Do We Need to Spend Money to Plan?

In this post we discuss on the need to spend money to plan.

What is the cost of planning?

This question puzzled me. Plannernerds usually spend a lot of money on planner supplies. Even I have a lot of planner suplies - washies, post-it's, pens, stickers, flags, inserts that have never been used, planners that have never been used. A lot of of this stuff was sent to me. I did spent a lot of money on different organizers. I do buy pens.

So how much do I spend on planning? In the very core, not much. I buy the paper to print my inserts. I have a printer that I hope will serve at least several years, and yes, unfortunately, I have to buy the ink. I have a Filofax that serves me for two years already and will serve me for several more years, if not decades. And really, that's all. I am a very practical planner. Open the organizer, write it down, and I'm done. Oh, I forgot a pen. Anybody has a pen that is laying around.

So what is a real price for planning? For me it's a Filofax, printer, ink, paper, and a pen.
But that's because I have chosen to print my own inserts. I like them.
If you count the total that I have spent, and divide the cost over YEARS that I use them, the cost per day of using it is not that high.
So in a total run, anyone could use just the basic tools that they already have in their house: a spare notebook and a pen.

Several people have writen to me that they cannot afford to plan. What they don't realize is that planning is not about the tools, it's about the way how to plan. Well, that's a whole another topic, and I have made this blog and a YouTube channel on this topic. I write blog posts and make videos on my planner setup so people will learn how to do it.

What about you? Do you spend a lot of money to plan?

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How to Future Plan in your Planner (Filofax)?

In this blogpost, we discuss how to plan for the future in your planner (filofax).

We are in the beginning of a new year. Chances are, you need to plan something in the future for this year. Many people want to carry the whole year of inserts. For many it doesn't work, because the paper is too heavy!

So how to solve this problem?

If you don't need to write a lot on those future pages,  i.e., just appointments, then 12 monthly pages for the whole year will be enough for your future pages. I like also to carry an extra page that has FOUR years on a page, it's from filofax, but that's me. You might find that 4 future years is too much of preplanning for you.

If you need to actually write a lot, i.e., a project with a lot of to do's, that are spread over weeks and months, and those tasks include at least several sentences, you have two options:

Option number one:
Use lined pages for each period of time that you need to plan for, i.e., one page for a month. Write dates in column on the left side of the page, skipping several lines between dates, for example, leave 3 lines for each day, and use the page to write your future to-do's on those lines.
You could use the same method for really detailed and elaborate projects, just use one sheet of paper for a week, or even one page for one day.
Put those pages in the appropriate place BEFORE your relevant to those deadline monthly pages. Another thing is to put them into your project divider in your filofax, but this may result in your forgetting about it all together. I DON'T recommend using additional sections in your filofax if you have deadlines in your projects!
This option works  well if you don't want to carry additional weight with you, which are weekly pages for the whole year.

Option number two:
If you still prefer to carry the whole year of inserts, use week on ONE page inserts, which takes less amount of space on rings in your filofax, and weights less. Write on those weekies what you need to preplan.Use additional blank pages if you need a lot of space to write on. Put them WITH those weeklies together.

I hope I helped you with your preplanning! What do you think about that? What do you use to preplan?

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