project/blog planner pages (free printable)

You may be surprised to read this, but my favorite knitting/craft tool actually is not a traditional crafting tool at all ... it's my planner! I know I'm not the only crafter who feels like they have attention-deficit disorder ... with Ravelry and an endless stream of books, magazines and online publications, we face a constant stream of new, shiny patterns calling "make me! make me!" wherever we turn. It's really hard for me to resist the lure of a new project ... so I typically alternate between periods of cast-on-itis and scrambling to finish some of the countless WIPs I have scattered around the house. But things this year have stayed more focused, and I have to credit my planner for that. I've found that I am sooo much more productive if I consciously think about what I want to achieve when I start each week. And if I devote a little time each day to a project, it's finished before I know it. Or even if I only devote one or two days a week to a long-term project! (just look at my Sunday's Stitches project for evidence of that!)

I've used planners for years to organize my school and work life, but this is the first year I've used one to tackle my current crafting projects and long-term crafting goals (and included in that is maintaining this blog, of course!). Since most planners are focused on managing daily schedules of meetings and appointments, I ended up creating a more project-based version. These have bigger boxes for listing tasks and planning for my projects, and smaller "days" where I can assign a task to each day if I like (like "write FO Friday blog post"). I tend to get stuck doing the little, mindless tasks and not leaving enough time for the bigger priorities--that's where the "top five to do" box comes in. It keeps me honest and visually reminds me of what the most important things I need to do are. Some months I'm more focused on one big project, and others I have multiple going ... so I made a couple of different versions. Feel free to download these and use them to organize your crafting life! They would work well for any project-based goals you may have--crafting, knitting, blogging, writing, whatever!

(click on the image to see larger, right click and "save as" to print and use!)