About two weeks ago I launched the 2020 update to the Charmed Life Master Planner! Thank you to all those who have supported the planner over the years and have already purchased your 2020 editions, I’m thrilled to have you as part of my #MasterPlanFam! But, for those of you who have not yet purchased, or aren’t sure about whether the Charmed Life Master Planner is right for you, today I wanted to give you some insight into what I believe makes the planner special and why you should seriously consider purchasing your copy for the sake of your productivity, organization and time management in 2020!
So many options or same old same old?
I realize that when it comes to choosing a planner for yourself for the New Year, the options are seemingly endless. Now more than ever we have so much choice for how to plan, what our planners look like and the price point that works for our needs. You can buy a planner in nearly every paper size you can imagine. You can buy a planner with every binding option technology allows. You can buy a planner in your favorite color, pattern, personalized with your name, refillable or disposable, you are drowning in a sea of options. Or so it seems on the surface. If you take some time to break open most of the options out there you come to find that although many planners seem different because they look different on the outside, once you get inside everything is the same but in different packaging!
This is the illusion of choice brought to you by the genius of marketing; selling you the same old planner in a pretty new package! I can remember a few years back before the boom of planning when planners came in two options, a professional gender neutral black cover and a pink cover for the ladies because all we were to planner marketers at the time were a default color. There were never major differences between the black and pink planners, but marketers at the time knew that women were interested more in style so they made a version of their planner just for us to meet our needs; pink was apparently the need of women.
If you think things have gotten much better for women in the planner world, look again. Yea, now we have more options than pink or black, we now have identical planners updated with more feminine font selections (less business formal, more fun and script fonts) and instead of just a pink cover, we now have many many stylized cover options intended to speak directly to the personal identity of all the different types of women. Such styles of women include; The Boss, Girly, Cat Lady, Fashion Icon, Boho, Unicorn, Brainy, Goal Digger, Tom-boy, Foodie, Kawaii, Sleepy, llama and Mom! If you think I’m being overdramatic about this, I’m not- take a trip over to Michael’s Arts & Crafts and you can view on one shelf planner covers that speak to each of these caricatures of women and more- they discover and add new styles of women everyday!
Again, when you open these different planner “options” you quickly find that everything is the same, or variations on the same few styles of planners. Month on two pages, week on two pages, contacts and notes. Month on two pages, day on one page, and less notes. The options across many different planners and across many different brands boil down to styles that result in one of two major planning and productivity issues. Either they are too basic in terms of what they give you, so if you aren’t a seasoned planner or naturally highly organized your plans become a mess that lack focus (monthly, weekly). Or they are too focused on the daily planning aspect which reinforces the trope of busy = productive and prevents the user from getting a big picture view of their lives and results (monthly, daily). So, essentially, the vast majority of planners out on the market are glorified overpriced calendars! Dated or undated, all these “planners” give you are spaces to write in what you are doing on which day. No true space to make your plan, just enough space to write down the tasks, appointments and meals that fill your days. No wonder so many within the planner community switch from planner to planner looking for a system that works for them- they are simply switching from one version of the same to another!
The Charmed Life Master Planner Breaks the Mold
The Master Planner isn’t like any other planner on the market because it’s not just a calendar. The Master Planner is intentionally designed to be a Functional Planning System and incorporates scientifically researched productivity principles to ensure you are keeping organized, getting that big picture view to track the direction of your efforts, but also giving you the flexibility to drill down to your day to find focus on the task at hand. The Master Planner isn’t just a planner, it’s a productivity tool that when you commit to using it, will help you learn to plan better, manage your time more efficiently and achieve more of what truly matters to you.
Within the planner you actually have three productivity tools in one as the planner is broken into three distinct planning sections. The first section is the calendar, which is ostensibly what you are purchasing when you buy most of the other planner options on the market, but with the inclusion of dedicated space for monthly task lists and tracking in line with well researched best practices for productivity!
Next, you have a dedicated yearly project planning section which is the second tool within the Master Planner. Within this section you have the space to truly map out your objectives and goals for the year and to track them so you always know where you and can actually see the results of your progress at a glance inside your planner.
The third and final section and planning tool is the Brilliant Ideas spreads. In this section of the planner you have the dedicated space to clear you mind of ideas, thoughts and plans to organize and act on them, and you have the ability to brainstorm new plans and ideas before you schedule them into your calendar. Imagine that, a planner that gives you the space to plan what you are going to do and capture all your ideas so that you are doing your best work before you schedule those individual tasks into your calendar! Truly, in soo many ways the Charmed Life Master Planner is head and shoulders above other planners and is unrivaled in it’s ability to help you focus on and improve your productivity!
I created the Master Planner because other “planners” on the market were not only failing to improve people’s productivity but they were also sending women the wrong message about their productivity. The message sent to women by most planners is that busy = productive and that the measure of your value as a woman, wife, mother, student, daughter and friend boils down to how many things you can check off a to do list in a day. I’m continuously alarmed by the number of women within my community who come to me asking me which of my products, classes or courses will help them complete a full days worth of work in just an hour or a weeks worth of tasks in a day. Of course the answer to this question is none of them will. Instead what my products, classes and courses strive to do is to give you strategy, intention and clarity to get into alignment so that you know what tasks are truly going to move the needle in your life towards the goals you want to achieve. No one can accomplish 40 hours worth of tasks in just 8 hours, but through strategy and focus you can certainly achieve the most impactful results of 40 hours of work within a single work day. But this idea that we need to check off all the tasks, do all the things and be all the things to everyone in our life as women is a detrimental state encouraged by society and perpetuated by the planner market that leaves women with a blank calendar spread and no direction or indication that she should not strive to fill up each empty space. If the point of a planner is so I don’t forget another mundane and uninspiring task that truly won’t impact my life one way or another, then I need a planner like I need a hole in my head. No, thank you!
Stop using a planner that makes you a slave to your schedule or endless to do list. Start using a planner that works with you towards the goals and dreams you want to achieve, because to me, that’s the point of having a planner and a worthy reason for prioritizing it’s use everyday! People often ask me how I remember to stick to using my planner, and honestly, if your planner was filled with the goals and objectives that light you up with passion and excitement for your life, you wouldn’t be able to forget about it!
If you’re ready for a better way of planning, get your Charmed Life Master Planner now and start seeing the difference in your days, weeks, month and year because I have seen the impact in my life and the lives of many within my community and I know you will too!
Wishing you the best for a Productive Week & Life!
xoxo,