I’m disorganized. I always have been, and I’m afraid I always will be. It’s not that I LIKE not knowing where I put this pair of earrings or that pair of running shoes, and it’s not like I get a kick out of forgetting this doctor appointment or that coffee date with a friend, it’s just… that’s how my brain works. Or doesn’t work, depending on how you look at it. Organization has ALWAYS been a struggle for me- it’s the one place I never managed to get an “O” for “Outstanding” on my elementary school report cards. I hate that I’m this way, but I’m learning ways to work around it.

Cue: Emily Ley and her adorable design skills.

Instagram is my best friend- I’ve found more inspiration on that one little app in the last year than you’d believe. I came across Emily’s Instagram feed some time in the last year and was immediately drawn to her “grace, not perfection” print. Over the past year, she’d been posting teasers of the new Simplified Planner she was working on, and I began to wonder if this may be the organizational solution my schedule needed to get on track. Once the new planners became available, I snagged mine within the first couple of days before they all sold out.

It arrived in a USPS Priority Mail box with a colorful “YAY!” sticker announcing its arrival, and inside that box was another box with “HOORAY!” emblazoned on it. It kind of felt like a birthday present :).

I was a little skeptical when I opened the binder and saw that it was a simple three-ring design (I clearly didn’t look hard enough at the online version), but it’s ended up working out for the best- I can rearrange the pages and sections according to my preference. The Emily Ley shop has a bunch of different page options available- meal planning, grocery lists, budgeting, etc., and because of the three-ring design, you can add as many or as few as you like. There’s also an entire page of free printables, and come on. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

While it hasn’t completely cured me of my disorganization when it comes to scheduling, it’s definitely helped a LOT. I love my iPhone, but I think I’ll probably always be a pencil/pen and paper kind of girl. I actually LIKE filling out my monthly and weekly calendars, and because I enjoy the process, I’m much more likely to write things down.

The finish on the binder itself is kind of delicate, so it’s not something I’d recommend throwing in the back of your car to carry around town. Mine stays in my office, either open on my desk or tucked away on my shelf. If I’m out and someone wants to make plans, I’ll put it into my iPhone and then write it down in my planner when I get home. It’s just helpful to have next to me during the work day- I start out each Monday writing down all of my major tasks and goals for the week, so whenever I get off track, I can look over my to-do list and see a) what I have left to do, and b) everything I’ve already accomplished! Seeing items crossed off on my to-do list motivates me to get the entire list finished for the week, instead of sitting downstairs watching three more episodes of Glee.

One thing I still fail miserably at is setting a work schedule each day- I’d love to have things down to an hourly schedule so that there’s less of an excuse to dilly dally, but sometimes my blog takes longer to get posted than I anticipate (today is a PERFECT example of that- who’d have known my server would crash twice in one morning?). It’s something I’ll probably always struggle with, but having a calendar/planner that makes it kind of fun to map out my days and weeks is definitely a start!

So what about you? Do you keep a physical planner, or are you more of an “I’ll keep it all on my phone, thanks very much” kind of person?

Happy Friday!