my new life management notebook

I think I’ve finally found a life management notebook that is going to work for me. If you’ve been reading for any amount of time you know that I love digital management for the big stuff (mainly iCal for my planner and the Things app for my to-dos and project tasks) but I also find paper and pen very helpful for some things. That led to me trying out a bullet journal, which was pretty effective, but it wasn’t perfect for me.

Enter the Discbound system from Staples! I totally researched and purchased all of this on my own but I’m loving it and want to share. So the cool thing about this is that it is flexible like a 3-ring binder (meaning you can take stuff out and put it in) but it functions like a notebook, making it easier to write in, hold, and manipulate.

There are a bunch of different notebooks that use this system, but I have this one. I also have these dividers and this hole punch.

Here is how I’m using each section of my notebook.

Monthly

First of all I created a section that I check in with every month. It has a list of special dates, so I know whose birthday is coming up and I can order gifts and send cards. I also put in some copies of my “how am I doing” self-check worksheets, which I like to fill out monthly to make sure I’m not neglecting one area of my life. And then I have some blank paper where I am planning on documenting my monthly goals.

Meal Planning

The second section is for meal planning. I am using this printable calendar which is just so simple and functional. (Note that we eat the same thing almost every day for breakfast and lunch so I don’t really need to plan those meals. And I write my grocery list on a separate piece of scratch paper because I give it to David and he does the shopping.) Behind that I’m keeping a list of go-to dinner ideas.

Bullet Journal

Next is where my bullet journal lives! And I still use it in pretty much the same way as I wrote in this post, except that I decided to separate out the stuff regarding faith and creativity to be their own sections.

Faith

So far I mainly use this for sermon notes, but I also used it for notes for a church women’s book club I lead, and I’ll probably use it for my women’s Bible study notes as well. (I have a separate journal for my personal daily devotions.)

Creative

Lastly I have a section devoted to anything creative which is most of my hobbies. So right now I have a “to do someday” list, house project ideas, and homework from the Blog Life e-course I’m working through.

I love this notebook so much you guys. The only drawback is that it’s not small. I debated on whether to get this size or the smaller one, and I went bigger because I wanted the room to write and I wanted to be able to easily put in 8.5×11 sheets of paper. But you could definitely do the same thing with a smaller size!

So what do you think? Do you do anything similar?