{"id":16743,"date":"2026-05-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=16743"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:29:08","slug":"paper-system-full-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/paper-system-full-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"My Paper System: Coming Full Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two and a half years ago, I abandoned<\/a> my one-notebook system and have been struggling<\/a> to perfect my paper system ever since. While I’ve had success<\/a> with my work and blog binders, figuring out my personal planning continues to evade me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t say I regret moving away from a single notebook. I enjoy the freedom I have with binders, and it’s been helpful to have my work stuff isolated. But I will freely admit to some serious annoyance with how much trouble I’ve had working out my personal planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I eventually<\/em> managed to accomplish all of my plans from my last paper system post<\/a>. My work binder is perfectly set up now. My blog binder is functioning well. The cat binder is a great resource for me and <\/em>our vets. The health binder is useful. My digital tracker is working well as a temporary data holder. The book binder? It’s a reading journal (notebook) now. A decorated<\/em> reading journal. And the personal binder? Well, it’s a notebook now, too, and it’s been a mess and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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This is the Love Spell A5 dotted notebook. Isn’t it gorgeous? I borrowed the photo from Archer & Olive’s blog post<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I started with a personal-sized binder with catchall calendars and all of my trackers, as I’d originally planned. It lasted a month. I just didn’t keep up with it. In the hope that having something pretty would make me want to use it more, I migrated to a beautiful notebook I had from Archer & Olive. I spent time figuring out everything necessary for the life gamification and included it in the notebook, too. That all crashed and burned. After two months, it was all basically untouched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a discussion with Jim, I had to admit to myself that I had forgotten my own advice<\/a> and fallen into a classic newbie trap \u2014 that I’d already succumbed to before \u2014 trying to do\/track too much. I’d truly<\/em> come full circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To correct that mistake, I’m:<\/p>\n\n\n\n