How to Make Planners Work for YOU

How to Make Planners Work for YOU
For items mentioned in this video, see the “Planners & Inserts” section of my Amazon shop HERE.
In my last post I talked about how to set goals for the new year and create a plan to successfully fulfill those goals in order to become more in line with your ideal self. If you want to learn strategies to organize your year in a way that works for you, this is the post to read.
One luxury in this busy world is figuring out how to keep yourself organized and on track to reach your goals. In this post I’ll share strategies, formats, supplies for organizing information in your life, and I’ll give you an overview of my planners and how I put these tools into practice.
Warning: Setup to be time consuming but know that it’s worth it to have your plan in place so it will help you be successful along your journey.
Strategies
First figure out what it is that you want to organize. Start by brainstorming all the information you want to have on hand. You could:

• Create an outline with an overview of the topics you want to organize
• Type and sort the topics into order or write the topics on sticky notes and move them around into order
• Transfer the final order to a notebook
• Flush out each topic

Use resources and do research. You don’t have to do it alone. Use premade templates, use others’ ideas, and alter things to work for you. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use only one method on a project or the same method across several projects, you can use different methods for different things or different parts of a project. Find whatever works best for you for whatever you’re working on.
If you have multiple projects it may be best to separate them into different notebooks or planners. For one project, everything does not have to be consolidated in one place at the start (for examples you may be using sticky notes and also have a digital spreadsheet) BUT the end goal is to get it all in one place in a way that is organized and makes sense to you so that you can refer to it, you don’t have to search for things, you won’t forget things, and it easy for you to follow. You’ll want to be able to make updates, review, and reflect on your progress which will make it easier for you to be more successful in following through with your goal.
Final formats

• Digital vs paper
• Bound planners (spiral or sewn notebooks/planners) vs binder or ring bound system (Louis Vuitton, Happy Planner, where you can move pages
• Blank pages/notebook (you have full control) vs pre-formatted pages

Strategies for Organization and Planning

• Lists
• Outlines
• Charts
• Spreadsheets
• Visual organization: Venn diagrams, drawings, collage (magazines, books, digital)
• How to organize several kinds of information mixed together
  • Symbols
  • Color coding
• Trackers for data, tasks, progress

Helpful Supplies

• List pads/note paper – always carry a notebook to record ideas
• Sticky notes – for notes, page markers, color coding
• Colored pens – if you have many you may want to have a pen case
• One color for headlines and bullet points, second color for writing
• Correction tape
• Calendars – year/month at a glance, large month, weekly
• Tabs – months or whatever else you need (show Avery tabs)
• Stickers – useful stickers to mark things (money, packages, scale, rewards, etc.)
• Washi tape
• Double sided tape
• Page markers – for important pages you’ll refer back to regularly, bookmark, tabs, sticky notes, paper clips (decorative),
• Place to put loose pages – loose in notebook, pockets in notebook, separate folder

How I Use Multiple Planners

• Louis Vuitton Agenda GM for daily planning – important dates, work and YouTube to do lists, package delivery dates, to buy list
• Louis Vuitton Agenda MM – luxury sales associate cards, online purchase and delivery tracking, Louis Vuitton inserts
• Louis Vuitton Desk Agenda – one ring bound notebook for work and one bound Stalogy notebook for YouTube planning
• Big Happy Planner – YouTube ideas
• Erin Condren planner– YouTube calendar, Instagram posts, community posts, blog posts
• Bound notebook – finance tracker

Remember you can change things as you go. With everything we have going on in our lives it’s easy to forget long term goals so it’s KEY that you check in regularly with your plan. You can’t make your plan and never look at it again. Check in, review your progress, schedule time to reflect on what you’ve done well and what you can improve (maybe this is a journal entry), plan for the next week/month, see what’s coming up, and continue on your journey.
If you’ve had trouble using a planner in the past or think you’d have trouble checking in with your plan it might help you to have pretty supplies that make you want to use them like LV agenda or decorative pens. It might also help to carry your goal planner with you between work and home.
Yes, it can be a lot of work to set up a planner in these ways, especially if you’re just starting or if you have multiples, but if you set it up in a way that works for you then it’s worth your time and energy and will help you stay focused, reach your goals, and come closer your ideal self.
Thanks for reading. If you want to find out what major goal I’ve set for myself this year and how I’ve planned for success be sure to check out my next post on a low buy year.
Have a fantastic day!