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My Favorite Tools for Successful Planning

Raise your hand if you’ve had a gajillion different planners and goal setting tools and books and courses and worksheets and apps, and you still never feel like you’re totally ready for the New Year. Yeah, I get it.

I’m obsessed with preparing for the year ahead, spending hours reflecting on what I loved about the previous one, what I accomplished, what didn’t work so well. Creating a vision for the upcoming 12 months, writing down every possible thing I can think of that I want to do.

I’ve managed to find and hone a few tools that seem to work for me, which I guess is really part of the process: keeping what works and eliminating what doesn’t. Really, shouldn’t life just be that simple?

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

If you are focusing on improving your savings and overall finances, enter: You Need A Budget (or, YNAB). I’ve been using it for nearly 2 years and went from tens of thousands in debt to now having a working monthly budget that is helping me to SAVE tens of thousands. It’s a bit complicated to learn at first, so it does take some patience and effort, but they have great videos and tutorials, and I am dead serious: they make managing money FUN. I used to hate budgeting and dealing with money. I now look forward to my weekly budget “dates” with my hubby. If you are at all like me and have just always thought you are “bad at money,” then here is my advice: Step 1 is to let go of that old limiting belief and decide money is more than a numbers game, and all you have to do is decide you are capable of changing your habits and learning something new; Step 2 is try YNAB’s free trial, WATCH the videos and commit the time to learn to use it. I swear, I won’t ever go back to using anything else for budgeting and managing my finances.

Bonus: YNAB offers a free year for students, and veterans get an extended free trial time. When you use my referral link, you’ll get an additional free month!

Trello

I don’t know what I’d do without Trello. I’ve tried a lot of other project management software (Asana, Monday, etc.) but there are a few reasons I’ve stuck with and honed my Trello usage for a couple of years now. At first, the blocks of cards was a bit overwhelming. But as a creative person, I learned how visual this approach was, and the drag-and-drop method made reorganizing things super quick and easy. I like to see all my tasks at once, but if you’re the type who wants to run away screaming from that kind of thing, you can sort your boards by label or due date or assignee or any other criteria you’d like to set. Plus it has a ton of integrations with other apps (like Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, and a ton more). You can have multiple boards for different projects or areas you want to make lists for, from personal ideas like meal planning or a full-blown business project management system. There are plenty of video tutorials, not to mention automations which make doing a few repetitive tasks a breeze with their built-in “Power Up” called Butler. I call mine Jeeves. Best of all, the free version comes standard with plenty of features, so it’s a great tool for those on a budget (which is easy to stick to when you use YNAB).

*If you want a free month of Trello Gold, just use my referral link!

Dailygreatness Journal

I’ve gone through about three years’ worth of this annual journal/planner. Haven’t missed a day. Until last year. And I noticed. It may seem a little much to journal both morning and night, but I tell you what: I haven’t found a better way to start my day and I always go to sleep so much easier. It’s a fantastic way to bookmark your day, and so this year, I started a new one all over again. Dailygreatness offers different journals for all areas of your life (I've mentioned the Dailygreatness 12-Week Rocking Fit journal in a previous Obsessions post as well). They’ve expanded their line to include a nice vegan leather cover version with a spiral journal as well as business-focused and success-minded. You can also get 90-day versions as well. What I like about Dailygreatness compared to others is that the goal planning is very soul-focused. Rather than making it about optimum productivity or maximum task achievement, this centers around your purpose, your higher calling, what your truest dreams and aspirations might be and then how to make them a reality by addressing limiting beliefs, setting intentions, and aligning with your values. It feels more supportive and encouraging.

*Get a 10% discount when you use my referral link!

Evernote

Think of Evernote as your giant notebook. Scribble whatever you want in it, capture ideas, images, scraps of paper, whatever you want. Then add tags and other metadata so it’s easy to find and organize. I love Evernote because I can write my blog posts in it, formatted and everything, add images, hashtags, you name it. I can also capture ideas from the web, links or full pages, which is especially handy for recipes. It’s also great for brainstorming my lists, which, while I like to use Trello for keeping track of my tasks, Evernote is where I braindump ideas first. You can sync it across your devices too which makes it great if you think of something on the go, or want to add ideas for future shopping lists at the store, or have a spontaneous meeting and need to take notes. This is one tool where I can organize and store almost everything in one place. Plus it syncs with Trello, so you can attach notes or create cards from ideas, all kinds of things.

*Get a free month off a premium subscription when you use my referral link!

A Really BIG Calendar

It can be a challenge to find a really good analog calendar that actually gets used. That’s why I love the options from NeuYear. Whichever size or version you order, one side is vertical, the other horizontal, so you have options. Plus you can get it in paper or dry erase, as well as traditional Sunday start or Monday start. Another advantage to NeuYear’s calendars is you can see the whole year at once. There aren’t a bunch of empty spaces or flipping back and forth to switch between months. Win-win-win-win.

These are just my favorite planning tools that are crucial to my New Year prep and year-long success. I often find inspiration from a lot of other great resources too, which you can check out via my Kerouac Kit Trello board. I’m also working on developing a Trello Template system that will show you how I organize and track my projects, ideas, and tasks. Get on my email list to be the first to know when it’s available! Happy planning!


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