Our Staff’s Planners: What Planners Do We Use?

As a community of planners, we all know the benefits of planning firsthand. Yet each one of us is a unique individual. We have different interests, different life experiences, and different personalities, so chances are, we each plan differently too. Your Franklin Planner is immensely customizable, because it’s designed to help you focus on exactly what makes you unique. To illustrate that point, we thought we’d share how a few of us here at Franklin Planner use our planners.

 

Traci, Human Resources

I use the Compact Leadership Daily Planner and love it! I love the bright white pages and clean layout. I used a Classic size for many years, but prefer the smaller size. I’ve found that I still have plenty of room for my daily tasks.

I was lucky to be trained originally by Hyrum Smith himself, and I use my planner exactly as it was intended. After using the planner for nearly 34 years, I write down everything—personal and professional! I list my work tasks first and then my personal tasks at the bottom. Between work and home, I always have things to plan!

Lined pages are my biggest go-to accessory. I also love the Expense Envelopes! They help me stick to my budget. I don’t know where I’d be without my planner.

 

John, Photographer/Copywriter

I really like the Travelers Planner for a few reasons. Its minimal, open design has all that I need to keep up with my piece of the world. I especially love the rustic Nubuck leather cover. It fits me. (I even swapped out my elastic closure for a long strip of leather.)

My work is project based and can often stretch over a period of weeks. Travelers lets me see my week at a glance, so I know what I’ve completed and what I still need to do. I write out all of my work projects to be sure I’m finished on time, and track the activities my family is involved in so I can remember to be home for the things that matter most. I want everything in one place so I can find it when I need it.

I’ve been doing a lot of projects in my yard lately, so you’ll find several notes about plants, phone numbers for nurseries, and garden ideas scattered throughout my planner. I keep a notebook inside my cover for personal and professional use. (It’s also a great place for my youngest to color when I’m not looking.)

I like gadgets, but my Franklin Planner works much better for me. Making meaningful plans involves envisioning what I want for my future, writing, sketching, and pondering. Paper allows me to record that process and see it all at once—from beginning to end. No technology can do that in quite the same way as paper and pen.

 

Sarah, Print Marketing Manager

I really enjoy my Simplicity for Moms Ring-bound Planner. The Classic size has plenty of room for note taking and writing in the 2-page monthly calendar. Plus, my aging eyes appreciate it.

I wear lots of ‘hats’, and this planner helps me keep them straight. I use the main planner area at the top of the page for work. I use the first of the lower sections to track my husband’s and older teenager’s work schedules, the second for school activities/sporting events, and the third to track tasks and events for my small event company.

I plan to maintain sanity! My work includes mostly larger tasks that may take more than a day to complete. The weekly format keeps it all in front of me so nothing falls through the cracks. I’m in the middle of our busy catalog creation season, so there are several large projects in play, with many subtasks to manage. I’m planning new, smaller, family ‘vacations’ to replace our original plans—and a visit from my daughter’s family with my grandson. I have a large annual event that I had to postpone, so I’ve tasked out all the adjustments to make that happen seamlessly.

I add lots of extras: I like wide-lined, graph, and blank pages for working through ideas on paper, a couple photo holders in the front for pictures of my kids and grandson, and Weekly Compass Cards with a pouch pagefinder, to keep longer term goals and ideas in view and to mark my current week. I also use additional fun, patterned pagefinders to mark areas of my planner for quick reference. The Simplicity for Moms Planner includes a shopping list and meal planning page for every week. That’s SO helpful!

And here’s something interesting—a business partner of mine liked the layout so much, he ordered this planner for himself!

 

Malorie, Marketing Manager

I use the Splendor Planner Love Weekly Planner. Having my week at a glance makes it easier for me to keep track of meetings, appointments and other things I have planned. I prefer the Classic size because I have a lot of tasks and notes to write down, so I like the extra room.

As a single mom, I need to track it all—tasks, appointments, daycare and preschool schedules, my study schedule for school, errands, meetings, and lists of all kinds. I am always sending notes or birthday cards to friends and family members. The Her Point of View Address-Phone Tabs make it so convenient to have that information right at my fingertips.

I love to travel, so planning vacations is a must. I am also planning for my upcoming wedding, so the planner will be helpful when tackling that. I slip in extra lined pages, because I make so many lists and take a lot of notes during meetings. I also love adding in extra tabs for “travel,” “wedding,” “lists,” etc.

As a millennial, I am the only one of my friends that uses a planner, and I’m proud of it! I have used a planner for years and years, but FranklinPlanner is the only one for me. I would rather lose my wallet than my planner! It’s much more valuable to me!

 

Bethany, Product Development

I use the Original Daily Ring-Bound Planner. The structured layout with the hourly appointment column works well with my busy schedule and doodling/note taking habits. The classic size is big enough that I can write in my normal-sized handwriting, insert other small papers inside the pages, and not lose the planner itself; and it’s small enough that I can fit it in my bag or just carry it in hand.

I write pretty much everything in my planner—anything I can do at work, buy at the grocery store, reminders to call my mom, or ideas for the next dessert I want to make. When I check something off after I have written it down, I get a surge of motivation to accomplish something else—even if it’s as simple as noting when to wake up in the morning. (Sometimes I’ll write down things I’ve already done and check them off just for the satisfaction of it.)

I’m pretty simple when it comes to my planning accessories. Since Original is straightforward and plain, I added the Herstory monthly tabs for a little color and inspiration! I like my Asari Binder because it only holds about 3 months of my 2-page-per-day planner pages. Its tough leather is very durable—especially considering the number of times I’ve dropped it and jostled it about. The binder design is simple and easy to use. Everything stays secure inside. Other than my binder, I use a page finder and black fine tip pen!

Right now, I’m planning my wedding and my planner has been a LIFE SAVER!

 

Jared, Marketing Director

I like Textures and its open layout. I have a lot of space on the left-hand page to write down my daily tasks and appointments. The right-hand side is where I write my notes, grocery store lists, and other information. Textures lets me see my whole week at a glance and that keeps me from forgetting things that are coming up throughout the week. For me, Classic is the perfect size. Not too big and not too small. I have enough room to keep all of my plans, and it fits perfectly in my messenger bag.

My tasks include daily planning, errands to run, to-do’s around the house, community activities, play dates for my son, and things I need to finish at work. I enjoy using my planner to plan family vacations. We have a trip coming up next week and it’s really helpful to jot down the places we’ll eat, the activities we’ll do and the information for the hotel.

I really enjoy my plastic pagefinders. I use several of them within my planner to mark my current week, the next week, and then my back section where I keep extra notes. (The multi-color pack is my favorite.)