I have only been part of the planner community since the beginning of the year and it has changed my life. I can not believe how much paper, glue, stickers and planner inserts have taken over everything. I think about it all the time. I can't wait to get things done so I can go into my magic room and create.

One of my weekly spreads in my Teresa Collins planner

This planner thing has allowed me to enter the scrapbooking world without a room full of stuff. I have a room full of yarn, I can not add a room full of scrapbook supplies. I am tracking my days which is keeping me much more organized and I am getting a lot more done. But, instead of just writing in a calendar, like I have done my entire life, I am adding color and stickers and doodles and washi tape. For reasons I can not really explain, this is making me so happy.

My home for all things planner is Instagram. I find it the easiest of the social media platforms to get a handle on. I was able to connect with others very quickly. I started with knitting peeps but know I have added lots of planner peeps. Search #hastags of subjects that interest you and start looking at pictures and follow those that look interesting to you. I started with #knitters and #ravelry and then added #planners #planneraddicts #plannernerds. You can go further down the rabbit hole by clicking #'s that people have put with their pictures. The rabbit whole on Instagram lead me to #30 day Challenges.

There are lots of challenges on Instagram. Most of them are some type of photo challenge. The most common one being a photo a day where you are given a prompt and you find a way to take a picture that represents that to you. I have tried a few of those but find that I have not kept them up for more the a week or so.

There are also non-photo challenges such as 30 day of planks, 30 days of squats, 30 day sugar detox, 30 day spring cleaning etc. I have tried some of the physical ones, like the planks. Again, I didn't do it for 30 days but I did get my plank to 1.5 min, which was fantastic. That is the thing about these challenges, even if you don't finish them, you are probably better off having started them.

"The Reset Girl". You can find her on , Instagram,  youtube and her website. — "The Reset Girl". You can find her on , Instagram, youtube and her website.

The planning community also has challenges. Photo challenges, list challenges, changing up your planner challenges. The end of last month Cori, "the reset girl", was finishing up a "30 day list" challenge and her lists where so darn cute that a lot of people started tracking them and wanted to also do a list challenge. So she decided to host "listers gotta list" for April . Ok, first lets pause a moment and think on how clever that name is........ that tells you something about the creativity of this women. We all fell, hook, line and sinker. Yup, even me.

It is taking me about 20-30 min. a day to create my lists.

As of day 9 #listersgottalist has over 13,000 posts. That is a lot of lists being made every day. Why do a list challenge?

They make you think about things you don't normally think about, which is interesting.
You get to decide how to decorate or not decorate your list. It is just one or two little pages, nothing too overwhelming.
I think it is the instant gratification that has me so giddy. Knitting is not instant gratification. There is really nothing I can start and complete in 20min.
As a group we are listing on Instagram and a private Facebook page just for people participating. Being able to see everyones else lists is amazing. So many people from all walks of life are posting. They are all on the same topic and they are all so very different.
What a great to learn a lot from so many people and spark your creativity.

If you haven't checked out Instagram yet, you should.

I am "marvelsofknitting" on Instagram. Come and say Hi!!