A decade of Plannerisms!!!

I started Plannerisms ten years ago today! Wow!!! A lot has happened in ten years, for myself personally and in the planner world.

First of all, I want to say a massive Thank You to my planner friends who have been with me on this wild planner ride! Planners brought us together, and I've stayed in touch with you through all the crazy ups and downs we've all had in the past ten years via the online planner communities. I really feel like we are part of each others' lives and have supported each other through thick and thin. I am enormously grateful to my planner friends for your emotional and moral support over the years!

In my first post on Plannerisms I said:

Hi everybody! I have finally decided to give in and indulge my planner obsession by starting my very own blog about it. If you too are obsessed with planners, then you're in the right place.

In this blog I will be talking about my own planners, other people's planners, and websites that feature planners. I will talk about what planners I have and what ones I want. I'll do reviews, praise, complain, change my mind and otherwise go on about planners. If that sounds good to you, then subscribe so you don't miss a word!

And that is exactly what I did! From there, Plannerisms went on quite a journey.

In the ten years since, I went through a few more international moves before happily settling where I currently am several years ago. My kids, who were small at the time, are big now.

Professionally, I have been writing Quo Vadis blog, the official brand blog for Quo Vadis planners, since October 2014. Quo Vadis has always been one of my very favorite planner brands, so getting to write about how much I love their planners has been my dream job! I've written a lot about Quo Vadis planners here on Plannerisms over the years.

And I've had my Plannerisms planners, which I designed with spaces for annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals, published for several years in a row now! You can see more information about the Plannerisms planners here. 

At the time when I started Plannerisms, I had recently been asked to become a contributor on Philofaxy, where I still contribute regularly and where many of my long-time planner friends still hang out! Big shout-out to Steve, who has been running Philofaxy for many years now; Nan, who kept Philofaxy alive after the original Philofaxer was no longer able to continue the blog; and Anita who is also a long-time contributor on Philofaxy!

Ten years ago, the planner world was very different than it is now. Planners were mainly for planning. The decorative planner trend hadn't hit yet. For awhile it seemed that paper planners were on the decline, as I wrote in this post.

I've been very glad to see the revival of paper planners, although I admit I'm not a fan of the decoration aspect. If you do a search about planners you are more likely to come up with information about decorating with stickers and washi than actually planning. I'm glad people enjoy it as a hobby, but it's not for me.

My planner is, and always has been, a tool for planning my days and keeping me on track with my tasks and goals.

When I first started Plannerisms, I was trying to find "my perfect planner." I have to admit, I'm still on that journey! Life changes all the time and so do my planner needs. I have learned a lot about myself and what I need and want from my planner in that time. And even though I have been through many planner brands and blogs (see them listed in the sidebar), there are several that I still enjoy to this day.

In those early years, I really enjoyed reading Productive Flourishing by Charlie Gilkey, and I still do. I find his blog to be a great source of motivation and inspiration. I discovered his website via his printable planners. He also now has a bound version of his planners. (You can see the Momentum Planners here, they are excellent.) I even got to communicate directly with Charlie, who is such a positive and uplifting guy. He has recently published a book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea To Done, which I recently bought and I am really looking forward to reading. Congratulations Charlie!

Another early planner inspiration for me was Uncalendar, which I had used several years before. I'm not currenly using an Uncalendar, but I still love the positive messages, flexibility of use, and goal-setting inspiration in these planners.

The planner that started my whole planner obsession was a vinyl Cambridge ring binder, which I used for several years before buying my first real Filofax, a personal size Buckingham, in 2001. You can read more about my Filofax journey here.  I still use Filofaxes, sometimes as my day to day planner. But these days I use a bound weekly planner as my main day to day planner, and my Filofax stays home on my desk with my monthly pages, far-future planning pages, work planning pages, and reference information.

I've written a lot about Moleskine here on Plannerisms. Although I never have been able to find a Moleskine planner that works well for me, I have to admit I love their notebooks and I'm a sucker for the limited edition Harry Potter and Star Wars covers.

A planner brand I discovered not long after I started Plannerisms is WeekDate, which I have reviewed often here. I love the Only Write It Once concept, and that the company is small, female-owned, and the planners are made in the USA.

And of course I still love Quo Vadis planners. My first serious time-management planner was a Quo Vadis, and ever since I've been hooked on their organization, high quality, and amazing paper.

Other planner brands I love: Boxclever Press (I've been using their Family Life Book Diary in the kitchen for the whole family to use for 7 (!!) years in a row now!), Philofaxy's free printables, Mum's Office, The Success Choice, Letts, Personal-Planner, Agendio, Gallery Leather, Mixed Role Productions, Polestar Planners, Planner Pads, Franklin Planner, and so many others.

Social media has changed a lot in the past decade. Back when I started Plannerisms, blogging was in its heyday. There were so many blogs that I loved to read, most of which have shut down now. There are several people in my Planners Inner Circle (you know who you are!) who have all managed to stick together through the transitions from blogs to Facebook and now to Instagram. I miss the days of blogs with good content, and the conversations that were generated there. Instagram is a nice and quick way to stay in contact a little and often, but it's shallow and I don't feel the same kind of connection as I did with blogs.

I admit this blog is very quiet these days, because my planner mojo mostly goes to my day job writing the Quo Vadis blog. I am on Facebook @plannerisms and on Instagram @plannerisms. I don't post very often, but I am around.

I am very curious to see what the next ten years will bring for planners, and planner users.

Thank you again to everyone in the planner community!