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It is such a great feeling when you buy a new, fresh planner. So many people start off wanting to completely organise their entire life and be far more productive. Purchasing a new brand of planner is the first step to achieving this goal.
When you have your brand new planner, you have all the blank pages and there is so much opportunity and how much more organised your life will be once you start utilising it. However, after a week or two you find that you are no more organised or productive than before you purchased your planner. Are you unsure why?
There are so many planner organisation tips that will help you to stay on track and actually achieve the goals you set out to accomplish.
Here are 10 helpful tips to get your planner organised:
1. Choose The Right Planner For You
Before you start planning, you need to choose the right planner that is going to work for you. You want to start your organisation journey the right way and ensure you are set up for success. You need to think about how you like to plan.
- Do you need to see your week at a glance?
- Do you need a space to allow you to record your goals for the week?
- Do you need a lot of space to write down tasks?
You need to give some thought to what you need and make sure you are purchasing a planner that is going to keep you productive.
2. Set Aside Time To Actually Plan
When you have purchase the right planner, you need to allocate time to plan. For you to start being organised with your planner, you must be organised with your time.
You should include updating and writing into your established morning or evening routine, so that it becomes second nature; you’ll be reaching for your planner before you reach for your phone or scroll on social media.
You will want to set a planner time limit. In 45 minutes, you will not be able to plan your entire year. This will be really unrealistic and could discourage you from continuing to use your lanner because it may not be perfect. But you need to take things week by week or even month by month.
3. Work Out A Planning System
There is no right or wrong way to set up and utilise planner. We all work in different ways and therefore we all process tasks or deadlines differently. So, you need to consider a planning system that will work best for you.
Are you more of a bullet journaling person? Do you work best by making to-do lists? You will want a consistent planner system to stick with, so it is not confusing and counter-productive.
4. Write Down Everything
Are you always forgetting things? Due to Fibromyalgia, I often live with brain fog, which can mean I forget things.
If you are juggling family life, your work schedule and social events, it can be really easy to forget things. Everyone has forgotten the odd birthday or task you needed to complete.
One of the most important planner organisation tips you need to know is to write everything down. That way, you will know that it will be in your planner.
There are 12 examples of information you should write down:
- Birthdays or anniversaries
- To-do lists
- Work schedules
- Bill due dates
- Task deadlines
- Doctor’s appointments
- Holiday dates
- Food shopping lists
- Important phone numbers
- Goals
- Affirmation
- Parties
If you find yourself feeling like you are forgetting something, refer back to your planner to see if you have it in there, if you follow this tip, then you’ll remember it!
Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash
5. Categorise All Of Your Tasks
There are a variety of different ways that planner enthusiasts like to categorise in their planner. The most popular are either by action or by colour.
Categorise by action – you can categorise your planner by having dedicated sections by creating your own dividers, use stickers or washi tape to create sections for each week.
Categorise by colour – you can categorise by colour, it can make it simple and easy to glance at your planner. For example, all deadline tasks could be in red or family events in green. Choose a system that works for you.
6. Have A Monthly Spread For The Entire Year In Order To Forward Plan
Monthly spreads are extremely helpful to reference important dates and events. You then have them all in one place, so you don’t have to go searching.
This planner spread can help you forward plan, which will ensure you do not overlap any social events or important appointments. When you are able to spend time forward planning, it can help you to relieve stress. You will already feel more organised because you can see your plans and tasks in front of you, instead of having them in your head.
Planning like this in my bullet journal helps me practise good time management and it means that I do not forget any important dates or appointments.
7. Use Functional Stickers To Highlight Important Tasks Or Appointments
Functional planner stickers are the perfect way to show your personality in your planner and draw your attention to important tasks. When you are planning, it should be fun, so choosing practical stickers that are also pretty and colourful will help you to create planner spreads that will help you get things done. Using planner stickers can mean that you ca create task lists an highlighting days of the week that can give your planner some colour and character. I like to use different planner stickers most of which I have purchased from Etsy as well as the use of washi tape.
8. Just Have One Planner
The quickest way to become disorganised is to have multiple planners and having tasks all over the place. There are so many beautiful planners on the market and for stationery addicts it can be hard not to purchase all the pretty planners.
However, if you do feel the need to try and utilise more than one planner, you may not have the best planner for your needs, or you may need to customise it further to suit your needs.
I have tried using a paper planner as well as a bullet journal, but it just ended up being counter-productive. This year, I have decided to stick with just my Dingbats dotted notebook for my bullet journaling.
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
9. Use A Habit Tracker Each Month
Habit trackers are a simple way of practising good habits. They hold you accountable and organised. Here are 12 examples of habits you can track in your planner each month:
- Medication
- Skincare
- Step count
- How much sleep you had
- How much water you drink
- Screen time amount
- Vitamin intake
- Social media usage
- Journaling
- Healthy meals
- Takeaways
- Spending/spend free
Habit trackers can be hugely motivating encouraging you to check off the tasks you want to make positive habits. Habit trackers can increase your productivity and organisation each month.
10. Have Your Top 3
It has been scientifically proven that writing your to-do lists on paper dramatically increases your chances of success. So, when you are planning out each day or week, it is the most productive to prioritise your top 3 tasks each day or 3 goals you wish to achieve each week.
Write the top 3 tasks and/or 3 goals in your planner in a space you will regularly see this can act as a reminder to keep you productive to be successful.
11. Set A Time Limit For Tasks
To ensure you are not counter-productive, you should make sure you set yourself a time scale to complete your tasks. It can be helpful if you write the time limit or the deadline in your planner, this way you have a reminder which can keep you focused.
These are some planner organisation tips to enable you to be super productive and achieve the goals you set yourself. Just purchasing a planner is not enough to motivate you to be organised, you need to make sure you are utilising your planner as much as possible to your advantage.
Perfect timing! My new planned is arriving today 😉👍
Good luck with your new planner. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Great tips. I love stationary! When I lived in the UK I used to love browsing in Paperchase 🙂 I always felt so inspired while I was in there. Love happing a planner. It helps me remember appointments and important dates that I would totally forget as my memory is awful.
Paperchase is great! Thank you for reading and commenting.
I’ve been wanting to get myself paper planner for so long, but some are quite expensive and I’m on a pretty tight budget these days. I love these tips, especially having a habit tracker and using stickers to highlight important events!x
If you are looking for ones on a budget you could try: BusyB (they have a sale on their planners right now) as well as ones on Amazon.
I am planning on getting a paper planner. For now I use Google calendar and daily to do lists. I love your ideas on including everything in a planner so as not to leave out important things as the water you drink, meds, even daily steps.
That’s great you have something that works for you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Great post! Setting a time limit is something that has always helped me, and I think giving yourself time to complete tasks, but also setting deadlines is a great idea x
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You’ve shared some great tips here lovely. I need to get myself a planner as I think it will really help organise my life. At the moment I just use my notes on my phone and it just isn’t working for me lol. Thank you so much for sharing this lovely Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
I plan for the next day only now. I get overwhelmed seeing a weeks worth of planned task because it looks like too many at once. Even if it’s been spread out over 7 days
That’s fair enough. You have to do what works for you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Awesome post thank you so much! Love the idea of adding affirmations to my planner 💖
Sitting reading this post makes me feel like planning. Setting aside enough time to plan and creating a system that works for you are great tips. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips, actually, I don’t consider the time for planning, to be honest. This is very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
Great post! I’m someone who prefers not to have everything cluttered on one page so I do have different planners for different things. For example, I have a self care planner, a planner for work, and a planner for all things blogging. I will say that setting a time for everything has helped me a lot
How many beautiful tips! It also helps me a lot to organize everything and write everything down, it gives me a visual idea of the things I have to do. I’m often confused because I write down on many planners, actually having everything in one part helps a lot. Thanks for the advices! 🙂
xx Dasynka
http://dasynka.com/
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I love planners! I keep experimenting with online and physical and physical always wins! I need a pen and a piece of paper and who doesn’t like stationary! I do need to invest in a proper blog planner. I have a life planner but not a work or content one. Excellent post 🙂
I love stationery! So I always choose a paper planner. Thank you for sharing.
I’m just such a planner girl, I love having the right planner for me and getting all of my jobs done. I’ve invested in a desk calendar this year – so far, it’s not floating my boat but I’m going to persevere with it
Rosie
Lovely post, Lauren! I need to learn making planning a habit and these tips definitely helped me, thank you so much for sharing! ( I forget birthdays so I really need one!) * on my way to buy a planner now* x Penny / whatdidshetype.com
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hope you found a great paper planner.
I haven’t been the most consistent with my bullet journal over the past two months, but I started using mine again about two week ago, and it’s been the best feeling. I feel like I’m much more organized. I worry a lot less about having to remember everything (because it’s all written down). I always forget how good it feels to be organized, until I’m organized again! Great post xx
Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com
I hope you continue to love bullet journaling. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Awesome tips 👌
This is a great post. Something that I needed to read at the moment. I love using a planner to be organised. Thank you for sharing this post.
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Writing everything down is so helpful. It may seem like a bit much at first, but it’s amazing how quickly we tend to forget the little things! Thank you for sharing your planner ideas and organization tips!
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I find it super helpful to have everything written down. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Ha! I do love the portion that says to set some time for planning! This is always my issue is that I always say I am going to sit down and do it but always seem to get distracted with something else. Thanks for the post!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Great tips and well outlined post. Writing down is so helpful to not forget things on our to do list. Thank you so much for sharing
I took me years to find the right planner but once I did it made organizing so easy.. I enjoy my “Book of personal accountability” and it keeps me on track and inching toward my goals.
That’s great you have found something that works for you. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I love your organization tips. And I’m a paper guy too. I much prefer reading a paper book and having a paper planner. Thanks as always for the practical advice,
I agree with all of these especially not having one planner. Having too many would just feel confusing and overwhelming to maintain
I am sure the suggestions improve the chances of not forgetting things. One thing I often do is miss a birthday or overlook an appointment until last minute.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Planners are one of my favorite things but I actually only use on for my lesson planning for teaching. I have wanted to use one for other aspects of my life because I enjoy how organized it keeps me at work. I like how you said to use just one for everything.
Thank you for reading and commenting. Can you link your blog so I can have a read?
These are great tips! I must say my organisations varies too much, so I need to find one that I can stick to. Agree that writing a list greatly helps!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
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These are good tips to be productive and stay focus on your goals. Thank you for sharing. Good post!
This is an awesome post! It provides important and helpful information that might actually go hand in hand with one of our most recent posts on productivity. Thank you for sharing.
I love a good planner, but can find it hard to stick to it. All of these are such great ideas, I especially love the idea of having a time limit. It can be so easy to go over board on a certain thing, and not have enough time for anything else xx
Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/
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Fantastic tips for getting the most our of using a planner. I find if I don’t use my planner then most of what I need or want to get done doesn’t happen. And yes to using a single planner. I’ve seen some people out there with 5+ planners and I don’t know how they keep up with all of them.
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Great tips! I’ve been loving my little Hobonichi since I can fit my top 5 to-dos, hourly to-do and have a big space for whatever else I need (I usually journal). Plus, the planner is about the size of my hand/phone! Physical planners work great for me, but I can definitely see the benefits of a digital planner. Thank you for sharing!
I haven’t tried Hobonichi before. Thank you for reading and sharing what works for you.
I love using planners to stay productive and get things down. Writing everything down is the key!
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These are great tips for anyone who wants to get started with planning. I have a bullet journal and I have a regular agenda, and both work great and also work well for keeping things in order.
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I’m such a planner person! I learned the lesson of just having one planner ha but I really need to get into the habit of blocking out planning time!!!
Oooh I love planners!! I get super excited every year when I get to buy a new one! Right now I’m obsessed with Lilly Pulitzer planners. Fantastic post! Thanks for sharing!
Oo I haven’t heard of those planners before I will have a look! X
I love how the way for an organized planning is detailed and surely effective. Likewise, I set a specific time for planning and has to do list with a recycled notepad everyday.
Thank you for reading and commenting. Can you link your blog so I can read if you have one x
Step 2 is such an essential for me! When I plan, I do it well, but I never make time for it. I really should though, so thank you for the reminder!