After deciding to “move in” to my personal sized planner, I gave some thought to what I really and truly needed to include to make me more productive and keep my family organized.  You know what I realized?  It’s not as much as I thought.  Especially for the summer when the kids are out of school! So I peeled everything out of those rings and started from scratch (gotta LOVE the ring-bound system!)

Here are the sections I have created:

1. INBOX

This is a brain dump area for anything and everything that comes across my plate.  This is not a working “to-do” list nor does it have any categories or organization.  I think of it more as a parking lot where I can write something down quickly until I can properly find a home for it later.  This might mean a task that gets pushed to a “someday” list, a quick idea that might later become a creative project, an appointment that I’ll eventually add to my digital calendar, or maybe just a reminder to call someone back.  It just relieves my mind from having to remember to process something when I’m on the fly.

I created super simple inserts that just have lines and a left side check box.  As I’m able to delegate or relocate an entry, I can check it off and move on.

2. CALENDAR

Here is the heart of my schedule and task list and where I spend most of my time.  I typically keep monthly tabs starting from the beginning of the year and up to the current month. Behind each monthly tab I keep my foldout monthly insert from Plan2Create.

In the current month only, I will also have all my daily pages.  At the end of each month, I pull out all the completed daily pages and load up a new batch of clean ones.  I do leave the monthly foldouts so I can refer back to them if I need to.

3. WEEKLY

Behind my main calendar, I put a separate section for the weekly foldouts.

I find myself referring to a weekly view for different reasons than my daily view, so I figured I would put a bookmark in each and open to them separately rather than try to keep them inline. This is a bit of an experiment so I will report back and let you know if that structure works out.  My weekly foldouts are also from Plan2Create – you can find them HERE.

4. SHOPPING

Groceries and other “need-to-get” items seem to add up endlessly in my house.   In summer, we divide our time between our home and our “floating cottage” so I have two separate grocery lists going at all times and I can never seem to remember where we just ran out of ketchup! #thestruggleisreal

I also seem to have this inevitable experience wherein I get to the end of my grocery trip and notice one overlooked item on my list that is WAAAAY back at the front of the store and I am backtracking all over the place!

So – for groceries, I created a handy little page with food categories that roughly match the main sections of my grocery store. That way, before I leave the deli department I can make sure that I don’t forget something and hopefully cut down on all the criss-crossing of the store that I always do.  I keep lots of blank copies of this list in my shopping section and add to my “boat” and “home” lists as needed.  When I hit the store, I remove the list from my planner and bring it in for shopping and then toss it! (It is two-sided with other categories on the back, so one pulled page equals one shopping visit).

I also created a more generic shopping list for those times when my son comes downstairs and announces that he has no decent dress shoes that fit (this always happens about 5 minutes before we leave for church). That way, the next time I see a sale or happen to be at the mall, I can check this list and grab what we need.

5. NOTES

My final section is a simple Notes section. For me this seems to be the one that always fills up first and functions as a catch-all for anything I need to brainstorm, jot down, etc. Usually these pages are all chicken scratchings and sideways writing but hey – it works!

Again, I created very simple lined pages that I can print myself in an endless supply.

I am certainly not re-creating the wheel here… nothing too tricky but rooted very firmly in function.  I encourage you to assess how your planner is (and isn’t) working for you and adjust accordingly.  I’d love to hear what sections you all have in your planner and how you use them!

Have a terrific weekend 🙂

xo,

Tricia