No worries, I will not start the “looking back and ahead” series which you can read on almost every blog these days.
No, I have one specific area where I want to make some changes for 2018.
My event and travel planning!
You might have seen it on twitter and Instagram. I am on tour a lot. And I admit I was a bit overwhelmed this year once in a while. I had overlapping dates and events, forgot to calculate the travel to and from events which ended up in making tours around Germany. Thank the Gods for loyalty programs.
And while I was waiting in line at the post office some weeks back, something caught my eye and I thought back to a youtube video from Dominique Sachse where she shared that she has a monthly plan with all her events on her desk as a visible reminder.
What did I see? It was the yearly planner from Staedtler.
Quite simple, nothing fancy – but so helpful! This planner is actually laminated and it included a non-permanent marker, which makes it even more practical. I don’t have to strikethrough and tip-ex anymore. I can just wipe it off, when there are changes coming up.
I used the day today to put it out in front of me on the floor and started to plan my year 2018.
First things first – family birthdays. Those are important as an orientation. And then I added the events which I already know. And I immediately saw how helpful it is to see them all at once.
From the packaging I thought that the planner would include more than one marker in different colours, but it only had one black one.
Which means, the plan needs some finetuning as I want to use one extra colour for the following:
- online events like the #genchatDE which I host or the RootsTech (can’t make it this year)
- events I am interested in
- events I have already booked ticket, travel and hotel
- events I am booked for as a speaker or moderator
So just imagine the #genchatDE entries coloured in a bright blue. And I already see that I need a guest host again once in a while 🙂
And I also see that my Dad and I have to change plans for our trip to Tuscany in May as I will be in Berlin at the re:publica.
This planner is really just a small change but as mentioned above, a really helpful one.
I can see my whole year on one glance and with more entries coming, I’ll see where it will be too much and when I need to make the decision to NOT go to an event.
And now this good piece will go up against the wall – well, when my “office” will be done and ready – another thing that will change in 2018!
