It’s a shake up this year, and it’s taking a little bit to get used to.
Let’s start from the beginning.
The first planner that I remember (and I was responsible for…aka, not grade school) was given to me free in my Sophomore year of college.
It was as bad as you can imagine. Terrible paper, cheesy pictures, and random motivational quotes.
Despite this, I experienced my first feeling of planner glee: ✨
♥️ Taking each class syllabus and mapping it out in my planner. I used high lighters to differentiate between assignments and exams. 🤤
I was hooked.
I didn’t use my college planners for much else besides school (and concerts, apparently). Major holiday plans or events would occasionally make their way into there, but I didn’t start using a planner more comprehensively until2014.
I’d always get my planners from Office Depot or Target. I had ZERO idea that there was a larger planner world outside of these stores. Until I saw a segment on something-like Good Morning America about Angelia Trinidad and her story about starting Passion Planner.
I was transfixed.
There’s people out there like me! I bought one right away. I think - I can’t remember if it was still in its crowdfunding days or if it was available to buy right away. Either way, I got one as soon as I could.
Passion Planner was wonderful. I still recommend it to people, especially those in their 20s. It served for me for a couple of years before life got real. It even walked with me during the impossible years ahead.
If you’ve been around for a while, you know the story. In case you haven’t, I’ll keep it abbreviated: I had my first baby in February 2016. It was hard, I’m not going to sugar coat it. I was super independent and introverted, and then I had to navigate a brand new life: one with this tiny wailing thing at my side 24/7 with little reprieve. You mean I can never just run to Target alone ever again?! Don’t worry naive little mama, you have plenty of solo Target trips ahead of you.
5 months later, my dad was formally diagnosed with ALS. It took months to get to this diagnosis because you first have to rule everything else out. I will never forget that phone call from my dad as long as I live. That day, and the day he died 2-years later, are two of the worst days I’ve lived through to date.
Within these two years, I navigated going back to work, moving into another rental house, and then buying a house and moving again. Actually, all that happened in the first year of my daughter’s life, but whose counting?
All to say, my Passion Planner didn’t make sense anymore. There was very little passion happening…more surviving. But one thing I was uber grateful for: the monthly reflection questions. In the blur of those two years, I can still go back see what was going on, who were the amazing people who held me during that time, and relive the first years of my daughter’s life, and the last year’s of my dad’s life.
I tried out a couple more planners after this time. They were good but not quite right. So in the meantime, I was designing my own planner from the lessons I learned, and the one I needed during this time.
Thus was born the Weekly Sprouted Planner. I used this weekly layout for 3-years while I was both staying home with my kids (I quit my job at 3M after I had my second baby) and building Sprouted Planner during nap times.
Once the business took off a little more, and the kids started school, I moved into the Daily Sprouted Planner and have been using that for the last 2 years. I absolutely loved it, and I still do. But here’s the thing...I’m still a SAHM first and foremost, and there are huge chunks of time in which a daily planner doesn’t make sense in my life. Namely, summers for 3 months, Christmas break, and all the other random week-long breaks.
On top of physical timing, I'm also craving more streamlined and simple operations. More simple focuses in my business, and more repeatable systems in my home. I don’t need a 15-item list of to-dos in the day anymore. Nay, I don’twant them right now. I want to be able to flex more (looking at you, snow/ice days, sick days, and I-cannot-focus-for-the-life-of-me days).
I considered going back to the Weekly Sprouted Planner. Great option. However, I really loved mapping out my day on a time schedule.It gave me a good visual of how much time things took, and I could hold myself accountable by tracking my time on days I wanted to. But, I wanted a weekly checklist, and not a daily one. Well duh, this is why I made the Hourly Planner. If the daily and weekly planner had a baby, it would be the hourly planner. This gives me my hourly schedule (and side-by-side across the week! Just like a Google calendar - eep!), and a weekly to-do list, while giving a little bit of space each day for the gotta-do-this-today tasks. Jackpot.
My 2026 Planner Stack
At last, one novel later, we come to my actual planner stack for the year. Here’s the condensed list, and then I’ll expand on each one.
2026 Hourly Sprouted Planner
This is my very first time in our Hourly Planner. Actually, this is everyone's first time the Hourly Sprouted Planner - this version anyway, but that’s a different story for a different day.
I’m not going to lie, it is taking some getting used to. It’s bigger than I’m used to, and it’s not coiled, so I can’t keep it cutely and compactly open in the same amount of space the Daily Planner used. I’m also getting used to how to use the daily spaces on the top and bottom. I’m confident I’ll get in a rhythm.
What I do love is mapping out the week! For example, I drop my kids off at school and pick them up at the same time everyday, so I just highlight out those half-hour times across the week (Monday - Friday). Then I have an instant visual of my workdays and how much time I have within each day and around each appointment.
I love naming what HAS to get done on the day ahead, and then getting to pick and choose which task to work on depending on how the day is going, my energy level, etc.
Reflection Booklet
New to Sprouted Planner [this year] is the reflection booklet that comes with the planners. In all previous years, the monthly and year reflections was a part of the planner after each month. For a myriad of reasons, I removed this into its own little booklet. This will allow me to have the most precious memory booklet from the year. It will also allow me to lovingly toss my planner after the year is up. I have never done this before! But I’m running out of space to keep my planners, and all the key dates + memories will be kept safe in the booklet.
5-Year Journal
One thing I lost from the Daily Planner is a place to reflect on the day. I got into this practice and have loved jotting down a few sentences everyday. To solve this, I bought a 5-year journal from Un/Bound. I'm 11 days in, and so far so good. Having 5-years of memories in one compact book is going to be priceless.
To beat a dead horse (terrible saying, by the way), having these daily reflections will even further allow me to throw out my planner at the end of the year, even if I do shed a tear about it.
Monthly Sprouted Planner
Next in the line-up is purely for business. I use the Monthly Sprouted Planner for all things content: blogs, YouTube videos, emails, etc.
I heavily rely on color coding to differentiate each one, and lay it out on the month depending on when I want things to hit. Sometimes I plan in the margin and then fill in when I actually get the things published/sent.
Since there are blank, lined pages in between each month, I use those to brainstorm content topics for the month ahead.
It’s bare-boned but it works! I’ve tried setting up elaborate Google doc spreadsheets before and I just never referenced them. Give me paper or give me death!
Giant Wall Calendar
Lastly, I also use the Giant Wall Calendar. It’s mostly for business, but I also put some personal anchors on there. It’s such a helpful tool to map out the year. Does it always go to plan? Heck no, but where there is no vision, the people perish.
The biggest thing this helps with is launch dates, and what key milestones need to happen to meet those launch dates. It also helps with me plan out the summer with my kids, including summer camp weeks and times we can take vacation as a family.
I’ve posted an entire blog on this giant wall calendar - how to get it, have it printed, and how to plan on it. You can find that here.
Other Random Calendars
There are a couple more straggler calendars I use. There is a 12x12 calendar I use for our family calendar within our Command Center. Let’s be honest, this is basically just for my husband. I include only things that are relevant to him and our family: kid’s sports stuff, weekend happenings, if I’m out for a night (rarely), etc.
My kids are starting to look at it as well, so I do include when they have school off, and decorate holidays.
Lastly, I use my personal gmail calendar for finances. I put all our recurring bills as tasks, which is an easy reference for my weekly budgeting (which I do on paper using my own design).
That’s all she wrote! There’s my planner stack for 2026. I am absolutely not someone who switches planners or systems throughout the year, so this will be set in stone until next year. I see no reason that I’ll switch it up for 2027 but only time will tell.
I made a video of my planner stack! You can watch that here and comment on what your planner/planner stack is this year.
