Friday, December 19, 2008

Daily Planner

I really have a hard time finding just the right daily planner. I am not the most consistent list maker anyway, so I need all the help I can get. Last year, I made my own daily planner that worked just right for me.

Here are the must-have features for me in a planner:

1. SIZE. I have a small notebook that hold my pages so I cut the page shown in half and punch holes.

2. ACCOMPLISHMENTS. I love to check off completed items so boxes are placed on the left-hand column. The shorter lines on the right-hand column are used for one of three things: 1) the time of the activity 2) prioritizing if I know that I may not accomplish everything listed 3) order of errands to run.

3. REMINDERS. Notice at the bottom the words: planning time, quiet time, family time, serving others, and 15 minute spit-spot. These are things that I want to be sure to factor into each day. Planning does not come naturally, so I actually plan planning time. My quiet time is usually set at 5:45 am, but when the kids are home from school or it is a holiday, I may have to re-schedule for a different time. Family is meant to be fun things centered around the kids. Sometimes family time is unstructured time spent together, sometimes it is a planned structured activity like baking cookies together. Serving others was added only a short time ago. Jesus called us to serve others, but I realized I rarely had time to do so. Serving others may mean sending birthday cards, helping with the church youth group, or making a needed phone call to a friend. 15 minute spit spot is a game the kids and I play. We set the kitchen timer and see how much of the house we can pick up before the timer goes off. you might be surprised at what we can accomplish!

4. VERSE. My favorite planning verse is from Proverbs 16:3. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. I used to keep this verse at the bottom of the page, but now I like to have a space for other verses. Placing them on my planner ensures that I look at it often to keep my mind focused.

Good Luck and let me know about your planner!



Daily Planner

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I did not use a planner for 2008 and I can so tell it! My goal for the weekend is to find a small pink one, wish me luck!

n*stitches said...

Yes - planning and list making do not come naturally for me either. One of my new resolutions is to do better with this!

Krisi and Adam said...

What a great planner. I just use Outlook and sync it to our Blackberry.

As for Disney we go frequently when we get an annual pass. We are having withdrawl right now, haven't been in about 17 months, but we will make up for it -- 5 times in this next year (maybe 6).

We go to Disneyland (we're in CA). But we are going to start saving $ and vacation time for a 2 or 3 week trip to WDW (when the kids are old enough to enjoy it!).