Planning Habits That Work
Who bought a new planner in the last few weeks?
hand raised
Who usually ditches it by the end of the month?
puts hand down
Selling planners is big business; it is the diet book/program for the time challenged.
What do you put in your planner?
Of course it depends on you individually but I will share what I put in mine:
appointments / commitments
to-do list
social media posts
workouts
What do I NOT put in my planner?
Meals. I use my meal planner for that and leave it on the fridge.
Goals & projects. I have a separate monthly planner for this.
Planning Habits That Actually Work
Use paper and digital. Digital calendars are easier to transport because they are on your phone, and make it easy to keep track of commitments/appointments. My preference is Google calendar.
Let’s define commitments/appointments. Anything that requires your presence at a specified time that is not recurring. Example: no need to schedule your work days if your hours are the same.
Use for:
beauty appointments (hair salon, nail salon, facial)
health appointments (massage, chiro, etc)
social activities
lunch/coffee meetups with friends
and so on
Buy a weekly layout for your paper planner. Daily layouts are, on average, over the top. Most people don’t need an hour by hour planner every single day. If you just need a monthly planner, then switch to a digital version and save yourself some money.
Schedule a day to plan your following week. Better yet if it is the same day each week. For example, I plan the following week on Wednesdays. You could do it on Friday or Sunday, just be sure to pick a day that you can stick with consistently.
Schedule recurring tasks for the same day each week. This takes the guesswork out of household tasks. Go ahead and decide what you will do on what day consistently.
Here’s a sample my recurring tasks:
Mon
Plan the week with Raymond
Microneedle or dermaplane
Wed
Plan next week
Thur
Face mask
Fri
Meal plan
Go to the groc store
Sun
Laundry
If you want to take it a step further and really dive into getting things done
Keep a list of projects that you want to complete. Decide what month you will work on that project. During the last week of each month, pull out your projects planner and plan ahead for the upcoming month.
I will keep it simple for now, but if you want me to dive deeper into project planning and monthly planning, then leave me a comment below!
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