If you’re rocking a packed schedule, it may seem like a daunting task to take a few minutes to sit down and plan, let alone decorate your planner. But taking the time to figure out what’s going on can really help ease the workload stress and make you more productive in the long run.
- Plan ahead. As soon as you know of an upcoming event or date, put it on a sticky note in your planner. That way you already have the time blocked off so you won’t overbook yourself. Plus putting it on a sticky note means that if the plans change, you won’t have to cross anything off and clutter up your planner.
- Schedule in time to plan so that you make sure you do it. A busy schedule deserves some attention to sort everything out. That way you can start every day with a clear understanding of what you need to accomplish without missing or forgetting anything.
- Create daily to do lists, but create them for every day of the week ahead of time. Sunday night create a list for each day of the week and start delegating tasks to certain days. That way you won’t try to sprint through everything on Monday and burn yourself out by Wednesday. There will be clear daily tasks and things will seem a lot more manageable.
- Develop a system that works for you so when things get really hectic, there’s almost no thought needed for the planning process. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, something as simple as color-coding will do.
- Don’t compare your planning style to other people. You’ll stress yourself out more and find yourself spending way too much time envious of other peoples’ spreads rather than focusing on your mountain of work. Planning at the end of the day is a personal experience, not a competition.
- Be willing to change things up if something isn’t working anymore. A planner layout that worked for you last year may not work for what you’re doing this year. Understand that planning styles change depending on what’s going on in your life. Be open to trying something new to ultimately make things easier.
Above all, don’t think you’re too busy to plan. Planning will be your saving grace when things get hectic so don’t write it off at the first sign of trouble.
Yours till the week ends,
Kayla
