Now that it’s the beginning of a new year, you have a fresh start and a chance to make good on your new year’s resolutions.
Your first step is getting organized with a planner. Using one will help you schedule your days, increase your productivity and keep you motivated.
We’re going to share with you how to get the most out of your planner and tips and tricks we’ve found that not only work, but make planning fun.The Basics
First off, write anything you want to remember in your planner: work-related appointments, deadlines, school dates, medical appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, bill due dates and anything else important to you. Try to keep each entry as brief as possible. You only want to write the most important pieces of information, like the time of your appointment, place and how long it will take.
Make sure you update your planner every time something new comes up, such as work meetings or a rescheduled appointment. We recommend looking it over during breakfast to get an overview of your day and then at nighttime to review your schedule for the next day.
Section Off Your Planner
While most planners are already broken down into different sections, these are a few you must have if you don’t already: To-Do List, Goals (one list for short-term goals and one list for long-term goals) and Notes. For To-Do Lists, try a box checking guide system.
Use the following: a check mark=completed task, “X”= deleted task, dot=task in progress or delegated and arrow=task moved forward to another day.
Also, for To-Do Lists, and any other lists that you’ll use over and over again, you can laminate the pages and use wet erase markers on them. In your Notes section, you can track expenses, have a Christmas Gift List and any other miscellaneous things that don’t fit into the other sections.Have A Color Coding System
Assign different colors for different kinds of events. This way when you’re looking at your planner, it’s easy to see what kind of events you have on certain days. You can either follow the color system on your phone, so it will be easy when cross-referencing, or switch it up. Remember, this is your planner, so do whatever works best for you. Below is an example of a color system.
Home – Purple Personal – Blue
School – Green Social – Pink
Work – Orange Goals – Yellow
Prioritize
Brian Tracy suggests making multiple To-Do Lists: a master list, a monthly list, a weekly list and a daily list. For your daily list, write all your tasks down and rank them in order of importance. Then, re-write your list with the most important task first and the least important task last.
Whenever you have a project, write down all the steps you need to complete. This helps you figure out how much time you need to devote to each step and the project as a whole. No matter how many steps there are, focus on one at a time.
Personalize
Make your planner a reflection of you and your personality. Have different themes for each month, use stickers, scrapbook pages and even photos to decorate the pages of your planner. A popular favorite is washi tape. It’s removable, so you won’t run into problems when you have to change dates or move things around. The more you customize your planner for your needs and make it look pretty, the more you’re going to want to use it.
Keeping a planner is essential for organizing your life. By mapping out your goals for the year and breaking them into monthly, weekly and daily goals, you’ll most likely be able to reach them. Cheers to a new year, new goals and a new you!
Feature Photo via Fancy Things