I am a planner girl, through and through. I love planning. I love planners. I love paper and notebooks and pens and stickers and all the trappings the planner world has to offer. (Just ask my family.) But one thing I especially love about planning is that January isn’t the only time you can get a fresh start.
Your first option for a do-over arrives in April with the release of the Hobonichi Spring planners. First quarter didn’t go the way you wanted it to and your misbegotten plans from the planner you purchased with such hope back at the end of last year stare accusingly out from the pages? Just get a new planner and, with it, a fresh start. Life begins in April! At least, as far as your Hobonichi Cousin or Techo or Weeks is concerned. Never heard of Hobonichi? Here’s a video that will hopefully help you get acquainted.
Your second option comes in July, when the Academic planners are released. So the first and the second quarter didn’t go the way you hoped. It’s fine! The academic year is a brand new year, at least as far as the schools are concerned. And if you, like me, always did love back to school shopping, there’s no better time to make a purchase, open your planner, and dream anew. You’ll find these planners in the aisles of Target and Walmart and various other places, not to mention online with brands like Day Designer and Simplified rolling out their new cover designs. Who needs January when you have August?
A third option is to buy an undated planner and date it yourself. Just as an example, I found this one on Amazon and it looks large, but purposeful.
Your fourth option isn’t up to anyone else but you. And that is to buy a blank notebook— a veritable tabula rasa— and set up your own Bullet Journal, in which you can start on a Wednesday halfway through a random month if that’s what you want/need to do. If you’ve never heard of a Bullet Journal, I will direct you to this video, in which the man who invented the concept gives you a short tutorial on how to make one of your own. He keeps his bullet journal succinct and decor free and, really, that’s supposed to be the point. But some of us just don’t feel right unless we put a sticker down somewhere. (Proudly raises hand.)
But I will tell you this: I like to start a new planner around this time of year. Right now. Sometimes I will use a spring start Hobonichi and just adapt it and sometimes I will take an academic planner and make that work. Sometimes I make my own Bullet Journal. But I like my planning year to run from June to May. Why, you ask? Because May is my birthday month, which means it’s the end of my fiscal year. Most companies do some type of fiscal planning— looking backwards to tabulate how the past year went and looking forwards to cast a vision for the coming year. Though to a company it’s mostly about the money, for me it means taking stock of all the areas of my life. So this number year looked this way. Now what do I want the next number year to look like? It is my own private new year, my time to look back and look ahead and make plans accordingly.
And the great thing is, you can do the same. If you want.
Maybe you’re not a planner person. And that’s ok. It’s not a requirement for life. But maybe the idea of a fresh start that is just for you has already set your thoughts to racing. I hope it does. It has for me. Let me know if you ever feel the need to start your year over, and, if so, what you find is the best time to do so. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Meanwhile, I’ve got a birthday coming, and lots of planning to do.
I love this!
There really are so many ways to plan, and while I’m a January start girl and my planner walks me through quarterly resets, I have my own little system that involves a recalibration in mid-May! This is when the school year wraps, for us, “summer” starts, and my birthday approaches (May 24!). I also do another one in early August as summer winds down and the school year begins.
These 12-13 weeks get their own monthly printouts and a running planning note on my phone (the only planning I ever do on my phone!) that I update each year with new dates/plans/etc. (camp registration dates, movies in the park, festivals, VBS, etc.) and then transfer to our four month spread on the chalkboard!
In a lot of ways, this week feels like “a new year” to me, because of this system!
Kristine— I knew I liked you! Sounds like we think alike. Have you read the book The 12 Week Year? Your method sounds close to that. I’ve not read it but it’s on my TBR.