A planner is one of the best ways to get organized… unless you aren’t very organized. Setting up a new planner doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Learn how to set up your planner for success with my simple method.
If you’ve tried to use a planner without much success, you might think you just aren’t the planner type. {That’s what my teen says!} But the thing is, you probably just haven’t found the way to make it work for you.
My method probably won’t work for everyone, but I’m going to share how I set up and maintain my own planner.
Set up your planner
Organizing the pages
Setting up a new planner for the first time or for the new year takes a while. Gather all your supplies: planner pages, a binder, pens and pencils, accessories {like washi tape or stickers, totally optional}, and a pencil bag. You’ll also need your schedules for school, work, holidays, birthdays, etc.
The layout depends on whether you want to schedule monthly, weekly, or daily. I use a monthly calendar and a weekly spread.
So when I printed my 2018 planner, for each month I printed the monthly divider page, the 2-page monthly spread, and then enough 2-page weekly spreads to fill the month. {most are 4 weeks, but every now and then I needed 5}.
I printed my pages front and back, then used a 3-hole punch on all of them.
Filling in the schedule
After you’ve got all the pages put in the binder, you’ve got a lot of blank pages. Time to fill in!
Go through each schedule and add the events to each calendar in your planner. Don’t forget to include the time. You might also want to include the place of some events.
Add holidays and birthdays too.
Adding recurring events
I spent a year writing “payday” on my calendar a few times per month before I realized there was an easier way. There are tons of places to get planner stickers. {I have a holiday set in The Printables Library that includes US holidays, birthday, party, appointment, and reminder.}
You can easily make your own though. Open Excel or any spreadsheet program. Type your labels into the boxes and copy/paste as many times as you need. You might want to make them all the same size. You can also fill in the boxes with different colors, add symbols, or change the font. Add a border so you have lines to cut along.
Print the spreadsheet onto sticker paper – or just use some plain printer paper and tape. Cut and done.
Extra pages
There are obviously a ton of other pages that you could include in your planner. I try to only carry around the pages that I would need to have with me everywhere and put the others in my household binder. For my planner, I also include a year-at-a-glance and my habit trackers.
Planner tips
Once you get past the setup stage, all you need to do is maintain the planner and follow that schedule! Here are a few tips to keep you going.
Make it portable. I like mine at 8.5×11-inches and am happy to carry around a big binder. If that’s a hassle for you, choose a smaller planner size. You can’t use it if you don’t have it with you.
Set aside regular planning time. Every Sunday, after I have done my meal plan and grocery shopping, I sit down and plan my schedule for the week ahead. Any events on my monthly page, I add to my weekly page. I try to block schedule my time. That just means I write down the window of time I’ll spend on something. It helps me no over-plan my day, although sometimes I underestimate how long something will take.
Color code – or don’t. One year I tried having a different color for each category on my calendar. That works nicely on my phone calendar, but on paper, it was just a hassle to keep up with. If you’re a visual person and the colors will help, add a zip pencil bag to your planner so that you always have those colored pens/highlighters with your planner.
Write down what you did. It might seem silly to write down things you already did so you can check them off a list. Have you ever gotten to the end of a busy day, exhausted, and looked at your to-do list to discover you didn’t even accomplish that? This will help. Those added items are where you got distracted from your schedule. They might have been things that needed your attention right away {sudden flat tire}. They might have been things that should’ve been planned {no clean dishes at dinnertime}. Or it might just be that your schedule can be flexible sometimes. Give yourself credit for getting stuff done.
Schedule time for nothing. A full schedule doesn’t leave time for rest. I am an expert in this area. Build in margin into your daily routine so that when things go unexpectedly, you’re not completely derailed. Build rest time into your weekly routine so that you have time to recharge.
Keep your household binder separate. I have a ton of planner pages on One Mama’s Daily Drama that I hope you find helpful. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by trying to organize everything, though. I keep a separate household binder with meal planning, budgeting, cleaning, health, contacts, passwords, etc. {More on that in another post.}
Using a planner won’t make you suddenly have more time to get things done. What it will help you do is keep track of what’s on your agenda. it will help you remember things without having to remember it all in your head.
You can see where you might be wasting time or if you’ve been overscheduling yourself. You’ll learn to plan ahead instead of doing everything at the last minute. You’ll discover which routines work for you and which don’t.
Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned about my planner is this: You can start anytime and change it anytime. Even if you didn’t set up your planner on January 1st, you can do it today. And if you decide after a month that it isn’t working for you, change it!
Be sure to also check out my 5 awesome tips for using your planner for a few ways to make it organized and pretty.
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