Upscale Planning: Rising Above A Mere Calendar With Projects And Notes

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Buckle up, Plannerds! This is an unusually long blog entry, but I promise it will be worth it.

UPDATE: Since posting this post, I've also done a video about Project Planning in a Planner. Watch it here.

Today, I bought a new purse. (See, I told you! You are already smiling.) 

I have a very nice, neutral cognac-colored handbag and a bright, fun purple purse. 

What I needed to round out my wardrobe was an inexpensive, but classy, mid-sized gray purse. It needed to be big enough for my planner, inhaler, keys, wallet, and phone, but small enough to tuck under my legs at a restaurant. 

So I purchased this gray beauty (no longer available):

Having three purses might seem like too many for One Purse People. 

(One Purse People are strange sorts, and I cannot suggest that you hang out with them. Surely, they are unstable. What's next? One shoe?) 

And having ONLY three purses might seem like too much to build a wardrobe around for most ladies.

({Jedi mind trick hand swipe} - Look away. Ignore the hamper of other purses in my closet. Those do not exist.)

But the reality is that, for most of us, we do need a few bags for different reasons. 

It rounds out our closets and makes us look professional, put together, and a little more upscale. On the other hand, a purse for every single outfit is an organizational nightmare. So three active purses is my compromise.

Using a planner to its maximum potential can also upscale our lives.

A planner is not merely a calendar. 

It is a personal assistant, who works for and with you, to make your life easier. A good planner leaves you looking successful and polished. A fabulous planner goes beyond the calendar and the task list and becomes a tool that pulls your life together.

So, without further ado, how to upscale your planner in two easy steps:

1. Add a Projects section.
2. Add a Notes/File section.

Ta da! Upscale and classy.

Oh, right. You probably want to see how I create these sections so that they are easy to use and actually useful, right? 

Okay, here goes. It SOUNDS intense. It's not. I solemnly swear that creating these sections is a simple, quick process that will free you up to actually get your stuff done.

Step 1: Consider which sections you can consolidate in your planner. 

I personally have only a few sections.

*My dashboard, which is the first page and only blank, lined paper:

*Projects (which we will explore today):

*Monthly and Weekly (the meat of the planner, including all appointments, task lists, and future planning page for dates falling beyond this year's calendar inserts)

*Notes/Files (which we will also explore today)

*Supplies

Step 2: Gather supplies - blank paper, small post-it flags, and an ink pen or two. 

Notice that I take the post-it flags out of their packages, so they take up very little space to store in my planner.

UPDATE: I now use bigger post-it labels for my Projects and Notes sections. Consider getting these Post-It tabs, as they work really well and look nicer.

Step 3: Pull out anything in your planner that does not belong in the calendar part and decide if it is a Project (ongoing) or a Note/Files (you need to have it with you, but only as a reference). 

I interchange the terms Note and Files, as both sort of make sense to me. 

UPDATE: I now only use the term "Notes." Files refer to my at-home file cabinet instead.

Fortunately, I had already started a list of Projects and Files, though in a very messy way. 

Almost everything either belongs in the main part of your planner, is a project (several steps, currently active, and ongoing), or something to be filed away (either in your planner or elsewhere).

TIP: If something is not either a Project or something you might need to reference away from home, perhaps it needs to be discarded or filed in your files at home. 

Today, for me, that meant filing away the records of a medical insurance claim (now that the bills have been paid and the claim accepted by our insurance) and tossing my notes of food intake (now that I am tracking calories on-line instead).

Step 4: Write the letters A-Z along the right outside edge of a blank sheet of planner paper. 

(I added pink. You don't have to.)

Step 5: Make indexes for Projects and Notes/Files, respectively. 

I make a very simple list, in no particular order. I just add things as I think of them, and cross them out (and remove and file or toss the accompanying papers) when they become irrelevant.

TIP: I number projects just so that I can make sure that I don't have too many at one time. I don't number files.

TIP: If you deal with several vendors or clients, those might be some of your "projects" (active) or "notes/files" (inactive). If you have enough clients, add a section to your planner for clients, but use this indexing system.

A sneak peek at the ultimate goal (including my personal favorite "projects" - Nanowrimo, tracking my current medical conditions that are in flux right now, tracking my kids' allowance, Christmas planning, and home room mom planning):

Step 6: Make a label on a post-it flag for each item and match up the label to the ABC order area on the notepaper itself. Then, put the projects in the same order as the index list (which means your latest project always gets added to the end of the Projects section.

Note that it's important that you not just list your files in ABC order, or the labels will hide each other. 

By literally putting the project or file name on the index AS IT OCCURS to you and putting the newest labeled section last in the Projects section, you keep the labels mixed up (though still in ABC order) and easier to access.

The final result makes it really easy to find whatever Project you are working on or important information in your Notes/Files:

Some Notes that I have that you might consider carrying with you include:

*a list of current medications, 

*your weekly review routine (and any other routine that you just need to refer to), 

*a list of service providers (A/C repair, babysitters, etc.), 

*a locations page (tells where the swimsuits hide during the winter and where the turkey tray is stored come November),

*packing lists (just use old ones to make new ones),

*birthday party planning lists (again, use old ones to make new ones), and

*insurance information (in case of wrecks, disasters, or hospitalizations).

Having a working Projects section and a good handle on your notes and files will work miracles in your life. 

Try upscaling your planner and let me know what works for you!

For more insight into my project planning process, make sure to watch my You Tube video on project planning.

Etcetera.

Planner Speak: Plannerds, Planner Porn, and Filos

Confession time. My name is Kristy, a.k.a. Giftie Etcetera, and I have been rightfully accused of being a plannerd with an addiction to planner porn and an unfulfilled yearning for Filofax.

The people inhabiting the closeted world of paper planners speak a secret language. If you have heard the words plannerd, planner porn, and Filofax, you are probably part of the planner community. Like typical members of any subculture, some of us are a wee bit obsessive.

I am a self-confessed plannerd. A plannerd is someone who knows practically everything about planners. My friends know it. They often call or message me with a list of demands.

"I need a planner that fits in my briefcase, looks manly, and will track every moment of every single day."

(Clearly, a Franklin Covey Classic or larger, with daily refills.)

"Hey, KZB, I saw a planner at Target. Think it'll work for me to write down my schedule?"

(You have two kids, homeschool, volunteer constantly, and want to plan your entire household schedule. No. You need something more.)

"Kristy, if I want a ring bound planner that is gorgeous and fits in my purse, how much should I expect to pay?"

(You want a Filofax, in a pretty color. Plan to spend about $50 - $80.)

See? I have the answers already in my brain. I am a plannerd.

Other signs of a plannerd?

1. She or he never leaves the house without a planner.
2. She or he prefers an office supply store or bookstore gift card over any other gift.
3. She or he blogs about planners. {wink}
4. She or he has a collection of planners, even as she or he insists on a one planner at a time rule.
5. She or he has a SYSTEM, darn it. A system. Do not mess with the system. (She or he also might be a little crazy. I cannot speak for anyone but myself.)

Plannerds engage in surfing planner porn on a regular basis.

Planner porn is not dirty. It is mother-in-law and child approved (even if they both think I am crazy for wasting my time looking at it). Seriously, though, I love looking at planners. I've been eyeing one at Barnes and Noble for awhile, the inexpensive Punctuate planner. (About $10, clearly too small for my use, but beautiful with several design choices.)

Today, I bought it. I got it only for the zipper pouch in back (my old one had worn out) and the beautiful Today page marker.

In part, the planner spoke to my plannerd, as it is a great gateway planner for a young person just entering the planner scene. In part, it spoke to my addiction to pretty planner pages. I even spend hours per week on-line, looking at how others set up their planner pages. Between Facebook, blogs, you tube, and photo sharing services, planner porn is plentiful and fun! (I am working on curbing this addiction. But planners and coffee and wine, oh my!)

As an American plannerd, I don't really have much access to Filofax brand planners. But as my European brothers and sisters (and many recent American converts) will tell you, Filofax is a brand of planner that is so ubiquitous over the pond that many European plannerds simply refer to all planners as filos. Here in America, where we have many planner options, the term filos is generally reserved only for the more plannerdy among us.

Wishing you happy planning today. Plannerd out!

Etcetera.

Keeping Monthly Planner Pages Sacred

Planners need to reflect your real life in order to do their very best work for you.

For a long time, I thought that meant that EVERYTHING had to fit on the same daily or weekly pages. After all, appointments and tasks and everything else all happen in a mixed up muddle. Oh, there were advantages. I could see that I needed to be at an appointment at 3 p.m. while doing my errands at 1 p.m. and typing my blog sometime during the day.

But I was clearly wrong. In real life, you need to be where you need to be when you need to be there. Then, you need to plan everything else around your schedule.
Since the beginning of planners, there have been schedules and to do lists. Those two important lists make up the meat of a planner. But they are different, in very fundamental ways.

Your schedule (and schedule might not even be the right word, as supper is on our schedule every night, but I don't write it down) tells you where you have to be and when you have to be there. I actually call mine my calendar and dedicate only monthly pages for this purpose.

Everything else - due dates for assignments and bills, notes to yourself to get the car inspections, and reminders to get your flu shot - goes elsewhere. Mostly, they are tasks that go on to do list. In some cases, they are more notes to yourself. But they are not part of your schedule - unless they must be done at a certain time and only at that time - so they should not go on the part of your planner reserved as a calendar.

The key advantage of keeping your calendar sacred from everything else is that you stop missing so many appointments, even if The Loki happens.

Exception: If your particular schedule is very demanding (as mine was when I was running my law firm, seeing five or six clients a day along with other meetings and court dates), you might need a weekly calendar dedicated to dates and times. Just use two weeklies - one for dates and times and the other to plan your life.

That's it. The advantage is just that you show up where you are supposed to, when you are supposed to show up. But that, my Loyal Readers, is enough.

Etcetera.

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My Most Important Planner Tip - "You"

I love my planner, not because it is pretty or perfect, but because it makes my life better. 

I am thoughtful about how I use it, striving to achieve the right balance of usefulness without getting overwhelmed. Over the life of this blog, I've shared many of the little tips and tricks that make my planner work for me, instead of me working to maintain my planner.

Here is a grand tour through some of my favorite planner tips (linked to the original blog entry):

*Have a portable place for papers that you need to keep with you, but that are too big to fit in your planner. These days, I use a see-through plastic folder.

*Think about YOUR organizing and planner problems and choose a solution that works for YOU - not for anybody else.

*Know the difference between a Calendar entry and a Task entry.

*Have rules for your planner. They must be flexible, but jot them down and follow them.

*Use blogs and facebook and other sites to help you design the planner that works FOR YOU, not for others.

*You need a place to plan Projects, even if you don't work outside the home.

*Make forms or custom pages that work for you.

*Identify your needs in a dream planner, and then try to match those needs, not someone else's needs.

*Use codes that mean something to you to save space in your planner for details.

*Use your planner as more than just a calendar, like for meal planning or archiving medical notes.

*Know when you reach the dreaded Planner Fail and deal with it immediately so that you don't get out of the habit of using your planner.

*Put your planner in an order that makes sense in your life - not merely the order that it was in when you bought it.

*Use your planner daily, do weekly reviews of your planner, and schedule a yearly reset for your planner. 

*Follow the planner tips in this post, if they work for your life. My favorite is to make your planner portable enough for you.

*Use inks and spacial set-ups that are pretty to your eyes.

*Know why you write it down.

Ultimately, planner success is about YOU and making sure your planner works for your life.

If you have specific issues that you are dealing with regarding your planner, comment and let me know what the problem is and a little about how you use your planner (or post a picture), and I'll try to respond with suggestions, either in the comments or in a blog post dedicated to you.

Etcetera.

P.S. I hope you truly enjoyed this journey through my blog. Every now and then, I write something worth sharing. Blogger lets me know when you share on Google+, but you can also pin my post on Pinterest or share on Facebook. I hope that this post is one worthy of sharing.

Wide Open Spaces: Leaving White Space On My Planner Pages

I love to write and doodle. I do. And I look at planner porn pages all the time, full of pretty pictures and sticky notes and beautiful...and I sigh in jealous appreciation. Seriously, many of my planner peeps are artists.

But I cannot function in cramped spaces.

I write in a fairly small handwriting and only use a compact planner (about the same size as personal in Filofax world). I write down almost everything. I rely on my planner everyday, without fail. But I need wide open, blank spaces for planning.

I guess it's how my mind works. Even on pretty busy days, I rarely exceed the space allotted.

If I feel like my thoughts, plans, and notes will exceed the space allotted, I move on to a blank page to organize things.

When I studied education (I have a M.Ed. to go with my J.D.), I learned that dyslexics and other kids with learning disabilities can use extra blank space to make sure they can understand writing. Designers often talk about the merits of not filling every bit of space in a room. Making space in my planner so that it works for me seems a logical, practical, simple step towards planner peace.

Plus, blank pages are great for doodles.

Etcetera.

Planning In Two Colors

I am consistently asked about color coding. If you are a Loyal Reader, you know that for a while I didn't color code. I just used green ink. It made me happy, but I could not erase it.

I also went through a phrase where I highlighted using metallic pens.

More recently, I turned to Frixion pens for the dreamy ability to erase completely. I love them and, for a while, color-coded by week.

But it was a lot of effort, expensive to buy all the colors, and the pens were cramming up my planner. Plus, the actual color-coding was not helping with keeping me organized. And isn't being organized what my planner is all about?

So, I put a new color system in place. I only use two colors at a time. I primarily write with a color in the blue/green family, like blue, green, or purple. I highlight very important tasks or big events in a red/pink color family pen.

This lets me use most of the colors in the Frixion packs that I buy in bulk and on sale.

I don't like to write in black ink, so this let's me save my black Frixion pens for filling in undated planner pages. I always seem to mess up that task, so an erasable pen is brilliant idea.

As an added bonus, I still get to play with a ton of colors, but my pages stay neat and orderly in appearance.

Etcetera.

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