Let's talk about Planning.

Planning. A big topic that seems easier said than done, right? No matter what age we are, whether a student or maybe you are already far into your professional career. Planning and organizing your thoughts on paper can sometimes be challenging. And now we have even more options to keep ourselves organized (digitally, on paper, digital planners, etc). Sometimes it is really easy to get overwhelmed and not even know where to start. Through high school, college, and throughout my own professional career working in retail, I have learned quite a few tips and tricks along the way that I would love to share with you all to help you stay on track and keep organized. 

The first major question to ask yourself is what tool or system do you have in place that you will use to help contain all of your lists, notes, calendars, etc? Do you have a calendar? A paper planner? Do you use a digital planner? Maybe you don't even have one yet, and that's ok! 

Personally, I have toggled between a few and sometimes it can be trial and error until you figure out what works best for you. Some people retain information better by writing. I tend to sway that way and have a lot throughout my career. After toggling between digital planners and those I have bought at the store, I decided to create my own planning system that is customizable to what you need. I am going to walk you all through the binder planner method.

Let's break it down into steps to help better visualize this.

Step 1: Grab a binder, preferably a 1" binder to start. If you have a lot more information to organize, by all means you can use a 2" binder. I have a leather binder, but you can use whatever you want!

 

Step 2: Determine what topics you will include in your paper or digital planner to help keep you organized. What I mean by topics is, you want to determine what areas of your life need organizing. This is where we are going to set up tab divider pages and label them with our major categories. 

My binder includes Daily Planning, Finances, Calendar, Kids, Project Planning (House), and Work.

Some people prefer to keep Work separate from their personal binder, I prefer to put everything in one binder so I do not have multiple binders to carry around.

A binder set up for a student may include: Daily Planning, Weekly/Monthly Planning, Finances, Calendar (with major deadlines/assignment due dates), Class Schedule, & Notes, To-Do Lists or Assignment Lists. I personally prefer to set these up in my binder in alphabetical order. Set your tab divider pages and move onto step 3.

We'll be adding more Planner templates soon for inspiration!

 

Step 3: Add in your filler pages for each tab divider section. For example, for daily planning, I use our Daily Plan template and print 20 at a time, put them in my binder and go. You can find other templates on google or Pinterest, or soon you can use ours!

Step 4: Fill our your planner, and be consistent. Consistency is key in staying organized. A lot of times it can be easy to set our planner up, use it for a week and then fall off of the bandwagon. The only way to reach your goals is to be consistent in your planning and follow up. Create a routine. For example, I set aside 10-15 minutes a day in the morning, where I open up my planner and re-evaluate my goals every day. I see what I was able to get done the day before, what still needs to get done, prioritize my goals and plans, and take a few minutes to reconfigure my plan for the day if I need to. 

 

Stay tuned for more tips and inspiration on planning and organizing tips.