Hi, I'm Monica Packer and you're listening to About Progress, where we are about

progress made practical.

During the winter holiday break, I took a break from a few habits. It was mostly a shift,

like I didn't have to wake up at the same early hour or exercise in the same way because my kids were getting up later.

But other habits totally went on the back burner.

I simply needed a break from them, like meal planning, day planning, some personal journaling.

And that was all well and good.

We have ebbs and flows with their

habits. If they're there to support us, then it's okay if we don't do them the same way day in and day

out. But in a span of just 24 hours, I forgot about two important things. One, a church activity for

one of my kids who was really excited to attend, and then second, a piano

lesson. And both of these things were totally on my online calendar on my iPhone, but they weren't on my

day planner because I wasn't day planning. Forgetting about those two events reminded me why I day plan.

When we think of day planning, I think a lot of us

envision someone who is super regimented and disciplined in type A. I am none of those things.

And yet I love to day plan. I day plan not because I am naturally good at or even like the process.

I day plan because I appreciate the results.

I haven't always been a day planner. I've had a volatile relationship with day planning in the

past from when I was an overachieving perfectionist who was time blocking every second of my time

lived and died by my planner, to being someone who didn't plan all for years and years.

Day planning was a habit I gradually picked up over the last few years.

And while I took a break from it in 2023, I reprioritized it in 2024 after I was out of my survival year of having a newborn.

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