The Planner

I spent too much time last night too busy selling my just-claimed-first-time STARBUCKS planner.  But when I woke - up and checked it, I saw the feature that only the Starbucks planner  of all the planner of 2012 have. It is the feature that I was looking for. Then I had second thoughts.

Before I ever had any planner for this year, either Filed or the SB (I currently use my Filed planner), I thought I checked all the possible 2012 planners. I checked SB planner more often than the Filed planner. I thought by deciding to buy the Filed planner, I was making an informed decision that I won't regret. I thought that that is the planner suited for me. But I guess, like many times that happened before, I overlooked things.

Both planners are great in its own individual accord. Both are 'boxed office' and are really limited. Although the two are too different when it comes to price, both are relatively costly so let's skip that part. But yes, both are definitely hard to find.

The filed planner was out of stock by the 2nd week of December 2011 in all the bookstores within the reach. I set having Filed planner as a goal because it's a unique planner. Many planners have special features, but Filed planner stimulates creativity. It has the usual expenses tracker, monthly view and doodle area (after every month), plus it's black and white with cool comics so you can color it and be as creative as you want! I thought I won't be able to find an item, but I got lucky. I didn't get it for free. But I got a little discount from a friend who is a friend of the main supplier. She said it was one of the last few stocked items. So when I finally had that planner, which I was looking forward to have ever since I saw it, I felt jubilant. It was only now that I realized I spent the whole month of December visiting and inquiring on bookstores and sites about that planner. It was a goal reached…and now I am thinking… was it?

The Starbucks planner, on the other hand, like the usual high-end super limited planner, is just around the corner, but certainly not easy to have. I had to collect worth thousands of stickers and soak myself into the 'coffee' mania', within almost two months, just to claim the very limited edition and highly expensive SB planner. For a breadwinner like me who is paying her own school MA tuition fee in a very expensive school, renting her own space, not to mention earning a not so high wage as a school teacher, SB shouldn't be in my lifestyle. And I thought so. When I first saw it, I didn't like it. It has limited space per day. THAT feature stuck on my mind, so even if I decided to collect stickers, I decided long ago, that SB planner was not for me. "That one won't suit me."  But when I checked this planner again, this time with more OCness and carefulness, (only on the last minute did I really check the real features of the planner that just slipped into my hand), I saw the thing which made me regret I am selling it now. Well, it was already sold last night. :(

SB planner was actually simple and very neat, plus it is inspired by nature. But the feature that made SB planner distinct from any planner, and washed all the impracticalities it bears, was that it is the ONLY planner of 2012 I saw with a BREAK/SPACE/NOTES AREA between the weeks! That is what I was looking for. It is a space not to doodle (like the one in the Filed planner) or to write a journal entry to, but a space wherein one could possibly write a weekly based roles diagram. It is a to-do like version but is inspired on a week-long term wherein one will not write the activities by the tasks but by the importance and by the roles he/she is playing in his or her life (see First things first book by Covey, Merrill, & Merrill). It is important to have a weekly overview not like a rigid to-do list by the day, to see that a week is the reality of living a balanced life in which one can possibly spend time with all aspects of life; and not just squeezing the most number of tasks possible in a day.

So I missed that! Seriously, I really missed that! How careless I was! Then, like I have no other thing to do, I checked and inspected my Filed planner. It doesn't bear my name yet, but I already colored some pages, and used the first few pages. Tooo late. How I wish that by not removing my eyes on it, somewhere in between the weeks, there'd be space. But that was hopeless. I can't sell it for those who are desperately looking for one. I love the Filed planner but I realized, just realized, that I love the SB planner more! I also realized that I spent too many efforts acquiring the SB planner, more than the efforts I paid with the Filed planner. But it [SB planner] is not mine anymore; actually it was never mine.

In life, sometimes, we are always looking out for the best, the ideal… Then, we'll go to the market and canvass for what the best is. We'll find the popular and will check it, then we'll like it. We'll glance at the "competitors" but oftentimes, we're too focused on the 'popular'. We will find things about the popular that match ours. We'll find that it's near extinction and that we're afraid of losing it, so we'll grab the very first moment that offers the possibility to have it. But, oftentimes, we'll realize at the end of the search, that we are actually doing something that we are not so conscious about. We are actually "searching" and working to have something that seemed "meant to be", long before we actually became conscious that we were searching the 'popular'. We'll put efforts on finding the 'less-paid-attention-to' but most of the time we are too busy "eyeing" the "popular". And when the time comes that we actually have the one which  truly speaks our heart and innermost desire, it was too late---because somebody else  took care of it.

Definitely, the planner never planned anything for us. It is just there to facilitate our true hearts' desire, but we will always have to make choices first, and set our own path. No matter what one's planner is, it will always be a personal thing that speaks of one's life.

Don't lose your planner!