{Photos by Sandra Morlet (who I can’t recommend enough!!)}

{Planner c/o Simplified // Shirt is J. Crew and with code SHOPNOW it ends up being under $10 // earrings are Vivian Drew c/o- you can get free shipping with code SARAH}

Happy August 1st!  Maybe it sounds silly but a new planner gives me a little renewed sense of hope and purpose for the next year.  Especially the academic planner now that I will have both boys, in the same school, in just a couple of weeks.  I bought the OG Simplified Planner back in the day, and have been hooked ever since.  Nine times out of ten my planner is with me.  But I still use my phone calendar .. usually just for doctors/dentist appointments to give me an added reminder.  Let me just get this out there – I am a space cadet.  I really am.  I don’t honestly mean to be, but I am not great at schedules … and then at other times I can remember crazy details about people or events.  But the vast majority of the time I’ll forget it if I don’t write it down, and then check my calendar.

Nearly a decade ago I remember staying at Jessica Lorren’s house and seeing a post it note on her desktop.  It had three things on it.  I think it may have even said Disciplines… I and they were something like Bible.  water.  vitamins.  … it’s stuck with me ever since.  For whatever reason I think in threes.  And so most days my first three’s on my to do’s in my weekly planner is: Quiet time (which means either a devotional, prayer, and/or Bible).  water.  get outside/walk.  I love this because even if my kids are sick, a wrench is thrown into my plans, or I’m somewhere I didn’t plan on being – I can still do those three things.  And they will make whatever my day looks like – much better.  So I still write those down EVERY day on my daily… sometimes it’s a little different three things, but those are the typical ones.  And it’s oddly satisfying checking things off of a list.

So my daily has a schedule of what we have planned.  The right I put our to do’s, starting with my first three disciplines.  For notes I put what we’re having for dinner.  blog ideas, birthday gifts to buy and send … a bit of a brain dump as the day goes.  Things inevitably won’t go as planned.  But it helps guide me, and reminds me that even if I only accomplish my three disciplines, that’s not so bad (:

For both JB and I we have a desktop calendar that we keep in the kitchen and it really helps us communicate what’s going on every day between us, the kids, the house, etc…

For my blog, I use my planner but I also use Planoly specifically for IG.  It’s an app that schedules it all out.  So while I do post on the fly some, I try to do it all in advance- wording, editing … all I have to do is push it to instagram.  So when I am on IG, I can connect with y’all through direct messages and comments.

I’m working on a post to write more about our routines, house stuff, as that’s been asked each time I do an “ask anything” on IG… but I never get to it because it feels like such a mouthful!

Anyway, are you a paper planner kinda girl or just using your phone to plan out your day?