A Peak Inside My Planner
I never thought it would happen, but I’ve become a planner addict. If an event isn’t in my planner, it isn’t happening. Although, that’s mostly because I won’t remember it if I don’t write it down.
Many people like to use their phones or computers to keep track of day to day life. I learned early on in college that I do better when I actually write notes down.
I’ve been asked a couple of times to share how I use my Erin Condren Life Planner, so here is a look inside.
This is actually one of my better looking planned weeks. I had plenty of stickers to get an early start, and I knew enough of what was happening during the week, to be able to start putting stickers down.
Separating sections
The way I divide each of the three sections in my Life Planner, is as simple as time of day. In the previous version, each section had a header that was labeled morning, day, night. I’ve continued using this idea with each section corresponding to the following times.
- Top: wake up-11:59am
- Middle: 12:00pm – 4:59pm
- Bottom: 5:00pm-bed time
Because of the way that our days are set up, it’s rare that I have an activity that spills over into two boxes. Adri gets picked up from preschool at noon, so whatever I’m doing in the mornings has to be done by then. I also start getting dinner together around 5:00pm, which means any afternoon activities should be completed by that time.
Dividing time
After dividing each column into the three sections, I take it a step further, and order each note by time. Using one of the EC hourly planners would be perfect for this, but I actually find them to be too structured.
The very top of the first block is where I make a note of any reminders that I need for the day. As you can see, last Wednesday was Adri’s picture day. The note at the very top of the page reminded me to send her in a Hawaiian themed outfit. BTW.. I CANNOT wait to get her photos back! They turned out adorable!
Depending on the amount of time that a particular activity takes, determines which type of sticker I’ll use. There’s a thin strip for anything that takes an hour or less. I use larger stickers to depict activities that take a longer amount of time. Like you see that gymnastics sticker on Wednesday..?! Agh!
I’ve been using the chore stickers to block off time to clean up the section of the house assigned to that day. I started by just throwing them down across the top of my afternoon section, but quickly realized that wouldn’t work for me. Now they go down where I’ll actually have the time to get the house cleaned up.
Checklists
There are some days that I can just casually go about my day, without having to worry about being too strict with my time. Those are the days that get check lists. If I can get to this certain activity this morning, perfect. If not, I’ll check it off whenever I do get it done. Many of my evenings are like this; just tying up the loose ends from the day. Occasionally, I’ll use the checklist as a shopping list.
Back when I was good about meal planning, I’d even use little dinner stickers at the bottom of each day. I managed to have my shit together enough this week to be able to do that!
All in all, I think it’s pretty self explanatory. Next year, I hope to create a better selection of more functional stickers, to be able to streamline my planner a little bit.
In the meantime, I finally have the chore stickers available to print out. Those on my mailing list received them last weekend. Be sure to get on my mailing list, for other bonuses!
Download the planner stickers
*Personal use only, please!
Happy planning!
