I am more of a journaler than a planner.

& what I'm using for both!

I love to write. Not just story ideas, but I love actually writing things down. I love the feel of the pen and the crinkle of the paper. So it’s natural that I’ve always been into stationery - notebooks, pens, journals… and planners.

I always keep a journal. It helps calm my thoughts and it’s a space I use to create freely.

I’m pretty sure my first planner was one my late Uncle Tony gave me when I was in Kindergarten. It was a Mickey Mouse mini ringed agenda. I always used the ones they gave us in school and as I got older it became a fun treat to get an expensive planner every year.

The past few years, though, I’ve had a weird relationship with planning, specifically. I could not commit to any planner, or journal. Nothing was helping me stay organized, I was not liking really any notebook I was using - so I wasn’t creating or organizing things that need to be organized. Since I was switching so often, I couldn’t reference anything or remember where I wrote what.

I found one sweet spot in 2021 with the Hobonichi Cousin planner - I had just had my first son and we were slowly coming out of the pandemic. It was just big enough to organize my thoughts and journal about my day.

But in 2022, when I had my second son and we bought a house, it wasn’t enough. I was forcing it and realized that it wasn’t big enough to be my journal and my planner anymore. It was too structured to be a journal but not structured enough to be a planner.

It’s actually wild to think about all of the planners and journals I’ve used between then and now. They were either too big, too small, too expensive to upkeep, flimsy, needed too many other things to make it work, too fussy, or they had everything I needed but was just ugly (to me!)

It took me finding the “perfect” planner with everything I could’ve possibly wanted, and still getting bored with it, to realize that I don’t like the idea of just checking off tasks. Even thinking back to those school agendas, I’d drop off using them halfway through the year.

I thought about the planner and journals that I have liked a lot in the past and what made me like them: I like goal setting, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t, the good parts of my day, what I learned during my day, and literally just being creative.

But! I’m a mom, a wife, an author, etc etc etc - I have a lot of appointments and deadlines to keep up with that I actually care about! I want to track and organize them all in a way that makes sense to me.

Bullet journaling was turning into just journaling and planning by itself was just boring. I was looking for a planner that could interest me enough to keep using it and a journal that looked and felt right enough to want to continue to write and create in.

I was starting to get discouraged until I found what feels like the best system for me.

Enter the Best Me Journal.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.

I was already intrigued by the name of the brand - Offline Humans - because I am wanting to be offline way more this year.

It’s my aesthetic, with blues and pinks and cream pages and sparkles - and most importantly - it has goal setting AND reflection pages!

It’s a journal with planning pages - which is exactly what I need.

The layout is very intuitive. It has a daily, weekly, and monthly layout and so much more. All of the pages are visually appealing and even the fact that the notes pages are all slightly different helps make it fun and interesting.

I really love the best me routine pages - they help me turn my big picture goals into small daily habits. And the celebrations section is such a nice touch. It helps see all of the beautiful things that happens every week.

I also really love the brain dump page! Putting my todos here and breaking them down into smaller bites as opposed to moving them from week to week has been a game changer for me. It helps me to prioritize what needs to get done (which I really struggle with) and think about how much time it should take instead of just moving a list from week to week.

There are lots more pages and sections! I think I will talk more about the planner and my planner/journal system as a whole more on my youtube channel. I’m in the process of revamping it a bit, but go ahead and subscribe if you want to see a more in-depth version of how I use everything!

I’m very happy with this planner/journal and was soo pleased to find out that the creator was Natalie’s Outlet - I’ve been watching her videos and we seem to have a similar mindset on productivity/creativity - which is maybe why the planner works for me!

As for my journal journal - I’ve recently tried out an embarrassing amount of journals before I found one I like. For me, it’s the paper, feel, and cuteness. I have to actually like looking at and writing in it. I can’t stand paper that’s too thick or so thin that my pens bleed through.

I am using this Louis Vuitton notebook cover with a cute, chunky notebook that fits inside. It’s has a million pages (544!!) with paper that doesn’t bleed through. Yay! I’ve had this cover for a few years. It took me months to find and this is the first time I’ve been using it consistently. It’s cute, portable, and holds my notebook and stickers.

What planners and journals do you use? Let me know in the comments and if you’re more of a planner or a journaler!

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