The Ultimate Guide To Using A Day Planner

If you struggle with using your day planner or just don’t know how to start, you are not alone!

I thought I knew how to plan, how to get things that I wanted, yet I always made excuses for never reaching my goals.

I was hiding from a lack of knowledge, I didn’t know how to plan my day successfully.

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Learning How To Plan

I have used a diary for as long as I can remember, I have tried electronic, but I never really got on with that style of planning; I seem to remember more when it is a paper version.

However, I would create a long list that I wanted to do and hoped that was enough! How wrong I was!

I never really understood how to plan my day, for success; I am still learning and tweaking my day planner but now, I know what to do to win.

The Ultimate Guide To Using Your Day Planner

How you lay out your page is personal, there are many different options that you can use, from shop bought to free ones printed off the internet.

Currently, I am using an academic planner with one page per day and it is the size of a book. I want to get one of these planners  next!

I am very comfortable with this style at the moment, I have used various different styles including the disc bound systems, it was just too big to carry around!

How you lay out your day has to work for you, it is about trying different layouts and finding the one best suited to your needs.

The layout of the page isn’t as important as what you put on that page, it doesn’t affect your planning, unfortunately, your planning skills will do this!

The most successful people plan their day; set time aside each morning or evening to plan what you want to achieve.

Go through the time available and write in the most important tasks for that day.

Then fill in the blanks; I know the time it will take to complete each task. I don’t add new tasks to the day unless it takes priority and then I move a task to another day.

If I have too many tasks on my day planner compared to the time I have, the ones with low priority get moved to another day, but their propriety level goes up.

They should never move again!

The Ultimate Reason For Failure

The main reason a day planner fails is not using it correctly.

This planner is there to tell you what to do and when it helps you plan your day.

The most important thing to do is to follow your plan!

If you have to reschedule something you have to acknowledge this in your day planner and move it as soon as possible to a day that you have time to do the task.

For me, I am easily distracted and if it is a difficult task that I am working on I set my timer on my phone!

This allows me to see how long I need to focus for and to build breaks into my day, so I do have time for a drink or a lunchtime walk! This gives me time to rest my brain ready for the afternoon schedule!

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it really isn’t easy staying focused. I struggle with this the most, but by staying on task I can complete so much more than I even imagine is possible.

The Ultimate Reason For Success

Using your day planner keeps you accountable for all the things you need to achieve; it allows you to get on with the task at hand and not worry about the other aspects, as you have them all taken care of with your day planner.

If someone gives you a task to do and it isn’t urgent, put it in your planner for the next day or when you have time. After-all, you have already planned this day’s tasks out, so squeezing in more is going to make you rush and not complete something to your best standard.

Being organized and on schedule for things at work, will help to show your ability to move forward in your career. As well as helping you achieve your goals and dreams.

Learning To Plan For Success

You will quickly realize there is so much to learn when it comes to the planning side; it is easy to get stuck and not know how to move forward with your life or even just your day!

The secret is in the planning, learn new skills that will enable you to move forward, don’t be afraid to change something if it isn’t working for you.

Therefore, the ultimate guide to your day planner is to ensure that you use it and follow your planning for the day; it will help you achieve your dreams and so much more. Using your day planner is a great way to focus on the tasks you need to complete and what you need to do to plan for your future too!

What is your hottest tip for using your day planner? Comment below!

Looking for more articles on organizing? 10 Ways Day Planners Can Help You, is a great place to start!