Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 7

Planner Review: Part 2

Just an FYI, I received no compensation of any kind for this post, and I paid full price for all my planners. My credit card is still unhappy about this fact.

On Tuesday, I talked about my 2025 planners, including the monthly, weekly, and the EveryDay Carry (EDC) planner. I also reviewed how those were working for me. Today, I review my daily planner selection. The winner is at the bottom!

Since I was switching from the planner I'd been in since 2015 to a new planner, I bought a number of different ones because I wasn't sure which one would work.

The Hobonichi Cousin in A5. It's fine. All the other planners I bought are boutique planners, so if worse came to worst and they ceased to be created, I could move into this planner. I'm not a huge fan of the quotes because they squeeze the page, the colors are not my choices, and the timeline on the daily pages is not usable for me, but I found a shop that sells a sticker timeline that goes over it and I can deal with the rest. If I had to.

Hemlock & Oak Dated Daily. Hemlock & Oak makes a really nice, nice planner. I used it as a daily journal in 2024 and loved the hell out of it. This is the only planner I tried for 2025 that didn't have Tomoe River Paper, but a thick, regular paper that doesn't show any bleed through and I also have zero ghosting. I still love this planner for journaling, but I don't think I would want it for my daily planner. It's in an A5 size and is thick and heavy. I don't carry my desk planner with me, so this wasn't a deal breaker for me and there's plenty of room to write. I'll continue this as a journal.

Sterling Ink Daily Planner A5 and B6. I really like Sterling Ink planners. I had a weekly for 2024 that I journaled in, and I enjoyed it immensely. My weekly was a B6, and I like that size, but I wasn't sure it would be big enough. The B6 might be a little small for me because I would have to record my water, vitamins, etc. in here on the daily page. The A5 has more room. The biggest drawback for me is this planner has no weekly pages--only monthly and daily.

Plans by Just Scribble Horizontal in A5. I really, really like this planner, and if it were in one volume, it would be a contender for my winner. Unfortunately, it's in two volumes and that's a deal breaker for me. I'm using it as a secondary everyday planner. As in it's a reminder for me to glance out when I'm on the other side of the house, but it's not my primary planner. I'm hoping that for 2026, there's a single volume option.

What I like about this planner is that instead of being setup with all the months together, then all the weeks, and then all the days, Plans has it setup so that the month comes, then the week, then the 7 daily pages for that week, then the next weekly pages, then the next 7 daily pages, and so on. I like this setup a lot. I also love the horizontal weekly setup with the blank page. This planner is so awesome! But as I said, two volumes are a deal breaker for me. I need/want one book. I'm not looking for portability in my official planner. That's what my EveryDay Carry planner is for.

The winner for me is Nisha Fernando Designs Journey Planner in A5. I found this planner late, after their preorder closed, but as soon as I saw it, I was like, I think this planner would be perfect for me! And I was right.

What I like about this planner: It has an entire section to record meals. It also has space for water and vitamins. I adjusted it slightly because I take medication for my acid reflux with every meal, so I needed AM/Noon/PM and not the single vitamin dose the planner offered. It was a simple fix. There's also a section off to the right (not in the picture) that I was able to adjust to record how much sleep I was getting every night. And there's the little barbell to check off workouts. Win!

All planners have a monthly section, so nothing unusual here.

I decorated my monthly page with washi tape. February was a nice, light month. All the monthly reminders are out of the picture. If you look closely, you can see some ghosting. That's that Tomoe River Paper does, but that doesn't bother me at all. I love the crinkly texture of this paper, and the major win is that I can have the room and pages I need in one book because of how thin the paper is.

This is a vertical weekly planner which I work around with washi tape and stickers. I don't plan in my weekly pages because my brain doesn't process information in this mass of days. I tried weekly planners before switching to daily and it was too easy to ignore everything when it was all lumped together.

Here's a picture I sent a friend to show her what I was doing. I used thin washi tape to divide the page. At the top, I'm keeping track of the temperature, and I have a stamp set for sun or rain or clouds that I use up there as well. The bottom section is for word count. My goal is 1000 words a day. I record what I actually wrote below the goal.

The most important section is the "THIS WEEK" part on the middle right. This is where I record any weekly tasks that need to be done. Since this picture was taken right after I setup the planner, I only have the four tasks I want to do every week.

There wasn't enough space on the side bar of the monthly pages (above) to keep track of my monthly To-Do list, so I needed a work around. The Journey Planner has a blank page at the beginning of each month of daily pages. I found a sticker company, Mandy Lynn Plans (again, no compensation was received by me.) that makes monthly dashboards. Problem solved.

The colors of the stickers are much more vibrant than the picture shows. Apologies for being a horrible photographer.

The sticker kit gives me a variety of options for the headings on each section, but the ones I use every month are "This Month," "Important Dates," "Goals," and "Notes." There are tasks I do every month like my newsletter. Important dates can be things like doctor appointments or holidays. Goals are whatever I want to do that month. The important section for me is "This Month." I put check marks in the circles to the left as I complete an item.

And last, but certainly not least since this is the most important for me. The Daily Pages.

You can see the thinness of the Tomoe River Paper in this picture because the stickers on the other side of the page are clearly silhouetted there. Stickers are from the Scooby Doo collection from Capitol Chic Designs (Again, I received no compensation for this post. I bought my stickers from this shop.)

The timeline is printed on the left side of the page and goes from 6am to midnight. There's space above the 6am, so if I need to write something in earlier, I can. Same with space below midnight. There are small marks to divide the page, but I didn't want it halved, so I took a light marker and drew a line down the page to separate the timeline from my daily To-Do list.

I was going to use a dot marker to create check circles to mark off when I accomplished an item, but I discovered that the ghosting was too much, and I switched to a highlighter with a square nib.

I've done other little things to the planner. I've added tabs to all the sections. I've decorated my pages because the A5 allows me room to do that. There's also a section full of trackers, but I've found that I don't really keep up with trackers, so I'm haphazard on using them.

This planner is amazing for me. It gives me the space to have everything in one place and to organize it in a way that makes sense to me and works with my brain. I found my new everything planner and I'm so grateful it exists.

Planner Review: Part One

This year is the year I changed planners for the first time since 2015. The planner I was using was a daily spiral book with Saturday and Sunday sharing a page. I was pushing against that shared weekend page from literally the first day I got the planner, but it had so many other cool features like a place to track water and meals and vitamins and meditation and things like this that I put up with it.
2024, though, was my breaking point.
This was my first full year after my dad died. He'd lived with me since 2016, after my mom passed away, and while I kept track of daily things, he kept track of longer-term items.
With him gone, I needed to stay on top of everything myself which meant my planner needed to do more and be more because I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I cannot rely on my memory.
I always knew I needed to write things down. I've always created workarounds and systems, but I also always had my parents to remind me of things that fell through the cracks in my brain. Without that, my planner needed to do this. My usual planner suddenly was too small, too unusable for what I needed.
I went to a fine-point pen. I wrote two items per line. I manipulated that thing every way I could think of trying to make it work. By September of 2024, I realized I needed a new solution. This planner would never work for me again.
Just so you know, I paid full price for all the planners I mention here. There is no sponsorship of any kind involved.
In 2025, I ordered a ridiculous number of planners. I thought I would need a monthly, a weekly, and a daily all open at the same time, so I purchased one of each. I also bought an EveryDay Carry (EDC) planner.
My monthly was a Sterling Ink B5. The weekly a Sterling Ink B6, and the EDC was a Sterling Ink N2 (which is the same size as the Hobonichi Weeks). I also bought multiple daily planners, uncertain which one would work for me. My options were: Hobonichi Cousin A5, Sterling Ink Daily Planner A5 and B6, Hemlock & Oak Daily Planner, Plans by Just Scribble, and then I spotted Nisha Fernando Design's Journey Planner. It looked perfect for what I needed, and I ordered it in A5 size.
What I learned: I do not want a separate planner for my monthly and weekly views. Instead of being helpful for me, it was annoying. The planner that's become my everyday planner has monthly and vertical weekly pages and I'm using that instead of the planners I bought.
The EDC is good. It's better for me to make appointments and ensure I'm not double booking myself from a paper planner than from my phone. Yes, I do still add everything to my phone, just in case, but my brain just registers commitments better on paper. With the caveat that I have a weekly task to synchronize that planner to my primary planner so that there are no oopsies.
Next blog post will look at my daily planners.

Why Is This Not a Word?

I use notebooks when I'm writing. I'm on my third book for the Paladin League series because I wrote so many notes.

Before I start writing a book, I make notes on threads I need to remember to incorporate. Notes on the hero and heroine and other characters making appearances. Notes on what I think is going to happen in this book to move the series arc forward.

I'm not a complete seat-of-the-pants writer, but I definitely lean more on that side of the line, so I've usually managed to surprise myself in earlier books. The really cool thing is when those surprises work as plot points in later books because they weren't planned. The plotter writers are probably cringing right now.

Once a book is underway and I'm actually writing it, I write in my notebook scene to scene. What needs to happen here? Why? What does my hero think? What does the heroine think? How is this moving either the plot or the romance or both forward?

I call this notebooking and when I'm messaging with my friends, autocorrect is so unhappy with me.

Notebooking totally should be a word! It completely and succinctly explains exactly what I'm doing. I am notebooking. Even as I'm writing this blog post, the word notebooking is underlined in red because it's not a word. It is to me, and I am going to use it even if those red lines make me insane. Even if I have to fight autocorrect every time I do it. Notebooking, notebooking, notebooking!

It should be a word.

Wheel, Wheel, Wheel

A few months ago, I noticed that I had to be really careful whenever I pulled out the bottom rack of my dishwasher. If I didn't take it slow and easy, one of the wheels would fall off the assembly. Every time it happened, I would pick up the wheel, put it back in place, and pop the peg back in.

Then it started happening more often even when I was careful, and this became annoying. It was just one wheel--the left front, so I assumed it was a problem with that assembly.

Then came the day that I pulled out the rack, the left front wheel fell off, but I couldn't locate the peg anywhere. I searched all over the floor. Maybe it was inside the dishwasher. I pulled the rack out farther.

Wheels from all sides started falling off!

Not all at once. First the one on the right front, and when I went to fix that one, some of the wheels from the back fell off. One of those pegs did go inside the dishwasher and I had to pull the rack out farther to fish it out. More wheels came off.

Now it's a full-fledged issue.

I little online searching turned up a video on YouTube on how to fix the wheels. As part of his demonstration, he mentioned that soap and water cause the plastic wheels to degrade over time. I did a little math and figured out the dishwasher is about seven years old.

As you can see in this closeup of one of the wheels, there is definite pitting on the little peg that holds it in place.

I located the part number, did a search, and found a set of upgraded replacement assemblies. I ordered it and they came on Saturday. I rewatched the video on how to replace them, and then I got to work. Wheels popped off just pulling out the rack and putting it atop the island.

The assemblies are supposed to pop off easily with a little pressure, but I didn't have enough strength in my hands to do it. I ended up using a pair of pliers like a wedge to force them to pop. It worked well and didn't cause any damage to the rack itself.

Here's the first assembly on the rack and the second one removed and ready to have its replacement put into position. I did have a little trouble seating them, but once I figured out how to position them, it didn't take much to force them into place.

And ten minutes later, maybe less, I have all new wheel assemblies on my lower rack.

It's going to be so incredibly nice to not worry about wheels falling off every time I pull out the rack to load dishes. It's even nicer to not pay a repairman to come out and do the replacement for me.

Chalk up another one for Handy Patti

In My Face

The picture is of the kanban board I have on my office wall. The gold word was my word of the year like three or four years ago. It is off my wall. This is an archived image from shortly after I finished writing Wicked Suspicion. So while I was late taking it down, I did get it done.

March is the last month of the first quarter of 2025, and that means I'll have to pull down all the Post-it Notes in my finished section. I do this at the end of every quarter.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if I had left all my book Post-its on the wall, it would get pretty full. On the other, I hate when I look over at my wall and see nothing in the Finished section. Looking at the picture accompanying this post, you can see all the finished chapters from the last book.

As I glance over now, I can see all the chapters I've finished so far this quarter. I love this! And in a few weeks, they will all be off my wall and in the trash. Sadness.

My kanban board is actually one of the most useful tools I have to keep myself on track. Sure, I've got word count trackers and other a project management spreadsheet that I use, but if I don't open the files, I don't see them. And one of the issues with ADHD is out of sight, out of mind. This board is impossible to ignore. I have to look at it every time I leave my office. Which is exactly what I need.

Story of my Life

One of my annoyances with ADHD is when I know I bought something and can't find it.

It just happened recently. A couple of months back, I bought cleaner to get the ink off my stamps. I plan to do a lot more decorating using rubber/silicone stamps and I read that it's important to remove the ink.

I already had stamp cleaning chamois, or going by what was printed on the package, shammy. My plan was to add the stamp cleaning fluid to the chamois and wipe my stamps on that.

Problem: I didn't have an airtight container to store it in to keep it damp. I thought I might have an old CD case or something somewhere, but I never found one, and shortly after Christmas, I decided to order a plastic case. When it arrived, I went looking for my stamp cleaning fluid.

I didn't find it.

I don't know where I put it. I checked all the craft supplies. I looked around the room in which I store these supplies. I looked around my office. I found nothing. I began to wonder if I only thought I ordered the cleaning fluid. Maybe I planned to wait. A search of my order history told me I had two bottles.

A second search ensued. Surely, I'd find it this time now that I knew exactly what the bottles looked like. Nope, still not bottles of cleaner. I ended up ordering another one.

This is what makes me crazy--when I know I have something but can't find it and end up buying another one. What compounds this problem is that I don't have the patience to conduct a thorough search.

I feel confident the missing bottles will turn up shortly after the new order arrives.

Planner Updates

I thought I'd update on my planner collection for 2025. I'll go more in-depth on some of these later. This is just a really general overview.

The planner I chose as my new everyday planner was one I spotted late, after I'd chosen another everyday planner. I decided to pick it up anyway, and it ended up being a good choice. It has all the features I want, or space to set them up, and it has the big feature. Full pages for both Saturday and Sunday.

This planner came in two sizes. A5 and B6. I bought the A5 because I wanted maximum space, but I might be able to downsize next year to the B6. As it stands, right now I have plenty of room to decorate with washi tape and stickers.

The other impulse purchase planner has so many cool features, but it's in two volumes so it doesn't work as my everyday planner. My big wish is that next year it is in one volume. No one buys an A5 for portability, so splitting them into two volumes was unnecessary, especially since it also comes in the ultra-portable A6 size.

My plan was to use this planner for writing-related tasks and word counts, but I haven't done that yet. In fact, the only thing I've done is tip in vellum with the names of the months. I need to figure something out before the year passes.

I'm using the backup everyday planner for journaling. Sometimes I use a prompt. Sometimes I just record what's on my mind. Not quite a brain dump, but along those lines.

My weekly horizontal planner has tasks that need to be done that week, but don't need to be done on a specific day. I bought this in B6 which means it's nice to cart around with me. Next year, I might combine the journal with the weekly because I don't think I need both.

I bought some Travelers-size booklets for time tracking. With my ADHD, it's too easy for me to think ten minutes have passed when it's two hours. I'm hoping tracking will help me stay focused. Next year, I can do that in my new everyday planner because it has the vertical weekly included in it.

Speaking of vertical weeklies, I picked up a Hobonichi Cousin to try out, too. I'm using it as an entertainment planner. Anything I read, watch, listen to, or whatever gets recorded in the planner. I've bought sticker kits to decorate it, and if everyone drops out of the boutique planner sphere (which is what my two choices for everyday planners are. Boutique planners), I know Hobonichi is big enough to still be around. The Cousin would definitely work with some sticker help.

You're probably thinking wow, that's a lot of planners, Patti. WTF?

I have struggled all my life with ADHD, although I wasn't diagnosed until 2024. I always thought I was a lousy adult until I found out it was my brain, not a failing on my part. Looking back, it's also obvious how much my parents helped prop me up, even after I moved to Atlanta, and they were still in Minneapolis. After my mom died, my dad moved in with me and propped me up even more because he was on-scene to handle things.

I took care of everything day to day. My planner helped me stay on top of those items. But things at irregular intervals? Those my dad either took care of or reminded me about handling them. After he died, I struggled badly enough to get tested for ADHD.

I bought multiple planners because I'm hoping to come up with a system to keep me on track. This year is about testing things out, hence the number of planners. As I use them this year, I'm finding ways to combine functions into fewer planners. I'll also be able to rule out the things that don't work and brainstorm different ways to stay on track.

Right now, I'm thinking I'd only need two planners for next year, but testing will continue all year.

Dublin: Done

After doing that virtual race of the Amazon and signing up for the long version that took me more than a year to complete, I wanted to do a couple of shorter races. I did Vietnam first and then it was Dublin's turn.

Dublin was 87 miles or 140 kms and I finished it in 56 days.

I like rewards. Sometimes the reward is nothing more than checking a box in my planner. Sometimes it's craft supplies or somethings else purchased. When it comes to getting steps in, it's race medals.

My entire declutter/organize the house strategy revolves around breaking things down into the smallest possible task (for my ADHD brain) and then checking off the box I put next to the item. I'm hoping this will work because I seriously need to accomplish a couple of rooms immediately. Like my office.

But Dublin was a fun walk with lots of Google Street views available. I love looking around the map every night to see where I'm at and Ireland is one of my bucket-list destinations.

Since you can see the name of my favorite company for virtual races, let me state right now that I was not compensated in any way for this post. I pay for all my races.

In fact, in December, I spent a ridiculous amount of money picking up more races. The race I was doing at the time was the last one I'd purchased, and they had a sale. I picked up a bunch of new ones for 2025, enough to last me until their next sale which I assume will be in December again. Since the races have gotten a lot more expensive than they used to be, the sale was good timing.

25 Things Update

I'm like 99% positive I blogged about my list of 25 Things to do Before 2025. I would link to the post if I could find it, but alas, Blogger search has let me down.

To recap, I made a list in the fall of 2024 of 25 things I wanted to do before the end of the year. It was actually difficult to find 25 things. I didn't want anything overwhelming, and I wanted to mix some fun things in, too. I finally scraped together a list.

I counted the number of items I completed: 14/25.

Not too bad.

One of the items was to find this awesome picture of my mom and dad that my dad showed me after mom died. I meant to take a picture of it, so I'd have a copy, but I didn't do it. I guess I thought I could take the picture of the picture later? Anyway, I did look for the photo, I just didn't find it. So while the intent was there, I can't cross it off the list.

Some of the items on my list were super easy to accomplish like read a new book or watch a movie I hadn't seen before.

Some of the things were not fun at all like get the car serviced and remove a past word of the year (like circa 2021) from my wall. I used to make a vinyl word of the year and put it in the middle of my kanban board every year. Until 2022 because I just never took down the 2021 word. Removing vinyl from the walls isn't fun. It takes a hair dryer and patience. After all this time, I wanted my old word down. I finally did it.

I moved some of the 25 things I didn't accomplish to a new list. 25 Things to Accomplish Before 2026. Other items I left off because I decided I didn't really want to do them.

Overall, I liked this list because it included fun things and little things that I wanted to do but kept putting off with a few tasks tossed in for good measure. I actually did most of the task things. I missed out, though, on coffee on the patio. It got too cold before I managed to do it.

To Sprint or Not to Sprint

I have a love/hate relationship with writing sprints.

The pluses are many. It gets me to make an appointment to write. With my ADHD, I'm not good at getting myself started, but if I'm committed to meeting up with other writers, I'll be there.

While I'm a slow writer, the sprints also force me to focus on getting my words. I'm easily distractable (ADHD), and having a sprint period helps me remain on task.

Sprinting with other writers also is more fun because in the breaks between sprints, we talk.

The sprint appointments also get me moving in the mornings. I am a dawdler and can spend forever drinking coffee and playing the NYT Spelling Bee, Wordle, Connections, Strands, etc.

The downside for me is when the time is up. Many times, I've just hit flow state, and the words are coming fast and furious and I'm totally in the zone. And then the writer keeping track of time will call the end of the sprint and I wind up frustrated because it takes me so long to get back in that state.

We've expanded out the length of the sprints, many times going over an hour, but when I'm in flow, even this isn't enough time for me.

But despite all this, the positives far outweigh the negatives. I like having an appointment to write and this works with my brain. I'm going to keep sprinting.