Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Thomison.
Hi Shannon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
As a Ph.D. student, wife, mom of two, and owner of two businesses, I found myself on this challenging journey of redefining who I was and who I wanted to become in this next stage of my life.
I felt stuck, I was always tired, I became unorganized, and I was also battling postpartum depression, burnout, and anxiety. Everything about my life felt out of place after giving birth to my husband, and I’s second child. I needed something to help me get things started to work on myself, personally and professionally.
Prayer, meditation, journaling, and planning have always been a part of what gave me peace, even as a child. Drawing on that, I started redefining who I was, my relationship with God, my family, and customizing a new planner set-up. I started taking my planner apart, restructuring it, researching planning products, and designing my own inserts. Reflecting on how this process helped me get to a better path, I knew that there were others out there who looked like me and who shared the same struggles I did.
A Journey In Becoming was initially created to document my personal and professional journey using my planner on Instagram. The planning system I created was more than just a place to track to-do lists, events, and appointments. It became a way for me to express my thoughts, map and plan my personal and professional life, career development, and organize things in a way that allows me to function. As I continue through my journey as a wife, mom, Ph.D. student, and business owner, I want to share that this was not a walk in the park and how difficult this journey is. I also wanted to share what I found with others who need help in organizing their lives too.
Now, I help others create a planning system that matches their lifestyle and career/professional development. I want people to walk away with an accessory that not only looks stylish and aesthetically pleasing but also helps them maintain motivation and productivity. We want your planning system to become more than just a place to jot down events and appointments. We want to help you connect it to all areas and needs of your life and inspire you to embrace your journey and all it has to offer… while developing a newfound love for all things planning!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not! LOL! At the start of my Doctoral program process, I decided to start my business, expand our (my husband and I) family, and leave my higher education position as a career preparedness advisor (encouraged by my husband, Marcus). I battled postpartum depression, burnout, and anxiety all during a 3-4 year time span. Having a supportive family, friends, therapist, and primary care physician helped me heal(along with prayer, meditation, journaling, and planning).
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We all have our unique abilities and gifts. That alone sets everyone apart from everyone else. Our perceptions and interpretations allow us to identify what this world needs to grow. The ability to understand a person’s equity, follow them, and lead them is what sets me and A Journey In Becoming Co. apart. We took the notion of Interior Designing and implemented it for planner set-ups and systems development.
Interior Designing enhances the interior of a building or room to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for people. We do this, but for planning systems and set-ups. We walk our clients through a detailed planner consultation process, customize a planning system and guide for them, research and recommend planner & stationery companies and their products, place all orders, assemble the planner, and ship the planner fully assembled to our clients.
As an “Interior Planner Designer,” it’s my job to help people understand the benefits of a customized planning system, developing time/self-management skills, and prioritizing themselves, their self-care daily tasks, and goals.
We have developed three products, services, and freebies (for planner sizes A5, Half Letter, and Classic 9 disc bound) to help enhance one’s planning journey.
~A Journey In Becoming Interior Planner & Planning Set-Up Services
https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/services/
Interior Planner Session + Consultation
Back to the Basics Interior Planner Set-Up
Interior Planner Set-Up & Productivity Guide
Our printable planner insert products include:
~A Journey In Becoming’s Scripture’d Productivity Dashboards!
https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/scriptured-productivity-dashboards/
Inspired by Dr. Doug Belshaw’s “7 things the Bible taught me about productivity” blog post, we present the A Journey In Becoming’s Scripture’d Productivity Dashboards!
If you ever wanted to connect scripture with productivity in your planning set-ups, now you can! While designing my printable insert collections, I wanted to create something that would remind me how I needed to challenge myself to be more spiritually connected and productive at the same time. So, I created these beautiful Productivity Scripture Dashboards to help keep me centered and grounded in my faith & productivity.
This eight (8) dashboard set includes:
Schedule Overview
Monthly Overview
Weekly Overview
Daily Overview
Project Tasks
Finance Overview
Goals Overview
Notes
The A journey In Becoming’s Productivity Collection
https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/productivity-collection/
This is a THREE-month bundle pack designed to help you with all things productive. Whether you are a stay-at-home parent, college student, graduate student, entrepreneur, or working professional, this collection will help you maintain productivity in your everyday life. This bundle includes:
✓Quarterly Calendar w/Notes
If you need a bird’s-eye view of Quarter’s 1-4 of any year, these are for you. This undated insert is excellent for quarter-by-quarter tracking and note-taking.
✓Monthly Brain Dump Inbox Inserts
If you’re into pre-planning or hate having to wait to add items to your planner, OR you hate to mess up your main planner inserts, these are for you! Our Monthly Brain Dump Inbox Inserts are to help with pre-planning and to keep essential yet straightforward tasks organized throughout the month.
Sections on the inserts are:
✓Monthly, Weekly, & Daily Priorities
✓Events & Appointments
✓Self-Care Priorities
✓Family/Home/Billing Priorities
✓5 Day Weekly-Hourly Undated Inserts w/two mini quarterly calendars
Our 5 Day Weekly-Hourly Undated Inserts are great for those important Mon-Friday appointments for work, school, or family life. These are also great for time blocking your tasks throughout the day.
✓Master Task Lists w/Notes
Our Master Task Lists Inserts are made to prioritize your daily tasks into high, medium, and low-level lists and a due date section to keep you on track.
✓Networking Budget Tracker w/Notes: If you love networking or are looking to join professional organizations, this insert is for you! Our Networking Budget Tracker inserts allow you to track networking events, cost of attendance, and organizational memberships dues you need to keep up with throughout the year!
✓Project Management Inserts w/Notes: Our Project Management Inserts are made to help map out your projects’ purpose, clients/people you are partnering or collaborating with, mtg topics, high and medium level task to complete, project timelines, expenses/fees, project outcomes, etc.
The A Journey In Becoming Academic Collection
https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/academic-collection/
This was created with the ideal graduate student in mind! Since I am a fellow doctoral student, I could not find planner inserts or a planner that was 100% geared towards academic research, course work, notes, and task tracking. So, I created my own!
This collection is dedicated to the academic world!
The Academic Collection is an undated two-semester bundle pack that includes:
✓Quarterly Calendars w/Notes
✓Course Assignment Inserts w/Notes
✓16 weeks of Weekly Course Schedule Inserts
✓Research Article Inserts w/Notes
✓Research Topic Inserts
✓Master Task Lists w/Notes
~And of course, our Freebies https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/freebies/
The Planner Agenda Freebie is a downloadable document that will help you set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals.
The Restructure, Reset, Reschedule & Reorganize Monthly Plan Freebie is a downloadable document to help users become more organized and less overwhelmed.
The Scholar’s Planner Agenda Freebie is a downloadable document to help undergraduates, graduates, & doctoral students become more organized and less overwhelmed with planning for their academic terms/semesters.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Best advice is to be open and ask! People want to help and pour into others. But you won’t know unless you ask. The worst that can happen is they say no. And if they do, move on to the next.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@ajourneyinbecoming.com
- Website: https://ajourneyinbecoming.com/
- Instagram: @planajourneyinbecoming
