My mother had tried several times over the span of many years to teach me how to knit. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, I just never could get it to click. Then I moved into my first house and money was scary tight, and with Christmas right around the corner… I kind of had to do something. It was almost as though, under that “do or die” pressure, that my brain gears began to work and knitting finally clicked for me.

This is how my life has been with planners.

I was that kid in school that’d keep up with the planner for maybe the first two weeks, then it either sat in my backpack or was shoved in my locker, only to be forgotten about. I couldn’t make it habit. I was also, at that point in time, a lot better at remembering things.

Even as things started to clutter up my mind, and I started becoming forgetful, even as my life began to get more and more busy, I just couldn’t do the planner thing.

This past summer, between my job, side projects, clients, keeping up with the household bills, etc… I was, for the lack of words, drowning. I nearly missed important doctors appointments, almost missed due dates on bills. Having a mobile toddler was really making my brain reduce itself into a fog, and forgetting everything that I NEEDED to remember (I could easily remember the unimportant things, like phone numbers for people they hadn’t had in ages). I needed to do something.

That “do or die” pressure came back, and in force.

In August, as another habit to start working on for my self-care — and sanity, I grabbed what I dubbed a “beginners” planner from Staples. It was basic, to the point, and I had hopes it would help me cultivate some sort of habit of actually using it. Keep me on track. Be my brain.

As usual, those first few weeks, I was stellar at it. I hiccuped a little in the weeks after, then a little more sporadically used it. Gradually, I was growing more and more programmed to reach for it to write down important things I needed to remember, and to, daily, check it to see what needed to be taken care of that specific day. Where I’d gone for event work for my job, helping me keep better track of my real time mileage so I wasn’t combing through folders on time card day trying to recall everywhere I’d gone. Keeping tabs on appointments. My assignments for a side project I started in late December.

Next thing I knew, I was looking at the planner and going “This isn’t giving me enough. I need more.” I was using the planner regularly, and it was so basic (literally just a calendar with a few lines to make notes), that I’d outgrown it.

I needed the big kid planner.

So off to the internet I went. I browsed around blog posts about favorite and recommended planners and planner/journal combos. I looked at them more in depth at the various sites they came from, and none of them seemed to be what I was looking for exactly.

I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew I would know it when I saw it.

Inevitably, I ended up at Amazon. Like I always seem to do when I can’t quite describe what it is that I’m looking for. There were a few I looked at that I liked and seemed to kind of put in “real life” form what it was that I was looking for, but none quite made me go “THAT’S IT!”

Then I saw the 12-month undated planner from Prettysweeeet. From the reviews I was able to gather the overall feel of it (sturdy binding, leather feeling cover, but solid cover). The size was perfect for tucking in my byTavi tote I use for work. It was more than just a planner (meal planning, finances, workout logs, etc). It seemed to be what I was looking for.

When it arrived and I thumbed through it, I realized it was EXACTLY what I was looking for.

This is a planner that goes above and beyond. Yes, it has the typical monthly and weekly breakdowns. It has the finance, meal and workout pages for each month. But it does more. It helps you set, follow and attain goals with an ultimate goal (goal finding) and goal overview (action plan) space each week. You have spaces to mark down any good deeds you’ve done, people to reach out to that week, set your weekly priorities. It helps you cultivate your habits weekly and note down positive things that have happened to you that week.

And if you follow my Instagram account, you know I’m big on positive, motivational and inspirational quotes. I’m getting these in spades, with a new one each week, tucked right there on the bottom left page.

With my constant creation of goals I want to achieve, my focus on making self-care habits to keep my self-love in tact, alongside the need to keep myself organized, this habit is now a part of my daily routine, and thanks to this new planner? I see it being easy to stay with it.