Hello Daisies! How was your summer? This august has been more of an inner look in terms of planning for our Saturday Seminars, finding answer to questions like why do I plan? What actually motivates me to own a planner and work on it every week or every day? Well, in our Facebook group “Cocoa Daisy Planner Fans” these were some of the questions asked and replied and here you have a summary of all them, let´s take a look into our DT´s planning motivations and inner thoughts.

1. REASONS WHY I PLAN

Photo by Simone Schermann

For this first Saturday seminar of august Anna Feutch (@kaffekannana) decided to make a cute video which you can watch HERE, she explained 5 reasons why she plans, I personally identify myself with the first and second ones, let´s have a look at them:

1. Keeping organised at home & work.
2. Sorting her head out when feeling things to do or plans are too big and need to settle and organise all her thoughts and ideas.
3. Keeping track of her children´s fun events and funny sentences they say, she tells us in her video that sometimes you think you´ll remember what happened but then, as the day goes by, it´s easy to forget it.
4. Creating the life she wants to live. I think this is a really pretty prompt, had you thought of this?
5. Getting a little of “me time” getting messy with stamps and inks, doodling and being creative just on her own.

2. WHAT MOTIVATES ME?

1. The planner community!
   She loves being able to find heaps and heaps of inspiration from all over the world. Connect with others that have the same interest etc. She finds herself lucky if she gets to inspire someone else and be part of their growing and motivation, she also loves reading comments and positive feedback as well as getting constructive ideas on how to improve.
2. Creative outlet
   Her brain craves creative time. She says that she could live without a lot of things but if she was left without time to be creative she´d be a sad mess.
3. Seeing progress! 
   She finds great to go back and see what she´s done, that she HAS done things. Seeing how she has accomplished her goals and just regular house chores is extremely motivating for her, and also seeing progress in her planner. How she´s developed and changed over the time she´s been going at it. She´s at the moment very into experimenting with stamps and having a lot of fun! This also connects to the community, she´s learnt a lot from YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and blogs. And learning and growing is in itself the best motivator.
4. Me time 
   As a mom with two kids aged 2 and 4, a full time job and a need to wind down, planning (and journaling etc) is the perfect option for her. We all have our things, hers is playing at her desk time. Knowing that she needs to take time for herself to do things that are good for her, motivates her to find the time. Some people use meditation to deep breathe, she reaches that state when she´s in a paper flow!
5. Cute things 
   She thinks we are all guilty as charged. Cute pens, stickers and tassels. All of the fun things created by fantastic people. And to get them she has to use them, right? Also for her it’s been really helpful to have a kit to get excited about each month. The challenge in an item she wouldn’t necessarily have bought herself motivates her to come up with new ideas.Anna says: “And let’s face it I get bored soo easily”,she thinks that’s part of why she hasn´t been able to keep up a regular planner before. She needs change and new things. And she needs challenges! Her stash of yarns, crochet needles and knitting patterns and wire basket materials, boppin lace thingy, wool and other things are a proof. For her sticking to a hobby for two years is a long time! And sh doesn´t see it coming to an end.

3. FIND TIME!!

Photo by Anna Feucht

On the 19th of august Anna threw some questions:

• “Are you a once a week kinda person or more as you go?
• Does it matter where you plan or could it be just anywhere?”

She had been trying to find new places and ways to plan, but actually prefers her own desk, she usually starts her day setting up her bullet journal at work, Simone Schermann (@seemonway) changes the colors and dashboards and decorates the cover and sets up the basics for the monthly planning, for the weekly she transfers their schedule and thinks abour the must-dos for the week and for dailies she writes her to do list, since her planner is laying open all the time, she checks off boxes and changes her plans if necessary, for her, the ideal would be planning the next day so that she knows what´s going to happen when she gets up.

Kylie Kingham (@paper_sweetpea) plans in a different way, she has a mayor session as soon as her kit arrives filling the weeks and appointments and does the decoration whenever she can, but also she plans everytime she needs or has the time to.

Kami Higgins (@chipped_in_time) finds it a lot smoother when she gets all the basics out of the way, but she is mostly a fly by the seat of my pants planner! Wherever, whenever! Her favorite spot is her kitchen table and getting everything planned first thing in the morning with a giant cup of coffee.

4. START-STOP-CONTINUE

This is Anna´s favorite method for planning and she left a little evaluation of it so that we can all know what her mental process is when she faces her plans.

START
What do I feel like I need to start doing? Is there a habit I want to try? A section I´d like to add? What do I feel I need to start doing to make my planning as fun and effective as I possibly can?
STOP 
And on the other hand, what do I need to stop doing? What just isn’t working for me?
CONTINUE 
Of the things I’m currently doing, what really works? What is the most fun, smart and exciting? Or what simply works?

Had you ever thought of this? Have you tried to connect with your inner self and use your planner to achieve your goals and become more selfconcious? Kami Higgins shared her answers to this questions, let´s read what she wrote:

START: I want to start being more consistent with the CD challenge! It’s so fun and it help me use my kits all up!!

STOP: Not sure about this one, I think i am pretty content with my set-up. I guess I could say stop hoarding my dori’s and really putting them to use!

CONTINUE: This month (August) I started using my daily as part of my “war binder” prayer sheet! I love it!! It worked so well that I ran out of sheets (bonus) I had to find some dailies from old kits and put them to use!! Also, the this week and next I started using my wo1 as my daily and I think it worked well so, I will try it again for September!

Kylie Kingham also shared her thoughts with these words:

START: I need to love my daily pages more.

STOP: hmmmm I’m pretty happy with my set up so I couldn’t think for this one,

CONTINUE: I love my quotations and stamping I add. I don’t think I will change those.

This is all for today, I hope all these ideas gave you inspiration and made you think of your own planning style and methods, join our facebook group where you´ll find lots of inspiration Cocoa Daisy Planner Fans

Have a great day!!