Your Planner Isn’t Dead — It’s Ready and Waiting for You

(from “graveyard” to gold in three ridiculously simple moves)

Confession Time 📔⚰️

This is the story of how a planner nerd lost her groove—and the three micro‑moves that brought it back to life.

Yesterday I spent half the day at a mentor-friend’s place. Over brunch-turned-lunch I unloaded how scattered my work feels (Poor Jo - Bless her 💗). In her kind-but-blunt way she said, “Grace, you’re heading in too many directions — there needs to be more focus.” She’s said it before; I’m still practising.

Here’s the truth: I don’t have it all sorted. I’m not the planner guru whose life is secretly on fire. I created an undated planner because habits — and life — swing like a pendulum.

Think about food: some weeks it’s takeaway overload—extra fries (because potatoes are food straight from heaven); the next minute you’re cold-pressing celery and batch-cooking quinoa; eventually you drift into a livable middle. Money swings the same way: one pay-cycle you’re tapping the card like it’s a game show buzzer, the next you’re on a strict no-spend challenge, and then you settle into mindful, balanced budgeting. 

Planning follows that identical arc—intense bursts of colour-coded enthusiasm, the inevitable lull, a tidy reset, another wobble—until the pendulum calms in the centre and the habit simply sticks.

Which brings me to the blank pages staring at me now…

My life’s a bit of a pendulum right now. March’s goals are proudly ticked off, yet April blurred past faster than Teddy on his morning zoomies—my planner pages are still blank. So here I am, cracking the spine for May. I designed this planner as my personal “true north”, a compass that lets me focus on one slice of life—money, relationships, health, work—nudge that area closer to centre, then move on. Trying to “fix everything” in one hit never works; we’re human, not machines. Blank pages aren’t failure; they’re proof I’ve been busy living. And that’s the beauty of an undated system: I can restart on any day… including today.

So how do we jolt a ‘dead’ planner back to life?

Three Tiny Moves to Bring It Back to Life

1. Pick the date you’re on — never the one you missed.

• Open to the next spread, scribble “May Restart” in the margin, white-out old dates or treat them as reflection space. Momentum > perfection.
• Optional sticky: “Progress, not guilt.” (Barack Obama once said, “If you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”)

2. Choose one quick-win habit (cash-log or gratitude).

• Cash-log: Each evening jot the real coins or taps you spent — the $2 parking, the $5 sausage roll. Tiny leaks become obvious.
• Gratitude tweak: List something that cost $0 but felt rich — a sunny walk, a coffee a friend bought you, five quiet breaths. Less than a minute.

3. Set a 10-minute Sunday reset.

• Glance at the week: highlight a win in Last Week’s Success, circle one habit to repeat, arrow one thing to drop.
• Need a prompt? Use the Weekly Check-In line “I will take care of me by …” or jot who can keep you accountable.

Congratulations — planner pulse restored. 🩺✨

Why This Works

• Date-forgiveness keeps guilt from strangling motivation.
• Single-focus logging (cash or gratitude) gives instant purpose.
• Sunday reset turns random scribbles into a feedback loop you’ll actually follow.

Why put pen to paper? 

Pen Beats Phone ✏️🧠

• Richer brain wiring. A 2023 EEG study showed handwriting lights up far more intricate networks than typing — the very circuits we use to form memories.¹

• Stickier learning. Scientific American’s 2024 review says writing by hand boosts recall because you slow down and process each word.

Bottom line? Jotting plans (or wins) in ink isn’t old-school — it’s neuroscience.

Final Thought

An undated planner never “dies”; it just naps until you need it again. Crack the cover, skip the guilt, and try one of these moves this week. Your planner — and your peace of mind — will thank you. 🧡

 

 

Need a Hand?

I’ve created two brand-new sessions to make sure your NFP Planner actually gets used—no guilt, no overwhelm, just practical momentum.

1. 90-Minute Planner Run-Through 📔  — $110 (save $25)

Pages looking a bit too blank—or you’re scared to “mess them up”?
In this relaxed Zoom we’ll:

• walk through every key section and why it exists
• brainstorm how each page can work for your life and goals
• troubleshoot anything that’s tripped you up so far

Ask away, customise on the spot, and finish the call ready to use your planner—perfectly imperfect and 100 percent yours.

2.    3-Hour Planner Setup Intensive 🗓️ — $295 (FREE NFP Planner included)

Prefer to map the whole financial year in one sitting? In three focused hours we’ll work through the full 8-step setup:

• Where Are You Now / Now Which Way
• Personal & Professional Vision
• Short- and Long-Term Strategy—everything in one view
• Year-at-a-glance milestones
• First-Quarter goals locked in

You’ll walk away with a crystal-clear Q1 roadmap—and a fresh A4 Planner to keep the momentum rolling.

 

 

 

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¹ See report in The Journal of Neuroscience summarised by Psychiatrist.com (2023).
² “Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning,” Scientific American (2024).