I’m going to share with you my current planner system – what works, what doesn’t, and what I think might help.

Current System

Here’s a brief, surface-level overview of what I’m currently using.

Google Calendar – work meetings, appointments, and yearly overview

Google Tasks – work to-do’s (my day job!)

Capacities – ideas, inspiration, first drafts (blog)

OneDrive – writing projects (outlines & drafts)

Google Drive – old writing projects

Physical Planner – an odd mix of all of the above

As you can imagine, this is getting a bit complicated! If you can believe it, this is actually a pared down version of what I used to do to stay organized (that involved Evernote and a Filofax – works for some people, but I found I was a bit too scattered for such open-ended options).

What’s Working:

The first thing that works is everything relating to my day job. Google Calendar is perfect and it gives me regular reminders, and Google Tasks allows me to visualize all of my to-dos for the day and week in an easy-to-access place. I won’t be changing this as I’m able to be on top of my deadlines and not get overwhelmed by mystery meetings or tasks.

Capacities is also working, although it needs a bit of tweaking. I love the tagging system, as it allows me to keep all of my inspiration and ideas in one place but also keep them separated by topic or project. The main drawback of Capacities is also it’s best function: it is almost entirely customizable. This lets me do whatever I want; it also leaves me with too many options.

OneDrive is something my household pays for so I am in the process of moving all of my drafts and outlines there for long-term use. I like that I am able to easily use Word, which has more editing capabilities than Google Docs, and I like the simplistic visuals of the platform as it doesn’t really allow me to get bogged down with aesthetics, which is something I have found can happen very easily.

What Needs Work:

I like my physical planner, but right now I am not using it effectively. When I’m home I want a single place where I can check what I need to get done (writing, family events, household chores, etc. ) and I envision my planner being that for me. At the moment, though, I often rely on an odd combination of calendar invitations, notes, and my own (often-faulty) memory. I need to a way to remind myself to use my planner and the structure it provides. I can get bogged down by different planner styles, pens, highlighters – all the fun stuff that goes along with organization. So my method for this right now is to start simple, and just use what I have.

My capacities could use some organizational structure. When I got it started I didn’t really know how I wanted to use it, so there are a few too many tags and a few too many object-types. If I simplified it might be easier for me to use this more consistently, and it would be easier to find what I needed for my creative projects.

Future Plans:

I love designing calendars, so I’m always playing with the idea of creating my own planner. I did once, years ago, and it ended up being one of my best-used planners to date so building up that momentum again and creating my own book for 2025 would be a great project. There’s a lot to consider, between writing, work, and family obligations, so it has the potential to be a really unique project. I’ll keep you all posted with how that goes!

Share your process!

Please share your planning tips with me! I’m always looking to learn new ways of staying organized, and trying new note-taking and planning platforms is a bit of a hobby for me at this point. Let me know what works for you, and if any of my process was helpful!