2025 was all about testing out planners and seeing what worked (and what didn't work) for me. I always had a daily system in place, but after my dad died, I needed a weekly and monthly system. I have ADHD and have a hard time staying on track. My dad used to remind me to take care of things. Now I need to remember on my own.
My daily system is easy. I just list everything I need to get done that day on the daily page. I prefer this to a general To Do list because I feel as if I don't have a deadline then and just don't do anything. If it's written on the daily page of my planner, it must be done that day.
I discovered stickers to create a monthly dashboard for my planner. I didn't realize there were planner companies doing this, but I use a Tomoe River Paper planner, and while there was a blank page to create a dashboard each month, there wasn't an actual dashboard. The stickers solved this problem.
I tried this early in 2025 and it worked so well that I kept it for 2026.
My problem is the weekly tasks. If you've been following this blog, you know I've tried a large number of ideas and none of them panned out for 2025.
Then one of my favorite planner companies released a new planner and there was a blank page in front of each weekly spread. This is what I'm test driving this year. Can I create a weekly dashboard similar to the monthly dashboard that will work for me? Will I be able to actually do these tasks and not ignore them?
I'm laying out the weekly dashboards one by one, not setting them up ahead of time, so that if a layout isn't working for me, I can try something else. If this works, it will be incredible! This planner is almost exactly what I would create if I was making a planner. Almost, but short of making my own planner, I don't think I'll ever find one closer to the way my brain works.
Of course, I also bought a 2026 version of the planner I used this year because I loved this one as well. The only reason I'm not using it as the primary for 2026 is there are no blank pages I can use for weekly dashboards and none of the systems I tried inside this planner for weekly tasks worked in 2025.
However, I bought the B6 size for this planner instead of the A5. I want to test it out for space because I prefer the smaller footprint of the B6, but I'm not sure I can live without the room the A5 provides. So far, it feels a little cramped, but we'll see if I adjust.
I also bought two different sizes of monthly booklets for carry. One was the size I used this year, the other is smaller. The smaller size fits in my purse better, so I'm thinking this is the last year for the larger one. However, I also realized that I always refer to my phone's calendar when I need to make an appointment, so I might not need any monthly calendars at all for 2027. The problem is keeping my phone up to date.
The last purchase in my planner system was the standard size weekly vertical planner booklets (Set of 2 for the year). This I use for time tracking and it's worked so well that I want to continue using it. Didn't hit my word count goal? Let's check out the time tracker and see what I was doing.
With my ADHD, I have a problem with time blindness and tracking forces me to be more aware of how I'm spending my day. Like did I spend two hours crafting Saturday morning instead of writing and then crafting in the evening?
My time tracker doesn't lie.
I only record what I did every half an hour, so it's not too intrusive. If I spent 16 minutes crafting and 14 minutes cleaning, I record Crafting on the line. When I first started this system, I would take a highlighter and outline the time I spent writing, but now I don't have to do that. I'm more aware and I credit time tracking for limiting my time creep.
Last 2026 items: I still have the 18 month writing planner I created for myself and am using it, but decided that I didn't need the month layout or the dashboard layout built into the planner. I just need the weekly dashboard page to set goals and keep track of how many words I write.
I also bought a monthly planner because I had a scathingly brilliant idea, didn't write it down, and waited for the planners to go on sale. By the time they did and by the time it arrived, the scathingly brilliant idea was long gone, not so much of a trace of it remaining. So while I'll use this planner for something, I have no idea what. It's just a monthly calendar with 10 blank pages behind each one.
