So I broke down today and went back to my old flame. Oh Franklin, how did I make it through the days without you? I tried using a Palm Pilot, I tried using my fancy-schmancy cell phone, but it just wasn't the same. I missed planning out every hour of my life. I missed your weekly compass bookmarks. I missed making lofty goals and writing cheesy personal mission statements.

Franklin and I first became "involved" when I was a freshmen at BYU. Like many new cougars, I went to some kind of training seminar and, thanks to Dr. Brough (a fellow Franklin-devotee), I used Franklin to plan every hour of my college existence. I was promised that my posterity would cherish these very detailed records. As far as I know, none of the people at my table kept our silly goals for the semester. I never trained for a marathon. To the best of my knowledge, Brandon didn't practice the piano daily. And group members and I never did start that evening jogging group/book club we planned...

Franklin was my faithful (although sometimes absent) sidekick until I finally got sick of carrying around a gigantic zip-up leather binder... those suckers are heavy! Plus, I got irritated with the over-planning. I felt so cheesy. Would anyone really care who I went to lunch with on October 13, 1999? Probably not.

But my life is falling apart. Or at least is very poorly planned. I'm forgetting passwords and assignments left and right, and I totally forgot that I had a field trip scheduled for this Tuesday with my 1st and 2nd graders. Oops.

So after much thought, I stopped by the Franklin Covey store today and rekindled that old flame. I went with the smaller and more convenient "compact" size, and with weekly rather than daily planning system. They had some new darling contemporary designs and I even bought an adorably saucy blue binder that matches my favorite Coach wallet.