How To Bond With Your Planner

I have an extensive list of potential blog posts in my planner. 

That said, I rarely use it. I open up my Blogger screen every morning while sipping coffee and the topic just appears in my mind. I type it in and run with it until the post is complete.

It's my Superpower.

This morning, though, I resisted my inspiration. I put it off. I didn't want to write about it - to share a piece of my soul - because I didn't want to be vulnerable. After all, the subject was private. It was not intended for the whole world to see.

But it would not go away.

So here it is, in all its raw glory.

You need to bond with your planner.

Silly, right? Trivial? Too revealing? Too embarrassing?

Stroking your planner is embarrassing. (Also, my chipped up nails are embarrassing. We shall never speak of The Great Eyebrow Fiasco of 2013.)

Seriously, you need to pick a planner color that you love. I like patterns or textures against a neutral color.

You should pick a size that can stay with you all the time. I like Franklin Covey compact size (about 3 3/4 x 6 3/4), but most prefer Filofax personal size (about 3 1/4 x 6 3/4).

You need planner pages that you love in a layout that works for you. For me, that means FC 365 pages in monthly and weekly.

Decorate with accessories and doodles and stickers and whatever makes you happy.

Or don't decorate at all, if that is your bliss.

Give it a name. Or not. (I am not a named planner sort of Planner'd.)

Treat your planner as a trusted companion and it will serve you for all of your days.

Let the mocking commence. I don't care. I love my planner and the critics can suck it!

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Tasks And Today Markers: How I Label And Bookmark My Planner

Today's video (featuring my Gun Metal Blue nails :) ) is about how I use tabs in my planner to organize my planner.

Video

I use side tabs for the monthly pages and to show the various sections of my planner. I made the sections tabs by tracing a section tab that came with the planner, cutting the pages out of heavy crafting paper, and hole punching them.

On top, I use a combination of Today pages markers (some from Barnes and Noble Punctuate planners) and magnetic tabs. (A link to items very similar to the items that I use can be found in the left hand column of my blog.)

Enjoy the video detailing the use of tabs. And especially enjoy the pretty blue fingernails.

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The Lazies: What To Do When You Want To Do Nothing

I signed up to work at the Book Fair at my kids' school. I've really loved the event in the past. My kids are really excited about reading because of this great event. I enjoy meeting the other parents and helping the kids pick out new books.

But I have The Lazies.

Yep, Mrs. Super Productive just wants to sit under a blanket, sip warm coffee, and wear her jammies.

How To Handle The Lazies:

1. Eat the frog. In other words, do whatever you least want to do, but have to do, first. It sounds counterintuitive, but I promise you will be relieved that the hardest task is done.

For me, today, the frog was applying for jobs. I do that about twice a week and it is soul-sucking. I am very qualified (with a M.Ed. and a J.D.), but there are so few jobs out there that will work with my family's schedule. I have to apply twice a week to ensure that I don't miss any openings for jobs in my field. Today was the day, since I put it off Monday and yesterday.

2. Prepare for your Monthly calendar events. If you've been keeping your monthly pages sacred, you know exactly what you have to do today by glancing at the square with today's date. Note that I cross off each day as it passes, so visually I can move straight to today.

I have to go to Book Fair. (I'll even have fun, once I am there.) So I set my alarm clock to start getting ready at about 10:30, leaving me plenty of time to look cute and eat lunch. 

Bonus Pic - me (with The Loki) at my last school event, in the rain, sans makeup or hairstyle:

3. Reschedule the stuff on your Weekly pages as much as possible. You only need to focus on today's date.

4. Do whatever is left on today's date - the stuff that can't be rescheduled.

5. Revel in the lazy, knowing that everything is complete that NEEDED to be done.

Sure, you didn't do your normal daily review. But every now and then, that's okay. Because you keep everything important in two places (your monthly and weekly calendar), you can relax and know you aren't missing anything.

Etcetera.

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Planner Time: Add It To Your Magic Minimums

Yesterday was kind of crazy. I had to do carpool, run a town of errands, eat an early dinner in town, and go to the last flag football game of the season, where, as the coach's wife, I had to deliver cupcakes in the rain.

My day rushed by. I wrote things down as they came up, but had no time to cross out the things that got done. I also barely had time to glance at my planner.

This happened:

Yes, I am ashamed. Those are undone tasks (from Monday), receipts, coupons, papers to process, blood pressure left unchecked and unlogged, and a table full of groceries left out instead of put away in the pantry.

I missed my daily planner review - and it shows.

I used to have three "magic minimums" that I completed daily to keep my house in order: 

1. a load of dishes, 2. a load of laundry, and 3. a 15 minute quick clean of the most attention seeking area of my house (usually kitchen/living room).

Eventually, I added two "rules" to help me out: 

1. when traveling from one room to another, carry something with me and put it away where it belongs, and 2. erase the evidence of whatever you do in the house (say, wiping down the bathtub and hanging up you towel after a bath).

But I clearly need a third rule:

NEVER SKIP PLANNER TIME.

Now I'm off to process all this crap and pay for my sins.

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Video - Lefties: Using A Planner When You Are Left-Handed

Lefties have special challenges when writing in a ring bound planner.  When writing on the right side of the planner, the writing in the English language, which naturally moves from left to right, generally occurs directly next to the rings, making it difficult to write without the rings pressing painfully against the left hand. (For right-handed people, writing on the left side starts far from the rings and writing on the right side pulls away from the rings, so you rarely hear ring-related writing complaints from Righties.)

There are things that a Leftie can do, though, to make things better.

You Tube Video for Lefties

1. Turn the planner slightly so that your left hand can rest on paper instead of rings (as in the picture above).

2. On blank pages, get into the habit of indenting a bit and using the left space as room for notations only. On this project page, for example, I plan to note the dates of each blog post in the left column.

3. Adjust the layout of your weekly/daily pages so that the bulk of your writing is indented. In the example below, the first column is only used for due dates. All the tasks (the bulk of my weekly writing) start in the middle column, so that the rings don't get in the way.

 

4. Put your calendar pages in the middle of the planner so the rings aren't as prominent during most of your planning. Surround the meat of your planner (in my case, my monthly calendars and weekly pages) with pages that require less writing, like Project pages, Notes, and supplies. There is no law that says your calendar HAS to be the first thing in your planner! (Seriously, I'm a lawyer. There is no law.)

5. Choose a layout that puts your weekly calendar to the left as much as possible. I do most of my tasks on Monday through Thursday and treat Friday through Sunday as the weekend, so having Monday through Thursday left of the rings helps me write quite easily.

Happy planning, Lefties! And a special thank you to my Loyal Reader who suggested this important, and oft neglected, topic. Subscribe to email or follow GiftieEtcetera on twitter to hear about new posts.

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Blogging About Blogging

One of my friends struggles with looking at my planner pictures because my squiggles and scratch-outs stress her out. She is very supportive and sweet, but just cannot look at the mess. She uses an electronic calendar instead.

I can completely understand that. The biggest advantage of a planner, in my opinion, is that it is customizable to you. If not, it won't work for you. If you are a decorator, you should decorate. If you are no frills, don't decorate.

I am a doodler. (These pages would drive my friend cRaZy.)

I jot things down as they occur to me. It's a great habit to have, since I never have to stress over whether my family needs more milk or what to post on my blog. But it often leaves planner pages a tad disorderly.

So, during last nights television broadcast of LSU's FootballGameThatWeShallNeverSpeakOfAgain {hangs head in shame}, I redid the Projects pages for my blog, making a plan and organizing, all at once.

I created some guidelines for what to post and when to post it, as well as how to publicize posts. I do let my friends know when I post, but try to only let them know about posts that might be of interest to them. Note the use of a doodle box to highlight the schedule visually and a list of codes that correspond to the "type" of blog entry.

Then I started a running list (culled from those crazy, scratched up pages above) of blog entries, leaving room to the left for a date of publication, adding a code to show what type of entry it will likely be, and leaving a top box to make finding the Projects page easier.

Doesn't it look nicer?

I try to post daily, though that is only a goal. It doesn't always happen.

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