For weeks now, well, longer, if I am to be honest, I have understood I am undergoing some changes, a renaissance, if you will.

I have spent years reflecting on what could have been, what should have been, what would have been, and what I could do now that might make me feel more comfortable with the choices I have made during my years on this planet.

I wrote an article a while back that you can read here:

What Did You Want To Be When You Grew Up?

It discusses the wisdom of your ten-year-old self and how whatever you wanted to be then will lead you to your passions now.

That’s one thing.  But what about later in life?  What then?

Did you pick things up as you went along in your life, art journaling, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, writing poetry, reading manga?  Anything that you have let slide because you have too much to do, or too many responsibilities? 

My youngest child is now ten years old.  (For reference later, he wants to be a monster truck driver—something we wholly support.) For roughly ten years now, if not longer (by nine months or so), I have let things slide.  When he was a baby and a toddler, he had to be on my lap, in my arms.  I could not read.  I could not knit or crochet.  Forget embroidery.  Woe unto a cat or dog who wanted a pat or to be on my lap.  When he was on my lap, that was all I had to do. 

That got old fast, but even as he grew older, it didn’t really stop.  I prefer to work at my desktop computer.  He prefers I be in whatever room he is in.  This is typically the office – which is not where my desktop lives—or the living room.  I do have a laptop, but … my desktop is … better.  It has more stuff on it and around it.

I am weaning him off of that need of late and although it is not always perfect, I have been able to do more things lately.

It hasn’t been hurting that I schedule these things into my planner on a daily basis. 

I do not schedule every single thing I want to do every single day—I would definitely go mad with that.

However, I make my list of things I want to accomplish at the beginning of the week…and then I break those tasks down into smaller pieces I can manage throughout the week, and/or the month.

On my weekly spread this week, and then sprinkled throughout my daily pages, I have goals/tasks/plans listed as: crochet a pumpkin (for Halloween, obvs), work on embroidering one jack-o-lantern shirt for fifteen to twenty minutes, work on X painting, sew Halloween pants, bake pumpkin bread.

On my personal tasks list, I have a note to work in my APL journal, where I doodle or collage or paint, sometimes a mix of all of these and more, every single day.  I also have a note to work in my memory-keeping scrapbook/collage-style Traveler’s Notebook, although I usually do this two or three times a week.

I make sure I have on my personal to-do list to journal, write out my gratitude for the day, and meditate.

If I did not put these things in my planner, on the page, I would set them aside for another time—another time which may be weeks, months, or even years on down the line.

How do you use your planners to plan in time for yourself?

Do you make sure you have time for creativity? 

Do you plan times for you to explore the things that brought you joy when you were younger?

Do you plan times for you to explore new things you want to try?

Let me know in the comments below.

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