the Blog

Last week, we looked at the first four prompts located on the day spread of our Classic booklet. If you missed that post, it's worth a read, but here's a quick recap of the "why" behind these prompts:

We built these prompts around the best habit practices productivity gurus regularly write about, and we've seen huge benefits from using these prompts daily. When something feels off in our planning rhythm, it's often because we've let the habit of using these prompts slide. Using these prompts again and again and again and again each day will build initially small, but long-lasting habits around creating targets and goals, reflecting on your days, and pivoting where needed.

Today we're going to look at the final four: Self Care, Movement, Seasonal Goals & My Why.

You know at your core that developing strong habits can change your life. It's a beautiful vision. But actually re-crafting your lifestyle around your most life-giving priorities takes more effort than just knowing it's a good idea. We created our planner to deeply and consistently support you in this work.

We invested years of research into the development of a network of powerful prompts that have been proven to result in more intuitive and confident choices, a more effective approach to productivity, and a stronger growth mindset. We distilled them down to the essentials so that they could fit seamlessly into a healthy morning (or evening) rhythm. And we personally field-tested them for years. We have been reaping so many benefits from having organized minds and putting our personal growth cues on autopilot, and we are thrilled to get this game-changing system into the your hands.

Our planner has eight effective prompts, and in this post we are going to look at the first four: Targets, Gratitude, Lessons & Victories.

Have you ever gotten lost down the rabbit hole of artistic journaling layouts? We have always adored how customizable a blank notebook is, and a quick Pinterest search will show you the myriads of ways you can make it your own.

But for us, that level of creativity isn't always feasible. Art supply caddy or not, we have thoughts to organize and things to do! As much as we'd love to spend our time drawing and creating unique daily layouts, we needed something that met us when we woke up each morning and was immediately useable. So we built in some structure, but kept what we loved: that blank bullet space that can be used in solely practical ways (hello scratch notes I hope no one ever sees) or that can that become the canvas for your latest masterpiece.

Perhaps more than any other feature in our planner, the built-in dutch door layout is the most unique to the Evergreen planner system. It's widely used in the bullet journaling community, but we built ours seamlessly into the design and functionality of the Classic booklet.

When it came to designing our planner, a built-in dutch door was near the top of the “must have” list & here's why:

Have you ever made a great plan and it seemed perfect in every way (actionable, the right season, doable), but then you almost immediately went off plan? It’s not just you!

As we've said before, the Classic booklet is the muscle of the Evergreen Planner system. It is intuitively designed to help you plan your weeks, time-block your days, organize your thoughts, develop highly effective habits, and generally make space for the most important things in life. It is a way of planning that will grow with you as you hone your planning skills & planning rhythm. The way you use it in your first month will likely be entirely different than the way you use it 12 months in. 

Begin by folding or tearing the perforated edges of each day page of your current week. This creates the dutch door effect in the layout, and will allow you to see your week's agenda and your day spread at the same time. {pro-tip: folded/torn pages can be used for lists, scratch notes, given to kids for notes or paper chains, and easily recycled when no longer needed}

If you've spent anytime following us on Instagram or here on the blog, you know we spent YEARS hustling and dreaming about the day this planner system would get into YOUR hands. We get so excited with each new purchase, because we know the power of this planner system to help you craft an intentional lifestyle, day in and day out.

The Evergreen Planner doesn't just track everything you have to get done each day (though it does do a marvelous job of that). The Evergreen Planner was engineered as a daily companion that gets you focused to take action on those vital heart goals that keep throbbing at your core. And behind this gorgeous product is a movement of women who believe that goals like that are worth crafting a lifestyle to support.

But learning to plan is not just about having the right planning tools; a big part of being able to craft an intentional lifestyle is being able to make those tools work for you. This is what our new blog series is going to be all about.

​The R.O.O.T.E.D. Goal Setting System helps you to identify and reverse-engineer essentialist goals that bridge the gap between the future you want and the life you’re living right now.

Sustainable, Life-Giving Goals Are:

• Rooted in your core calling
• Organically growing out of your context 
• Outlined for clarity (part 1 & part 2)
• Tailored to your lifestyle 
• Etched into your memory (what we're talking about in this post)
• Developed by Providence

You had great plans and then...whelp, you don't know exactly what happened, but none of your targets for the day were accomplished. Your planner looks like a snapshot of someone else's ideas because it definitely wasn't the day you just lived.

You had great plans to make plans, but the baby was up all night so you missed your alarm. You threw a brief glance at your planner before you headed out the door, and now you're home again staring at a blank spread and wondering why you even tried to start using a day planner to begin with.

We've been there.

Have you ever had this experience? You dive deep into goal setting, chart out a strong schedule, and then start to work the plan. 

But then, dun, dun, dunnn. 

Life happens. 

And after several weeks, you start to realize a lot has changed since you laid your plans, and you’re really making only like 20% of the changes you’d planned to make!

This phenomenon is especially true for goal-oriented mamas. We might be as determined and diligent as the sky is blue, but our kids are always rolling into new phases of need, surprising us with the twists and turns of their own growth journeys, and presenting regular challenges to the best laid plans. 

So what’s the point of reverse-engineering goals and setting intentions? Why bother to sketch out your ideal day in a time-blocking planner if you know things will change?

Hey dear ones, today’s blog post is going to be a bit different! We’re coming at you with a personal update, since so much has happened in the lives of Team Evergreen this year! 

The first big adjustments came when McCauley moved out of her little white house—and Shelby moved into it! Fun fact: McCauley and Shelby actually used to share the master bedroom of that little white house as sisters before they each married! After their mom moved out, Shelby’s family lived in it for a few months, and then when they had to move a few hours away, McCauley’s family moved into it! Now that McCauley’s family has moved into their more long-term home, Shelby’s family was able to slide back into that darling little house that she felt they had to leave all too soon. 

So, yes, we’ve definitely been playing a bit of musical houses over here. 😉

The R.O.O.T.E.D. Goal Setting System helps you to identify and reverse-engineer essentialist goals that bridge the gap between the future you want and the life you’re living right now.

Sustainable, Life-Giving Goals Are:

• Rooted in your core calling
• Organically growing out of your context 
• Outlined for clarity (part 1 & part 2)
• Tailored to your lifestyle 
• Etched into your memory
• Developed by Providence (what we're talking about in this post)

How Can You Set Strong Goals When You Know You're Not in Control of Tomorrow?

The R.O.O.T.E.D. Goal Setting System helps you to identify and reverse-engineer essentialist goals that bridge the gap between the future you want and the life you’re living right now.

Sustainable, Life-Giving Goals Are:

• Rooted in your core calling
• Organically growing out of your context 
• Outlined for clarity (part 1 & part 2)
• Tailored to your lifestyle (what we're talking about in this post)
• Etched into your memory
  
• Developed by Providence

Story time.

When I was seven months pregnant with my first, I decided I wanted to be a work-at-home mom. My husband and I had been discussing all of our options, and I had been dabbling in the family business for a few months.