How to Make an Effective Planner

An effective planner can help you complete a list of tasks, manage events, and is flexible enough to deal with unexpected invitations or requests. The information empowers you to know that activities that must be done every day and the time needed to finish them. This knowledge also prepares you mentally and/or physically to tackle your to-do list and schedule. The type of planner used is based on personal preference, and can be a smartphone, printed planner or notebook. Planners can also be used as family organizers, address books and financial resources.

Things You'll Need

• Preprinted planner
• Small 3 ring binder (approx. 9”x 6”)
• College ruled loose leaf paper for binder
• package of tabbed dividers (5 per pack)
• 2 vinyl ziplock pouches otebook.
• 1 package of 3 ring style phone/address pages
• Pen

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Instructions

• 1

  Decide whether to have two planners, one for work and another for your personal life, or one planner to handle both. Having two planners can create a dividing line between work and your personal life, but lack the flexibility to include items like a reminder to pickup dry cleaning on the way home.

• 2

  Create sections in your planner on topics of interest to you, if possible. Some titles can include goals, daily, weekly or monthly calendars, family personal information, projects, address book pages and ideas. A miscellaneous section can cover everything else and a ziplock bag can be added for relevant papers like tickets.

• 3

  Create a list of personal priorities and goals in order of importance to you. Set both short term goals from 6 months to a year and longer term goals for areas such as finances, relationships, career, health, and relationships.

• 4

  Include gaps of time in your schedule. Set limits on how much you can realistically try to accomplish in a day. Block off time for things that are important to you but not urgently requiring immediate action, such as long term goals and personal projects.

• 5

  Defer doing new tasks or attending to events to the next day or a more appropriate time, unless the matter is truly urgent. You will be more prepared to tackle the items when you consult your planner in the morning.

• 6

  Accept that some projects may take more than a day to complete. Focus on creating time in your planner for the project rather than feeling pressured to complete it in one day. If you do decide to complete a project in one day, consider how the time allotment will impact the rest of the tasks and events on your schedule.

• 7

  Deal with backlogs caused by illness or vacations by creating a backlog file or list of tasks and events. Keep up with daily commitments while blocking off some time everyday to reduce the backlog.