Planning That Nourishes: Why Your Planner Should Honour Your Seasons, Your Soul, and Your Energy
I want you to pause for a moment and picture this.
It’s Monday morning. You’re sitting at your desk, a fresh cup of tea or coffee beside you, and you open up your planner or digital calendar, ready to organise your week.
What’s the first feeling that arises when you flip open those pages or tap into your screen?
For many of us, it isn’t excitement. It isn’t inspiration. It’s rarely a sense of spacious possibility. More often, it’s simply functional — a list of appointments, deadlines, meetings, and tasks that must be ticked off to keep life running smoothly. It works, in a way. You’ll know where you need to be, what needs doing, and when. But that kind of planning rarely moves deeper than the surface.
It tells us what to do, but not who we’re becoming.
It shows us what we’re committed to, but not what we’re longing for.
It tracks time, but not energy.
It organises productivity, but rarely leaves room for joy, intuition, or rest.
And perhaps this is why, deep down, so many of us feel a quiet resistance to planning. We sense that something is missing.
Why Traditional Planners Don’t Work for a Seasonal Soul
The truth is, most planners were created in service of productivity culture. They assume that you’ll show up every day at the same capacity, ready to output at the same rate, with the same enthusiasm, clarity, and energy.
But as humans, we are anything but linear. We are cyclical beings, shaped by seasons, the Moon, the rise and fall of our own inner tides. To expect ourselves to wake up each day with the same energy is not just unrealistic — it’s exhausting.
And yet we keep buying the same kinds of planners. Year after year, we’re sold new layouts, new covers, new productivity “systems.” They promise to help us do more, fit more in, tick more boxes. And while there’s a brief rush of possibility in the fresh start, eventually the same old frustration sets in. The planner becomes another place where we measure ourselves against impossible standards, another quiet reminder that we can’t keep up with the pace we’re expected to sustain.
But perhaps it isn’t you that’s the problem. Perhaps it’s the planner.
What We Really Long For When We Plan
Beneath the surface of productivity, there’s a deeper longing. Most of us don’t just want to know what is happening in our week — we want to know why it matters. We want to feel that our days belong to something larger than errands and inboxes.
We want our days to feel connected to the turning of the Earth beneath our feet. We want to live in relationship with the seasons, the cycles of the Moon, the way nature reminds us that there is a time to rise and a time to rest.
We crave planning that honours not just what we do, but who we are becoming. Not just where we need to be, but how we want to feel. Not just what we’re carrying on our shoulders, but what we’re ready to set down and release.
Because your life is more than a collection of appointments. It is a story, unfolding. A tapestry of growth, change, joy, and reflection. And when your planning reflects this truth, something inside you softens. Planning no longer feels like a chore — it becomes a ritual.
This longing — this deep hunger for meaning, rhythm, and presence — is what led me to create my own seasonal planner.
Planning as a Ritual
When you shift your perspective in this way, planning becomes something entirely new. It becomes a ritual. A sacred practice of aligning your outer commitments with your inner truth.
Instead of rushing into Monday with resistance, you might light a candle, pour your tea, and open your planner with reverence. You might see not just deadlines, but opportunities to embody your values. Not just meetings, but spaces where your energy will be shared. Not just tasks, but choices that move you closer to what matters most.
And perhaps most importantly — you might see where there is space for rest, for joy, for being as well as doing.
This is what I believe planning was always meant to be: not a tool that demands you squeeze yourself into a box of productivity, but a companion that helps you create a life of meaning, presence, and balance.
My Seasonal Planning Rituals
Over the past few years of living this way, I’ve found that my planner isn’t just something I use in a rushed five minutes before a meeting — it has become part of my rhythm.
At the end of each week I take time to reflect on the things that went well, brought me joy, what I’m grateful for, how I felt, the lessons, what didn’t go so well and what could be improved before resetting and mapping out my week ahead starting with an intention; how I want the week to feel and focused on actions that move me towards my goals.
My weeks are now planned around my energy, the moon phase, and what I physically and mentally have the capacity for.
My weeks and months hold space and allow for flexibility so that each day I can ask myself ‘What do you need today?’ And align my day with what I want to prioritise.
At the start of each season I can adjust habits and goals to focus on what’s needed in that season :
winter, I curl up with a blanket, light a beeswax candle, and write in the quiet. I ask myself: What am I dreaming into? Where do I need to rest more deeply? Winter planning is slower, softer. I don’t fill every line — instead, I leave white space, because winter is the season of pause.
When spring arrives, my desk fills with flowers from the garden — daffodils, tulips, the first sprigs of green. I make a pot of fresh mint tea and write down the seeds I want to plant, both literally and metaphorically. My planner becomes a garden bed of ideas, where I note the tiny shoots that are ready to grow.
In summer, I take my planner outside. I sit in the warmth, sometimes under a tree with birdsong for company, and use the pages to track energy that’s more outward and expansive. I write about projects that feel ready to be seen, ways I want to share my work, and also small joys I want to soak up while the light is long.
By autumn, my planner feels like a harvest basket. I write about what’s come to fruition, and I gather the lessons from the year so far. I sit with a spiced chai and ask: What am I carrying that feels heavy now? What can I put down? The act of writing in those pages becomes a ritual of release.
These small practices make the planner feel less like a tool and more like a trusted friend. It’s not about being “perfectly” seasonal — it’s about noticing where you are, and letting your planning mirror that.
This way of planning has taught me something profound: when I work with the rhythms of nature instead of against them, I find more flow, more ease, more meaning.
Winter invites me to rest and dream.
Spring invites me to begin again.
Summer invites me to celebrate and expand.
Autumn invites me to release and reflect.
My planner holds each of these invitations — not just as words on a page, but as gentle companions for the unfolding year.
Why I Created My Seasonal Planner
I wanted something that could still keep me grounded in the practicalities of life, but that also invited me to pause, reflect, and listen to the whispers of my inner world. A planner that could hold space for both my schedule and my soul.
The 2026 Seasonal Planner is built around this vision.
It isn’t just a schedule keeper. It’s a companion for your year — one that understands the ebb and flow of the seasons and offers you gentle ways to align with them. Instead of forcing you into a rigid system of productivity, it meets you where you are. It invites you to remember that you are not a machine — you are a living, breathing, cyclical being, deeply connected to nature.
What Makes This Planner Different?
So, what does it look like in practice?
At the heart of this planner are seasonal reflections. At the beginning of each season, you’re invited to pause. To notice. To feel into what this chapter of the year is asking of you. Instead of lofty resolutions or endless task lists, you’ll find energetic themes and gentle, soul-centred prompts.
These questions shift the whole tone of planning. They move you out of survival mode and back into a place of presence. They remind you that planning isn’t just about filling time — it’s about living intentionally inside of it.
The planner also weaves in the Moon. Each month, you’ll find gentle invitations to connect with the lunar cycle. Because just as the Earth turns through her seasons, the Moon reminds us that energy also waxes and wanes within shorter cycles. There are moments for planting seeds, for rising, for celebrating, for letting go, and for resting. By noticing where you are in the lunar rhythm, you begin to see your own energy differently.
There are also spaces to track your own rhythms. How did your energy feel today? What patterns do you notice across weeks or months? Which kinds of tasks feel aligned at certain times? By paying attention, you begin to reclaim your power. You no longer expect yourself to perform in the same way every day — instead, you honour your own tides.
This is planning, yes — but it’s also soul work..
A Planner That Holds Both Structure and Soul
The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t ask you to abandon practicality. The 2026 Seasonal Planner still holds space for your appointments, your deadlines, your commitments. It keeps you organised in the ways you need to function in the world.
But alongside the structure, there is soul. There is reflection. There is rhythm. There is space to breathe.
Because the truth is, you don’t need another planner that simply tracks your time. You need one that honours your life.
The 2026 edition of the Seasonal Planner will be opening for pre-orders very soon. But right now, the waitlist is your chance to be first in line — and to receive early updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses as it comes to life.
Imagine how different your week could feel if planning was no longer something you resisted, but something you cherished. Imagine if, instead of squeezing your soul into a rigid schedule, you had a companion that made space for your inner world, your rhythms, and your dreams.
That is what the Seasonal Planner is here for. Not just to keep you on track, but to bring you back to yourself.
Because your life is not just about doing more — it’s about living fully, deeply, seasonally.
Here’s to planning in a way that nourishes your soul as much as your schedule.
xo Emily
