A rainy afternoon in a Maine coffee shop made me ditch my weekly spreads for good.

I was trying to plan my week, but my pen kept smudging on the damp paper. I looked at the messy, half-filled boxes and felt totally stuck. The barista saw me and said, "Looks like your planner is working against you." Right then, I ripped out the whole weekly section and just wrote a simple list of three things I actually needed to do. Has anyone else given up on pre-drawn weekly layouts and found something simpler?

3 comments

3 Comments

mia_fox982mo ago

Honestly, that blank page freedom is the best. Tbh a simple running to-do list on a notepad works way better for me now.

brian_murray2mo ago

But what if the structure is the whole point? I tried the simple list thing like @mia_fox98, but I just ended up with a messy pile of sticky notes and no sense of what day it was. Having those boxes already drawn out makes me actually think about when I'll do stuff, not just what I need to do.

reese55021d ago

A buddy of mine swore by those pre-printed weekly planners. Bought a whole pack of them. Then he lost his pen for three days and the whole system fell apart. He tried drawing the boxes back in with a pencil and it just looked like a mess. Now he uses a whiteboard on his fridge with a dry erase marker tied to it with a string. Seems to work okay for him but your mileage may vary.