Functional Plan With Me [September 2021]

One of the things I love to do is plan and I will freely admit I like the “planning” more than the “doing”. I also like watching “Plan with Me” videos on Youtube – but they tend to focus on the aesthetics more than the real … so here’s how I do it … did it for September 2021.

Planner Essentials

  • Large Monthly Calendar (like this one) on our fridge – all trips and appointments for home and family members.
  • Dot Grid Moleskine – My personal planner / bullet journal used for work and personal. I just started using towards the end of August after switching from a traditional planner.
  • Pilot G2 0.38 Ultra Fine Pen – been using this forever
  • Midliner markers – I use the grey one primarily for every title in my Moleskine, and the other colors as accents occasionally
  • Ruler (7 inch) – I’ve had this one laying around forever – otherwise I would use a 6 inch since it would fit more easily in my pen case.

September Appointments, Holidays & Events

Holidays in September-> Labor Day (Sep. 06) + Vacation Days during our trip to Jamaica. As I mentioned above, we use a large monthly calendar that’s kept on our refrigerator as the central calendar hub for family appointments and trips. For September

  • Trip to Jamaica
  • Doctors appointment for the hubs

I also have a “Future Log” in my Moleskine for July – December and all my planned trips (for work and personal) goes here.

More appointments usually get added during the month – but this monthly check-in is always a good reminder to put anything that needs to go on the calendar – either in the coming month or upcoming.

Blog Planning

I have been absolutely rubbish at blogging this year, but I’m fighting to make my way back. With a few other interests taking up my time, it looks like really planning ahead is essential. This doesn’t necessarily take place in 1-day, but over the course of a few days before the beginning of the month. My goals / what I did …

  • Finish planning out blog posts for Monday, Wednesday, Friday posts for September AND October on our Evernote calendar (here’s how we use Evernote as a blogging calendar). We have a very simple system where either of us can add a topic to a day – and we color code it to indicate who is to write the topic – Kim, myself or both of us will contribute.
  • Start writing and scheduling my posts for this week and next.
  • Read through our GXO Goodreads Reading Challenges Group.
  • Updated it with books I finished for August challenges …
    • Finished The Magician’s Diary, C.J. Archer for the August Motif.
  • Set up the September Challenge posts … and future months through the end of 2021.
  • Updated the 2021 Book Awards Calendar with links to award winners over the past months and added in new dates for the rest of the year.

September Reading Plans

I need to choose the books I’ll be reading for the 3 reading challenges that we host – and I went ahead and made a TBR “collection” page in my bullet journal so I can remember the order in which I need to read these books (why haven’t I been doing this all along?!)

Reading Events in September -> R.I.P XVI (Readers Imbibing Peril)

Kim already has her Spooky Season TBR List and I need to put one together too.

TBD – Order The Sundial, Shirley Jackson for Peril of the Group Read (which starts in October)

HOME

September is the month to plan for our front yard Halloween display. Last year I had a skeleton “BBQ” and a “Off to be Buried” theme and in looking through my Halloween Outside Decor Pinterest Board for ideas, I think I’m going to expand on the”Buried” theme and finally attempt to do skeletons climbing the house.

Halloween Skeleton BBQ

Halloween Half Skeleton

I’m definitely going to need a few more skeletons (last year they all sold out quickly) – so for my monthly planning, I make a Halloween Prep collection page in my bullet journal and write out my ideas. I’ll go back in later in the month and write on the opposite page any items I need.

$$$ – MONEY

As usual, every month, I double check my pay days, and go through any CC bills and payment amounts and dates.

September – Unfortunately, we have had quite a few expenses the last few months, so while we went to zero CC debt earlier this year – they are back! So time to reign ourselves in.

TBD – consolidate all CC into 1 with a 0% balance transfer offer (12 months). No MAJOR purchases until around Thanksgiving when Christmas presents will be bought.

Exercise | Workouts | Fitness

Since we’re traveling for most of the month, I’m not participating in any fitness challenges – I use these as a way to motivate myself to be consistent with workouts. I’ll run on the treadmill when I can, but not going to stress anything that doesn’t happen. Zwift Academy Road (cycling) starts this month and doesn’t end until Oct. 24th so I’m hoping I can still participate when I get back to the US.

TBD – Schedule Zwift Academy workouts closer to my return date.

Work

This is best planned weekly, but there are some monthly things that need to be done. I keep a monthly running list in my bullet journal for work (and personal) tasks – so I create a new page for September, add all those “TBD” above, and migrate anything from August that didn’t get done.


And that’s it for planning for September. See more of this type in our Plan with Me section.

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// Comments //

  1. I’m a planner, a list maker, a resolution writer. I like your system.

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