A new year begins is less than 2 weeks and it’s time to start thinking about your 2014 planner.
I’ve tried planning my life digitally and my husband swears by his Google Calendar, but I’m old school when it comes to my calendar–I prefer paper.
I’ve been using my paper planning process for years and it has served me well. I’ve thought about switching to something different, like those fancy refillable planners, but I stop myself. My system has worked for me for years, so why change it. In fact, when I get lazy and don’t follow my own system, my days tend to not run as smoothly, I miss tasks, and I don’t get as much done.
I get easily distracted especially with social media, yet, I have to GET THINGS DONE! I’m a wife and mother. I manage my family home and finances. I co-own and help my husband manage our small business in the health care field. My kids are in Elementary school and are involved with activities where I am the lead chauffeur. I write about family life and finances for my blog and other sites. And I like to run long distance races that require a lot of training.
I’m busy and completely over-scheduled, but when I follow my own planner advice, I tend to get a lot accomplished during the week.
How I Plan My Day/Week/Month on Paper
For starters, I use a Weekly/Monthly Planner as my main planner. It is the command center for my life. This type of planner can be found at any office supply store. It has tabbed 2-page per month calendars and after each monthly tab are 2-page per weekly calendars.
I use the monthly calendar to track all of our activities and events.
Each Sunday, I plan my upcoming week by posting all of that week’s activities and any errands on the weekly calendar.
I also type a weekly to-do list on Word. I need this weekly list to keep me on task with all of the facets of my life.
Each night, I review the next day and use a post-it pad or notepad to plan out my day.
And by Friday night, I’m exhausted and ready for the weekend.
Do you still use paper to plan your life? Let us know your process in the comments.
Even though I do a lot of stuff digitally, I still need my paper planner. What I started doing and need to get back into is putting long-term reminders into Nozbe which I then put on my daily planner each week. I do a much better job of planning things out with Nozbe as my master brain dump and the paper planner for the daily stuff.
I also like to use Nozbe for a running list of tasks to do for blogging like site maintenance.
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I have not heard of Nozbe. I’ll have to go check it out. Thanks for the tip!
I have gone back to paper. I do maintain an online calendar so that my husband and I can see things on the go, but I love my paper calendars!
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I also maintain an online calendar for my husband as he has embraced his digital calendar. I too love my paper calendars!
I have bee using a paper calendar to make plans since last year but I have adopted Google Calendar this year mainly because I have become quite attached to my phone and I can sync it with the Google Calendar on my laptop.
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