Planner Hacks for the Modern Girlie*
It’s back-to-school season so for some folks, that means a new planner! If that’s you, I’ve got some planner ideas for you. If it’s not, save this for later! I’m here with the planner hacks for the gworls*.
Get the planner that you will use. This seems obvious, but sometimes it’s not. If you have a physical planner, what do you want it to do? Manage your calendar? Keep track of your notes? Get the planner that’s designed for that. If you take a lot of notes, get a planner with space for that. If you don’t write a lot but you’re on your tablet or ipad or laptop more, get a digital planner! (You could also cobble together stuff using multiple apps, but having things in one dedicated space is likely easier.)
Make it yours. There’s no rule that says you can’t draw or color or use stickers in your planner. If it makes you happy to open your planner when it’s filled with color, then do that! The goal here is to keep your life together, not have random people think that you’re “so mature.” Make that planner look like a thing that is meaningful to you. Use the space in it for what you need. If it says appointments but you use it for your schedule, who’s gonna check you?! Exactly. That’s what I thought.
Make time to plan out your day/week/month. While using your planner to keep track of things on the fly is great, the real hack is to take 5-15 minutes to do some more intentional planning.
Make sure your appointments are in order.
Create a task list for the next day/week. Brain dump.
Write our your thoughts or plans about a specific project.
One way I use my planner is on Sunday evenings to plan out my week. I set 1-2 goals for the week, and take a look at my upcoming meetings and priorities. That way, on Monday mornings, I don’t feel overwhelmed by the start of the week.
Mutual backups are your friend. By mutual backups I mean things that are duplicated. So putting something in a physical planner and a digital calendar. Physically writing it down can help you remember that something is happening, and the digital backup can reel you in if you’re distracted and lose track of time. Physically writing it down means that you remember to look up the address in advance, while the digital reminder makes it easy to plug directions into your GPS. You don’t always have to choose to be either a physical or digital planner person. Porque no los dos?
If you’re not a planner person, that’s also totally fine! Do the thing that works for you and helps you feel like your life is together.
Wishing you all the best on your planner journey!
*girlie and gworls are gender neutral in this usage.
