The Daily Greatness Journal Review

I had heard about the Daily Greatness Journal: A Practical Guide for Consciously Creating Your Days for a while, but couldn't justify the cost of $49.95. Last November I decided to look at it as an investment in self-development and I made the purchase.

There is a lot of reading at the beginning of the journal as it challenges you to think about what you want in your life. There are areas to fill in about Values, Dreams, Goals, Your 'Why', Personal Statement, Greatness Blueprint. Think about that- A Greatness Blueprint. Not that you need this journal to create one, but I love that they thought to include it!

Once you've spent some time, thought and energy on the bigger picture, it's time to get down to business. The Daily Greatness Journal is divided in four quarters with a 90-day planner at the start of each quarter. There is also a 90-day check-in so that you can track your progress for the previous 90 days.

This is genius and ties in perfectly with the concept of the 12-week year as developed and explained by Brian P. Moran in his book, The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months.
                                                              
Moran explains that by creating and tracking goals quarterly, you can track your progress better, change course sooner if something isn't working, develop clear action plans and measurable follow-up.

You can still have annual goals, but the idea is to break the bigger goals into smaller ones with actionable items. The Daily Greatness Journal includes a space for your 'Why' as well as a place to list 5 actions for each goal. If you're not ready to be serious with your goal setting and follow through, then this book is not for you.

The majority of the book is made up of daily pages, a weekly check-in and a weekly planner. To get the best use out of this planner, it should be used in the morning and the evening, although whatever usage habits you decide and can stick with, will work.

The calendar is not dated so that you can begin using this at any time throughout the year and don't need to wait until January 1.

I spent a lot of time on the pre-work (goals, plans, values, etc) and started tracking my daily, weekly, monthly activity, ideas and plans, but found that I wasn't resonating with some of the areas. For example, each day it asks you to list four things about you saying "I am ____". And you do this four times, every day. While this started off OK, it quickly got repetitive and uninspiring.

The journal is not really meant to be toted around as it is hefty and substantial. I keep it at my desk and am considering other ways to make it more customized and useful to me, such as using Washi and stickers to treat more like a Traveler's Notebook, or my Hobonichi, which is my new favorite. I'll keep you posted on that!

My First Hobonichi Original

I love planners and every year I have more than I can possibly use, although I do try to use them all. I've decided to start reviewing them and sharing what I like, what works for me as well as what I'm not so fond of - plannerwise.

This versatile day planner can be used as a diary, bullet journal, photo album, a memory tracker, scrapbook, list keeper and so much more.

At Planner Con 2018, I was delighted to purchase my first ever Hobonichi Techo Planner Book for 2018 and I love it! I've only been using it since the beginning of March and it is awesome!

I love the size (A6), the clear doodle cover I purchased as well as the purchased blue case to hold the planner. I love the ultra thin pages that are so smooth to write on. I prefer to use a fine point pen and this planner is perfect for that. I love, love, love this paper!

The planner itself is a 4.1 x 5.8 softback book that fits neatly into the purchased blue cover as shown below. The clear Tokyo cover goes over the blue hardback cover, so it's a 3-tiered system that can all be bought separately online (Amazon, Etsy, etc) or at stationery stores. There are two bookmarks attached to the planner. I use one at the front for the monthly calendar, and the second bookmark for the daily tracker.

Mine is the English version, rather than the Japanese edition.

You can see an overview of the year by month at the beginning of the book.Sundays are in RED.

After the annual overview, there are the monthly pages,and then the daily pages.

On each of the daily pages, is a quote on the left hand side of the page with a description of the context of the quote on the right hand side of the page. In the Japanese version the quotes are in Japanese so are meaningless if you don't read Japanese :)

With the pens I've used so far, there has been no bleed-through, but there's a warning on the Hobonichi website to test fountain pens first as some pens or inks can bleed through.

Do any of you have a Hobonichi? What do you think?

InCoWriMo Recap for 2018

The InCoWriMo 2018 challenge ended on Feb 28 and I would say it was a success for me. Did I write a letter every day? No. But there were plenty of days where I wrote multiple letters, note cards or postcards. Overall, I mailed over 40 pieces of mail in February.

Here are three postcards from the Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box. I reached out to three new people on the InCoWriMo website using these lovelies.

 I also  heard from John via Twitter who sent me a lovely letter and two others who reached out from InCoWriMo.

 

We were vacationing in Roatan, Honduras for eight days in February so some of the mail I sent in February was the postcards I purchased from the island. Will see if they find their way to any of the recipients as I heard from multiple sources that mail is notoriously unreliable on Roatan. My husband and I had quite the little adventure finding the Post Office to purchase stamps. I will blog about that in an upcoming post.

Below are three letters I mailed after returning from Roatan. Note the Honduran stamp in the right hand corner on the top two envelopes. Initially, I had planned to mail from Roatan, but after hearing from multiple people about the unreliability of the mail, I opted to wait to mail until I returned to the States.

Planner Con 2018 in San Francisco

I attended the 2nd Annual Planner Con event at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco in early March. This event had all kinds of heavenly planner goodness- planners, journals, stickers, stamps, cutouts, bands, charms, pens, markers and so much more!

I had not heard of Planner Con before and only happened upon it through some posts on Instagram. This was the 2nd Annual Conference, but they also have Planner Parties at various cities 4-5 times per year. The best place to find information on the upcoming Planner Con Parties as well as the 2019 conference is to follow Planner Con on Facebook.

They sold all 1,000 tickets to this year's Planner Con and I had to get on the waitlist not knowing if a ticket would become available. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long.

So, what's all the fuss about? First of all, when you attend, it's like you've found your tribe. A common question upon meeting a sister (or fellow) planner, was "What planner do you use?" Can you imagine that question in the context of everyday life and the looks you might get when you ask that?!

Secondly, there was such a wonderful assortment of offerings:  Vendors, Speakers, Workshops, Raffles, Swap Table, Scavenger Hunt and Bingo.

Finally, there was the energy of the conference itself. Positive, uplifting, generous, fun, energizing.

A friendly face manning the Paper House booth.

The Filo Fax booth was so inspiring with their wide assortment of product and samples on display of used planners (more on this in another post).

Pipsticks is the monthly sticker planner subscription providers with so much more!

I look forward to going back again next year.

Will post again with more detail on some of the speakers, vendors, workshops, etc.