#5 Continuous Planning

Welcome to the fifth post in the Createyou86 July Blog Series Soar Into Summer.   Have you recently started planning, and you are wondering how you will be able to keep your planning going throughout the years?   When I first started planning I had never really planned before.  Not in school, not for work, not even for personal needs.  However, when I started this blog my needs changed.  I knew that for SEO purposes I should post at least three times weekly.  Starting there, I began to build my planning system for the future.

1.) What are you planning?
Are you planning a blog, workouts, your personal life, work?  Know what you are planning, and know the type of planner that works best for you.  Personally I use horizontal planning.  I have relatively big handwriting so a horizontal setup gives me enough space to write what I need to write.  I normally use 3 planners: Business, personal, and blog outside of #onebookjuly2015.

2.) Establish a planning system.
As previously discussed it is important for future planning that you establish a planning system that works for you.  If your planning system involves a Travelers Notebook, and that works for you because you can move notebooks in, and out then keep doing what you are doing.  If you use a Filofax because you can take out, and move around papers, and that works for you that is great.  Finding a system that is unique to you is very important for future planning.  However, this does not mean that you can never change your system, it just means that having a system in place, and not constantly switching your system around will help you plan easier, and more efficiently.

3.) Change sometimes is needed.
So you have picked a system, used it for sever weeks, months, and maybe even years, but you see different planning types evolving,and you feel like it might work better for you.  Dont feel bad about changing systems.  Change is inevitable.   I started in a Avery for Target planner, and currently use a Personal Filofax, a Personal Planner, and a A5 At-A-Glance planner.  My system has changed, and evolved over almost a year, and a half, and I feel that I am comfortable with my system.  However,  My Personal Planner ends in December 2015 so I will need to get a new blog planner, My Filofax pages which are really a Sugar Paper LA planner run out in December so I will need to find new inserts, and my A5 planner which is a medium Sugar Paper LA planner is in the same situation as the above.  Will I keep this system? I am not sure.  There are other systems that I would love to try, and I may do that making sure that I keep my established system working.  The best thing you can do is evolve with your system, and if it organically changes then roll with it. 

I hope you found this article about continuous planning helpful.  What do you feel is most helpful when planning for the future of planning? Let us know in the comments below! 

Be sure to check out Emilie's Blog and
MaryEllen's Blog for their own take on continuous planning.