The Purpose of Planner Placement | Giftie Etcetera: The Purpose of Planner Placement

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Purpose of Planner Placement

Planner placement matters.

First, for a planner to work for you, it needs to be placed nearby and in an accessible location.

When I am working, the planner sits to the left of my computer. (I'm a lefty. If you are a righty, put it to the right.) It's easy to jot a note or scratch out a task that way.



planner, daily docket, work, computer

When I am in the living room watching television or in the bedroom reading, my planner is put right next to me on the side table. In the kitchen, it goes on the island (where it is accessible but away from potential spills).

Yes, I really do use my planner in those locations.

In the living room, I might note the day and time of a tv show premiere. In the bedroom, I might note that I ran out of my medication (which sits next to the bed). Or I might get an idea for a blog post and jot it down. In the kitchen, I add ingredients to my grocery shopping list as they get low.

Second, the placement of the parts of the planner page, including the daily docket, should be chosen carefully, making a planner easier to use.



daily docket, daily plan, weekly plan, planner

I know lots of people don't like the double hole punch, but I like to be able to move extra pages and daily dockets to either side of the planner.

TIP: Keep the daily docket on whichever side allows you to view tomorrow's weekly spread entry without turning a page.

In the picture above, the placement of each aspect of the planner layout matters.

To the left, a running list of upcoming gifts to purchase is covering the crossed out Monday space. There is no need to see that space since all the information has been transferred to the daily docket or is old.

After that, the layout allows me to see tomorrow and future days on the weekly spread. If something comes up, there is space to schedule it.

My ink pens are readily available (not even in holders while I am actively working).

Today's stuff is all on the right, as any Daily Docket from the beginning of the week is placed.

The parts of the Daily Docket are listed in the picture in green to give you inspiration.


If these tips are helpful, don't forget to use the search feature in the sidebar to find even more tips about topics that interest you.

Etcetera.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I use a week on one page, punched on the right to sit on the left side of my spread and then my day on a page is opposite it in the right. I put daily pages for the next week or two in my planner at a time and weeklies for about two months at a time.

Moving my week per page to the left was a game changer for me. I needed the details of my day without losing the overview of my week.

Yesterday when I was out and about (I had gone grocery shopping and didn't take my planner...just my list from it), my daughter's school called with information on some upcoming information sessions. I felt so lost without my planner to see a) what day of the week these fell and if there were conflicts and b) the space to write the details down. I ended up grabbing a piece of paper and jotting it and transferring it later to my planner, but what an unsettled feeling!

Jenn H. said...

I'm trying to get a bullet journal going and this really sounds good. I would love to see close-ups of the pages you shared. Some of the terminology you use is unfamiliar to me. Docket? I'll search to see if you have a detailed description of these things. Thank you for sharing.

Giftie Etcetera said...

Daily Docket is just a term for a daily page made the day before or day of, instead of filling in daily pages far in advance.

:)

DIY Party Mom said...

These are great ideas! I love seeing how other people use their planners. It gives me such good ideas to use in mine.