I was in my late 20s when I got my very first planner. It was a Franklin Planner (now Franklin Covey), and I still remember how important I felt being selected for the training, which included the planner. I was obsessed with the training, the trainer, the planner, the pen, the page finder, the catalog of additional supplies, everything.

We were given a box with a planner and planning system and taught how to organize our days, prioritize tasks, plan ahead, and somehow fit an entire life onto those little pages. I loved every single minute of that training. It couldn’t last long enough. I wondered how I had survived my twenty-something years without a planner and, certainly, a system. Where had this system been all my life??

Something about opening that planner box and seeing everything laid out in front of me clicked immediately. Beautiful pages for Appointments. Tasks. Notes. Goals. Things I needed to remember. Things I absolutely would not remember unless I wrote them down.

It all had a place. And once I learned the system, I was hooked. At first, I think I loved Franklin because it made me feel organized. I had GOALS! But then, I discovered the covers…That changed EVERYTHING.

Suddenly, my planner wasn’t just something I carried because I needed it. It could be beautiful. It could have a gorgeous leather cover. It could be an accessory. Something personal. Something that said a little bit about me before I ever opened it. And that was all it took.

The relationship had begun. I’ve had as many planner covers as shoes and bags (impossible to count). I’ve used different sizes, layouts, brands, inserts, notebooks, pens, stickers, tabs, and systems. My planning style has changed probably a hundred times - sometimes in a month. So has my life.

There were years when my planner was packed with work meetings, deadlines, school schedules, appointments, bills, and things that absolutely had to get done.

There were other years when it held dreams, ideas, lists, plans for the future, and things I was still trying to figure out. Sometimes it made me productive. Sometimes it just made me feel better. And sometimes, if we’re being truthful, I spent more time setting up the planner than actually doing the things I had carefully written inside it.

I suspect I’m not alone there. That first Franklin planner started something I certainly didn’t recognize at the time. I didn’t realize planners would become this entire world. I didn’t know there would someday be planner communities, beautiful inserts, sticker shops, dashboards, washi tape, decorative spreads, planner YouTube channels, Instagram accounts, and people happily discussing paper weight and pen bleed like these are perfectly normal dinner-table topics.

For some of us, planners stopped being just productivity tools a long time ago. They became part journal, part memory keeper, part creative outlet, part security blanket, and part promise to ourselves that maybe, just maybe, we can get our lives together this week. If not this week, certainly the next. We just need a plan.

It’s the people who design them. The people who make the stickers and inserts. The people who sit down at a kitchen table with coffee and map out their week. The journalers. The list makers. The stationery lovers. The people who have twelve pens beside them because each one has a different job.

It’s the rituals, the creativity, the products, the stories, and the community built around putting our lives on paper. And I wanted one place that celebrated all of it.

That is what I want BINDER Magazine to be. Not just a magazine about planners, but a magazine about the people, creators, ideas, products, habits, and stories that make up this wonderfully obsessive paper world.

A place to discover something new. A place to hear from the people creating the things we love to obsess over. A place to talk about why we plan, how we plan, and why something as simple as paper can mean so much to us.

In a way, BINDER feels like the next chapter of something that started all those years ago with that first Franklin planner. Mine started with Franklin. And even after all these years, seeing an old Franklin planner takes me right back to that first one. The pages. The system. That feeling of possibility when you opened to a fresh day.

You never forget your first. Franklin was mine. And planning has become one of the longest relationships of my life. I never learned how I got selected to attend that training, but it was one of my defining moments, and I’m so grateful I did.

What was your first planner?

Leave a comment

Subscribe now