My bare-bones, cheap planning system

Would you show us your planner? Even just a dummy page to keep your privacy, it would be interesting to see how you do it. Is it electronic or on paper?

-Jan

PAPER. Always paper.

I triiiiiied to like electronic calendars because they are inarguably more sensible in terms of convenience and cost. But I am an abject failure at using them.

It’s like my brain forgets calendars even exist unless they are on paper.

I have a very, very simple planner because as I have mentioned before, my spatial synesthesia makes my brain see days from bottom to top instead of top to bottom (morning is at the bottom in my brain).

(More on spatial synesthesia here.)

So planners with the hours of the day printed are all wrong for me.

 

I like this undated pad of weekly planners from 3-2-1-done. Super affordable, super simple, and it works for me. It’s 50 sheets, so basically one will get you through an entire year.

$17.99 for a year feels seriously affordable to me.

I draw a horizontal line down the middle, and use the top part for scheduling things out. (with the hours going from bottom to top OF COURSE)

I write in the dates up at the top.

And then I use the lower part to put in any necessary tasks for each day.

In the top section, I put in:

• my school schedule (the most essential part) including lecture, lab, clinical, exams, etc.
• my work schedule
• Zoe’s work schedule

I also add in any appointments for me/Zoe.

Those are all the non-negotiable things on my schedule, so once those are in, then I can see where I have time that is up to me to use.

That’s when I figure out when I will walk and I also plan my gym sessions (which happen at different times every single week due to my school schedule).

 

The rest of my life is more willy-nilly.

For example, I don’t plan out when I will study, write blog posts or run errands; I just fit those things in between the non-negotiables in my life.

Would my life be more efficient if I planned those things out? I dunno, maybe. But this is working efficiently enough for me right now.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I say. 😉

Monthly Calendars

I usually have six months’ worth of monthly calendar pages printed out, and I always have two months tacked to my bulletin board above my desk.

That way I have a place to write it down when I do something like scheduling an appointment for next month.

You can get printable monthly calendars a million places, but I like the free ones from homeprintables.com.

Scrap Paper To-Do Lists

In addition to the weekly planner, I often do a day or weekend to-do list on a scrap piece of paper. That helps me get random household tasks done and helps me keep track when I have a bunch of school things I need to knock out too.

A satisfying way I get more use out of my planner: when I’m finished with the week’s page, I slice it in half with my paper cutter and use the plain back sides of the paper for my scrap paper to-do lists. 🙂

It’s such nice heavy paper, I like getting a second use out of it.

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An overall thought: I don’t think there’s one right way to plan or one right planner; everyone’s gotta do their own process of trial and error to figure out what works best for them.

As with many things in life (like exercise, for example), the best option for you is one you’ll stick with!

Also: the best option is often not the most complicated one. Something simple will probably work just fine (and will probably be less expensive than something fancy and complicated.)

What kind of planning system do you use?