The more busy you get, the more things you seem to forget. At least that's the way it was for me. The tasks started
stacking up faster than you could imagine. And, while technology is great for calendars and what not, but that doesn’t work for everyone.

Why planners are a good idea:

For some reason it isn’t hard to remember what time the latest episode of Last Comic Standing is going to air, but it takes four people to remind you of when the water bill is due.
Well, that’s how it was for me  the only way for me to keep things straight is my planner!
It took me forever to find the perfect format to use. I don’t know who designed planners but my day certainly doesn’t end at 5 p.m. Does yours?

Here’s How I Achieved Planner Perfection:

Everybody needs to remember different things, at different times of the day and in different ways. That’s why I finally decided to create my own planner pages and here’s how I did it.

1. How is your life better mapped out? 

I had to decide this first, you can get daily planners, weekly or monthly. With my job, I need to look at things from a weekly point of view since I have weekly deadlines. That’s how I started.

2. What things do you need to keep track of? 

From getting the overall view of the planner I narrowed it down to what things I wanted to keep straight. I created sections for each day according to what I needed to plan out. You should write down a list to plan what you want to keep track of each day.

3. How much space will you need to make this all work?

I mapped out my week on a whole sheet that I cut in half to fit in my 7-hole binder.

4. Now create it.

I’ve tried making a planner in several different ways before settling on my final one. I used a drawing program on my computer to make it more graphic and open for jotting notes everywhere (that didn’t work for me) and I finally used a spreadsheet program to give it a little more structure.

5. Give it a go.

Now that you’ve gotten something created, give it a trial run for the week. Sometimes it just takes some getting used to and sometimes it’s not what you need at all.

6. Tweak it.

Once you have tried it out, go back and fine tune it. You might need to add more space for one section, or add a whole new section. Whatever you need to do, it can always be tweaked and perfected.

7. Now enjoy it.

There are so many apps out there for planning things on the go but to me nothing beats a good old paper and pen planner. With the list  of what to do laying out on your desk or table at home, makes it impossible to avoid what needs to be done.

Tell me about your planner: 

Do you use a planner or have you adapted and found a way to make technology (i.e. apps, computer calendars, etc.) work for you? Or, have you had a similar experience to mine and created your own planner which made you super, duper happy? Let's chat!