Planner Lessons Learned: Part Two

On Tuesday, I talked about how I set goals and how my ADHD‑friendly planner system works. Today is all about the practical lessons I learned this year--and the changes I’m making for 2027.

1. I Do Not Need a Pocket Planner

I thought I’d use a pocket planner for appointments, but I always ended up checking my phone instead. The real lesson was that I need to update my phone’s calendar immediately and consistently.

For 2027: No pocket planner. Just my main planner and my phone.

2. My Writing Planner Needed Simplification

The writing planner I created for 2026 wasn’t used the way I imagined. I didn’t do monthly previews, reviews, or any of the extra sections. What did matter was:

• coloring circles (dopamine)

• tracking daily word counts

• tracking weekly word counts

For 2027: I’m re‑dating a monthly Erin Condren planner I already own. I’m decorating it with sticker art--clumsy, imperfect, joyful sticker art--because even though I’m bad at art, I enjoy it. In future years, I might switch to a bullet journal or stick with another monthly EC.

(Not affiliated with Erin Condren; just using what I have.)

3. I Found a Nearly Perfect Planner

I finally found a planner that works for me better than anything else ever has. The weekly dashboard is perfect, and when I need more space, I tip in extra pages (Tomoe River Paper from a 2025 planner I abandoned).

The A5 size gives me room to decorate and still have space for lists.

For 2027: I’m buying this planner again. I may experiment with others, but this one is my foundation.

4. Daily To‑Do Categories Need Space

Midway through the year, I started dividing my daily to‑do list into categories. I loved it, but adding tasks later became a problem because the categories were stacked vertically.

For 2027: I’m splitting the page into quadrants. Top quadrants = categories that don’t change (Exercise, Writing). Bottom quadrants = categories that do change (Life). This gives me room for additions without crowding.

5. Journaling Needs a Smaller Space

I didn’t need the B6 size this year. I’m a little burnt out on journaling, and between my five‑year diary and my journal, things feel redundant.

For 2027: I’m re‑dating a discounted A6 planner to use as my journal. Smaller space, less pressure.

6. My Gratitude + Currently Journal Is Perfect

I experimented with sizes--Standard TN, B6, A5--and A5 won. It has the height of a Standard with the width I need. The only drawback is stamping out each month because I’m terrible with ink, but I love having these monthly records of:

• what I read

• what I listened to

• what I wrote

• what I was grateful for

No changes needed.

I'll always experiment with planning systems the same way I experiment with new pens, but this is the first year where I really felt as if I had a good handle on my life. The systems as they stand are working and it's a relief. 

Planner Lessons Learned: Part One

Every year I refine my planner system. As someone with ADHD, what works for neurotypical people rarely works for me. I’ve learned that if a planner requires too much structure, too much reflection, or too much “future thinking,” my brain simply checks out. For years I thought this meant I wasn’t a “goals person,” but that wasn’t true--I just needed a different way to set them.

How I Actually Set Goals

The goal‑setting sections in planners? Completely wasted on me. My brain shuts down the moment I try to fill them in. But I do set goals--just not in the traditional way.

Long‑Term Goals: My Kanban Board

My kanban board is where my long‑term writing goals live. Each book gets a column, and each chapter gets a Post‑it Note. If I write more chapters than expected, I add sticky notes. If I write fewer, I toss sticky notes. It’s flexible, visual, and ADHD‑friendly.

Short‑Term Goals: My Planners

My everyday planner has one simple daily instruction: Write. I must write 600 words to cross it off.

My writing planner is more detailed. I have eight circles I can color in--one for every 250 words. If I write 2000 words, I color all eight. While my everyday planner only requires 600 words, the writing planner’s goal is 1000. This is the only habit tracker I use in any planner I own, and it works because it gives me a dopamine hit every time I color in a circle.

Refining My System

Last year I worked hard to create a system that supported my ADHD brain. This year was about fine‑tuning--adjusting what didn’t work, keeping what did, and letting go of anything that added friction.

In Part Two, coming on Thursday, I'll share the lessons I learned and the changes I'm making for 2027. 

The Accidental Hero: How Rusty Became Ian

I’ve been thinking about Rusty this week—specifically about his name and his role in the Paladin League series.

When I wrote book two, I needed a throwaway character. Someone who didn’t quite fit on the covert ops team. I didn’t bother naming him. He wasn’t meant to matter. He was simply The New Guy.

Book three changed that. I needed someone to play bodyguard to Cat and Griff alongside Deck, and The New Guy needed a name. He became Rusty—still a background presence, still not intended to be important.

He showed up again in book four. Through the Musketeers section of the Paladin League, he bounced between screw‑up and unexpected savior. He was never meant to be a hero. He was there for plot reasons. Nothing more.

And then Deck insisted he had a story.

That’s when the Lost Treasure section of the Paladin League came into existence. My original plan was a four‑book subset: Deck, Lurch, Rusty, and Archer. But Rusty needed more redemption than two books could handle, and the plot to reach the arms dealer was too big to wrap up this quickly.

This was the era when Rusty’s real name was Zack. I labeled spreadsheets with it. OneNote pages. File folders. Everything said Zack.

Right up until I wrote the line where Ellis called him Ian.

I’ve learned never to argue with my characters about their names. I’ve tried. I’ve lost every time. I have a fair number of vowel names because when I expanded the Lost Treasure arc to six books, I ended up with Oz, Ayla, and Iona joining Archer, Ian, and Ellis. I sighed and went with it.

Now it’s nearly time to actually write Ian (AKA Rusty, AKA The New Guy), and I’m nervous.

Have I redeemed him enough to be a hero?

Ian is earnest. Determined. He wants so badly to do the right thing. And I’ve paired him with a heroine I don’t normally write—someone naive, green, not savvy. The exact opposite of Iona, who can take care of herself.

Ellis scares me to write because she’s a delicate balancing act. I don’t want her to come across as Too Stupid To Live, but her naivety and her determination to break free from her ivory‑tower life are real driving forces for her.

Ian is ready. Ellis is ready. I just hope I’m ready for them.

 

Not Intuitive

I've talked about the juniper removal and replacement with sod, but I'm not sure I mentioned watering this new sod. That's about to change.

The controller I have for my sprinkler system feels much more complicated (to me) than the one I had at my house in Minnesota. That was felt easy and straightforward. This one? Not so much.

I've relied on other people to set it for me. The landscaper. My brother. But my yard is just a muddy, sodden mess and I didn't understand why.

I also didn't understand how my water bill could be as ridiculous as it was.

Then I tried to adjust the time on the controller myself, made everything worse with zones running twice, and I was like what is going on?

Finally, on Saturday, I did a search for the manufacturer/controller names. Found a YouTube video that the company created about how to program the controller. It was eye opening to say the least. What I thought were Zones were program numbers.

PROGRAM NUMBERS!

My sprinkler was running THREE times. Every day.

When the landscaper had it scheduled to run for an hour for the new sod, it was running for three hours.

I didn't notice this because I was sleeping while most of the running was happening, but when I adjusted the times, it started running while I was awake and that's when I noticed it was going off twice. Actually, it was still going off three times, but I wasn't up for the first one.

With the YouTube video fresh in my mind, I went to the controller and turned off programs 2 and 3. Verified that program 1 was hitting all three zones and turned it to run.

Of course, I'm going to continue to monitor the situation to make sure I did it right, but I'm hoping this takes care of how wet and muddy my yard is. The water bill is still going to be outrageous this month, but hopefully that goes down next month.

What a mess. 

Junipers: Post Script Part 2

Please go back and read part one if you haven't already. This is part two of the saga.

I flip the lever, get hit in the face with a burst of water from the sprinkler, and try to run to avoid taking another slam of water. Unfortunately, I didn't take a couple of things into consideration.

One: I'm on an incline. The yard goes up where I'm standing which (I guess) is why the original owner had junipers there instead of sod to begin with.

Two: The ground is very uneven.

Instead of agilely running away from the water like I planned, I literally face plant on my first step. Thank God for my privacy fence so none of my neighbors got to see that inelegant landing.

Now the real fun begins. My Apple Watch is pinging an "SOS: Hard Fall Detected" message and wants to call for help!

NO! NO! NO!

I don't need any help. I'm fine. Muddy. Wet from the sprinkler. But fine.

And I can't get that stupid thing to stop. I'm to the point where I'm trying to Google how to turn that damn thing off before it calls 9-1-1.

It took (what felt like) forever, but I finally got it to stop.

Now, I'm plotting because the last thing I want is a repeat of this experience. I debate the old hoses, the heavy rubber ones stored in my garage, but I really don't want to lug them around. The answer is clearly to buy a second 100 foot expandable hose because the two of them attached to each other should solve the issue.

From what I read, there are other issues with water pressure and stuff, but I'll take that trade off to prevent another night of getting soaked with water, Apple Watch freaking out about a little face plant, and doing a load of (unexpected) laundry because everything I'm wearing is covered in mud.

This HOPEFULLY concludes the story of the junipers, but I haven't used my second section of hose yet.