Hey Reader

You might have heard that I'm getting married 👰

The wedding is at the end of August which is fast approaching and there's still heaps to do, but at the moment, I'm feeling oddly calm about it.

(Let's see how long that lasts, haha 😂)

Despite being engaged since 2018, it took until January this year for Vogel and I to decide we were actually going to get this done.

Being a planner person, one of the things I was most excited about for this big life project was getting to make a journal to organise everything.

I picked out a lovely A5 notebook that matched our colour palette, ordered new decorative supplies to make it pretty, brainstormed all the layouts I wanted to include, and got to work setting it up.

I put in layouts for creating mood boards and colour palettes, jotting down outfit notes, comparing venues, and organising all the things in a pretty notebook.

I wanted it to be a memory-keeping space for our planning journey and the start of our married life together.

Buuuut I didn't get very far 😅

I didn't even get the base structure of most layouts sorted, and since the initial half-done setup, I haven't touched the journal at all.

While part of me is sad that I've now got this half-set up journal just sitting on the shelf, I know that abandoning it was the right move.

But, why? 👀

The idea - Pick a suitable planning method

Just because a certain planning style usually works for us doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for everything.

Trying to plan every area of life in the same way is like trying to organise your fridge the same way you organise your to-do list.

It just doesn’t make sense 😝

Some projects and life areas work great when planned in a bulleted list.

Others need calendar layouts and schedules.

Others need tables and trackers.

Some will need a combination of multiple things (especially if it's a big project) and some will just need one super simple structure.

What's most important though is that we don't try to force the information we need to organise into a style that either doesn't work for the information itself or for what our future-selves are going to need to do with it.

That's essentially what I was doing with organising our wedding, and ultimately why the wedding journal "failed".

For organising all our wedding information, I needed it to be:

• Updateable: Easy to update and change as plans progressed
• Accessible: Available on-the-go
• Shareable: Viewable and updatable by multiple people
• Schedulable: Linked to timings and bookings, and done so I could see how this interacted with other commitments

These things, combined with essentially everything getting coordinated via email, meant that having things organised in a digital space just made more sense.

Sure, I could have then taken all that information and transferred it to the notebook I was setting up, but...

When you're juggling emails from vendors, schedules with our wedding coordinator, spreadsheets, quotes, and contracts, trying to copy all of that into a physical journal would’ve just drained the brainpower I needed for actual decision-making.

While I love the idea of a wedding journal I can flip through in years to come, what I love even more is not being a stress-mess-Jess in the lead up to our special day because I have all the information stored in a way that makes things easier for me.

For that reason, letting go of the wedding journal was the right call for me.

The half-used notebook is more a reminder of "wasted" time, effort, and energy than the keepsake I was hoping for, but current-me is benefitting from having that information organised in a more helpful way.

This doesn't just have to be a question of physical planning versus digital planning though. We can also apply this thinking to whatever overall system we're using too.

For instance, while there are plenty of ways to set up a habit or routine tracker (I've got a video with 20 different styles) not every style is going to work for every habit (or every person 😛)

Successful trackers for daily routines are going to look different to ones for monthly routines.

Ones for weekly habits won't always work for habits we want to be doing multiple times each day.

We just need to consider whether the style we want to go with is going to be best for future-us to use successfully 👌

Let's take action

What's something you're currently finding tricky to plan or organise?

It could be a specific project, a personal goal, a routine you're building, or even just a general area of life that feels a bit messy right now.

Ask yourself:

• How am I currently trying to organise this?
• What am I finding most difficult about planning or organising this?
• Am I trying to force a structure that isn't actually suitable for this?
• Am I organising this information in a place that makes the most sense?
• How could I make the information easier to find, update, or use?

If something’s not working, it's an opportunity to try something different, not throw in the towel. You got this! 💪

Pssst...The Summer Creative Retreat is coming

If you've been feeling a little stale in your creative pursuits, or just want to try something new, then the Summer Creative Retreat is worth checking out 👀

This annual event brings together awesome artists (and me) from a range of creative styles in 60 online live workshops.

The best part? It's free! 🥳

If you’re feeling uninspired or just want a fun way to try something new, this is the perfect creative reset.

My session is about sketchnote memory keeping, but there will also be classes on watercolour, digital art, lettering, collage, and more 😈

You can attend for free during the live event, watch the replays during the week, or grab the Permanent Vacation pass for lifetime access to all the workshops (which is on sale until the end of the live event 💪)

If you're curious and want to see the full line-up, hit the button below!

Until next time!

- Jess

Sick of setting goals that don't get achieved? Learn the system everyday goal-getters are using to make EPIC things happen.