Managing time

The discovery started her own journey of making planners. The hobby gradually became a dominant part of her life, until she started working as a full-time planner blogger, who uploads videos about making planners and sharing stationery online. The job has won her many opportunities she had never imagined before.

At the beginning, creating planners was only something "fresh and interesting" for Gao, who didn't expect she would be engaged with it for a long time. But she has spent about seven years on it so far. The hobby has helped Gao overcome her shortcomings and better use her time. In 2019, when she began to use a planner, which required her to record how she spent her 24 hours every day, she was surprised to find her schedule included a lot of unallocated time, which presented opportunities for further details.

"I was broadcasting a TV show while shopping online on Taobao at the same time. But I didn't focus on any of that. I was still worried about my unfinished work. There were so many moments like that," says Gao.

She knew about how she wasted her time in the past, but it was only when her planner directly showed her how much time she wasted she had to face up to it. That urged her to be more efficient. Later that year, she formed the habit of rising early, doing regular exercises and lost 15 kilograms.