Planner Bootcamp Day One

Envision Your Year

Welcome to Day 1 of Planner Bootcamp! 🎉 We’re so excited to start setting up our 2026-2027 Simplified Planners together. It’s much more fun pretending we are all in the same room, sharing stickers, and cheers-ing coffee, so for the next few days just know Planner Bootcamp is a positive space to connect with each other while building a foundation for your year. Give us a hi in the comments or in the chat and tell us where you’re setting up your planner! Don’t hesitate to ask questions along the way — you’ve got all of Team Simplified here reading comments and fielding questions.

Today is all about vision — setting the tone for the year ahead with intention and opportunity. A year without a vision is just a year that happens to you.

Before you fill in a single date, to-do, or task, we’re inviting you to pause. Dream a little. Ask yourself: What do I want this next season of life to look and feel like?

The Power of Goal Setting

Setting goals isn’t about hustling harder — it’s about deciding on purpose instead of drifting through your days. It’s the difference between letting the year happen to you and actually shaping it.

Even the small goals matter. Whether you’re saving toward a trip, working toward a promotion, or picking up a hobby just for fun, a goal gives your everyday effort somewhere to go. It’s proof you’re still moving, still growing!

How to Set Great Goals

A goal doesn’t need to be big or trackable to count. The ones worth keeping are the ones that actually sound like you — the person you’re becoming, not the person you think you should be.

Try framing them this way:

• What do I want to accomplish?

• How do I want to feel?

• What am I craving more (or less) of in my life?

If you’re not sure where to start, here are some ideas:

• “I want to read one book a month this year.”

• “I want to build a $3,000 emergency fund.”

• “I want to exercise in a way that I enjoy.”

• “I want to be more patient with my kids in the after-school rush.”

• “I want to try something new just because.”

You Don’t Have to Invent This Alone

Some of the best direction for your next season doesn’t come from inside your own head — it comes from watching someone else live in a way that makes you think, I want that. You can’t be what you can’t see, so go looking for it. Look for the person who changed careers later in life, the friend who took up an instrument as an adult, the stranger on your feed who started a small business from her kitchen table. Let them widen your sense of what’s possible.

Make Room for You

Somewhere between the school calendar, the work deadlines, and everyone else’s needs, it’s easy to forget that you’re allowed to want things too — things that have nothing to do with your job title or your role at home. A goal doesn’t have to serve anyone but you to be worth keeping.

This is your reminder: It’s okay to set a goal just because it sounds fun, or because you’re curious!

Try things like:

• Learn to needlepoint or play Mahjong.

• Write three sentences in a journal before bed.

• Read 10 books before December.

• Add a 2 minute run to your daily walk each week.

• Try a new recipe every Sunday, learn a new language, start a small herb garden — just because!

Success Looks Different In Every Season

There’s no single definition of “on track,” and comparing your season to someone else’s rarely tells you anything useful. A new grad building her first routine, a parent home with a newborn, someone deep in a demanding season at work — all three are moving forward, just toward different things, at different speeds.

Ask yourself:

1. What matters to me right now, in this specific season?

2. What small habits, done consistently, would move me forward?

3. What would it feel like to know I’m succeeding — by my own definition, not anyone else’s?

We asked our team: What are your personal and professional goals for the year ahead?

Emily: My goals this year are close to home. I want to find a new rhythm now that the kids are older — Brady starting to drive, the twins headed into middle school, everything shifting at once under one roof. I want to be the steady thing in the middle of all that change, the constant while everything else is new. And I want to find my joy again; somewhere in the last few years, hobbies became one more thing that got cut when the day ran long, and I miss having something that’s mine just because I like it, not because it produces anything. These matter right now because this is the season, not later, not when things calm down. My kids need to see that steady is possible even when life is loud and fast, and I need to remember I’m a whole person underneath all the mothering. My planner keeps it all visible so I can see the full shape of the season.

Brittany: Personally, I would love to create some down time for reading. I love to read so much, but it’s always the first thing to go in a busy season (looking at you, working mom summer). My brain needs a quiet, happy hobby to reconnect to. Professionally, I’m focused on helping our business grow and staying on track with all of the big projects and launches we have in the works. My planner is my lifeline to structure my days to be productive — and I love having a place to put pen to paper (and then cross items off the to-do list!).

Whitney: Personally, I’ve been on a major health journey since January — discovering gluten and soy allergies, along with hormone imbalances. Changing my diet has completely changed my life, energy, and creativity, so I’m currently training for a 5k and picking back up my creative hobbies. Professionally, I love the second half of the year. We’ll get prototypes and final samples for our 2027 products, make art for our licensing partners, and shoot content for next year’s launches. Sample season can get overwhelming with boxes upon boxes to look through, so I use my planner to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Dusty: This year, my goals are pretty personal: I want to spend more time walking and more time working on me. Slowing down, getting outside, and taking care of myself in a way that feels sustainable, not rushed. This season feels like a good time to reset — to focus on my health, my mindset, and creating routines that support how I want to feel each day. I use my planner to keep these goals visible in small, simple ways: I’ll write in walks like I would any other appointment and keep gentle reminders throughout the week.

Laura: I’m really looking forward to getting back into the groove of planning out my workouts once the school year starts up again. August means structure is back for me, and this is the area I want to focus on the most. Each Sunday, my workouts are going into my planner with a timestamp, just like everything else does.

Carly: My personal goals this year include being creative outside of my job. I love how much creative consistency I have here at Simplified, so I’m on a personal mission to explore different ways of being playfully creative that aren’t tied to my professional life. My planner will help me carve out purposeful time in the mornings and evenings for this, and create bucket list items — like “learn to sew” — for me to cross off.

Lindsey: Professionally, I’m working toward creating a better rhythm for all the different hats I wear. I tend to bounce between tasks throughout the day, but I want to give each area of my work real, focused attention. In my planner, I’m color-coding days around specific work themes so I know exactly where to give 100% of my energy. Personally, I’m working on my own Substack — it’s become a creative outlet I work on in the evenings, and it’s accidentally helped me spend a lot less time scrolling. I know my best work happens when I dedicate real time to it, so I’ll use my planner to make that time visible and hold myself accountable.

Liz: Both personally and professionally, I’m working on settling in. We’re finally getting into the swing of things with two kiddos, and I’m figuring out what our new routines look like in this season. I thrive on consistency and a schedule, and newborn life throws that out the window — but figuring out the new rhythm feels really good. Setting routines means I can show up as the best version of myself, for my family, and for my team.

And for our whole team, one goal that never changes: make planning your life easier and more joyful — one page at a time.

Let’s turn your dreams into plans!

Supplies you’ll need:

• Magazines (our faves: Real Simple, Magnolia, Travel + Leisure)

• Polaroids, old tickets, print-outs from your Pinterest boards

• Stickers, washi tape, craft paper, glue

• Or — just your planner and a pen

Start a vision board in the front of your planner, or grab a blank notebook you’ll keep all year. Cut, glue, doodle, or write out what your dream life looks and feels like. It doesn’t need to be neat. It just needs to be true to you!

Prefer something ready-made? Download and print our pre-made vision boards here, styled after this year’s planner patterns:

Berry Stripe

Blush Hydrangea

Carolina Trellis

Pineapple Charm

If crafting isn’t your thing, spend 10–15 minutes writing your goals in the notes section instead. Note where you are right now, and where you’d love to be by next August.

Then ...

Fill out your bucket list.

What do you want to experience this year? It can be as big as “See the Eiffel Tower” or as small as “Try the new taco place down the street.”

Tomorrow, we’re diving into the practical side: setting up your calendar and routines.

But today? Let yourself dream! Have fun with this. Vision shapes action.

Have questions for our team? Bring them to the chat — we’re here to help all week, and always. 💕