Ermehgosh, y'all, am I ever so excited to push publish on this blog post. I love, love, love how versatile our planners are and something about putting these images together just solidified it for me. All three of us are using the exact same planner layout (Team Vertical Weekly over here), but in very different ways. I also love knowing that the way we are planning in January will likely change and the Laurel Denise Planner system allows for that shift.

I know this because in 2022, I was using the same Vertical Weekly layout that I picked for 2023, but I planned in a completely different way. Just in case you aren't tracking my planner habits with a magnifying glass (le gasp!), I was Queen of Time Blocking and flew my flag proudly and loudly. In December 2022, I could feel a shift in what I needed in planning but it took me a few weeks of uncomfortable chaos to really land on what I really needed. I realized that my days are actually ruled my my to-do lists and that needs to take a more prominent place in each of my days. So I did a Planner Pivot (ha ha - trademark?) and I am obsessed with my new system.

Clearly, I could talk passionately about planners forever, but for the love of visual learners (hi, me), I'm going to show you how each member of the team is starting their planner for 2023! 

Laurel's Planner: Because most of her work deadlines are for marketing + manufacturing and that's what consumes most of her brain, Laurel is going to use her monthly view to mark these deadlines. was this saved digitally once? Yes. Is it now? Not a chance - because nothing ever got done when it was digital! Anyhops, look below to see how Laurel (okay, me? me. i write these posts.) is organizing 2023 so far!

Mabby's Planner: Mabby has 4 school-aged kids with busy schedules, is a passionate gardener, manages her airbnb and works at Laurel Denise "part time". She's using the monthly view to lay out her kid's after school schedules and has split her monthly columns to divide personal and work tasks for each day. Color coding helps Mabby quickly see what task or event is for what person in her crew. 

Nancy's Planner: Nancy is all things creative for Laurel Denise, but also has a full friend + social life so she's combining personal plans and work deadlines in her monthly view. She's split her weekly columns to include room for all of the various content creation tasks and her personal to-do items. Any appointments get put in the columns as a to-do item (her brain clearly doesn't need time blocking). 

Isn't this fun, y'all? I just love to see how this planner format can work for so many different lives and schedules and brains. I know how uncomfortable it is to not have a planning method that feels cozy - truly, I do. But I'm learning to lean into those times, ask myself what my brain needs that's different and try to creatively come up with a solution! I hope some of our solutions have helped encourage you and spark an idea or two!

xoxo, Laurel

To check out a full video where we go through these details, but in video form, click here.