Best Laid Plans

Latest Episodes:

10 Benefits of Planning That Have Nothing to Do With Productivity EP 244 Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

Some might think the purpose of planning is to get more done. That may be true in some cases, but there is so much more to the story than that. In this episode, Sarah shares 10 benefits of planning that have nothing to do from productivity, from stress reduction to anticipation to creativity to having more fun.

Other news:

BLP Live is open for registration!! Join Sarah and Laura Vanderkam in South Florida this November for 3 days of planning, reflection, relaxation, community, and fun. Visit theshubox.com/blplive for details!

Episode Sponsors:

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

IXL: Tailored and effective online learning (my kids have used this for years as part of their school curriculum)! Best Laid Plans listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com/PLANS.

Prose: Truly custom skincare and haircare. Visit prose.com/plans for 50% off your first haircare subscription order!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recovery Routine, New Planners, and Amazing Answers to the "Too Many Tabs!" Question EP 243 Mar 24, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Sarah shares an update on how her recovery is going in addition to some great wisdom on the idea of a "recovery routine" from a listener. Then, she shares a planner mini-review and new additions to her 2025 Stack:

- Full Focus Spiral-Bound

- Excello Essential Weekly + Monthly (https://excellobrands.com/calendar-year/essential-monthly-weekly-planner-7-x-9-cy-2025-frosted/ or via Amazon (search for ESSENTIAL 2025 Monthly & Weekly Planner with Tabs, 7"x9": 14 Months)

Then, she shares some fantastic listener-sent solutions for M, the listener stressed out by her many open browser tabs and "to be read later" intentions.

BLP Live: Planning 2026 (held in November 2025) is now open for registration - visit theshubox.com/blplive for details!!

Episode Sponsors:

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Planning Your Spring: Quintile 2 Planning Deep Dive Bonus Replay EP 242 Mar 17, 2025

Show notes

Sarah checks in + introduces the show. Then, the main part of the episode is a re-air from 2024. Sarah hopes it is helpful as we approach the spring season!

Sarah opens with a discussion of the idea of planner page as "outside observer" and how seeing her day laid out in physical form can help alleviate stress and provide some helpful objectivity. (She is curious if this is a familiar feeing for anyone else!).

In the main portion of the show, she provides a step by step planning guide for your Quintile 2, or spring season (fall for our Southern Hemisphere listeners!). From end-of-the-academic year activities to spring cleaning energy, she provides many useful prompts to think about and then encourages a thorough review of your annual and Season 1 goals. Happy spring planning!!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unexpected Things Happen: Sarah's Current Challenges EP 241 Mar 10, 2025

Show notes

A common question sent into BLP is about planning in the face of hard things or uncertainty. This episode is a raw/current one about some challenges Sarah is going through now and how she is going to try to handle them. Please note: this episode was recorded from a hospital room with no special mic so the sound quality might be a little different.

Episode Sponsors:

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

IXL: Tailored and effective online learning (my kids have used this for years as part of their school curriculum)! Best Laid Plans listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com/PLANS.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Intentional + Sisterly Planning with Azizi and Malika of the Happier Ladies! EP 240 Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

Today, Sarah has a really fun and conversational chat with Azizi Williams and Malika Amandi, otherwise known as the Happier Ladies! These sister started a podcast inspired by the work of Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft, and share a love for planning, experiments, goal setting, and accountability (to each other, as well as their listeners). Azizi and Malika share their favorite tools, planning rituals, and more.

Their podcast can be found here; https://happierladies.wixsite.com/mysite

Episode 60 + 61 (Festival of Planning!) is here: https://happierladies.wixsite.com/mysite/episodes/episode/6b09e00f/festival-of-planning-60 and https://happierladies.wixsite.com/mysite/episodes/episode/20b7dee1/festival-of-planning-part-2-61

Episode Sponsors:

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

February Q&A: Planning for the Family, Managing Goals Lists + Big Projects, Planning in Pregnancy, and Keeping Track of Things You Want to Read (Eventually) EP 239 Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Sarah answers questions accumulated in the month of February! Topics include:

- How do you deal with planning events for family members (ie camp, bday parties, etc!)

- How do I integrate goals lists into my planning when I feel like I have endless detailed lists dedicated to complicated projects?

(Nested Goals ep: https://theshubox.com/2024/01/episode-182-nested-goals-explained.html)

- Advice for planning in pregnancy + the postpartum period?

- How does Sarah use the calendar pages in the Hobonichi Weeks?

- How do you organize things "to be read" later that aren't books? (Magazine articles, journal articles, browser tabs, etc)?

- Where can I fit in my morning planning routine (working mom with a baby!)

- Notion Template mentioned by Malika: https://shop.muchelleb.com.au/collections/notion-templates

SPONSORS:

Prose: Custom skin and haircare that works! For an exclusive trial offer of 50% off your first haircare subscription order, visit prose.com/plans.

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top 10 Tools: Planning & Planning Adjacent Favorites EP 238 Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Sarah shares her top 10 (plus maybe a bonus!) Planning + Planning Adjacent Tools! For specific links, visit https://theshubox.com/organize!

1) Kokuyo Campus Notebooks

2) Uniball Jetstream Pens (0.5 and 0.38 size)

3) Zebra Mildliners in pastel colors - especially used to create little squares for checkboxes!

4) Apple's Screen Time App + Widget

5) Stalogy Short Sticky Notes (plus bonus mention: Midori Sticky Notes Monthly Block)

6) The Essential Calendar (Sarah is an affiliate, so you can use code BESTLAIDPLANS or visit https://www.theessentialcalendar.com/BESTLAIDPLANS for 10% off)

7) Apple Notes, especially for tracking travel docs and kid-related frequent reference

8) Strava to track running

9) Feedly for blog reading

10) Creating podcast playlists

11) Erin Condren Whiteboard (Custom Color Weekly Schedule Wall Organization Center)

SPONSORS:

Prose: Custom skin and haircare that works! For an exclusive trial offer of 50% off your first haircare subscription order, visit prose.com/plans.

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service – a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Morning Routines + Some Exciting News EP 237 Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

Today's episode is dedicated to all things morning routine! Sarah shares her own (in detail) and discusses all of the questions to ask yourself if you're looking to add a bit more to your mornings (or not!).

And, she shares some exciting book news -- Best Laid Plans: A Simple Planning System for Living a Live That You Love will be out in January 2026!!

Episode Sponsors:

Prose: Custom skin and haircare that works! For an exclusive trial offer of 50% off your first haircare subscription order, visit prose.com/plans.

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service - a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curating and Editing your Wardrobe with Stylist Gab Saper EP 236 Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

We all have to get dressed, right? This is just one more area rife for planning an organizing strategies, and stylist Gab Saper (aka The Wardrobe Editor) is here to deliver! She chats with Sarah about all things wardrobe curation and organization, and Sarah also gives a brief update on recent organizing wins in her closet!

Ways to find and connect with Gab:

Website: https://wardrobeeditor.com

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/wardrobeeditor/

Free guide: https://wardrobeeditor.myflodesk.com/hotagain

Episode Sponsors:

Prose: Custom skin and haircare that works! For an exclusive trial offer of 50% off your first haircare subscription order, visit prose.com/plans.

Green Chef: Thrive all year with clean, easy meals from Green Chef. Visit greenchef.com/bestlaidfree and use code bestlaidfree for free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

PrepDish: Convenient meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists to reduce your weekly mental load! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE

Mint Mobile: Low-cost wireless phone service - a great way to save every single month! Learn more at mintmobile.com/BLP

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

January Q&A: Google-Centered Planner Peace, Commonplace Books, Storing Yearly Goals, Planner Display Options, and Can You Skip Planning and Goal-Setting for a Season? EP 235 Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

In today's monthly Q&A ep, Sarah shares a Planner Peace vignette, 2 stationery shop recs, and answers 4 listener questions:

Planner Peace comes from a healthcare provider who has cut her documentation time in half after reflecting and listening to Sarah's Efficiency Tips ep. She uses Google products for almost everything, plus a daily paper planner (filled out fresh each day, referring to her digital lists!) for her schedule and tasks.

Stationery shop recs: Both in Chicago: Atlas Stationers and Paper and Pencil.

Question topics:

1) Recommendations for Commonplace Books?

2) Where should I keep my annual goals (from a Full Focus user)?

3) Planner wall storage ideas for messy areas (kitchen!)?

(She ended up going with this one: https://www.containerstore.com/s/office/message-boards-accessories/perch-wally-wall-plate/12d?productId=11001724 )

4) Have you ever intentionally stepped away from planning for a time or season? (And if so - how does it work within the Nested Goals framework)?

Episode Sponsors:

Green Chef: The #1 Meal Kit for Eating Well! Visit greenchef.com/plansfree and use code plansfree to get started with free salads for 2 months plus 50% off your first box!

IXL: Make an impact on your child's learning with IXL. Visit IXL.com/PLANS to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.

Mint Mobile: Amazingly affordable wireless service! Check out their new customer offer with 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 dollars a month by visiting mintmobile.com/blp

PrepDish: Convenient, healthy, and delicious meal plans sent directly to your inbox! Visit prepdish.com/plans for your first two weeks FREE!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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