The little book that runs my life!

As promised in my "What's In My Bag" post from last week, this week I'm going to talk about my planner.  

I am a planner girl.  

It started in high school when I was in pretty much the maximum capacity of extracuricular activities and had to keep play rehearsals, yearbook deadlines and all of my school projects straight.  

Granted, I did graduate high school before all of the iMadness began, and while I do use my phone and PC for certain reminders, nothing can replace a good 'ol paper planner for yours truly.  

Maybe its the act of writing it down that makes me remember - or maybe its just because I love any excuse to use fun colored pens - but either way, I'm a paper planner girl.

Over the years my tastes have evolved and needs have evolved and changed.  And during that time I have been able to see what works and what doesn't for my lifestyle.  Here's my criteria for a good planner:

1. Must fit in a purse
2. Weekly and monthly sections
3. All date boxes in month must be big enough to write in - a lot.
4. Somewhere for me to stick random paperwork, bills, etc. 
5. Cute - or at least able to be customized

Over the past couple of years, I have seen many of the blogs I follow feature the Erin Condren Life Planner but I was apprehensive of the price - I am a bargain hunter after all.  But, it was hard to ignore the rave reviews, so when it came time to make my yearly planner purchase I decided to see what all the hubbub was about and WOW!  Totally worth it!

So, without further ado, here she is, my planner - a.k.a. The book that runs my life!

I chose the 'Favorite Things' style. 
While I did have a TON of pictures to choose from, I chose this design because 
it helped me capture all the quotes or memories that never cease to make me smile.

Yep, that's a color code key - just in case I forget what each pen color means....
like that ever happens.  :)

There's also a year at a glance section which I love -
especially when it comes to vacation planning!

This is what a typical month looks like for me. 
The red blurs are bills - who needs that broadcast over the Internet right? 
But, as you can tell there are lots of fun stickers that I make good use of. 
The plain ones come in especially handy for work holidays and anniversaries.

Then there's the weekly option.  Remember how the red blurs were bills? 
Well here is where I jot down the confirmation number from my online bill pay -
and where I put specific times for meetings, Jazzercise class times and such.  :) 

But, just to further fuel my little obsession on everything having its own place, I used my ever-handy label maker and the Post-it Durable tabs to create some special spaces of my own in my planner.

At first I thought I would miss having a spot for my addresses, since I had them in my previous planner.  But I was able to make a cute address book that I can reference any time and also takes up very little space.  More on that craft in a later post.  :)




So there you have it: my life in book form.  

What keeps your organized?