What happens when an apartment flood forces you to start from scratch.
Life always has a plan for you that goes against what you originally thought. In December, I had a plan. My 2023 planners came in and I was setting it all up with everything I needed so once January 1st hit, I was ready to get the ball rolling. Like so many, I didn't want to spend the first week of January setting it all up - I wanted to dive in.
Then, it happened. The freeze hit and a pipe burst on the fourth floor of my apartment building. This caused a waterfall and a lot of damage to all four floors, including mine. I lost almost everything, all my planners included.
All that planning and setting up went out the window as I had to take a pause on ringing in the New Year with a new plan and focus on rebuilding my life.
Step #1: Purchase New Planners
Actual Step #1: Cry.
Productive Step #1: Purchase New Planners.
Planners are really important to me; not just for the 'gram or for this blog, but because it truly keeps me focused, on track and it keeps my mind from turning into chaos. Without a planner, I loose focus and I find myself unorganized.
The original planners for 2023 were the Passion Planner Weekly and Passion Planner Daily for my regular life, and an A5 binder that I had pieced together from two years and inserts I purchased from Cloth & Paper for work. But, I knew I couldn't rebuild that ring binder quickly and I wanted to still use Passion Planners for my day-to-day life.
I wound up purchasing 3 Passion Planners for 2023 as my re-set:
1. Weekly and Daily for my regular life that matched almost exactly what I had previously wanted.
2. Daily for work that I had used last year. I knew the system worked so that's what I went with.
Step #2: Fill in the Pages With What You Remember
With photos and notes of what I had previously created, I was able to fill in some of what I had in the ruined planners. The rest came from memory or new thoughts I wanted to incorporate into these.
I need to remind myself that I don't have to have everything planned out right now.
I can take my time, workshop ideas, play with routines and change them as I need to. This is not the final thing - it's a work in progress.
Step #3: Tackle What Hinders You From Moving Forward
The hardest challenge I have is recreating the Roadmap found in the beginning of the Passion Planners.
Yes, I have pictures and ideas of what I had previously written but it feels like a really big hurdle to have to redo it. It's not as simple as re-writing what I had thought that I could build on over time. Now, it's a matter of refocusing and modifying the original plan with new requirements.
My favorite thing about the Roadmap is how easy it is to modify.
For my Daily spread, I had adjusted them to focus on them per month that would help me keep each Daily book for 2023 separate. I will most likely take that with me into the new book. The Weekly spread is rather straightforward and I see myself adjusting them very little.
Step #4: Know That Life Happens and You Got This Anyway
Life happens; you get de-railed on your original intentions. But, you have to pick yourself up and push forward. I was originally going to post about how to use your planner to help during moves from one place to another. Turns out, that won't be happening.
Instead, I got another idea of a post and hopefully this inspires everyone to keep going. It won't always be bad - there are good times ahead. You can and will do this and accomplish those goals.
Believe in yourself. These planners, notebooks, lists (whatever you use) is there to help you, not hinder you.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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