Fireflies on Fifth: September 2012

If we've met, even once, you probably know that I am nothing if not a planner.

I love being organized, having a plan, and tracking things. I can't even NOT do these things... It's just a natural tendency, and my mind subconsciously launches into planning mode at least a few times a day. I've found that if I plan ahead, I can make the most of each day or weekend, avoid inconvenience much of the time, deal with the unexpected if surprises pop up, and create order out of potential chaos. It just works for me, and most of the people in my life are kind enough to indulge my need to plan ahead and work around what's already in place.

Though I've been a natural planner much of my life, it wasn't until last year that I found a tool that seems to really support my infinite number of to-do lists, my need to make reservations weeks in advance, and my hope to spend as much time as possible with the people who make my world happy.

One day last year, I was interviewing a candidate for a potential job, and we were discussing her availability to complete the second phase of the interview process. She needed to check her calendar, so I nonchalantly sat back to let her rifle through her smartphone or notepad or whatever she needed to do. To my surprise, she whipped out a colorful binder with adorably tabbed monthly pages, perfectly propotioned grids for writing down the days' activities over each week, pre-labeled stickers, and the perfect platform for color-coding your life's events. I lost all composure, verbally requested a "pause" to the interview, and spent the next 5 minutes prowling through, what I learned was, her Erin Condren "Life Planner."

Life. Changing.

After we established the timeline for her next interview, I trotted back to my desk and entered the magical, virtual world of erincondren.com. I spent hours thinking about the personalized design/color scheme I wanted for my cover, days searching for THE perfect pens for all of my activities, and a couple of weeks waiting for my 2012 planner to arrive at my door.

I've used my planner consistently over the last 9 months, so much so that I knew 2013 would absolutely require another life planner, no questions asked. So a couple of weeks ago, I attempted to beat the end-of-year shipping delays, and I designed and ordered next year's version.

After much anticipation, my new planner arrived Saturday! I'd been tracking the shipment city by city, and Raja was under strict orders to harrass the doorman if the package was not logged in as 'delivered' by Saturday afternoon. Each day at work, we've chatted about the planners, and a few first-time orders were made by friends who got sucked in to the excitement. Finally, Saturday, gleeful texts were exchanged with full-detail pictures of the inside, the outside, the happy little pagemarker, the adorable packaging... I mean, who knew how exciting a calendar could be?

I couldn't help but share some of the pictures online, since it's pretty much taken over my life for the past few weeks. There are so many more in-depth posts/videos about the planners; you can find just about any information you want by just doing some internet research, but here's a little glimpse of my very own. :)