left-brain, right-brain

I am so "left brain."  I think I used to be more "right brain"~I used to write poetry and stories and doodle, play guitar and sing, dance ballet, jazz and tap.  My favorite classes were English and journalism.  But because of the kind of work I do, the left brain took over.  I enjoy scrapbooking, which supposedly uses the other side of my brain.  I like to write but am definitely not a creative writer.  I think I used to be a lot more witty!  My journaling on a scrapbook page tends to be very who-what-when-where-why-how rather than about emotions and is definitely not very clever or interesting.

It's the time of year that I usually order my Franklin Planner refill for the new year.  I have been using Franklin planners since 1992, when they had a store on Kona Street.  Before that I used Dayrunner or various other planning systems.  I've had calendars to keep track of stuff since intermediate school.  I like having everything in one place, calendar, to-do list, important info.  I also use the space in the planner for journaling, which has been helping me keep up-to-date in my Five Year Journal.  I try to write (and blog) not just to keep track of things but also to exercise the right side of my brain.

When I had a Palm Pilot for the first time, I tried to get off of paper planners and kept all of my calendar and contacts and to-do lists electronically.  I had a separate notebook for meeting notes.  But I really missed having paper for writing out plans and I definitely didn't journal as much, maybe just typed out rants in a Word document when I really needed to get things off my chest.  I was also disappointed when I found out that if I checked off something on my to-do list, it deleted off the Palm and I lost the record of that task.

These are the planning pages I was going to order: a place for appointments, list of to-do things that can be prioritized and checked off when completed (totally Franklin method), and large space for notes.  I was going to select a new style that didn't have all the separate areas labeled but felt insecure about having that freedom :).

I've really been longing to change to something more unstructured.  I found this Traveler's Notebook from Baum-Kuchen with lots of blank pages.  It still has the same idea of keeping all important info in one place, but in a less structured way.  You can get lines or grids, but a lot of people use it to sketch or just jot ideas.

I keep going back and forth on this.  Tonight I was all set to order the Franklin planner refill but the website was down and wouldn't let me order anything.  So I went back to looking at the Traveler's notebook and Moleskine notebooks and planners, so maybe I might go that route.  I like the fact that it's more portable too and can fit in my purse.  

So sad, I don't even know how to doodle anymore.  I had a blank page but couldn't even figure out what to draw or write!

I know, real big problems!  Government is still shut down, people are furloughed, war widows are not getting their death benefits, and I am wondering what kind of planner to get.