The Benefits of Using a Planner as a Dancer
By Gabrielle Lilly, Brown Girls Do Ballet Ambassador
Are you a dancer who enjoys goal-setting and lists, or are you preparing for a super busy performance audition season? If so, I have the perfect solution to help you get your busy life in order: a planner! I know what you’re probably asking yourself right now. Is a planner really for me? Keep reading to learn why I think you should grab yourself a planner today.
Buying a planner
There are so many different planners available! They come in different layouts and styles. If you need a planner that offers prompts, a guided option might be the choice for you. From leather-bound to completely digital, there is an option available to meet your wants. You can even purchase a mini-sized planner that easily fits in your dance bag!
There are several different companies that sell planners. Some popular ones include The Happy Planner, Cultivate What Matters, Panda Planner, Bloom Daily, and Erin Condren. There are also quite a few shops on Etsy that offer customizable planners you can print at home.
Keep in mind that every planner doesn’t work for everyone. Try out a few different styles and play around with a few layouts until you find one that works best for You! My planner of choice is a Disney Princess themed one from The Happy Planner.
Starting your planner
Whether you bought your planner at a store, you ordered it online, or it was given to you as a birthday gift, every planner starts out blank. It can be quite overwhelming at first - lots of empty space! You may be asking yourself, where do I even begin? I promise you, it’s not too difficult!
Start by breaking down the big chunks of time into smaller, more manageable parts. Instead of sitting down to figure out the whole year, start off by thinking about what you’d like to accomplish this month.
It can be anything! Maybe you want to land a clean double pirouette by the end of the month. Write that down! Perhaps you have to have new choreography prepared for an end of the month performance. Write that down too! You can’t have too many goals, but remember, this isn’t a race! You are free to modify your goals as you go.
Related: Renewing your Motivation to Achieve Goals
Once you get the hang of planning smaller goals, you can easily start mapping out a plan for larger goals. Let’s say it is September, and you plan on starting auditioning for summer intensives in January. You know that you have certain skills that you’d like to work on so that you are prepared. Your planner will make it easier to see what you need to accomplish each month so that you are on track for your big goal.
Decorating your planner
Once you’ve written down your stretching schedule, choreography notes, and all your Nutcracker rehearsals, it's time to start decorating your planner! This is the best part! Using stickers, decorative tape, stencils, and stamps, take this moment to get creative.
I am a big fan of stickers! All of the planner companies listed earlier have stickers specifically made for planner decorating (The Happy Planner Disney Princess stickers are a must have for me!) Any pack of stickers will do, just make sure you love them! Place them anywhere you want to in your planner. Include some words of encouragement, quotes, jokes, pictures, and more. Anything goes. Let the inside of your planner serve as your own little piece of happiness and motivation!
Why I love my planner
I’ve given you all these great reasons on why I think you should get a planner, but maybe you’re still not convinced. Through these 10 years of dancing, I’ve realized how crazy and unorganized things can be. Some days it feels like we’re just running around trying our best to get stuff done, but we never feel like we’ve actually accomplished anything. Having a planner can help with that.
Let’s say you’ve always wanted pointe shoes. Your teacher tells you that your ankles aren’t strong enough yet. That really stinks! You write about it in your planner, along with all of the stretches you need to be doing to strengthen your ankles. Months pass by, you’re still doing all of your exercises, and you continue to write them down. Then one day the wonderful and exciting news that you’ve been working so hard to hear finally happens! You can get your pointe shoes! You immediately record it in your planner, complete with stickers and confetti.
Related: 5 Ways to Reflect on Your Year
A few months later, you decide to look back over your planner, and you realize just how far you’ve come! To me, a planner is much more than simply writing what you ate for breakfast or your plan for tomorrow, it’s a story. It will record how much you’ve changed and grown in your dance journey. Looking back at those past dreams and goals can help inspire and motivate you to accomplish even more in the future!