In today’s fast-paced world, planning is no longer just about keeping appointments or meeting deadlines. It’s about finding a holistic way to manage your life, combining productivity with personal wellness and growth.
Planning for productivity and wellness
Journaling and planning have recently evolved into a harmonious blend of creativity and organisation, merging elements like scrapbooking, tracking, diary writing, and functional planning. This fusion allows us to create a well-rounded practice that helps achieve goals and provides a meaningful outlet for personal reflection and self-expression. By integrating these techniques, planning becomes a space to nurture well-being, promote mindfulness, and balance daily routines and long-term aspirations.
Journaling supplies like stamps, journal stickers, creative pens, and washi tape provide practical and visually appealing ways to track your habits, moods, and goals in bullet journals or planners. From date and calendar products to habit and health trackers, let’s explore the essentials for building a meaningful planning routine.
Planning and tracking with calendars
Utilising journals or calendars and innovative stationery can significantly improve the efficiency and enjoyment of your planning and tracking processes. Here's how they contribute:
-
Effective time management
Calendars provide a structured framework for organising your schedule, enabling you to allocate time efficiently for various tasks and commitments. This approach helps prioritise activities and ensures that important tasks receive the attention they deserve. -
Enhanced productivity
Calendars help you maintain focus on essential tasks by clearly outlining your daily, weekly, or monthly agenda. This reduces the likelihood of overlooking important deadlines or appointments, leading to increased productivity and a more streamlined workflow. -
Stress reduction
Maintaining a well-organised calendar can alleviate stress by providing a clear overview of upcoming events and tasks, allowing for better preparation. This foresight helps manage workloads effectively and reduces last-minute rushes. -
Visual tracking
Calendars can be customised to track personal goals, habits, or physical and mental wellness. They provide visual cues and timelines that motivate and monitor progress. This visual representation aids in maintaining consistency and achieving long-term objectives.
Calendar stamps, stickers and washi tape
Licensed therapist Loriann Oberlin highlights in an article that paper calendars can aid our mental and physical well-being more than digital tools. Tools like stickers, washi tape, or stamps let you create multiple mini, focused calendars within a single journal, each tailored to track different aspects of your life. At Bookbinders Design, we offer a range of innovative planner and tracking tools:
- Perpetual Calendar Stamp by Shachihata: This super compact calendar stamp helps you create mini calendars wherever you need. Oh, and it will quite literally last you a lifetime.
- Midori Self-Inking Calendar Stamp: Another super convenient tool for creating custom mini-calendars in your planners and journals. They are a great size and can be painted using the Midori paintable brush pens as the oil-based, black ink is waterproof.
- Kodomo No Kao Stamp Set: This wooden stamp set includes individual date stamps that can be paired with emojis to track weather and mood.
- Midori Rotating Date Stamps: Compact, versatile, rotating stamps are ideal for adding precise dates to any page. Did we mention there are cute animals involved?
- Midori Brass Calendar Template: A durable stencil in different sizes for customising calendar layouts.
- Midori Undated Diary Sticker Pad: These minimalist stickers allow you to easily add a calendar to already existing notes—stick it on anywhere you need it!
- MU Lifestyle Planner Stickers: Simple and functional, these individual habit stickers make it easy to track while maintaining an elegant aesthetic.
- 365 Washi Tape by Dodolulu: A cute sticker washi tape that is functional and decorative, featuring cute girl illustrations for every date of the year.
Life tracking
Tracking your habits and wellness through journaling is a powerful tool for self-reflection, accountability, and personal growth. Engaging in fitness and health journaling allows you to monitor physical activity, dietary choices or feel-good habits, providing valuable insights into your lifestyle and enabling informed decisions. Similarly, mood tracking helps you understand emotional patterns, identify triggers, and develop strategies for emotional regulation, thereby improving mental well-being.
Incorporating visual elements like stickers and stamps into your journals can further enrich this process. These tools serve as visual cues, making it easier to revisit habits and moods at a glance. The visual approach not only adds an element of fun to your journaling but also encourages engagement and consistency in tracking.
This type of journaling is even more valuable for creative individuals, as it offers a space to reflect on what inspires you. By recording the books, films, or music that sparked your creativity, you can identify patterns in the things that resonate with you most. This helps you understand your sources of inspiration, whether it’s a particular genre, an artist’s style, or an emotional connection to a piece of art.
The power of habit tracking
How long does it take to build a habit? Opinions vary widely, but one thing is clear - consistency is key. Do habit trackers actually work? Research on habit formation suggests they do! Studies show that tracking progress increases the likelihood of achieving goals. By simply logging your behaviour, you can spark the urge to improve.
Why habit tracking works
- Visual reminders: Seeing your tracker daily prompts you to stay on course.
- Motivation through progress: Seeing an unbroken streak can encourage you to keep going.
- Provides an immediate reward: Checking that box creates a feeling of satisfaction.
Tips for successful habit tracking
- Keep it simple: Focus on a few key habits to avoid overwhelm.
- Track immediately: Record your actions right after completing them for instant gratification.
- Make it fun: Tools like cute stickers, colourful washi tape, and stamps can transform tracking into an enjoyable activity.
If you want to learn more, check out this article on habit tracking by James Clear, a best-selling author on habits and behaviour! And discover some of our handy habit-tracking stationery that can help you stay on the path to success:
- BGM Life Record Stamp: A versatile stamp set for tracking everything from moods to health, sleep, weight, reading progress, and even music or movies.
- Midori Planner Stickers: With themes like yoga, exercise, weather, or emotions, these removable and re-stickable stickers let you log mental health or fitness habits, turning your week into a visual story.
- Midori Self-Inking Habit Tracker: A compact self-inking stamp for crossing off daily, weekly, or monthly habits.
- Midori Self-Inking Time Table: Ideal for setting daily goals or recording progress in a structured format.
- Midori Weekly Log Sticker: Simplify your planning with these cute pre-designed layouts for weekly tracking.
Plan with purpose and joy
Life can get overwhelming with all the tasks you’re juggling. Staying on top of your goals and resolutions can get daunting without proper planning, but reflection is just as important. Remember to take time from your day to make planning and journaling not just another task but an enjoyable, grounding activity. With so many cool tools and accessories created by devoted and talented people, starting your journey toward a more organised and balanced life truly is easier than ever.
Questions? We’d love to hear from you, so don’t be shy! Contact us on Facebook, Instagram or via email at info@bookbindersdesign.com.au
