With Monday here, we know how busy life can get. Between meetings, appointments, set commitments, work or school and a social life, it can be hard to find the time to manage it all.
The Best Way to Balance? Plan Well, with Focus and Intention.
Our friends at Blue Sky create dated planners, calendars and notebooks that help people manage their time and organize their lives, effectively and fashionably. They were able to team up with Whitney English, creator of the iconic Day Designer & Create & Cultivate DTLA panelist, to create a collection of planners, calendars and accessories that offer stylish solutions to busy women all over the world. And if you didn’t notice, they brought the buzz to our Create & Cultivate DTLA gift bags too!
Whitney, who spoke this weekend on “She Means Business: The Balancing Act of Mother and Mogul” created the collection in response to her own desire for a planner that was both functional and beautiful.
“I envisioned a planner that would be simple to use yet robust enough to handle the modern woman's busy, chaotic, challenging - yet ultimately rewarding – life,” notes Whitney.
“An efficient planning system was truly the key to helping me, and busy women all over the world, find focus, create balance and live a more inspiring life.
Essential Steps for Living Your Best
Each Day Designer planner offers four easy steps (and special pages) for you to define your values, envision your goals and live your best.
Start with the Big Picture: Your big picture is a combination of your dreams, ideas about the life you want to live, and your vision of what the coming year could be. Use this space to brainstorm. Include thoughts about the people in your life and the kind of people you’d like to surround yourself with. Think about the non-negotiable activities and events in your days, weeks, months and years. Usually, you can start by thinking about what you spend your time and your money on as an indicator of what matters most to you. Challenge yourself to not only dream big on this page, but also to dream better. You can always come back to this page throughout the year and add to it, so don’t feel like you have to fill it out all at once.
Set Your Goals: Looking at your big picture list, ask yourself this question: what do I have the time, money, energy, knowledge, and network to start working on right now? That’s the question that tells you which of those big ideas are the most realistic to move forward on in this moment. Break your goals into categories to achieve a balanced life: family & friends; heart & spirit, business & finance, health & fitness, etc. Finally, assign dates to have your goal achieved by. If one goal feels too big, break it down into lots of little goals and space your milestone dates out to help you create progress and momentum toward achieving your goal.
Design Your Days: Be intentional. Each day is a unique reflection of you. Morning and evening routines should help you start each day energized, and finish with a sense of accomplishment. Your routine needs to work for you, but don’t fear challenging yourself to change it up every now and then.
Your routine needs to work for you, but don’t fear challenging yourself to change it up every now and then.
Stay on Course: Review your goals throughout the year. The checkpoint interval is not important. Some people review their goals daily, some review weekly, some choose the monthly or even quarterly option. The important thing is to remember to review them and make sure you’re on course, as well as celebrate successful milestones along the way.
Your Life, Well Designed
The line of planners, calendars and desk accessories empowers women to manage their busy daily lives with creativity and style.
The collection reflects Whitney’s sophisticated aesthetic with classic patterns, colorful floral accents, stripes and touches of gold to dress up any desk or life space. In addition to planners and calendars, the collection includes pencils, washi tape, a pen and clipfolio.
Each planner in the Day Designer for Blue Sky collection is designed to guide thoughtful, effective planning. Smart page layouts are available in weekly, monthly and daily formats to help you plan according to your needs and preferences.
With use, each Day Designer x Blue Sky planner becomes a reflection of the confident, empowered woman who designs her days and lives in balance.
Happy planning!
