Q & A: When Do I Plan?

Happy Friday, my friends!

It's a mild, muggy day ... storms are coming later, but right now it's pretty quiet out there. We've had a nice morning so far - making a fresh batch of hummingbird nectar, spying a new wren at the feeders, and scaring a big old tomcat off with the squirt gun. (Nobody messes with our squirrels, lol!) And lunch just wrapped up so I have a few minutes to sit down and put some polishing touches on this post ...

:)

Here's a great planning question from Jo:

Hi Dawn,

Do you have a day of the month to plan for the next month? Can you get into how you do the seasonal planning a little bit?

Jo, I'm so glad you asked this question - and I will address it in just a moment - but you raise a really important issue when it comes to planning systems in general. We could have THE best set up - the most well-thought out, beautifully-appointed planning system evah - but if we don't take TIME to maintain it, it won't do us a bit of good! Making time in our schedule to consider our life and coordinate it with our planner (whatever type of planner we use) goes a long way in keeping us on track.

I've certainly struggled with this from time to time. I'll have a set "agenda" in mind and on paper, but then life gets busy and I get distracted and then next thing I know, I'm on autopilot - just putting out fires and getting through the day. All of a sudden a weekend's come and gone and it's Monday morning and I have scarce idea what the new week's all about: Did I arrange babysitting for my doctor's appointment? Did I purchase that sympathy card to mail? Did I record that new science show? Do I have the ingredients for that special birthday supper?

Thankfully though, with constant, concrete reminders to PLAN ahead, I'm usually at least aware of things if not quite on top of them ...

So it probably comes as no surprise that "seasonal planning" has always been a big priority of mine - for one thing, I take great pleasure in nature and I live in a place where the four seasons are quite distinct and (to my mind) equally enjoyable. On a deeper level, there is something so comforting about the returning seasons ~ and something so fulfilling in the regnerating beauty of God's creation. I can remember as a young girl spending my summers drawing up "booklets" filled with my fall ideas ... or creating "Christmas Planbooks" for myself and my friends.

Needless to say then, I've collected LOTS of ideas on the seasons through the years - things to look forward to, activities to take part in, events to celebrate, and changes to observe. I did a series of "themes and plans" posts a few years ago that summed up a lot of those ideas. (As an example, the August post can be found here.) At one point I had them all printed out and filed in bi-monthly binders - but the binders became excess bulk, and those lists have since been refiled in my master planning binder. 

So as described above - and Jo, I think this is where I finally get around to answering your question! - I make sure to schedule sufficient time to plan a season (two months combined) ahead. I spend a weekend every other month planning ahead for the next season - and this is most always the last weekend of the month. So, for instance, this weekend, being the last weeked in July, I hope to spend a little time planning ahead for the "Autumn" season (September-October). And at the end of September, I will spend a few hours planning ahead for the "Holiday" season (November-December).

And so forth:

~ At the end of November I plan ahead for Deep Winter: Jan/Feb.

~ At the end of January I plan ahead for Early Spring: Mar/Apr.

~ At the end of March I plan ahead for Late Spring: May/Jun.

~ At the end of May I plan ahead for High Summer: Jul/Aug.

I write "seasonal planning" on those weekends in my calendar so I know when it comes 'round to planning those weekends (or POWs as Bill likes to call them, lol) I'll be doing some forward thinking.

So when I sit down to plan a season, first I'll reference my "themes and plans" page and then look at my month @ a glance calendars. I'll also check in the file crate, do a little online research (full moons, feast days, etc.) and I may even look through my old journals from this time of year. Then I'll start jotting down what I can. I'll decide what things I want us to do and what themes I want to weave into our family life and home learning.

So that's planning ahead on a big scale ... there's also the more immediate planning, which is looking ahead to each coming week. I begin this on a Thursday - pulling a folder, preparing a planning sheet, starting a menu, etc. - and try to finalize as much as possible by the end of the day Friday. This gives me a chance to work in any preparation over the weekend - i.e. picking up library books, craft materials, cards to send, dinner ingredients, etc. I put the finishing touches on our weekly plan on Sunday afternoon, and hopefully, come Monday morning, I'll have things somewhat straight in my head. ;)

Annual planning is done twice a year - once in the summer when I create ed. plans for the new academic year, and again during the last week of the year (the week between Christmas and New Year's). 

Now this is going to be a very busy weekend - on top of everything else we have planned, I'm trying to finish those year-end reports. I hope to sneak in my "Autumn" planning, but if I don't, I will probably do it next weekend. I will try to "photoblog" as I do the planning so I can show you visually how I "seasonally plan." :)

***

Well, I hope this post answered your question, Jo - I did get awfully rambly, so please feel free to ask me to clarify or expand on something if you need. 

And I hope all of my readers have a great weekend whether it's busy or quiet, or whatever your plans. Stay cool and be safe! I'll see you again very soon.

:)