Managing time

"I try to speak faster, cut off unnecessary small talk, and focus on what I want to express. Usually I record for an hour, and after editing, the final video is about 13 minutes. Therefore, my work is always pithy," says Gao.

As a planner blogger, she got in touch with some stationery brands. In 2018, one of them asked if she would like to design some stationery with them. With surprise and unease, she accepted the invitation.

"I am not a professional designer, so I was not confident with my ability to design planners. I learned the required skills while doing the work, and tried to express my attitude to life, my understanding of stationery in my designs," says Gao.

One of her designs is a sticky note, called tuoyan, which literally means "dragging salt", but also refers to another word with the same pronunciation in Chinese, meaning "procrastination". On the note, a caricature shows a person dragging a jar of salt.

"Writing the to-do list below the image, the contrast seems funny. Many people like me have written planners for a long time without becoming a productivity guru. We are always fighting against procrastination and working to avoid delaying things," she says.