Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice, Vol 4, Iss 14: Function Over Form
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Hi friends! As much as I could easily write 1,000 words on Pee-Wee Herman’s influence on my life, this is not the forum for that. Just know that this one hits me particularly hard and this week has been rough. But, of course, there have been some silly and exciting things this week to help lighten my mood. We finally got the call that our sofa is ready to be delivered and we scheduled it for Saturday, which is 8 weeks from when we ordered it. Our home has been in a bit of stasis until it arrives because once we get the sofa, then we can figure out where the décor should go and also get a couple more furniture items including something to put my plants on. This whole time since we moved, most of our plants have been away at Plant Camp (aka one of my besties’ houses) and I am really looking forward to having them in our home.
The other neat thing that happened this week is that my first bloom on my pink lemon tree opened. It smells intensely sweet and I feel silly being so excited about a single flower on a tree yet here we are.
One of my friends sent me a text the other day and it was a photo of a new planner. They texted something to the effect of, “This is the one that is going to sort my life out and fix all my problems!” We both laughed because each of us has said this with dozens of planners over the years. 2023 was definitely going to be the year that I used a planner but then my mother got sick and passed away and I am just a husk of a person and I’ll tell ya what, when you feel like you’re only a shadow of your former self, using a planner isn't exactly high on the priority list.
That being said, in June I was able to score a very nice, dated, 2023 weekly planner for $13. It is normally a $50+ planner but it was halfway through the year and they were looking to get rid of old product. I have been approaching this planner differently. I don’t feel the pressure of “I paid so much money for this” so I don’t feel guilty if I don’t use it “perfectly,” that is, whatever a perfectly-used planner looks like in my mind. Also, it’s less of a commitment being only half a year than the big, scary, gotta-do-this-for-365-days goal.
The biggest change in how I am approaching this planner though, aside from starting it whenever the hell I want, is that I’m focusing on function. You know I love stationery and stickers and rubber stamps and pens and all the things. I follow all kinds of planner and journaling accounts and even just watching the videos gives me a burst of dopamine because they are so aesthetically pleasing. Every time I have tried to use a planner in the past, I have spent hours curating what stickers, labels, pens, stamps, inks, and so on I want to use and then when it comes time to sit and plan my tomorrow, I get overwhelmed. So, I don’t. Or I know that it’s going to take so much time for me to draw all the doodles and stick all the stickers and carefully write all the words and I’m just too busy so again, I just don’t use the planner at all. I want to note that my goal for making it look good is for me. I never intended to share photos of my planner spreads or go to planner meetups (yes, they are a thing).
A planner only works if I use it. It is still just as functional if it doesn’t “look pretty.”
So I’ve stopped caring about what it looks like and just started using it. I’m using some different-colored pens in somewhat of an effort to have things color-coded (I’m still working it out) but I’ve used nary a sticker. I’m also not using each and every one of the spaces that is available on the planner pages. I’m using ink and sometimes the schedule changes and I have to write over things. I’m not even using white-out because I can’t find where I put it. I’m also not using it on the weekends. In an effort to let go of perfection, here is what my planner looked like a couple weeks ago:
Am I writing to you only about planners? Of course not. The lesson I’ve (re)learned here is that sometimes what I need to do to move forward is to focus on what works for me and not what I think something “should” look like, regardless if I’m the only one looking at it. I know KC Davis talks about this a lot when it comes to care tasks but I want to extend this shift beyond that. I’m not saying that aesthetics aren’t important but I am trying to recognize when they are acting as a barrier to my moving forward.
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That’s it for this week! You can shop many books I’ve mentioned in this newsletter at my affiliate shop, The Infophile’s Bookshop, and support independent bookstores. In fact, any Bookshop, Amazon, or Etsy links in this newsletter are affiliate links so if you shop through those, it helps support my work. Or you can leave me a tip on Ko-fi, Paypal, or Venmo.
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