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I Have a Plan for 2021

I want to try to document more happiness this year

Brooke Ramey Nelson
5 min readJan 5, 2021
My 2021 planner has a “Starry Night” vibe. Photo: Author’s archives

I’ve never been much of a goal-setter. A list-maker? Yes. A person who thinks ahead? Of course. A calendar-keeper? When I need to remember dates, sure.

For some reason, both my girls are Planner People. They’ve got their stuff organized. They buy old-school paper planners every year and then do what I call “raising their profile” — decorating these stiff, formal, black-and-white day-timers with stickers, colored pencils and pastel markers.

Essentially, my girls glamorize their planners “within an inch of their lives”, as my Nana used to say, and then some. But all play and no work does not an organized human being make, taking the whole “planning” process to a new level. But my kids also write in those planners, keeping track of everything that can be kept track of, and are the most organized folks I know.

I think I soured on planners when I became a teacher.

From my perch in Room 215, I certainly had to plan or I’d lose my ever-freakin’ mind. My high school journos had classroom whiteboards upon which to scribble assignments and deadlines. I made monthly calendars for my AP Lang cherubs, supplemented with online assignments and resources.

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Brooke Ramey Nelson
Brooke Ramey Nelson

Written by Brooke Ramey Nelson

Native Texan & Mizzou Journalism grad. I’ve worked in newspapers, politics, PR & as a high school pubs adviser/AP English teacher. TOP WRITER?

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