Welcome to Episode 002 of The Planner Podcast!
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Transcript
Hi, this is Mim Jenkinson and you’re listening to The Planner Podcast.
Hello and welcome back! Today I thought I’d share four really simple steps on how you can plan your day to be more organized because when we’re planning we want to be as productive as possible along. We all have lots of things to do! So I thought I’d share some really simple tips on how you can be a bit more structured and organized when planning.
Tip one of planning your day is to pick your planning tool. Choose the planner that you’re going to use. As I’ve said before, I always use my Erin Condren LifePlanner. Pick your favorite planner, find a pen that works for your planner as well. I have found that it’s a bit of trial and error and for me, I really love the FriXion pens from the Pilot range because I know they write really nicely and also come in loads of different colors and you can rub them out!
Tip two is to then prioritize your plans. For me, I’m generally work on a To Do list method. I like to prioritise the events and tasks that need to be completed first and I’ll put everything down in order that way or maybe I’ll highlight and ones that I really can’t miss. And then before I finish my list, I will add some of those “nice to do’s” that if I get through all of the priority tasks and I get round to doing other things, these are the things that I’ll do.
I work from home and I use my partner to plan my work, personal and family tasks and plans and appointments. You might choose to categorize everything separately. For me, I just put everything in one big list in terms of priority.
Tip three is to set yourself some reminders because I don’t know whether you’re anything like me, but I get quite distracted. So even though I use a paper planner, if there’s anything really urgent that I definitely can’t afford to miss, I’ll pop it into my iPhone calendar as well. I don’t use the calendar on my phone every single day.
I also try and schedule some breaks as well throughout the day. And I’m really, really, really bad at this because I love my job! I love being at my desk and working and before I know it, hours have passed and then I’ll move and my back hurts and I realize it’s because I’ve not been moving around. Try and schedule in some breaks into your days as well as some fun stuff. So when you’re planning your day, especially if it’s mainly work plans or maybe even something that you just don’t want to do, try and pop in a few fun things or breaks as well and make sure you’re standing up every now and again, grabbing a drink, going for a walk, getting some fresh air and sunshine.
And then the fourth quick tip too is to not over-schedule. And I am so much better at this now. I used to be pretty bad. I literally, if I had, 20 lines in my planner to write a list, I’d fill every single one and that would make me feel really organized. Actually having a big long list of things to do would make me think, wow, look how organized I am having to do all these things! But then of course you can only get through so much every day. So don’t over schedule. If something isn’t realistically going to happen in a day, don’t write it in your planner. Don’t set yourself up to fail and feel bad because then you’ve not ticked it off. It took me ages to master this. Even though it’s really simple.
Only put tasks in your planner that you are capable of completing and if not, find a way that you will be because you don’t want to either skip things and feel bad that you haven’t done them or rush through anything that you shouldn’t be. Make sure that you only put in plans and appointments and tasks that you can realistically do and that are really important too. One thing I’ve gotten much better of is every week and sometimes every day I’ll look through my list and reassess, should that be on today’s list? If it shouldn’t, I’ll move it. Sometimes I’ve had something in my planner for weeks on end and just have never been able to complete it. And I’ll think long and hard that maybe it isn’t important or necessary.
So there are my four quick tips on planning your day. I would love to know if you have any other tips on making sure that you plan effectively and productively and get everything done! Thank you so much for listening.
Pop me a message or an email or a comment and let me know the kind of topics that you’d be interested in and any areas that you struggle with in terms of using a planner or staying organised.
Thank you very much for listening and I’m really looking forward to this show. I’ll see you in the next episode!
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