Changes - personal again

I realised that I won't never arrive to the so called "planner peace". For me is planner peace that I can play with them. Trying out new layouts, setups, combinations of planners. I have ADHD, what wants me to be there where I'm not. So changing is time (and money) consuming, but changing always something makes me using my planners. I think, if I would stay on the same system I would hate the thing. I wrote already about this, in my heart I want just live without any planning. It is just not working. So I have add something extra - I keep my eyes open, searching new ideas, new planners, designing new inserts, stickers, dividers.
And what happened now? You might know: 1. I told - I'm an A5 girl, I don't like personal size. It is complicated, you have cut paper, and have not enough room on the paper... 2. I have 2 A5 Maldens. I love Maldens. But I'm not crazy for these two colors (purple and ochre), I always wanted something else.
In spring I heared about two new Malden colors, and I said: yes, they are lot more nicer! I watch a lot Filofax videos, and the personal Malden is more beautiful, as the A5. A5 is a biiiig monster :) First I said, hey, I don't need a new one (and not for that money!). But it is time to think on it, the new colors will be released in summer. Marketing works, what you cannot get, you want. And yesterday I ordered the Kingfisher Blue - personal size. Hey, you! Personal size, you don't like it! But I love, how this planner looks. And tried out last week some inserts for it.

Picture from John Lewis webshop

What I learned in the last year: I don't have to have everything in the same binder. What the worst was in personal, the mo2p insert. But do I need that in my personal size? Why not keep the A5 with a lot informations. And use a little bit other the personal size? Do1p - I don't like it, because I need schedule, task list plus place for notes - it is too much for a page, I want do2p. But do2p is too much for A5 - a good excuse for a personal do2p :D
The plan is (I also started to make it): Most of the personal planning, and informations stay in A5. In personal I won't keep appointments, just work planning. I printed out mo1p horizontal for an overview on what day I do what. I washi taped them to an other page to get a fold out, so when I plan my week I can see it.

Then wo2p, on the left side vertical, on the other notes - I keep here additional tasks I might want to do on the week, or notes. On this weekly I don't have any appointments, just work tasks. I keep my appointments in my mo2p calendar, plus Google calendar - and I copy them to my daily schedule.

I insert in between the do2p insert - first page schedule, tasks, second for notes (what is not ideal, because I have to turn, when I want to take notes, but this way I can see my week.

That is planning, than notepaper, meeting notes (I'm always searching, where I took notes, when I talked with someone - nothing fancy just notepaper, but it gets a section.) Lists. This is stupid, I now because I have Todoist, and I have these things there too. But I have to write lists with my hands... :D
I'm hesitating to add an info section to the end with a few very important stuff.
And this way what will be with my pocket size? I have no idea, but it seems to be not needed. Never mind, I will find maybe in a year an other combination, where I will use that again :)

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How to build your perfect planner system? Week 18: Calendar combinations and more about the dailies

Last two weeks I wrote about monthly and weekly calendars, today we arrived to the daily insert. Until now I was asking you to use daily pages, but from now on you can decide if you need it or not. It depends on, what other calendars you use.

I can imagine some combinations...

- Do you have only a few appointments and time related tasks? Use monthly calendar to write your appointments and one or more running tasks list.
- Do you have a lot of appointments and not too much time related tasks? Use only weekly calendar and write here all appointments and your time related tasks. Have some tasks list for not time related tasks.
- Do you have only a few appointments but you need detailed daily task list? You might need monthly calendar for appointments and daily dockets for daily planning.
- You might like to see the big picture in the monthly calendar, more details in your weekly and also need more place for daily planning. Use them all!

How to organize those calendars?

There are two options here: 

1. Have a section for all type: monthlies, weeklies, dailies. This is the common way. Most of calendar you buy in print contains the months, weeks after each other's back.

2. In time. You might find some monthly calendar, which is printed on 4 pages, something on the first and last side, and in the middle is the calendar itself. In this case you can place your weekly, daily inserts between two monthly insert. I like this way much better, this is how I organize my planner. If you don't buy inserts you can also make yourself that's way.
Where to put the dailies? By 2/4 pages per week, I have no better idea, only between the two half of the week. But if you have your all week on one page, and the other is for notes, you can place it after that page.
What if you don't need a daily insert every day, but sometimes it would be good? You can stick a post it to your weekly calendar, and plan there your day. Or a notepaper. Or take an undated daily insert. Keep some from them in your planner, just be by your hand if you need one. 

I think, I already wrote this, but here I want mention again: keep couple month monthlies before and after the current month (I like to keep a whole year for the future, but I didn't printed yet for the next year... I should, shouldn't I? :)) Keep couple of weeklies (3-4 is enough I think), and only 1, maximum 2 week dailies in your planner. It makes no sense to make it too heavy. I remove Sundays always the whole week.

You can take a look into my current system:

Daily inserts

Ok, let's say, you need them. If not, you can wait to the next week's post! do1p or do2p? If you have lot to write, or you have a smaller planner, you might need two pages per day. You might use one side for concrete planning: schedule, tasks lists. And the other side for note taking, doodle, decorating, tasks has to tracked, writing journal, shopping list, keeping post it notes for running to do list, etc. I recommend if you are right handed, keep the planning side on the right and the notes on the left, and if you are left handed, than mirrored. If you have a bigger planner, or you don't want to write too much, you can take a do1p insert. A little trick: if you want to write on this always on the right (left) side, punch the other side too, and flip it over for the next day!
What you need to write on the daily page? I showed you a lot different options before.

Homework

What calendars do you need? How you want to organize them? Reorganize your planner this way! Think about it: do you need a daily page? What do you need on that page? Find/make yourself the perfect daily planner page!

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My ideal planner would be...

I think it doesn't exist.
Lets see what I want, and what planner gives me that.

1. Monthly calendar

It has to be big enough. I'm visual, I love to use my stickers to see what's going on. I got this feature perfectly in the Happy Planner. I think A5 Filo would be also enough, I never tried. In personal, too small, hate it.

2. Weekly calendar

I prefer now the vertical layout, but I'm not sure in that, maybe what horisontal I used hasn't enough structure, and that's why I made it chaotic. In A5 Filofax was too much lines on horizontal, and for me was not enough wide by a day to write in. Happy Planner give me the size. Personal size: too small.

3. Monthly planning

It's ok by any planner I used before, I can add my planner pages in any size. I want to see the big rocks, and having place to distribute them to the weeks. It's ok to having it separate from the other stuff, I take a look on it once a week.

4. Weekly planning

I want to see it somehow together but separated from the weekly calendar. I want it together but separated from the daily planning. In Happy Planner it's not perfect. Projects listed on the left column, but I don't have enough space for all todo-s I want to listing. So I added a list paper in the middle, what is disturbing, I would like to see the whole week at a glance. It is the same thing with the page marker. How could I have the page marker and the todo list make at the same time visible and invisible? :D I don't want to flip to my todo list. I want to keep it at the week - see? It seems to be impossible. But I write here, who knows, you can give me a good idea! In personal I had enough place, and made a fold out, what was not bad, but also not good. Somehow I didn't checked the list, I don't know why. It wasn't simple to write on it.

5. Daily planning

I want to keep it together with my weekly planning and calendar. Mission impossible (or I didn't found the way). When I have do2p in personal I felt it so separate, I have seen only that day. But what I do today is influenced what I will have tomorrow...
What I need here: place for time schedule, visual! To do list, notes. But I don't want to copy events always from the weekly calendar, it is wasting time. I don't want to write tasks to the schedule, but I hate leave unused space on the schedule it is paper wasting. I need different amount of space every day for notes. When I had do2p in personal size, I often left the whole note page clear. Wasting paper and place in my planner. I need something more flexible. No idea.
Size: personal was for daily's perfect, A5 was too much, also do1p, in Happy Planner: no way a whole page for a day, would be crazy. I'm experimenting now, how to use the weekly layout for daily planning too. I would be happy for pictures in my Facebook group how everyone use a system similar to Happy Planner. Not nice decorated ones, they distracts my attention. Functional ones. I'm hesitating to create Chronodex stickers for the schedule, they would be left me enough space for planning, but it might be too small. Notes aren't solved in Happy Planner. Maybe Post its. But where to keep them?

6. Notes, infos, tracking

Is not a big deal, I can solve it in any planner.

7. Size

I want to keep all stuff together. What exactly? Minimum my calendar to bring with me, giving the opportunity to make appointments. Have place to take notes, and some very important informations always with me (as insurance numbers). I used for a while for this reason my Filofax Pennybridge as a wallet plus monthly, weekly calendars and note papers. But I didn't liked to have that separate my "planner planner" :D So adding to the minimum: weekly, monthly planning and more infos, tracking items. I make lot of notes and I love to keep lot of informations with me. What makes my planner bulky. That's why I bought the Kikki K medium, which has 30mm rings. Too bulky. Why have all planners soooo bulky covers??? Paper is already enough bulky. Plus point to the Happy Planner: no cover only that laminated paper. If I could solve everything in the personal size - or pocket... hmmmm, I would be so happy! The Happy Planner is too big always to bring with me! Also the A5 Filofax - it seems to be bigger because of the cover. I might try again the Domino... It has no pockets.

8. Bound

I love much more the rings as the disks! I'm thinking sometimes about the Traveller's Notebook, but that I can't give anywhere an extra sheet held me back. Plus it is also small, isn't it? And laying flat is a must. I keep my planner always open next to me.

Conclusion

I think, I covered all things here.
My ideal planner would be a Filofax Finsbury Pocket,
which can keep a lot of paper without turning too bulky
with a Happy Planner size monthly planner
with some magic a big weekly and daily view together.

OK. If you see somewhere my ideal planner do not hesitate to share with me! :D

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How to build your perfect planner system? Week 6: Make your first reviews

How was going with planning? Hard to find the best way, isn't it? Don't worry, keep trying other structures. (If you didn't done yet, read the last post here.) Today is time to take a look on what happened on the last week.

What is a review?

Shortly: checking what you accomplished and what not. Decide what you have to do next. You can download my printable review checklists here.

Daily review

You have to make it every day. The ideal way would be to make it at the evening, but some (as I) make it at the morning. Planning takes time. But also save too. Schedule a planning session for every day! 15-30 minutes, you will see how much you need.
What to do?

• Take a look into your calendar, what appointment will you have? You might prepare something for it. Block out this times in your daily schedule. If you need to travel, block out the traveling time too! I make it like this:

Out blocked time helps you to decide how much tasks you can plan for the day.

• Check yesterday. What tasks aren’t finished? Copy it. You don't have to move them for the next day, decide, when you want or have opportunity to make them.

Higlighted tasks are done, x-d are cancelled, marked with arrow is moved forward.

• Check your weekly plan. What tasks are what you want/must do today? Write on your task list. 
• Clean up your inbox. What should I write here? You know, what to do. If not, read it here! 
• Make the plan. If you schedule your tasks, make it now. You don’t have write task by task to the schedule, you can write also “bigger” things, as email, work, calls, etc. 
• Set reminders for appointments. If you tend to forget to leave, use a calendar on your phone (I use Google Calendar), and set reminders. You can set for your working sessions too if you wish. 

I took a video once how I did my daily review. Watch it here.

Weekly review

• Schedule for it 30-60 minute weekly. When? Friday evening or at the weekend - if you have possibility for concentrate work or Monday morning. 
• Clean up your inbox if it not cleaned yet. 
• Check your Friday as by the daily routine. 
• Check your weekly planner - decide what to do with the unfinished things. Move them, cancel them or move to someday section. 
• Check your monthly planner. What have you planned for this week? 
• We didn't talked before recurring tasks (coming soon :)), but it is on the downloadable print out… Write these tasks into your days (like Monday: laundry, Wednesday shopping) 
• Tracking list: coming soon. :) If something generate a task here, write it to the weekly tasks. 
• Check your calendar. What deadlines you have? Write appointments to the daily pages. You can do it now, for the whole week, or on daily basis. When you write all at the same time you can better plan your week, you see, on what day you have more time to do your stuff. 

I took a video once how I did my weekly review. Watch it here.

If you make it regularly you will never miss a task you wanted but not done.

Homework for next week

Make your first weekly review as soon as possible. Schedule time for the next today. Do your daily reviews from now every day! Don’t forget to schedule time for it. You might write down how much time you need.

Next part: Values

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in comment! Share your experiments in our Facebook group, and get more help!  

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How to build your perfect planner system? Week 5: Add planning section

Is your Inbox already cleaned? Great job! No? Keep doing! (Missed the last post, how to do it? Read it now!) Long term goal is to empty it every day. I hope you are not frightened about the hundred's of tasks you collected already! It’s time to decide what to do! If you don’t have a plan, you can only react on things coming in. You got an email, you answer on it now. Or maybe you forget it for forever. You are cooking, and notice, there is no sugar at home - you are going to buy some. But what if you would have a note on your planner: “shopping list”, with the item buy sugar - before? And you don't fall into the situation, you don't have sugar at home? You see in your calendar, tomorrow is a deadline for something. It is a nice summer day, would be great to go to the beach with your kids. But you can't because you have to finish that thing. But what if you would have done this task before, and you could decide to go to the beach now? Would be great.
Sorry for the lot pictures! But as you can see I love to experimenting with different layouts, I searched through my archive, and share with you a lot of options I used before.

Divider(s)

First, create a new divider for the planning section. You have lot of dividers already, haven’t you? Did you thinking about what order would be good for that? Your choice! It doesn’t matter! I prefer to keep my planning section in the middle of the planner, because I use it the most, and here disturb me the rings the less.

Don’t react, have a plan!

If you don’t have a plan, you are floating and important things can be fall off. If you plan you make the incoming emergency tasks and all others you schedule. You can decide: when to do it? This decreases the stress level.

Plan your week!

Take a look into your calendar: what have you do this week? What appointments do you have? If you have a lot, you can plan less tasks for this week. What deadlines you have? You should check not only the current week, but the next weeks too! (Later you will have make monthly planning too, than will be more simpler to decide, what to do.) Write your tasks on a note paper, called “Weekly plan”, or something like this :) You don’t need to write here action steps, the “big picture” enough. Write “organise summer trip”, “continue bookkeeping” - you will write subtasks to the daily planner pages!
This is the first time I offer you options, try out what works for you!

Must and should

You are not sure how many things you can achieve? Make two column, one for tasks you must do this week. Really must! In the other column anything you want, and hope you will do. Do not schedule the days now, make it every morning.

What you need and where you will be?

Group things what you can do with something - as your computer or somewhere - as home or away from home, office, etc.

Schedule all tasks for the whole week or not?

When your life is predictable, and you know how much time a task will need to accomplish, you can schedule your whole week in one planning session. Take into account, on which day how much appointments you have!

Half scheduled - half open

Write tasks you must do on a certain day only on the daily page, and list all others to the weekly page.

Weekly must do-s on fold out, and only a few tasks on the daily plan.

After weekly planning: plan your day!

Take one daily planner page for all days. You can choose do1p or do2p (day on one or two pages). If you use 2 pages for a day, use one for planning, and the other for notes, extra informations, journaling...

Some options:

List everything what you want to do

You might write this way too much, what can be frustrating. Hard to prioritise. Benefit: if there is nothing very urgent and extremely important, you can choose task matching your mood. What you didn’t done today, you will make tomorrow. One more contra: you have to rewrite the undone tasks.

Schedule

If you are good in predicting how much time you need for a task: make a timeline, and write the tasks in your timeline. Do not forget to schedule breaks! This is a very effective way to planning, but it’s hard. Who knows how much time need finish something? :)

Here I scheduled only that hours, when it is possible to work.

Here I scheduled the whole day.

Plan blocks

If you are working home, is more important, as you are working in office. Plan concrete timeframes for “housework” “kids” “work”, but for work can you define also sections, as “daily routine” (read emails, write blog, etc), “planning”, a big project, deal with little tasks, calls, etc. Make it visual! Have places on your page for this things. Or: use color coding. If you use this sections plus a timeline also - block out your time!

3 lists: work, chores/kids and calls. In schedule the blue is for personal/family time.

Here I used color coding to tell apart the different things. Orange is family, pink is work, blue is social media.

Block tasks for morning and afternoon.

Make two list for must and should 

I wrote To Do instead of should, I don't know why

Extra picture: 

Left side my weekly plan with must and should, right side the daily, with blocks on post its, scheduled with the same color on the timeline. The daily plan is designed that way you can punch both side, so next day you will have the daily plan on the right side again. When you used both side, remove it, than the actual daily plan will be again next to the weekly plan.

Homework for next week(s)

Make your first weekly plan. Start to experiencing with the weekly and daily planning ideas! The best you take grid paper now and use your liner. Try out, what works best for you? Choose which calls you, use it for a week, and change if you think. Combine the ideas, what I wrote, or find new one - share your ideas with us! You know already what you need? Browse on internet for more daily inserts!

You feel that a daily page is too much for your needs? Do not care about it NOW, make it. Later you will have the opportunity to leave it.

How much from the weekly and daily pages should you have in your planner?

Two-four from weeklies, and one or two weeks from dailies. You can remove the whole week after you done your weekly review (later post), and place a new week. This way you won’t have too much planning pages in your planner.

Next week you will do your first reviews (weekly and daily)!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in comment! Share your experiments in our Facebook group, and get more help!  

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Inbox - in the planner???

What is an inbox?

The idea comes from the GTD system, in there you have to collect all the stuff you need to deal with - no matter it it trash, task, todo, or info material. Inbox (for me) is a place, where thing that has to be handle lands before I find it's place. What I mean about this "things"?

• receipts
• letters from school, maybe with events, or only with infos
• notes written by me (someone else)
• tickets
• emails printed out
• shopping list on a post it
• etc

Where is the inbox, and how it looks like?

My inbox was for the first time only a pocket after the dashboard in my main planner. The pocket is very useful, because not every piece of paper can be punched. If you have no time/opportunity to punch the paper, or you don't want now to deal with it, place into the pocket.

After that I read in a blog (sorry, I don't remember any more) that she has some notepaper at the beginning of the planner to write notes quick down. And this is also an inbox. You write here your ideas, a todo list, or shopping list. And you will remove this note paper later, where it belongs in your planner!

More than one inbox? Oh, yes, I have more. As I decided to remove my calendar from my main planner to be simpler to carry on, when I'm out of home, I might write something in that smaller planner. That's why, that planner is an inbox too.

The inbox extensions

We have a chalkboard in the kitchen, there can all family members write what we have to thinking on. Mostly what to buy. If I'm cooking, I don't want to take my Filofax, I write on the board quick. When the board is full, I write everything to my planner on the right place.

My phone: if I'm driving I can make audio notes with a voice recorder in my phone (I have to remember - how hard it is!!!)

Why should you have an inbox?

Simplifies your life, minimize the distraction. If you have an inbox, that gives you the opportunity stay in your task on you are working, and leave you to decide later, what to do with that info. In my daily routine I have a task, called "clean up inbox". Every morning I'm looking through, what I have here, and I put away. Do your tasks, when you have time for it! Imagine a situation (happens with me often): I'm working on my computer. My daughter comes home, and gives me a letter from the school with lot of events for the whole quarter. Yes, I could punch it at the moment, and starting write the appointments into your calendar, but it makes no sense, remember: I'm working on something! It can also happen, that you don't know yet, where you should place that piece of paper, take your time to find the best for it. Or you are away from home, get a receipt. It is going to the inbox. At home you can put away, where you have your receipts.

Good luck! Later I will come back with a tutorial, how to create your own inbox pocket, because I don't like mine, I will do a new one :)

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Page marker with daily routine

I made this page marker after the idea from Kent from Oz. 

How it is built: I laminated a paper, same width as the inserts, and a little bit taller (6mm). I laminated a protector page without paper, and cut to the same height, and 6 cm wide. I took wash tape, and first I glued the two piece together, when the smaller was on the top of the larger (that leaves enough space between the two pieces). then I opened it, and used an other stripe of wash tape on the other side. My addition to it: I cut a piece  from the notepaper of the daily insert. I wrote my daily routine, and glued on the leaf that way, when I fold the marker, it matches to the notepaper insert. I can draw now my checkboxes there.

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New daily planner insert and free post it template download

I didn't found the perfect time management system for myself, I'm always working on it. On my goals list is one goal: more balance between family and work, now I'm trying to thinking in time blocks. Working from home is not simple, if you (and your family) cannot separate the two things. So I created a new insert for myself, where I can better blocking the different activities.

This is for today:

How it works:

 As you can see it is not perfect yet, I have 7 tasks for top 5, I have to correct it. And I got the idea too, that I will add glasses but not horizontally as usual but near to the hours.

Free printable: post it template

I share with you the post it template, what I'm using now on my daily page.

Click on the picture to download it. Please write me, if you have problem with download, this is my very first Dropbox upload!

And please share me, how do you use it! I'm also happy for sharing your pictures here in the blog (send me to: zsuzsa@softrainbow.ch).

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The Daily Review

It would be to do at the evening to know what is waiting for you tomorrow. But I'm not able to. I'm making it always mornings.

Lets see, what I have done and leave yesterday:

I have to make corrections on the planner, and make the Thank you promo. I use these markers here:

Take a look on weekly plan. I marked with highlighter what I already done. Two things are what I have to do. See the Fata Morgana release? I know it, that I won't have time to do it, it is not in my Monday plan...

For Purple Caramel (this is a pattern) test I have a checklist, laminated, I can re-use it later. This can I find in my 17 folder system by this week. A test runs more weeks, I only have my eyes on it, answer, correct if there is something. I checked the list, I have nothing to do now with it.

This is the miscellaneous weekly to do list. I could pick some to do-s from here and write to the Daily Plan, but for now, I leave it so, and I scheduled time for working from this list.

And what I got for today. It seems a little bit too much, but we will see. Can you see the little dot by the Thank you promo? It means, that I have rescheduled it already once. I have to start with it...

How do you do your Daily Review?

Happy Planning!

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My February plans

This will be not an efficient month. In the first two weeks are holiday in the school. My little one is at home this week, and the other two are in ski camp. It means, I have to cook every day, and of course, I cannot work as much as usual, if I have a 6 year old at home. Next week we will going to skating every day.

Thats why I planned only a few things for this month. I have some monthly routine for the first and second week (promotion, paying bills). I plan writing a pattern for some weeks already, I have on my weekly plan it yet, but as you can see, I didn't planed it for a day. It might have to skip again... Other things are most important.

My weekly plan looks not too busy...

But if I start to collect every little things together, my daily plan is full:

I use color coding for the different things: pink is work, orange is family, blue is me.
I also use numbers for the tasks, it is useful if they are little things. Take a look on number 2: they are tasks can do in couple of minutes. I reserved for them all an hour. I have a weekly task list too, with such to do-s, which I can do whenever I want.
Little flags are to keep my extra attention. On the orange is "hang out clothes" - I'm tending to forget my washing... By calls the yellow one reminds me, that I'm waiting for a call back. Tomorrow I can replace this flag for the next Daily Planner page. As I see, I have almost done everything.

What is your plan for the month/week?

Happy planning!

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