My Quick and Easy Memory Planner System

 

This is the last post in the blog series that Francine and Nancy and I have been doing these last few weeks about Memory Planners. Check out my other posts, I talk about how I got into memory planning and I show you my process for decorating my memory planner.  Today, I share my system to help you with your memory planning.

I hope these tips will be helpful to you!

1. I set a timer on my phone to remind myself to journal everyday.  At first it went off at 9pm, but I was always hitting snooze and eventually turning it off and not journaling because it was a busy time, trying to get the children asleep and winding down my day.  I realised that 10am was a quiet time of day, most days.  So now it goes off at 10am and I am able to journal 3-4 times a week.

2. I have my memory planner out and ready. When my timer goes off all I need to do is pick up my pen and write.  It's in a drawer that is  high enough that I can write in it, right in the drawer and then I can close it up.  It doesn't have to be out on a desk or table, cluttering up my room.

3. I take the current week's page out of the binder rings and lay it on top.  I'm left handed so those rings get in the way.  I'm able to write a lot neater when the page is clear of the rings.

4. I wait until the back of the page is journalled on before I decorate the front side.  I hate having to write over the bumps and lumps from cards, die cuts, stickers and even thin washi tape.  So I won't decorate a spread until the left hand side of the following spread is journalled on.

 Now that the 13th, 14th and 15th are journalled, I can go back and do the spread for the 7th-12th.

5.  I decorate the 'extra pages' all at once.  I like to spend a good bit of time on the creative part of my memory planner so I do all the extra pages for each month together at one time.  This saves me time as I don't have to work to get those creative juices going!

6.  I keep all of the supplies for my memory planner in the drawer with the planner.  It can get a bit messy, but it makes decorating much quicker.

There you have it!  I hope that you have enjoyed this blog series.  Here are links to the other 2 posts:

Introduction to Memory Planners
How I use my Memory Planner

And don't forget to stop by to see how Francine and Nancy are doing with their new Memory Planners!

Memory Planners Part 2 - the low down

I'm back along with Francine from Callaloosoup.com and Nancy from Domesticraft.com with our second instalment of our blog series all about Memory Planners.  Today, I'm going to take you through how I set up and use my planner to capture memories on a daily basis.

With my Heidi Swapp Memory Planner there is a thick cardstock divider page for each month that usually has a simple pattern.  June has these gorgeous gold stripes.  I like to add a bit of embellishments to make it more 'me'.  This month I went a bit more whimsical than I have so far in my planner, maybe because it's Spring! 

Next there are lots of little goodie pages for photos of the month (still waiting to take that second one for June), a bookmark type page for birthdays and important days and even a pocket page with two 3x3 sleeves.  I got a fuse on Sunday (it was Mother's Day in Luxembourg) so I sealed up the bottom one after filling it with confetti :D

Next is my favourite page.  It's a ledger type patterned paper that leads you into the calendar bits.  I love to decorate this one the most.  This month I went with this cute card that I've been saving.  It has a nice quote!

Then comes the calendar page, and basically for me, this is just a neatened up copy of my wall calendar.  I love having this in here to be able to look back at how busy life is right now.  I usually do this after the month is over.

The last part of each monthly section includes a bunch of pages each with space for 3 days  on them.  These are the pages where I write a little blurb about each day.  This is the only spread I have decorated so far this month, but I always do it afterwards because I can't stand to write over bumpiness, even thin washi tape. I only journalled 3 out of 6 days, which is pretty typical.  I average 3-4 days each week.

One of my favourite parts about my planner are the prompts that are sprinkled through out, there are some here at the bottom of the calendar page and there are more on the back of the birthday bookmark.  These prompts make me get a little deeper and write things that I might overlook as I'm journalling but are wonderful ways to track my memories and so I'm thankful for these prompts. 

Don't forget to check out Nancy's and Francine's posts as well to see how their Memory Planners are coming along!

Next week is the last part of our blog series and I'll be talking about different tips and tricks for keeping the process simple and fitting it in to your daily plan ;)

Have you jumped on the memory planner bandwagon?

I'm teaming up with Nancy again from Domesticraft and this time Francine from Callaloosoup is join in on the fun!  We are going to be talking Memory Planners and all the fantastic joy they bring.  Okay, maybe I get a little too excited when it comes to these planners, but they really do make me giddy :D

I'm pretty sure that Heidi Swapp came up with the term and idea of Memory Planners.  She is where I heard it from first, anyway.  It was during the Big Picture Classes Play! event.  She did a presentation about her memory planner and she had me in tears, it was amazing! She talked about being able to go back a read little snippets of her life over the course of a year.

So what is Memory Planning anyway?  Here's what Heidi has to say about it:

SO, if you haven’t noticed, Memory Planning is a “thing”! well, ok – so I call it “Memory Planning” because recording, planning and documenting in a planner is actually a very powerful and FUN way to keep memories! It’s actually kinda like memory multi-tasking because you are doing what you would do anyway: write down the stuff you have going on… (planning) along with stuff you need to do and remember… but also adding in some pretty embellishments and photos! It’s the perfect way to CAPTURE your EVERYDAY! 

Needless to say, after her BPC presentation, I NEEDED to get myself one of her Memory Planners!  But, they were only available in Michaels stores in the US, boo!  I went on the message board for the Play! event and gushed about how good the event was but I also commented that it was disappointing that we couldn't get a memory planner after hearing Heidi rave about it. I may or may not have whined. ;)  A sweet lady named Marie, offered to go to her local Michaels and pick up and then send me one!  I jumped at her offer, how wonderfully sweet she is!

It arrived just before my birthday, so I decided to document the year from birthday to birthday (March 2, so I just started with March 1).  It was simple to take the book apart and make it March to February.

Now, I would love to say that everyday, I wrote a little snippet of my day and that each month I was able to go back and add photos and pretty embellishments, but that's just not the case.  I would often forget and then go back at the end of some  months and add what I could from our family wall calendar.

Some months aren't even decorated and... I even have a few blank months. GASP!!

But, wait!

I do have 8 months FULL of little tidbits that I will treasure when my little one are all grown and gone.  And that to me is beyond precious!! and that's just one year!  I'm on my second year and still going strong recording our day to day lives so that I can look back later to see what life was really like back in 2015.

Please head on over to see what Nancy and Francine have to say about this wonderful hobby!

Domesticraft.com

Callaloosoup.com

Choose your own Adventure... Planner ;)

 

The GIVEAWAY has ended, see the end of the post for the winner :D

Sarah truly is a kindred spirit and I almost feel like she's created this planner just for me!  I mean, come on, it has a Tardis to match my Tardis charm on the front of my cakedori :D

Here are some of my favourite parts of the Venture planner:

The adventures boxes - they really make me look at my day in a new light, to seek out what was an adventure that day.  With the 'adventure' label on some otherwise mundane detail (like taking a different running route) makes it feel more important and meaningful :D
Sarah's cute illustrations - again Tardis!!
The short to-do lists on the day page - there's nothing like a long list of things to overwhelm you!
The versatilty of it - I can change it up and print whichever pages and layouts I need for any given week, month etc 

If you are using regular computer paper, and printing on both sides, I would suggest printing it a bit lighter. Otherwise you can see the designs through on the other side.  Either that or use thicker paper. I also had a problem getting the two sides to line up so that the cut lines were in the same spot on the back as the front.  But, that may be because we use A4 size paper over here and not 8.5x11.

The planner comes in 4 sizes, Midori Traveler’s Notebook (4.5x8.5"), Filofax Personal Planner (3.7x6.7"), Half Page (8.5x5.5"), and Full Page (8.5x11") so whatever planner you're using, Sarah has it covered.

I made mine in the midori size so that it would fit in my faux dori.  I made a little traveller's notebook for the moth of June.  

Here are the steps that I took.

I found a cute double sided piece of cardstock that I loved.

I chose the planner pages that I wanted and printed them out, keeping in mind how they would be laid out in my book once they were folded in half.

I cut the planner pages and cardstock down to size and measured to the middle.

I drew a pencil mark down the middle, because I am really bad at sewing in a straight line ;)  (A Queen Amidala costume without a pattern, I have no problem with however - go figure!)

Then I stitched along the line, and folded it up!

I rounded the corners because the other notebooks in my cakedori have rounded corners

Et voila, c'est prêt!

If you'd like to try this Venture Planner for yourself you can go here to find out more:

http://www.sarahshotts.com/blog/planner/

OR

you can enter your name into Sarah's safari hat to try and win one of your own!  Just leave me a comment below and I'll pick a winner Tuesday night (midnight pacific)!  Good luck!

GIVEAWAY WINNER:

YAY!  Thanks everyone who entered!!  Congrats to Allyson, our winner!  Don't forget to check out the planner if you didn't win to get your own copy!

www.sarahshotts.com/blog/planner/

 

 

I bought this planner myself and no links are affiliate links.  All opinions are my own :D