I'm back! Apart from my recent little Dutch rant that I posted, it's been a year since my last post, which gives me a really weird yet happy feeling. One year has gone by in what feels like the blink of an eye. In the past 12 months I graduated as a philosopher, after many years of writing papers (which I loved) and taking too many exams (which.. Well yeah, I loathed). I met the most amazing person of my life on Tinder, he became my boyfriend, and we moved in together. Last week, to be more precise.
Since I just started studying another master (in journalism) and it's taking literally all of my time (I'm not used to attending classes, and there are so many deadlines so close to each other, which is insane) I decided to finally buy the planner I've always had my eye on but never thought I would need. May I present you: the Passion Planner.
When I say I never thought I would need this, I mean that I never thought I would have so little time that I sometimes have a small mental breakdown. Many creative and highly sensitive people will know what I'm talking about: I really need time for myself, just to be able to arrange my thoughts. When I feel like all kinds of people expect all kinds of stuff from me at the same time, I freeze. So after the umpteenth breakdown I was done.
This planner helps you plan your life, and what is so unique about it (or maybe not unique since there's some other planners on the market like this, but what makes it different from regular planners) is that it doesn't just let you plan your week days. It helps you set goals, related to your passions.
It includes a roadmap where you can set goals on different time scales: lifetime goals, goals you want to reach in 3 months, 3 years, or one year.
There are monthly and weekly layouts, and of course one for the whole year.
The monthly layout lets you write down a focus for that month, a list of things you shouldn't do that month, and a list of people you would like to see. Then there's a list for personal projects (one of them should be your priority), a list for professional projects (with a priority), and a space for a mind map where you break down one big goal into little manageable steps. I've done this before and it really helps me to calm down when I feel overwhelmed. My father always told me to never open all the things you have to handle at once like opening the door of a closet, but to open each thing you want to cope with separately, as if they're in little pots with their own lids.
The weekly layout includes your focus of the week, focus of the day, a personal and a professional to do list, and a space to write good things that happened. I'm quite surprised by how I have already been doing a lot of this myself. When I write in my diary, I make loads of lists. One of the lists I like to write is exactly this 'good things' list and it helps me remember how many positive things happened that week, especially when there are moments that I feel like the whole world is a big sad mess. As a perfectionist I also tend to forget things that I accomplished quite fast, so writing them down helps me remember that I've already done a lot that I can feel proud of.
You could ask: why do you buy a planner like this if you already did most of these things in a random notebook? Well, apart from the fact that I just really, really love stationery and it makes me extremely happy (it has been like that since I was a little child), I just like the fact that this planner is all in one. I used to have a tiny planner, which doesn't work anymore for all the thing I have to do for university now, and a diary for my personal lists and thoughts. The Passion Planner is a way bigger planner so you can write down all your deadlines and tasks easily, and it includes space for the little lists and mindmaps that help me cope with anxiety.
There's also monthly and yearly reflection pages, and a lot of blank and grid pages at the end of the planner.
I am so excited to finally start using it, since I had to wait quite long as it got stuck in customs until I made a phone call and was told to send an e-mail with some information about the content of my parcel. Weirdly enough I received it shortly after I sent that e-mail, without any more information. But I don't care, I've got my planner.
The monthly layout lets you write down a focus for that month, a list of things you shouldn't do that month, and a list of people you would like to see. Then there's a list for personal projects (one of them should be your priority), a list for professional projects (with a priority), and a space for a mind map where you break down one big goal into little manageable steps. I've done this before and it really helps me to calm down when I feel overwhelmed. My father always told me to never open all the things you have to handle at once like opening the door of a closet, but to open each thing you want to cope with separately, as if they're in little pots with their own lids.
The weekly layout includes your focus of the week, focus of the day, a personal and a professional to do list, and a space to write good things that happened. I'm quite surprised by how I have already been doing a lot of this myself. When I write in my diary, I make loads of lists. One of the lists I like to write is exactly this 'good things' list and it helps me remember how many positive things happened that week, especially when there are moments that I feel like the whole world is a big sad mess. As a perfectionist I also tend to forget things that I accomplished quite fast, so writing them down helps me remember that I've already done a lot that I can feel proud of.
You could ask: why do you buy a planner like this if you already did most of these things in a random notebook? Well, apart from the fact that I just really, really love stationery and it makes me extremely happy (it has been like that since I was a little child), I just like the fact that this planner is all in one. I used to have a tiny planner, which doesn't work anymore for all the thing I have to do for university now, and a diary for my personal lists and thoughts. The Passion Planner is a way bigger planner so you can write down all your deadlines and tasks easily, and it includes space for the little lists and mindmaps that help me cope with anxiety.
There's also monthly and yearly reflection pages, and a lot of blank and grid pages at the end of the planner.
I am so excited to finally start using it, since I had to wait quite long as it got stuck in customs until I made a phone call and was told to send an e-mail with some information about the content of my parcel. Weirdly enough I received it shortly after I sent that e-mail, without any more information. But I don't care, I've got my planner.
