Why I Broke Up with My Paper Planner and How it Totally Changed Our Business
Abagail here. I love paper. The smell of fresh ink on a hot sheet of paper makes me feel giddy. This shouldn’t be such a surprising phenomenon considering my background in design, but I have a confession to make.
I’ve broken up with paper.
Gone are the days of endless stacks of Post-it notes, forgetting which notebook contained what set of notes from which meeting, and constantly worrying that I would forget (or even lose) my to-do list.
See, paper only got me so far in life. I lived and breathed off my paper planner in high school and college. It was how I managed to get to every class and track homework assignments.
Then life happened. Like, instead of just managing the same 5 or 7 things every day, I had to manage dentist appointments that only happened once every six months, lunch with my girlfriends, and all things Junior League.
My paper planner just wasn’t working for me anymore.
So, like anyone else on the face of the planet, I just started trying #allthethings. I downloaded every app under the sun. I started integrating my calendar with my phone — and even synced it with my husband’s phone.
Some things started to work — I stopped forgetting appointments. But when I started my own business, and then later joined forces with Emylee, what was once organized chaos — now wasn’t. It was just pure and utter chaos.
Now, I am an organized person. All my socks match. My closet is color coded. And my files (the dumb ones I have to keep for taxes) are nicely put in their place. But our business was in desperate need of a system that worked — like a central command center (cue Star Trek Voyager music playing in the background).
Sure, we could manage a small task list, but when trying to manage multiple launches, create new products and be rockstar online marketers, I knew we needed a better system.
Enter Trello.
Easily my favorite tool on the planet.
Out of the box it looks like just about every other organizational tool on the market, but the secret sauce was finding what worked and making a system that just functioned.
What once was a #hotmess express of a business (like, no joke, not sure how we used to make money!) is now a machine. A well-oiled one, in fact. Where everything has its place and is truly always at our fingertips.
Here’s what my paper planner was missing:
Systems, Checklists and Workflows — so we could cut down on time spent on things we were always doing (over and over again).
Brain Space — we LOVE to brainstorm over here and we always felt like we were running out of room on those cute little lined pages.
Drag and Drop-ability — we can easily change our minds and rearrange daily tasks as life happens and we can still manage to get it all done without major eraser marks or crossing anything out.
Include Others — as a two person team, we needed the ability to be able to share everything and with a paper planner it always felt like hoarding. Now we choose who we share with and what info they have access to. So our husbands have access to Home Base, but our VA only sees the blog workflow.
Easily Reference #AllTheThings — it’s one thing to centralize notes, but having the ability to literally attach ANYTHING to the cards has been game changer — photos for inspiration, design files, Google Docs, videos and more.
Be Everywhere and Yet Somehow Nowhere — the day you forget your paper planner at home is the day you sulk — HOW WILL YOU SURVIVE?! But with Trello we have access to everything from anywhere — any electronic device with internet access and boom. And yet we don’t have to physically remember to carry anything with us — it’s just there all the time whenever we need access.
As your friends and fearless leaders we could just give you access to Trello and watch you try it and, like every other app, forget about it in just a few short days or weeks. So instead, we are going to walk you through Trello, every step of the way, so you can start implementing change TODAY and start seeing results TOMORROW. You absolutely do not want to wait any longer to get organized and stay organized.
Don’t wait like Alyssa:
“Good morning, ladies!
Just want to drop a note for you this rainy Michigan morning. I purchased your Trello course this summer, and have JUST NOW copied the boards over and am getting organized. (WHATTT?!?! Why did I not do this sooner!>>?!>?!?!>!>)
Holy. crap.
These boards are incredible, life changing, motivating, brain clearing amazingness. (and I haven’t even watched all of the videos yet!!!!!)
Thank you for doing so much leg work for me (copying boards is insanely easy and helpful) and for including SO MUCH strategic information. This isn’t just an organizing course - this is a BUSINESS STRATEGY course disguised as a Trello tutorial.
You’re amazing. May your coffee be extra hot this morning. Cheers to you!
xoxo,
Alyssa”