Before Christmas I wrote about my new 2021 Inspira planner when I received it in the mail. Click here to check out that post if you missed it. I was super excited at the time because the planner just seemed to tick off so many of the boxes for things I want in a planner, plus more. I see they sold out almost immediately after I got mine. I’m thankful I got mine just in time! If you weren’t so lucky, she does have some free downloadable pages that can be printed and assembled into a binder, if you’re still looking for a planner.
I have used mine now for 10 days including one full workweek, so I thought I would just check back in and let you know if it’s living up to my expectations or not. In short, it is! It is fantastic! I have been using every section, every day. I have been using the daily To Do portion to write down not only my work to do lists and appointments, but also anything around the house that I don’t want to forget to do or that I particularly want to focus on. So far, I have ample space to include everything and I’ve been able to keep things separated or grouped together with similar items.
I have been focused on developing a morning and evening routine, and I created lists of actions for both in the creative space at the beginning of the month. I flip back to it everyday as I execute the list to ensure I don’t miss anything. Eventually, I assume these things will just become habit and I won’t need to reference the list anymore. My morning routine begins with 10 minutes of light stretching, just to get the stiffness out and wake up. I’ve been following a YouTube video and I find that doing the stretches really helps to get me going and feeling pretty good. I have had to force myself a couple of mornings for sure, especially when I have slept late and I know I have a busy workday to begin, but these 10 little minutes actually impact my day in a positive way that I miss if I skip it … and I know this because I did skip a day or two, and those days were really stressful and not very productive. Every day that I do the stretches I write it into the Workout section of my planner. I also write the number of steps I got, according to my Fitbit, and if I made an effort to do a walk-about that my Fitbit will have tracked as a session, then I’ll write the number of minutes I’ve walked as well. Eventually, I plan to get into some yoga and I will record those sessions in this Workout space as well. The space is big enough to record many activities, steps, etc. Certainly, if I ever find that space to be too small I will have become another person entirely!
I use the Food space everyday to record everything I put into my mouth. I begin by writing Coffee in the very top left corner and then I’ll add check marks to represent cups. No more than two per day. Beside that I’ll write King Cole and then add check marks for all the cups of black tea I consume that day. This depends entirely upon how tired I am, how stressed out, if I have a headache, if it’s cold outside, what I’m eating for meals … and ranges from one cup to four or five, with the higher numbers indicating I am not in a great place emotionally or physically… Thursday and Friday this week were three and four cup days as deadlines loomed and pressure built with work. I haven’t been measuring or weighing my food or tracking calories or anything like that, I’ve just been eating. real food, not too much, mostly plants. And I write what I eat in the Food section beside the meal placemark for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack … I don’t really snack so this space will often be filled with an herbal tea or a sparkling water with check marks representing cups, usually just a couple of those per day. And then I check off the little water droplets at the bottom of each day to track how many glasses I drink. This needs work, but it’s getting better, five glasses most days, only three on a few days where I had way more tea.
At the beginning of this week, starting with Monday, I chose five habits to track in the Habit Tracker. This week I wanted to reinforce my morning routine so I added Affirmations, Meditation, and Writing as habits to track. I wanted to shift my focus a bit to getting some steps, without overwhelming myself, so I put 3500 steps as a daily habit to track, and then I wanted to focus some energy on getting organized at work, so I put Inbox up to date as the final habit to track. This means, ensuring all new messages received that day are actioned if they’re able to be and deleted, filed, or flagged for action when they need to be worked on. The week started strong with this habit and then descended into a pit of overwhelming feelings of having too much to do and not enough time to do it by Friday … and then this weekend I realized that’s not a 7 day habit to track at all, so when I set new habits to track beginning tomorrow I will keep that in mind.
I have been adding things to the Grocery list part of the week, as I’ve noticed I’ve run out or I’m down to my last … coffee, avocado, bananas, tofu, frozen blueberries … I won’t be getting groceries until the week of the 20th when I get paid again, so I expect this list will continue to grow, especially with fresh produce as I consume what I have left in my fridge. It’s been super handy to have the list in the same book that I’m using for my Work To Do list because often in the past things would occur to me while I worked and by the time I got to my list I would have forgotten what it was I wanted.
Overall, I am really loving my wellness planner so far. I feel focused and organized, for the most part, and completely in control. I can’t think of anything else that I wish the planner offered and there isn’t any space so far that I’m not utilizing to the fullest. I would buy this again for 2022.
Gratitude: amazing blue skies and sunshine, calm and peaceful Sunday mornings, waking up to an empty clean sink
Focus: eat well, undecorate a bit, prep for the workweek
Inspiration: “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that.” Earl Nightingale
Sounds: What a Feeling, Irene Cara
Connection: feeling blessed to have the unconditional love and support of my parents. I know not everyone has that, and I’m very fortunate.
A work in progress 
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