Let’s Get Organized- Your Planner, Your BFF

September 29th 2017

Planner Card — You Can Get My Planner Here

Planners can be one of your bffs if you use them correctly…

Whether you’re headed back to school or just looking for a way to keep your life in order as Autumn falls in our laps again (see what I did there? Autumn! Fall! Haha ((I hate myself lol))), a planner is a good place to start. So in this post I’m going to teach you some simple tips, tricks and hacks to getting the most out of your planner whether you’re a student, a parent, a professional, or all of the above:

Tip #1- Size matters- my number one problem with keeping planners early on in college was that I would always choose planners that were too small. Although small planners are easy to transport, I found that fitting in all of my things while keeping it easy to read was difficult. I would definitely recommend a small planner for on the go and a bigger planner to keep at home to transfer over things you write down day to day.
Tip #2- You don’t need a physical planner- Most of us nowadays have these nifty devices called smart phones that do a whole ton in the way of keeping us organized. Built in note features and calendar features are super great ways to have your whole schedule at your finger tips. I find that keeping a written planner then updating my phone calendar month to month has been the best way for me to stay organized. You can also find some great templates to make your own digital planners online!
Tip #3- Color helps- Many studied have shown that the use of color in notes can really help the memory retain more, so color code your planner! For example, on my calendar, blue is social plans, purple is work, orange was school, green was birthdays/appointments/holidays/special events, and misc. was yellow! This not only helped me keep my plans nice and separated but also helped me remember what needed to get done more easily without having to constantly check my planner.
Tip #4- Index Cards and Post-its are good planner companions- When I was in school I used to write my weekly to do list on an index card and paperclip it to the top of my planner page for that week or month. Keeping weekly to do lists of things that needed to get done helped me ensure that actual tasks didn’t get lost in the sea of appointments, birthdays, meetings, and other obligations.
Tip #5- Only write the important stuff- I used to just fill boxes in my planner to make it look full, but that just created a lot of clutter. If you don’t need to write it down then don’t, it’s that simple.
Tip #6- Find a format that is right for you- I recently found a planner by a comic artist named Sarah Andersen and the layout of her planner is perfect for me. She set her planner up in 3 sections for each day, Appointments/Misc., Stuff to do, and My social life and she left a section to write notes for the week as well (and each page has a funny little comic strip so extra bonus). So find your ideal format! Do you like daily calendars? Weekly? How about monthly? I personally mostly prefer monthly so I can keep an eye when things are coming up and get a birds eye view of everything, however, daily and weekly offer more space to write so that helps too! Find the best format for your life. Target has a really awesome selection of affordable planners!
Tip #7- Have Fun- This last one sounds silly but its important. If you like setting your planner up and using it then you will be more likely to commit to it. They make some really cool planners you can buy that you can decorate with cool stickers and sections and things! There is actually a whole community of people who do planner videos on YouTube. They love their planners and as a result they love their plans a bit more too.