month of writing together. Let us know in the comments what you’re going to be working on this November. And I’ll see you next week.

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