Functional Plan With Me [September 2021]

One of the things I love to do is plan and I will freely admit I like the “planning” more than the “doing”. I also like watching “Plan with Me” videos on Youtube – but they tend to focus on the aesthetics more than the real … so here’s how I do it … did it for September 2021.

Planner Essentials

• Large Monthly Calendar (like this one) on our fridge – all trips and appointments for home and family members.
• Dot Grid Moleskine – My personal planner / bullet journal used for work and personal. I just started using towards the end of August after switching from a traditional planner.
• Pilot G2 0.38 Ultra Fine Pen – been using this forever
• Midliner markers – I use the grey one primarily for every title in my Moleskine, and the other colors as accents occasionally
• Ruler (7 inch) – I’ve had this one laying around forever – otherwise I would use a 6 inch since it would fit more easily in my pen case.

September Appointments, Holidays & Events

Holidays in September-> Labor Day (Sep. 06) + Vacation Days during our trip to Jamaica. As I mentioned above, we use a large monthly calendar that’s kept on our refrigerator as the central calendar hub for family appointments and trips. For September

• Trip to Jamaica
• Doctors appointment for the hubs

I also have a “Future Log” in my Moleskine for July – December and all my planned trips (for work and personal) goes here.

More appointments usually get added during the month – but this monthly check-in is always a good reminder to put anything that needs to go on the calendar – either in the coming month or upcoming.

Blog Planning

I have been absolutely rubbish at blogging this year, but I’m fighting to make my way back. With a few other interests taking up my time, it looks like really planning ahead is essential. This doesn’t necessarily take place in 1-day, but over the course of a few days before the beginning of the month. My goals / what I did …

• Finish planning out blog posts for Monday, Wednesday, Friday posts for September AND October on our Evernote calendar (here’s how we use Evernote as a blogging calendar). We have a very simple system where either of us can add a topic to a day – and we color code it to indicate who is to write the topic – Kim, myself or both of us will contribute.
• Start writing and scheduling my posts for this week and next.

• Read through our GXO Goodreads Reading Challenges Group.
• Updated it with books I finished for August challenges …
  • I’m still reading You, Caroline Kepnes for the August Key Word
  • Finished The Magician’s Diary, C.J. Archer for the August Motif.
  • I’m not going to get to August Book Award – so I’ll catch up in December.
• Set up the September Challenge posts … and future months through the end of 2021.
• Updated the 2021 Book Awards Calendar with links to award winners over the past months and added in new dates for the rest of the year.

September Reading Plans

I need to choose the books I’ll be reading for the 3 reading challenges that we host – and I went ahead and made a TBR “collection” page in my bullet journal so I can remember the order in which I need to read these books (why haven’t I been doing this all along?!)

• Book Awards Challenge – either Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell or The Glorious Heresies, Lisa McInerney
• Monthly Motif Challenge – A Deadly Education, Naonmi Novik.
• Monthly Key Word – Drowned Country (The Greenhollow Duology #2), Emily Tesh

Reading Events in September -> R.I.P XVI (Readers Imbibing Peril)

Kim already has her Spooky Season TBR List and I need to put one together too.

TBD – Order The Sundial, Shirley Jackson for Peril of the Group Read (which starts in October)

HOME

September is the month to plan for our front yard Halloween display. Last year I had a skeleton “BBQ” and a “Off to be Buried” theme and in looking through my Halloween Outside Decor Pinterest Board for ideas, I think I’m going to expand on the”Buried” theme and finally attempt to do skeletons climbing the house.

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I’m definitely going to need a few more skeletons (last year they all sold out quickly) – so for my monthly planning, I make a Halloween Prep collection page in my bullet journal and write out my ideas. I’ll go back in later in the month and write on the opposite page any items I need.

$$$ – MONEY

As usual, every month, I double check my pay days, and go through any CC bills and payment amounts and dates.

September – Unfortunately, we have had quite a few expenses the last few months, so while we went to zero CC debt earlier this year – they are back! So time to reign ourselves in.

TBD – consolidate all CC into 1 with a 0% balance transfer offer (12 months). No MAJOR purchases until around Thanksgiving when Christmas presents will be bought.

Exercise | Workouts | Fitness

Since we’re traveling for most of the month, I’m not participating in any fitness challenges – I use these as a way to motivate myself to be consistent with workouts. I’ll run on the treadmill when I can, but not going to stress anything that doesn’t happen. Zwift Academy Road (cycling) starts this month and doesn’t end until Oct. 24th so I’m hoping I can still participate when I get back to the US.

TBD – Schedule Zwift Academy workouts closer to my return date.

Work

This is best planned weekly, but there are some monthly things that need to be done. I keep a monthly running list in my bullet journal for work (and personal) tasks – so I create a new page for September, add all those “TBD” above, and migrate anything from August that didn’t get done.

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And that’s it for planning for September. See more of this type in our Plan with Me section.