this is a love letter to my paper planner
It's fair to say that if I didn't have my planner, my life would fall apart. This year, I've been organizing my life with a Cavallini Papers & Co. pocket-sized weekly planner, which I bought for about $11 at Barnes & Noble. Every single year, Hobonichi season comes around and nearly sweeps me up with their beautifully delicate designs and promises of a more organized (if not aesthetically pleasing) life, and every year I decide the cost isn't worth it. 2027 will be no different.
But I only started planning on paper again relatively recently. I used cheap weekly planners from about 2017-2019 and found them useful, but COVID killed the need for me to have a pocket-sized planner I could take with me everywhere. My phone Reminders app performed just about the same function as a to-do list, so that's what I used. Then I moved to TimeTree. Then Google Calendar. Then Proton Calender. Clearly, something just wasn't right. It wasn't until I reverted to a paper planner in 2025 that I realized what it was. The act of writing it down!
Writing down my to-dos on a physical list made me more likely to remember them. I could think back on what I had written in the planner and oftentimes didn't even have to open it to recall what I had to do on a given day. Checking them off was also much more satisfying! Plus, any less time I spend on my phone is probably for the better.
My planner isn't very pretty. I use multi-colored pens, but the tasks are usually scrawled on and crossed out on my knee, on the bus, or while standing. The cover is basically falling apart. But I have a page on the inside with some stickers I've collected this year, like my "I Voted" sticker, and that's about as aesthetic as it will ever get. I added my own pen loop. The planner isn't very pretty, but I don't care. It is an extension of my body at this point.
The first thing I do when I wake up is check my planner and write down tasks for the day. If I don't have it, I am lost.
Please let me know it is normal to have planner separation anxiety.
For 2027, I'll be moving to a small spiral-bound planner I found at Books-a-Million with a different cat illustration for each month. I think I will enjoy abusing it very much.