Sarah's Planner Peace: 10 Tactics Working Well in 2026 EP 297
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In this episode of Best Laid Plans, host Sarah Hart Unger shares 10 personal planning tactics that are bringing her 'planner peace' in 2026. Drawing from her own life—ranging from Disney vacation planning to morning routines and health tracking—Sarah emphasizes simplicity, flexibility, and intentional habit-building over rigid systems. She discusses her streamlined morning audit routine, including screen time, nutrition, and habit tracking in her Hobonichi planner, as well as her use of morning pages for mental clarity. She also shares how applying Laura Vanderkam’s 'talking yourself in vs. out' framework helps her say yes more often, and how being systematic about fitness and nutrition through apps like Cal AI and Apple Notes has improved her consistency. Other highlights include monthly date night planning, abandoning books with an open-ended mindset, hiring an organizer for decluttering, and using the Opal app to manage screen time. Sarah concludes with a reminder to track media consumption as a fun, gamified habit. She also promotes her upcoming Best Laid Plans Academy 2.0 summer course, designed for those looking to rebuild their planning systems with community and accountability.
Use a morning audit routine to track habits, screen time, and wellness data in a physical planner for mental clarity and motivation.
Apply Laura Vanderkam’s 'talking yourself in vs. out' framework to make better decisions about saying yes or no.
Track health and fitness data using apps (like Cal AI) and integrate them into your planner for long-term consistency.
Plan social events like date nights at the monthly level to create structure without rigidity.
Abandon books with an open-ended mindset—letting go temporarily makes it easier to return later.
…and 5 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Welcome & Disney Trip Context
Sarah introduces the episode, shares her early-morning recording setup due to a Disney World trip, and briefly discusses her family’s approach to Disney planning without using a specialist. She emphasizes simplicity and preparation over maximization.
Tactic #1: Streamlined Morning Audit Routine
“It's really satisfying to look back on, and I honestly just find it kind of fun—a nice calming way to start my day and start fresh with a new day.”
Tactic #2: Morning Pages for Mental Clarity
“I just get all the like cobwebs out of my head. And a lot of times there's like a rant or it's a pep talk. I mean, it is like embarrassing stuff, you guys.”
Tactic #3: The 'Talking Yourself In vs. Out' Framework
“If you find that you're trying, you want to do something, but you're like talking yourself out of it due to logistics, you should do it.”
Tactic #4: Systematic Health & Fitness Tracking
“I'm much more able to follow my progression than I ever was in the past. That is so motivating. It's so fun.”
“If you find that you're trying, you want to do something, but you're like talking yourself out of it due to logistics, you should do it.”
“I don't know why a five second delay in terms of like opening your apps would make it so much less appealing to check your Gmail or your WhatsApp or whatever, but it absolutely does.”
“I'm much more able to follow my progression than I ever was in the past. That is so motivating. It's so fun.”
Host
Sarah Hart Unger
person
Best Laid Plans
media
Disney World
place
Hobonichi
product
Laura Vanderkam
person
Best Laid Plans Academy 2.0
other
Opal
product
PrepDish
other
Dayfree
product
Julia Cameron
person
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