21 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Planner

Planners are a great tool for increasing productivity. They take to-do lists a step ahead and giveyou a much better way to plan out for more than just the day. Keeping all the things in your mind can get overwhelming at times, for someone who runs and manages a lot of things together, this can be a huge problem. Using a planner gives you the opportunity to transfer everything from your brain to a physical manifestation of your exact thoughts and visions.

Once you put it all down on paper, your mind is free of the tasks that need to be done, and now you can focus on how to actually do them. Now, you have to plan, build a strategy, and get to work.

Use your planner to effectively plan every step you take towards achieving your goal. It is important to be productive than it is to be busy, which is why a planner can be one of the most important tools in your arsenal.

Now, like everything, the effectiveness of a planner depends on how we use it. It is not this magical thing that, once written on, will make all your goals, dreams, and wishes come true. You have to work for it, use your planner to aid you in your quest for success.

Here are some of the tips that I have learned that have worked for me and many others. Remember, the main thing is to find out what works for YOU because something that works for everyone doesn’t automatically mean it is going to work for you.

Using Your Planner

1.Check your planner first thing in the morning to see what you need to do, and to add whatever new things come to your mind.

2. Keep your planner open while working so that you can add things as you go. If the planner is out of reach, chances are you won’t reach for it enough.

3. You do not have to stick to a specific method. You can change your ways as often as you like, it’s all about what works for you. Learn from yourself.

4. Don’t overfill the pages. It is okay to have white space, don’t give in to the feeling of filling every inch of available space on the planner.

5. There’s no need to use one planner for all the different areas you want to focus on. You can use different planners for different things: work, personal, school, plans.

6. Review your planner often. If you do a lot of things, a weekly review will help you sort through things. If you don’t clutter your daily tasks page with a ton of stuff, then a monthly review might suffice.

7. Save the last few pages as rough pages, or a brain dump zone. This is so that you can put things there that you still don’t know how to go about or what to do with. Instead of writing in another notebook or diary, keep it all together so that it is easy to refer to.

8. Go through your planner at night: to mark off things done, to make notes about things that need to be done, and also to prepare for the next day.

Organizing The Planner

9. Pre-plan your weeks and then divide the tasks into work for each day. This gives you a chance to prioritize and have a clear goal as to how your week is going to look like.

10. Make a to-do list every day. Use methods that help you tackle your to-do lists.

11. Use sticky notes: if you have a big task written that requires tons of little things to be done, then add sticky notes to it, and peel them off as you complete the tasks. This way your planner remains clean, no clutter to overwhelm you.

12. You can also use checkboxes or fill-in circles to tick off or fill in as you complete the tasks, that is, if you want to keep your planner decluttered. I personally like to strike through the tasks, feels good.

13. Color code your tasks, use color pens, highlighters, page markers. This makes the planner easy on the eyes and also makes it easier to know what task is where, what needs to be done, and what is completed.

14. Use a ruler, no matter what lines you are drawing: checkboxes, lists, bullet journal layout. It looks so much cleaner and organized. I even strike through my tasks using a ruler, which is why it doesn’t look shabby.

15. If you run out of space on your weekly or daily spread, then add sticky notes for extra writing space.

16. Use habit trackers to, well, track your habits. Instead of writing something you do every day in the daily pages, dedicate a page for it, and mark as you go. This is also one of the pages that let you get as creative as you want to be.

17. Use tabs so that you can easily separate sections, and it is also convenient for you.

Choosing Your Planner

18. Get a planner in the size that works best for you. Don’t get a big bulky thing if you have to carry it around, don’t get a small one if you do a ton of planning. Figure out what works best for you.

19. Don’t go for the most popular planners just because they work for others, see if they work for you.

20. Expensive doesn’t always mean good. If you don’t have money to spend then even a plain notebook will do. It should just resonate with you.

21. Different planners offer different things. Before buying any planner, check out the page layouts, the different sections offered, the aesthetic. Go for the one that speaks to you, not only with its functionality but also the feel.

Any tool that is meant to increase your productivity will only work if you use it the way it is supposed to be used. Just because something doesn’t work instantly doesn’t mean it never will. Using a planner is adopting a whole new habit, and you just don’t get into a habit in a day or two. Patience is the key in the beginning; then it boils down to perseverance.

Planners are versatile in the sense that they are meant to be customized in a unique individualistic way for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, you have a job, you run your own business, or you are a stay-at-home parent, what matters is that all of us have things to do, places to be, goals to achieve. That is where planners come in to make the process easier. It is your personal assistant in a way, except you are one here, without even feeling like you are doing the job.