4 Things You Need in Your Life Planner
While so many people use smartphones as their planners, organizers, reminders and pretty much everything else, when it comes to life planning, I’m a pen and paper kind of girl. I use my phone during the day to note some things and later I write some of them (the ones I want to look into more) in my life planner.
Actually, my phone is my daily planner where I note things I need to do in the next few days and at home, I have my life planner where I can see a bigger picture of my life – how it is organized and the things I want to do.
A new planner represents a new start, new goals, and new possibilities. For me, the best time to start a new planner is at the beginning of the year. Of course, you can start it whenever you want.
No matter when you choose to start using it, there are 4 things you need to write in it to make it worth your time:
1. IMPORTANT DATES that require your preparation
I know, this might look like a basic thing when it comes to what to write in a planner because that’s the first thing you actually think of. But writing important dates in your planner (such as birthdays, anniversaries, or any other occasion that requires you to prepare (buy gifts or a new dress:)) as soon as you start to use it will help you get a sense of time you have and need to be on time.
This will also help you be less overwhelmed when the time comes. Because let’s face it, no matter how prepared you think you are, there are always so many other things in our daily life that occupy us, it’s so easy to forget and then we do it all at the last minute.
This is exactly how you should do it:
- Write every important date in a year you need to be prepared for. This includes birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, Christmas, etc.
- Now write the dates you’re going to start preparing for it. For example, if your best friend has a birthday on August 14th, mark August 7th for gift shopping. For Christmas, take your time and start preparing a month earlier – which means the end of November should be marked as “Christmas gifts”
2. GOALS AND MONTHLY CHALLENGES
In my post Take control over your life, I write about the importance of goal setting and taking the steps to achieve them. Challenge yourself and write it on the yearly vision and goals page. It is easier to achieve goals if you take small steps, so it’s a good idea to have monthly tasks to get closer to what you want.
3. REMINDERS
Use a monthly calendar to write the things that happen once or twice a year such as things you want to do next year for Christmas. For daily reminders, I use my phone.
4. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
Write the things that will make you move on. When I’m kind of lost, I love to read what I wrote when I was motivated. It takes me back on track.
There are also pages in many planners, such as weekly cleaning schedule, weekly meal planner, grocery list etc., that you can put on your family to-do list board.
Usually, when I buy a new planner, I get overwhelmed by all the pages I don’t actually use because when I see a blank page, I feel like I’m not doing enough.:-) That’s what I like the most about this life planner, it fits everyone’s needs. Just print the pages you wanna use and fill them with what’s important to you. Plus, it looks beautiful.?
And one more important thing…don’t just write. Check it and get things done.
