And Sticking to My Spiral Notebook & Sharpie
It’s official: Planner Season is here.
My feeds are filled with gorgeous leather-bound organizers, shiny gold coils, and pristine monthly spreads promising ultimate productivity. And every year, the siren song gets me. I buy the planner. I tell myself, This is it. This is the year I become a wildly organized human who color-codes their life.
I open it up, fill out Week One with pure ambition… and by Week Two, it’s sitting on the corner of my desk collecting dust, quietly judging me with its empty grids.
If you have ADHD (or just a brain that rebels against rigid structure), you probably know this cycle all too well.
So this year, I’m saving my money and forgiving myself. I’m sticking with what actually works: a simple spiral notebook and a bold Sharpie.
The Hidden Power of Low-Friction Planning
For a long time, I thought abandoning traditional planners was a personal failure—a lack of discipline. But the truth is, traditional planners require massive cognitive overhead. They force you to adapt to their systems (time blocks, monthly goals, habit trackers), which creates visual clutter and decision fatigue before you’ve even started working.
My trusty spiral notebook works because it is zero friction.
- The Sharpie Factor: There is something deeply satisfying—and visually unmissable—about crossing off a task in thick, colored ink. It gives my brain that instant hit of dopamine it needs to keep going.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A dated planner constantly reminds you of everything you didn’t do yesterday and everything you have to do next Thursday. A notebook page lets you focus entirely on the present moment.
- Pure Flexibility: Some days I need a long, chaotic list. Other days I need one big focal point. A blank page lets me meet my brain where it’s at today, not where a calendar template thinks I should be.
Small Bets, Micro-Steps, and “Bunnies”
If you’ve followed my journey for a bit, you know I love building small-bet businesses—testing ideas, launching agile projects, and seeing what takes off.
In the digital product and online business world, there’s a fantastic analogy popularized by Elizabeth Goddard about “bunnies.” The idea is that instead of trying to build a massive, overwhelming empire overnight, you continuously build small things, let them multiply, and iterate on what you’ve already created. You make continuous, micro-improvements.
A traditional 12-month planner isn’t built for “bunny steps.” It forces big-picture, long-term rigidity.
A spiral notebook, on the other hand, is built for rapid, iterative execution. I take one aspect of a project or small bet at a time, write down the immediate next step, hit it with my Sharpie, and nudge the business forward.
How to Make the Notebook System Work for You
If you want to ditch the planner guilt and lean into a notebook system, here is how I keep mine moving without it turning into a mess:
- Focus on Next Steps, Not Grand Master Plans: Don’t write “Launch new product.” Write “Draft 3 email bullet points.” Keep the steps so small they feel effortless to cross off.
- Embrace the Running Stream: When a page is full, flip to the next one. Draw a line under yesterday, put today’s date, and start listing. No wasted space, no blank-calendar guilt.
- Keep an Index at the Front: Reserve page 1 for a simple index. If you draft ideas for a new small bet on Page 12, just jot “Page 12: Funnel Idea” on your index page. Organized, but completely unstructured.
Work With Your Brain, Not Against It
If traditional planners bring you joy and keep your life running—amazing! Keep doing what works.
But if you’re trapped in the cycle of buying gorgeous planners only to abandon them by mid-January, take this as your permission slip to stop fighting your brain.
Buy yourself a fresh, high-quality spiral notebook and a brand-new pack of Sharpies instead. Focus on nudging your small bets forward, one single “bunny step” at a time.