After you have purchased your planner or calendar, the first thing you need to do is set it up. But the way you set your planner can either make you productive or still procrastinate. Now, where do you start? What should you write in it? How will you organize it so that it can be useful and easy to yo use? 

Listen, everybody has a New Year resolution if not resolutions! Which is great but It is easy to become so overwhelmed by all the tasks of everyday life, especially if you don’t have a system in place to organize it all. You now find yourself being late for a major meeting because you forgot where you wrote that note, or the important steps to an assignment. Stop being overwhelmed!!!  Fortunately, there’s a way to organize all that clutter with an actual planner!

Planner that already has a calendar or daily focus such as Dedication Planner is somehow easier to set up. All you need is pen , marker and you can start using your planner to keep track of whatever you want.

TOOLS AND SUPPLIES: Gather them all

Aside from your planner or any printable pages you are adding to it, you will need something to write with. This is why I felt the need to add this fancy gold pen along side to your planner; but heyyy if you have already purchased another planner, this post can still be useful to you.

Some of the things  you’ll need are:

  • Stickers (make your planner stand out!)
  • Highlighters (for color coding)
  • Schedules/appointments/routines (to update your planner accordingly)
  • Printables and Hole punch for printed pages  (if setting up your own).

DECIDE WHAT IS IMPORTANT AND WHAT NOT .

Now that you gather all your bills, Doctor’s appointments, X , Y and Z you have  to do for the year; next is for you to decide what is important to track in your planner. For instance you know you already have a set work schedule Monday to Friday, there’s  no need to add it compared to someone who works random days of the week.
Here’s a list on how to classify them :

 

  • Home/Family: birthdays, anniversaries, kids projects , holiday planning, organizing & decluttering
  • Calendar/schedule: appointments, events, spouse’s schedule, school schedules, vacations
  • Financial Goals: income, budget, spending, bills, wish lists , debt & saving tracker,  to do lists, actions, projects timeline
  • Health/Fitness: exercise tracker, meal planner, grocery lists, mood tracker, period/fertility Tracker, therapy tracker etc…
  • Personal: Mental self care reflection, morning/evening routines, habits, gratitude, affirmations, bucket lists, books read and family activities
  • Work/Business: brainstorming ideas/lists,  business income/expense tracker, stats/analytics and passwords

Now, for you to always review these goals, you need to an overview in the front page, then proceed to add you breakdown your weekly or monthly goals.

Based on how your planner is set up, here’s how you can fill the pages by category. 

  • Weekly – week on a page with task lists
    • Focus (To Do List/Weekly Brain Dump)
  • Calendar (yearly and monthly calendars)
    • Tracker – annual or monthly  trackers for mood and productivity and income
    • Habits – monthly habit tracker
  • Weekly – more like a track list
    • Daily Focus with To Do List
  • Finances 
    • Bills – yearly bills, monthly bills lists
    • Expenses – online orders, spending trackers, budgets
    • Saving: saving tracker

Some people may choose to have multiple planners; however, I think it’s very good practice to have just one.  It will be easier to manage and you don’t have to schedule yourself twice at same with different people.

MAKE A LIST OF ATTAINABLE GOAL AND TASKS 

Think about what you’d like to accomplish within the next 3-6 months and write this list down in your planner. Please don’t try to add 15 tasks in your To-do list when you know you get home at 5pm and have to pick the kids up, then now you’re mad because you feel like a failure. You probably did well but if you have added 3-4 things to do, you would find more joy doing them and  would be less harder on yourself.  

Last but not least. Planners are great tools to help you manage your hectic days but always remember these two: Family and Self Care. As you are planning try your mental health and family time.  We at Presiii saw the need and added a resource page to our Dedication Planner to help you with Mental Health and Personal Productivity.