Any busy woman knows it’s easy to forget certain obligations in the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Ever forget to make cookies for a bake sale the next day or fill out important paperwork with a deadline? Guilty🙋.♀️
Sometimes we need a little help keeping up with the multitude of tasks women have on their plates. I know a lot of working mothers, homeschooling mothers, stay at home mothers, mothers of young children and women involved in their church ministries. They all have a vital role to play and keeping up with these obligations is crucial to their success.
Enter the planner. I’m a very visual person. You could tell me something 10 times and I’d forget it every time. But if I write it down I am more likely to remember it. Visually seeing it always helps me to remember, especially when I use lots of color.
I tend to lean more toward digital planners and project management software (SmartSuite is my current favorite) when it comes to tasks with strict due dates, such as scheduling posts for this blog and my 9 to 5 marketing responsibilities. It’s also great for tasks with dependencies.
With so many tasks in these categories I need to have popup reminders on my screen to remind me they are due. Plus I can keep track of my blog posts and associated social media tasks all in one place.
But I still like to see important tasks on paper to give me an overview of my week. So the majority of my tasks go on my paper planner.
At home I am using this pretty rose gold planner from Clever Fox. It’s mostly used to record appointments, work responsibilities and high level tasks for this website.
My meal planning is also on paper in a separate binder. This Boho Weight Loss Planner has a menu planner with a large master grocery list.
At work, my favorite right now is my Happy Planner. I choose the undated one because I liked the format of this one the best. It has 4 tabbed sections for my notes so I can keep them together as meetings occur.
I’m actually using it as a combo with work and personal but it was created mostly for monthly planning.
To solve this problem, I created this free Catholic Weekly Planner as an insert to customize it to my life. I broke it down into 4 sections – monthly calendar, task prioritization, weekly calendar, and reflection.
This handy little craft tag punch is what I use as my hole puncher since I’m using a disc bound system. I know you can buy a full-size one but I went with the inexpensive model to try before committing to a larger purchase. I like the small one, but I think I will upgrade to the larger to make it more convenient.
This is my first time using a disc bound planner and I’m not wild about it. I really like this planner but wish it was on 3 ring paper. I have several 3-hole punchers so it would be easier in that format. But sadly, I couldn’t find a 3 ring full size planner that suited me.
So anyhoo, what exactly goes in my planner?
Monthly Calendar – Important Dates
First I wrote in all important dates on the monthly calendar. Birthdays are in one color, work events in another, then appointments, with my pay days and days off color coded. Since my hands tend to work faster than my brain, I opted for these erasable pens and highlighters. And I use them A LOT.
Tasks by Priority
Start by brainstorming every task you can think of that needs addressed. Break them into two categories – NEED TO DO and WANT TO DO. Assign a priority to each between 1-5.
Weekly Calendar
Using those two lists, transfer the most important on the NEED TO DO to your weekly planner first. If there’s room in your schedule after that, write in your WANT TO DO tasks. This is a great way to ensure the most critical tasks are given a time slot in your weekly planner.
Habit Tracker
I am also using my planner as a habit tracker for both health and spiritual reasons. I have been trying to say a rosary everyday and like to keep myself accountable by recording my progress.
Same with exercising. I don’t exercise everyday but it’s pretty satisfying to see check marks more than once every month. Keeps me on track using a little bit of shame. Hey, whatever works.
I actually have these habits in BOTH my work planner and personal planner and there are 2 in the FREE Catholic Planner – one for spiritual habits and room for 2 handwritten. I guess I need extra reminders. 🤷🏽♀️
Spiritual Goals (Prayers, Bible, Rosary)
Write in your daily habits – exercise, water, etc.
Blessings and Challenges
It helps to also record your thoughts throughout the week so you can feel like you have some personal development in your life. For me, it’s tracking my blessings and challenges. A lot of growth has come by seeing patterns in my thinking and behavior.
If I’m consistently writing down the same challenges, then I should start looking at them a little closer and make adjustments in my life.
For instance, I seem to have a hard time staying on course with my spiritual reading. I do have a bad tendency to put that on the back burner and place all other priorities ahead of it. So this becomes an item that I need to add to my task list.
I also like to keep track of specific prayer requests. These might come from other people, but most generally I write down the most important ones as they come about. I try to dedicate my rosary to those specific needs.
So my progress goes something like this:
- Write down all important dates and events that I KNOW are commitments.
- Brainstorm all tasks and put them into two categories – NEED TO DO and WANT TO DO. Give each task a priority from 1 to 5.
- Schedule the most critical tasks on my weekly calendar.
- If something doesn’t make it onto the calendar because of time constraints, I copy it over to the following week.
- Keep track of my habits throughout the week and analyze the results at the end of the week. Make adjustments as needed.
- Record my blessings and challenges at the end of the week, as well as any prayer requests I need to remember.
I would like to promise that utilizing these methods will guarantee your success, but the truth is, your personal success is contingent on your level of commitment to maintaining your schedule. If you’re not really trying to stay up on writing in your planner, then you won’t have the same level of success as if you used it daily.
So try to schedule a time everyday (I’d suggest first thing in the morning) and go through the planner to start scheduling your tasks to maximize your time. You might even need to drill down into scheduling work on an hourly basis. Consistency is the key to making it work, but over time you’ll become more efficient at prioritizing your tasks and finding a schedule that works for you.
So what’s your favorite way to plan and which system works best for you?
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