What tools do you use to plan out your day?

 

Continuing with the household routines theme, here's a question from Kristie:

"Okay ...what is your "docket"? Is it just your weekly sheets that you use? Or do you then break down those sheets into daily lists? Are you still using the planner you made or have you developed a new system?"

I love questions like these! They allow me to ramble on about address one of my favorite topics - planners and planning! But because this day's winding down and I only have a few minutes online, I'm just going to introduce one quick query:

What tool(s) do you use to plan out your day? How do you keep track of it all? 

I find this to be one of the most challenging aspects of my home management system: finding a tool that really helps me manage my day ... and then, sticking with it.

But first, to answer your question, Kristie, the "daily docket" I referred to in that earlier post, is basically what I call my workstation (shown above). It's the spot where I park my calendar binder, weekly file folder and my current daily planner whatever that might be. I stand here with my cup of coffee and look things over at the start of the day.

My calendar binder and weekly file folder are both fairly constant, but over the years I have used various tools for planning my day (as opposed to my week or my month). These tools have incuded:

- an index cards system (S.H.E.'s anyone?)

- a clipboard

- a commercial planner dedicated to page-a-day planning

- a personalized, handmade daybook

Ah yes, my ill-fated daybook - the victim of a nasty chocolate milk mishap. Here's the new version, but as you can see, it's still very much a work in progress.

I pared it down in size and had it coil-bound at Staples ... but all (183) pages are completely blank. You see, the page design was giving me such trouble, I decided to just go forward with blank pages and hope a meaningful design developed on its own. It's slow-going I'm afraid.

When considering a tool for my daily planning, I keep in mind aesthetics, writing space and portability - as well as these areas of daily life:

- family meals

- household chores

- lessons/activities

- appointments/commitments

- to-do's

- personal projects

- thoughts/notes/observations

*

Could I keep it all in my head and not bother with lists/cards/notebooks/etc.? Possibly ... but it's kind of a tangled mess up there most days ... and having a planner kind of lets me let go a little, if you know what I mean. If I write it down I don't have to remember it - the planner does that for me. ;)

***

So, my friends, back to my original question (and Kristie, I hope I answered yours): When you plan out your day, how do you do it? And where do you do it?

These are things I'm very curious about. :)

So please leave a comment if you have time - I'd love to hear about your daily planning and what you've found works for you. Until next time, though ... have a nice night! Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. I'll be back here again very soon ...

❤