How to plan your planner, so you actually use it

Yeah guilty as charged, I love me an analog planner because even though our phones can do everything, I also tend to remember and follow much better when tactile tools are involved. Here are some tips to establish good planning hygiene before the year kicks off. If the planner isn’t set up to do what you need — then you frankly won’t use it. Determine your needs, and modify the features to get the most out of what your goals are. Whether it’s work related or tracking HBO air dates for succession (fall 2022??)

Why write a word when you can use an emoji? Same can be said with color tracking. If highlighters aren’t enough and there are consistent things that you’d like a bird’s eye snapshot of trends, then color coded stickers are the way to go. If a key isn’t enough for you, then there’s also specific sticker sets for planners that can scratch that specific itch for visibility.

When you’re looking for a short cut to your short cut, tabs are the way to go. Little bookmarks of joy that enable you to jump to sections with ease. Multiple colors of course add additional rigor around quick navigation.

You might find a section and be like wtf am I supposed to do with this?? Well, whatever makes sense! If there’s an analog project planning section, this can be repurposed for habit tracking - like days worked out, legs days (don’t forget legs days), meditation breaks — whatever may be relevant to track in eight or more sprints at a time.

My notebooks can be perceived as insane because I’ll write the same thing over and over in different places because there isn’t a place to track the exploration of costs into a project (for example). Or the dimensions of my bath cabinet so I can get quotes for custom replacements. Here’s your section for those odds and ends that comes up in adulting. (Like direct numbers or what sequence to dial when calling the DMV to get to an operator).

Notes section for the things that matter. Like what was that great podcast on American individualism, or what was that restaurant that so and so recommended. Nice to have a one stop shop of the things that come up in life.

To summarize, planning your planner is only effective if it makes sense to you. These are some recommendations on how to navigate and make the most, but ultimately you’ll only use it if there’s value. Taking a bit of time to think about it and set things up can go a long way to enabling the actual use of this tool.