Hello everyone! I’ve been waiting to write this blog post for a long time. This post marks the release of our new and exciting product venture: digital planners!
OVERVIEW
I finished high school the summer before my Senior year so that I could start Blessing by Design. Even though I’m not in high school anymore, I still enjoy learning and reading during my Gap years. But balancing my passion for learning as well as nurturing and tending a budding business became a challenge. Before I learned about this amazing thing known as digital planners, and long before I started Blessing by Design, I was very interested to get a Happy Planner, or something similar. These planners appealed to me because they allowed me to customize my planner and, if I had the special paper punch, add any page I wanted. While shopping for a paper planner, I perceived several issues while flipping through one. I didn’t like flipping the ring-bound pages, it seemed to take extra time and was difficult to get to my desired page. As I started doing the math and walking through scenarios, I quickly realized that the planner would get very big and very heavy, very fast. This would make it impossible to fit in my bag, and even if it did fit my bag, it would make it extra heavy. Then I found the digital planner community, and immediately fell in love with it.
My family has always been tech savvy, so this idea of planning digitally immediately caught my eye. For the last five years, I have been an intern at The Digital Easel, my Momma’s graphic design business, learning all the tricks of the trade and growing my design style. I immediately started researching how I could make my own digital planner specifically for college students since I was very soon to be one. After months of researching, trial and error, and designing, I finally finished my planners. Now I feel that they’re ready to be released into the world. The planners that I’ve created feature the official colors of colleges and universities across America. With these planners, I hope to empower students who may be struggling with balancing life, work and college.
HOW I USE MY DIGITAL PLANNER
I like to keep my life organized, especially when it comes to school and work. Everything has a specific system: my notes, my to-do lists, my schedules—everything. I color code my notes and my digital planner based on importance, so that at a glance I know what’s most important. I’m not going to elaborate on the specifics of my system here, but here are a few tips I have that anyone can implement into these planners:
- Add pretty things! I like to add pictures, digital stickers and inspirational sayings to my planner, because as a designer, I like things to look good.
- DON’T CLUTTER YOUR PLANNER! This is most important: do not clutter your planner pages. It’ll distract you from what you need to get done and even overwhelm you.
- Have a system. Now your system doesn’t have to be as elaborate as mine, but you do want your planner to have a structure. This allows you, at a glance, to easily notice what is most urgent or important to get done and what can wait. I like to have my timelines broken down. So I have my month overview, then my weekly overviews, and finally my daily overviews with my daily tasks.
- Know your limits. Don’t schedule too much. Know what you can get done in a day otherwise you will feel overwhelmed and may have a bit of burnout. I allow an extra day or two to get things done. This allows me to be flexible even in a busy week.
- Make things easy for yourself. Take extra time to make it easier for you to get somewhere in your planner quickly. For example, make an index of your planner, especially if you have a lot of pages. Then you won’t be stressed when you can’t find what you need. I like to write everything I need to do in one place and then move, or copy and paste that task into its appropriate place.
I’ve created a video where I show you a few of the ways that I organize my planner. If you need some ideas on how to use your planner you can watch it here:
I’ve created these planners as a PDF, which means that you can use it in any app that allows you to import and annotate a PDF document. I personally use GoodNotes. I really enjoy using GoodNotes because it allows me to not only have my NOTES from all these textbooks that I’m reading, but I can also have my planner on it. This app also syncs with iCloud, which allows me to have EVERYTHING I need on all my devices: my iPad Pro, iPhone and Mac. I can take my planner and my notes everywhere I go, without all the extra bulk of customizable paper planners.
Since I’m new at this, I’m not quite sure how to get these into the hands of students who need them. So if you know someone who could use these or if you’re interested to see them, I created an overview video where I flip through the ENTIRE planner that you can watch.
If you purchase one of my planners, I’m here to help you use it. Send me an email at contact@blessingbydesign.com. The planner includes a help page, but I will also be posting tips and tricks for you on our Youtube channel and blog.
I hope that these planners help and empower you or someone you know who may be struggling with the same thing that I did. PLEASE tell your friends!
Thank you so much for reading,
Rinne