Planner | Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass

I’m following Courtney from The Order of the Planner Stencils as she takes us through Soft Launch 2026! This is where we get our planners ready for the new year in slow steps, so we are not thrust into the new year with a blank page, feeling that we are already behind on Day 1.

The Order of the Planner Stencils YouTube Channel and link to the Soft Launch 2026 Playlist.

Courtney started this series about 3 weeks ago at this point, but I just had my 2026 planner delivered today, so I’m jumping in now and hoping to catch up!

(Quick note: I have a lot of links to vendors in this post. I don’t get any money from the links, but just sharing them in case you are interested in seeing the things I’m talking about or are interested in getting some for yourself.)

Evaluate Your 2025 Planners

The first question is how many planners are you using. Good question. I have been all over the place searching for that elusive “planner peace.” I like the idea of simplicity, but I find that if it’s not too engaging, then… I don’t engage with my planner and I miss things. However, if it is too complicated, I will not have enough time to keep up with it and – again – it just won’t work for me. I like making my weekly planner spreads look pretty, but often this requires me to back-plan in order to space everything out aesthetically. So, how do I balance functional planning with decorative planning?

For many years, I have had one planner solely dedicated to work and (at least) one for “everything else.” Frequently, I would copy my work events into my primary planner. Starting two years ago or so, I started only putting work items into my primary planner if they affected my life outside of work, E.g . if I had to do something off-hours or was on-call for the week, or if there was an event happening that would call me into the office. (Now that I primarily work from home, I have to prepare myself for the commute!)

I have been using a daily planner for work for quite some time, but this year, after religiously updating my work planner every day, I’ve found that I have been neglecting this habit and not using it as often. I don’t tend to have as many To Dos day-to-day, so a dedicated To Do list hasn’t been needed lately. For this reason, I’m thinking of ditching my daily work planner for 2026 and just using our company’s Outlook.

I’ve been fairly happy with my MakseLife planner for my primary weekly planner, but finding that I haven’t been using the goal-setting sections as much as I had thought. Also, I like the idea of having my weekly spreads back-to-back, instead of having the weekly goal sheets in between. So this year, I am switching back to using an Erin Condren vertical. And for the first time in my life, I’m selecting the neutral inside instead of the bold, colorful one (WHAT?! I know.) Since I use sticker kits every week, it’s just easier than trying to cover up a large, darkly colored hexagon cluster on the monthly spread, or have to change the color blocks in the weekly view.

One planner for 2026! Whoo!

Well, maybe not quite….

I’m still hoping to get married in 2026, so there’s the Wedding Planner that has been sitting on the shelf WAITING for a wedding date…. TBD. Pray for us!

Make a 2026 Wishlist

What do I need to make my planning game work? My first thought was that I have all the things I need already, but this isn’t quite true.

I will need monthly kits and weekly kits. I like the monthly kits to all match, so I probably want to get them from the same shop. Last year, I got them all from TheCoffeeMonsterzCo. For 2026, I might buy from PlannerKate or Krissyanne Designs.

I tried using a tracker last year to plan out which weekly kits I was going to use during the year, both to use up what I have and to avoid overbuying for a specific holiday or season. This worked more or less, but I’m interested to see how I can make this more efficient.

For my Bookworm Life planner, I will need date dots (since it is undated).

Make a 2026 Line-Up

EC Vertical Neutral Weekly Lifeplanner
EC Wedding Planner (hopefully!)
Bookworm Life Planner from PeanutButterTaco – As a note, the 2026 version of the BWL will be on sale starting October 14th on Etsy.
Junk Journal – Does this count? I put in here random memories, photos, and ephemera from my day-to-day.

I’m a “planner girl,” if you haven’t yet noticed from my other social media outlets. 🙂 I am deep in the weeds of it, using stickers and washi tape and the whole deal. I love it. It helps me organize my life, reflect on my life and how I’m spending my time, and has introduced me to an entire community of like-minded women – many of whom I have had a chance to meet in person recently at Geaux Wild (I swear, I will post the Geaux Wild stuff soon-ish).

I have a subscription to Design Pandemonium, which sends me a set of coordinating stickers every month. In the set, there’s always a sheet of “National Day” stickers. These tell you the unofficial, official holidays for random things. Like today, which is “Go Barefoot Day.”

I may not do this for every day, but I thought it might be cute to comment on them as they come up. Because I love random celebrations. 🙂

Go Barefoot Day is not a day that I will be celebrating. I hate going barefoot. And from my podiatrist friend, I’m told that it’s better if you protect your feet in socks and shoes. I don’t think my feet are cute, and I like socks. 🙂 So there you go!