Suddenly, it’s October! As we head into the last quarter of the year, I’ve had a real urge to get both my time and space organised and planned, and I’ve been using my Strickplaner to help me do it. Today, I thought I’d show you two features of the planner that help me stay on track and celebrate progress.

I’ve increasingly found myself using the Strickplaner’s Lists section. While the Strickplaner’s Weekview is great for keeping track of, well, weekly tasks, I’ve been using the Lists area to keep longer-term projects organised. For example, when I, ahem, did a bit of stocking of my fabric pantry, I started a list of all the sewing projects I have planned. I had a pleasant surprise the other day when I happened on the list and realised there were a few projects that could actually be checked off… and enough remaining to discourage me from any additional fabric shopping!

The Strickplaner includes half- as well as full-sheet lists which is very handy. We’ve been trying to accomplish some small jobs around the house, and I’m keeping track of those on a full page. Again, unlike with jobs in my weekly spread, I’m not constantly monitoring this list, but check in occasionally to tick off accomplished tasks and see what we might tackle next. There’s also an index at the beginning of the Lists & Notes section, so you can quickly see what Lists you have and where they are.

The other feature I’ve been enjoying using is the Quarterly Tracker, which is great for activities that you need or want to be doing very regularly. This month, I’m trying to make sure I take the lead on cooking dinner a few times a week, find a bit more time to read for pleasure, make some progress on two cardigan WIPs (including my Conviviality Cardi!) and exercise a bit more. For the first three, I simply tick if it’s something I’ve done on a given day. For exercise, I use letters to note what kind of exercise I’ve done … this month so far, I’ve only managed some long walks (W’s), but hopefully some Y’s and R’s (for yoga and runs) will start appearing soon.

The Quarterly Tracker is a great motivator … once I set it up for the month, the lure of being able to tick off just one more box definitely helps me when I’m trying to decide between, say, staying up to watch more mindless TV or heading to bed early with a book. But I think it’s also really nice tool for acknowledging and reminding yourself of what you are accomplishing. Since the tracker is simply about tracking frequency (rather than progress), even if you just manage a round of knitting on a busy day, you still get to celebrate that you found that bit of time for yourself and make a tick in your tracker.

If you’re looking to stay on track and organised for 2021, you’ll find Strickplaners + accessories over in the online shop. And if you’ve got any questions about Strickplaner and how Jen or I use it, do let us know in the comments. I’ve got my 2021 Planner sitting in my drawer ready to go … it won’t be too long until it’s time to start thinking about Big Goals for 2021!