1. Picking the perfect planner.
What color? What binding? What size? How many pages? How much space do I have for each day’s worth of writing? As I peruse the shiny, sparkling aisles of Barnes and Noble, these questions and more bombard me. What if I make the wrong choice? What if the alloted space for Tuesday runs short? This planner will be beside me for an entire year; it will get me through my planned schedules, my many work shifts, my anxiety-filled all-nighters, my unplanned emotions. It is not as simple as picking up a random book off of a shelf, it is so much more.
2. Loss prevention.
I once had a friend in my class who stole my planner regularly to remind me to buy them Jimmy John’s bread. I was not amused. My poor instructor would try and ignore the laughter and the bickering occurring in the back of the room while I would fight for it back. While fighting for my planners possession, I was highly impressed by its durability despite being wrung back and forth. Perhaps one of the most important factors to an agenda is its durability when stolen or constantly transported from one of my many bags to another.
3. Penmanship.
Along the lines of being stolen, or if your friends are less concerned about bread than mine and your planner is simply facing the weathering of time, is the concern about how your work and agenda will work into the planner. What if the paper isn’t conducive to your favorite type of pen? What if you’re indecisive and need to write in pencil? The planner facing defacement from your days can only be taken so far and can only be endured with the right amount of stamina and perfect penmanship. Your planner is your companion and you make it yours as you go along your way.
4. Natural selection.
Some planners simply can’t stand up to the test. Let’s be real, a 4”x6” planner is going to get you nowhere. Do you have a small calvary of ants that can write impeccably and offer you a magnifying glass to remember to ask some beautiful human to your grab-a-date on Friday or to remind you of your exam to study for before you snag said date? No. You don’t. Life gets busy and hectic, we all know it to be true, and a planner the size of a photograph simply will not cut it.
5. Paying for personality.
While many-a-lady may want to cart around a beautiful Lily or Kate planner, let’s be real once again. We are in college. If you want to spend a weeks-worth of grocery money on paper, I applaud you. I am all for personality and peonies covering every page of the next year of my life, but don’t let the floral confuse you on what you really need. Space. Space and possibly a couple less distractions from that exam coming soon.
