Last year I bought a Passion Planner and optimistically blogged about it. You can read my 2015 Passion Planner post HERE. But now, it’s 2016 and I wanted to let you know how  my planner worked out for me.

First of all, I had every intention of purchasing another one. I really love it a lot! But I became very excited at the end of the year,  when I learned that there was going to be a mini passion planner on the scene in 2016.

The size of the planner was one of the main things I struggled with. I loved the space to write, but it took up way to much personal space on the counter near my computer. I tended to close it up and leave it behind my laptop, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the planner accessible.

Look at me now!

With the compact planner, it’s just the right size to keep next to me and accessible. I will admit that unfortunately, the writing space often feels a little squished. But there’s nothing I’d like to sacrifice on the page to get more space, so I think I’m going to pull out a pen with a finer point and see if that helps. In fact–one of these might do the trick…

And using these pens in my planner will make me happy because I had to STOP using these pens in my planner. I know, you’re confused, but I can explain. I LOVED sitting down and color coding all of my weekly events with my fabulous new pens! I really did, but it took up too much time. Time I didn’t have to fart around with–even when I was enjoying it. On a good day, it was time I didn’t need to waste.

So pretty! *pets page*

And on a bad day, when I didn’t have the time, my planner tended to look like this…

I wasn’t really good at finding a middle ground. Not helpful anyway you flipped the pages.

Instead of setting myself up for failure, I’m using one pen at a time and one pen only. No excuses!

But as I was writing this post I joyously realized that I could rotate through my gorgeous fine tipped pens and mix up my colors seasonally or as the mood strikes me. Best of both worlds. *high five please*

I’m also consolidating some of my other calendars. In the past, I have a tendency to place a printed monthly calendar on the cabinet in front of me to track my writing progress. That calendar is ALWAYS changing. Some days I need to tightly track my word count. Other days I need to acknowledge that I’m revising but not track word count details. Some days it’s a mix of several things I’m working on. My needs and my accountability is fluid with the calendar.

I also keep a white board calendar in a different location, reminding me of my blogging days and author related activities. This calendar used to be above my desk (where I did my writing.) But once I moved to my new house, it didn’t quite play out like that. So, in 2016 (since this mini version) is right next to me) I’m keeping track of all of this stuff on the monthly pages of the planner. It’s a work in progress–I’m just starting to dabble with it, but I think I’m going to like this even better than what I was doing before. And then I’ll have a place to keep that info without papers being lost–because if you know me–you know I stash them in the oddest of places. You know, to keep them safe.

Overall I’ve found that the more accessible I keep the planner and the simpler I make my process, the more I use it. And the more I use it, the more I get out of it. So, despite some design incompatibilities (for me) and a lot of operator head space on my part–I’m still a HUGE fan of my Passion Planner and I’m always finding new ways to alter it to best suit my needs. I anticipate a January 2017 update coming your way next year.

Anyone else using a Passion Planner? Do you have another planner that works or doesn’t work for you? What are some of your best planner organizational tips? Do you LOVE colored pens as much as I do??? Tell the truth.

Tags: accountability, Calendar/Planner, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, markers, Organization, Passion Planner, pens

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When I kicked off September, I told you of my sticker/calendar plan for being more accountable in my writing. #writesticky The original goal was to shoot for a very reasonable, attainable daily word count. I started off working on two very different WIP’s so I split my goal to at least 200 word on each piece, but I also gave myself room for revising. Ultimately my first month using stickers was successful, but over the course of the last few weeks I’ve made a few changes. I’m going to tell you what they are and why I made them, but first a look at September.

Woo hoo! I earned 20/30 of my adorable stickers. There were a few days were I got in some writing, but real world distractions kept me from getting my reward. So close… *sob* But there were also days where I wrote way more than my goal. As I mentioned earlier, I quickly started seeing ways in which I wanted to modify this accountability system to suit me better. The first thing I discovered was that I didn’t always want to work on both manuscripts. When everything is clicking with one WIP, it was counter productive to stop one project to hit my word count in another. So, shortly into the month, I gave myself the option of writing 400 words for the manuscript of my choice and I was really happy with that.

Next I decided that I didn’t want to count revision towards this goal. I have a tendency to let my inner editor have too much room in the drafting process (which isn’t always good) so I decided that I could revise all I wanted, but I still needed to hit my 400 word count. I was all set to do even better in October than September when outside forces really made me reevaluate how I wanted to use my calendar and stickers. I saw everyone abuzz on FB and Tumblr. Victoria Schwab started doing this neat little calendar with stars. You can check it out HERE! I LOVED it!

In a nut shell, she did this…

Basically, I get a calendar and a variety of colored stars, and make a key each month based on what I need to accomplish.

Usually it’s:

1) 500 words written

2) 100 pages read

3) exercise

4) school

I loved the idea immediately! But I also needed to individualize it for me. I didn’t want to keep track of my reading, because I do that on Goodreads and I’m happy with my reading output anyway. I also didn’t want to track my running on the calendar because I keep track of my miles religiously on Nike. It seemed like overkill. But I found I did want to give myself a bit of an incentive for writing more words above the baseline. So, my October calendar now looks like this…

My key looks something like this…

*Blue Star-500 words

*Green Star-1,000 words

*Red Star-1,500 words

*Silver Star-2,000 words

*Gold Star-2,500+ words

And I’m also writing in the actual word count. Because let’s face it, 1,643 is different than 1,500 when you’re counting words. And I loved how Victoria was able to see what her total was at the end of the month. That’s motivational. So, that’s what I’m doing now and as you can see, I’m doing pretty good so far. *fist pump* Almost 5,000 words in 6 days and only one day I didn’t get to write at all. Although, I’m thinking of throwing a notebook in my bag when I’m on the move and seeing if I can get those mobile words in. Sometimes I forget I’m not surgically attached to my lap top LOL!

What’s also great about what I’ve been doing is I also feel like September and October are getting me prepared for NaNoWriMo. I really want to do this again. So…if I can get far enough in the draft of the book I’m working on, I might feel comfortable putting the MS away for a much needed break and starting a draft of something else that’s been brewing. Something I’ve been scratching out notes on. Something that’s been tugging at the corners of my brain when I run and when I’m dozing. I don’t know if it will make sense to drop what I’m doing. If I’ll be far enough along to switch gears. But we shall see. Part of me thinks it would be delicious–having two drafts to revise. Drafting is always the hardest part for me and the NaNo momentum is just amazing. I loved it last year. I learned so much about myself and my writing process. But I think my October calendar will tell me what I need to know as I get closer.

And what about you? Hope you’re having a lot of success with your calendar or whatever form of accountability you’ve chosen to get the words on the page. I’ve been re-listening to WRITING DOWN THE BONES and I just caught a segment today about how writing is like running, which you know made me smile. The gist of it was that people who want to be good at something train. They show up. They do the practice. Running is hard, but if you do it enough, you start to get into a rhythm that gets you back out on a regular basis. You learn to love the practice. And I believe that. In August I ran 7 miles, I don’t think I ran much more than that in the stretch of months before that. A long stretch. But in September I ran just over 75 miles and I’m sticking to around a 20 mile a week pace as I’m hitting October. It feels good to be showing up to my runs and my writing. Tell me what you’re practicing.

Tags: #writesticky, accountability, calendars, drafting, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Victoria Schwab, writing

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Normally Tuesday blogs are a problem when I’m coming off of a three day weekend. But this isn’t just any big weekend, it’s back-to-school week in the Sabatini house. And that mean’s yesterday, September 1st, was the official kick off to Kim’s New Year. January 1st might be for resolutions, but September 1st is always about fresh starts, organization and motivation. At least for me. So, because I’ve had this date on my mind, there was no way I was going to be late or miss this blog post.

Maybe you’re wondering why am I so super focused on my own private and personal back to school reset button? It’s simple–UNINTERRUPTED WRITING TIME!!!! Something I haven’t seen since last November when I completed NaNoWriMo for the first time. *fist pump* It was right after NaNo that we dropped into hard-core, preparing to move mode. There were also holidays, the actual move, an epic ton of snow to shovel thanks to the polar vortex and then my kids switched schools. Before you know it they were all home for the summer. Writing still happened in the middle of all the chaos, but it became this thing I did while unpacking boxes or in the middle of a noisy pile of boys. And it made me appreciate the days when I was allowed to have stretches of time to day dream in silence. At least between the loads of laundry.

Pulling on a few of the many writing lessons I learned from last year, I formulated my plan for this year.

*During NaNoWriMo I learned that showing up to my writing almost daily is very important to staying firmly entrenched in the world I’m creating.

*I learned that I’m competitive with myself and more likely to keep myself honest when I declare my intentions.

*Starting small usually results in larger than anticipated output for me.

*Supportive groups are my thing.

*I love calendars, charts, stickers, markers and spending time in Staples or the craft stores.

Sooooooo here’s my plan. 

Right in front of my favorite writing spot, I’m posting a monthly calendar with my daily goal. If I reach my goal for the day–I get a sticker!!! I found some of the cutest stickers ever so this is highly motivational. What’s my daily goal? I have two works in progress that I’m having a blast writing. My daily goal is to write at least 200 new words on each project. Or if I’m in a place where I’m revising, I need to revise at least two pages of either project a day. This is not an unmanageable goal on most days. But the upside is tremendous.

In September, if I write just 200 new words for each project, I can accumulate 6,000 words on each manuscript. BUT…when I sit down to start writing, I almost never write just 200 words. Yesterday I exceeded my goal on a day I might have normally considered a non-writing day because I had company coming over for a picnic. Yeah–I wanted that cute little dog sticker. LOL!

Another part of making this method work for me is the power of accountability. I don’t just have people (aka my kids) walking through my kitchen, looking at my stickers and cheering or *gasp* shaming me because I have too many blank spaces. As if that isn’t enough LOL! But now I’ve also blogged about it. And at the end of each month I’m going to post my sticker chart. Let’s make this clear–I DO NOT WANT ANYONE SEEING ME NOT WRITING!!!!! Especially with my kids back in school. NO EXCUSES!!!! This will be a HUGE motivator for me to be productive. Maybe I’ll even have some banner days where I can draw in stars or hearts for uber excellence. BTW I can do that since I’m in charge of my own behavior modification.

But even public shame and humiliation has it’s limits. I mentioned I do better when I’m involved with supportive groups. Time to step up writer buds. Get your own calendar printed out ASAP! Go buy some stickers. Set a daily goal that is easily reachable. You are free to use or work off of mine– 200/2r x2. It stands for 200 words or 2 pages of revision for the two manuscripts that I currently an working on. Feel free to use the twitter hashtag #writesticky You can tweet to show me your calendars, shout out your successes or feel free to beg for motivation–I’ll be doing that too. Just remember, this is a no-brainer, with a whole lot of upside. So come be brainless with me and let’s get some writing done!

PS–If you’re not a writer, but have a goal and you’d like to participate–you know you can #writesticky too

Tags: #writesticky, accountability, calendars, drafting, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, New Year, revision, stickers, writing

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