My photographic memory recalls things better when I write it down. To-do lists, chores, notes. Call it visual-kinesthetic memory. Starting my bullet journal this 2017 (more on my bullet journaling in a separate post) prompted me to review my history in planner-ing, journaling, and note-taking and WHY I do it.
- Writing my to-do list helps me VISUALIZE my day. The length of the list gives me an idea what kind of day I will have and helps me prioritize the non-negotiables that need to be done for the day.
- Writing helps me REMEMBER. I've already proven that I cannot mentally recall everything I need to do in a day, more so if its a looooong list. To make sure I don't miss out on any time-sensitive goals, I have to sit down and write it, and then put it in my phone's calendar with an alarm to alert. Just to be sure. ;-)
- Writing my to-do and gratitude list REDUCES STRESS. When I feel overwhelmed, I write things down. What plagues me. What issues are stressing me out. I usually find perspective when it's laid out on paper and realize it's not as bad in real life as it is inside my head.
- Written goals push me to be PRODUCTIVE. Having a checklist pushes me to accomplish what I've written down in that list.
- Written notes and goals make it easier and fun to RECALL. When there are so many things going on, time flies by really fast and my brain's hard drive gets filled up pretty quick. My planners and my digital calendar help me recall details about past events and activities.
I've written lists for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I would list down episode titles and schedules of my favorite cartoon shows. I listed down my daily chores. When I got to high school, I started using a 6-ring 'big girl' planner. I was fond of putting stickers on the plastic dividers (Alanis Morissette CD sticker, The Matrix DVD sticker, and other random photo stickers). As you can see, MTv was all the rave then. LOL. I just realized that this planner is 2 decades old! I used this planner through high school and college, and just bought refills. My parents gifted me with a Casio Personal Digital Assistant that supplemented my planner. I saved calendar entries, phone numbers, addresses, and other notes in the Casio PDA. Sadly it went kaput a few years ago. I would've loved my kids to use it too.
When I started working, I stopped using my refillable planner. I settled for random notebooks to take notes and plan out my to-do lists, while my calendar entires were recorded in the company laptop computer and mobile phone. On my 2nd year at work, I was promoted and reassigned out of the boondocks and in to the metro and just a few months after that, Starbucks launched its very fist planner in 2005 here in our country. It reignited my penchant for planners and to-do lists! Here's a quick rundown of my planners through the years:
- 2005 - Starbucks ring-bound planner with beautiful paper but was quite bulky and didn't fit my handbags
- 2006 - To keep things light and handy, I opted for a black, generic wallet planner from the local bookstore
- 2007 - I found a fancy 2007 teNeues Verlag retro planner with a vertical weekly spread on premium paper
- 2008 - Starbucks leather 6-ring binder with an elastic strap claimed for me by my husband ❤️
- 2009 - Belle de Jour Power Planner which was quite exciting when I started using it but I also buckled under its weight, juts like my first Starbucks planner
- 2010 - I went back to using a light and handy wallet planner but this time in a quirky mustard leatherette cover to make it easy to locate it in my handbag
- 2011 - Ecothings My Green Book planner with a magnetic flap with my favorite vertical weekly spread, the last planner I had when I was working, given to me by one of the supermarket owners
- 2012 - Starbucks handy bamboo-covered planner with a one-page horizontal weekly spread and facing blank page for random notes
- 2013 - I opted for a small pocket notebook with a button flap for writing my to-do lists on given to me by my sister
- 2014 - I recycled an old, freebie notebook from a pharmacy that had beautiful lined paper, covered its with silver gift wrapper for my to-do lists
- 2015 - I didn't really have a dedicated planner and notebook for to-do lists in 2015 but managed a lot of team training events and wrote the details in a big notebook
- 2016 - Dialed it down to a smaller, blank notebook from my sister, covered it and labeled and jotted down my daily to-do lists in it
In addition to these planners, I used up approximately 8 notebooks over my 9-year corporate career and 10 notebooks for leadership trainings in our business. This is the first time I've had all of my planners, journals, and notebooks in one place and all I can say is WOW. That's a lot! This quick trip down the memory lane helped me see what works for me when it comes to planning and organizing... TWO DECADES worth of memory!
#DomesticGoddessMNL