This year’s planner is packed with checklists and guided sections to help you get super organised! If you’re juggling a house, work, kids and social life, here’s how to make the best use of your planner this year.
No matter how many reminders I set in my phone, my planner is still my daily bible! Once I’ve written something in my planner, I know I’m on track to meet all my deadlines and appointments. This saves me so much stress!
If your days involve juggling work, kids, school events, a social life and managing a household, a planner will give you back a sense of control and assist hugely with getting everyone where they need to be with everything they need.
Now that the new year is underway, I thought I’d share with you how to use your planner to help you get the best use out of yours and be super organised this year!
Writing reminders in one place is the best way to avoid clashes which can cause unnecessary stress. This year I created my ideal planner in two types – weekly and daily. Best way to choose which is the right planner:
Weekly – if you like to see your week in one glance. Our weekly planner opens up to one week to a view with Saturday and Sunday the same size as the weekdays.
Daily – if you like to write to-do lists for each day and track your appointments. Our daily planner has a full day to a page.
Apart from how the week or days look, all the other pages in the daily and weekly planner are the same, ie, they both have goal and cleaning checklist pages.
goal planning
There’s something about writing goals down that gives clarity and commitment so that you can easily remember to prioritise them. At the start of the planner there are goal sections for mindset, love, family, friends, home, fun, health, money and career.
Pop something in each box – you might write under family ‘Plan one fun family activity each week’ or under ‘home’ you might write ‘Clean up after dinner each night’ so you’ll always wake up to a fresh, clean kitchen.
As part of your goal planning, there’s room to write things you’d like to try, organise, places to visit and things to save up for.
The goal planning section allows you to choose two main goals and write the steps you’ll need to take to get there. For example, do you want to declutter your bedroom? Your steps might include things like –
- order new hangers, storage tubs and drawer organisers
- clear out and organise wardrobe
- clear out and organise bedroom drawers
- clear out and organise under bed
- clear out and organise bedside table
- list good items on Facebook Marketplace
- take donation bags to a charity
cleaning checklist
Are you keen to keep your home cleaner and under control this year?
Unique to any other planners I have seen before and with alot of thought and details, I have include weekly and monthly cleaning checklists in each planner. A stress-free way to help you to keep your home clean and sparkling. With handy checkboxes, tasks are broken down into achievable goals. Simply look at the planner to know what needs cleaning, once done tick it off and you’ll feel a huge sense of accomplishment as you do so.
The tasks are listed in this checklist to match the tasks in my book The Clean Home by Katrina Springer, found in my shop and all major book stores.
important dates
My planners come with all the school term dates and public holidays included, so you can easily go through and add your own important dates for a complete picture of the year ahead.
There are lots of fun stickers to add too!
Dates to add are:
- Birthdays and anniversaries – I copy these over from the previous year’s calendar so I know everyone is remembered. Anytime I find out a new friend’s birthday, I add it to this year’s calendar so it won’t be forgotten next year.
- Holidays – Already booked a holiday or your annual leave for this year? Pop the dates in your planner now. I find this will often trigger me to do other things, such as book leave for myself when my husband has time off or book a getaway. You’ll also notice things like that pesky Friday work day that sits between Australia Day and the weekend – and be the first to book the day off!
- School events – If your school has an app or parent website, check the calendar and add to your planner things like school camps, photo day, athletics and swimming carnivals, parent teacher interviews, pupil free days, concerts and award nights. You’ll feel so organised if you already have these dates noted – just keep an eye on school communication in case dates are changed.
- Sporting / Dance / Extra-Curricular dates – As soon as this information becomes available, note down the relevant dates, such as training, competitions, game days and concerts. If you see any clashes with school events, you can work those out ahead of time.
appointments
Add all those appointments that are often booked well in advance or fall annually, such as –
- dentist
- skin check
- doctor (eg. annual check up or repeat prescriptions)
- car service
- pest control
- carpet cleaning
- vet checks & vaccination
This can be a good time to make the calls and schedule more regular appointments too, so you don’t have to think about it as the year gets busier. It can be a good idea to pre-book a year’s worth of appointments for things like –
- gardening
- hairdresser
- dog grooming
- beauty (eyebrows, laser etc)
- date night
Remember to use the stickers at the back of the planner to help these stand out!
work commitments
While most work appointments can be kept in your work calendar, some events might spill into your personal life and mean you need to book a babysitter or call in family to help. That might include travelling for conferences or work events that fall outside work hours.
events
Do you have events coming up? Add any personal events you’re invited to such as weddings and parties, as well as any baby due dates for people you know. This will help you remember to do other things like buy gifts and organise babysitting.
Also add any public events you’re keen to attend, such as music concerts, live shows and sporting events. If you know when tickets go on sale, add this date too so you get the best seats!
other dates
Other suggested dates you can add at the start of the year are –
- rubbish bin day
- recycle bin day
- pay day
- bills due (especially annual bills that are easily forgotten)
meal planning
Both types of planners include a section for meals, where you can write in breakfast, lunch and dinner plans. This can really help to streamline your day as lunches will be faster to pack and dinners easier to cook if you don’t have spend time making decisions on the spot.
set new daily habits
We all have things we’d like to improve on but it’s easy for new habits to get forgotten! Use the habits section to encourage yourself to complete the new habit each day.
Some ideas for habits are –
- take your medication/vitamins
- walk the dog
- play with the kids
- exercise
- meditate or write in a journal
- snack on fruit/vegetables
- make the bed
- complete today’s Wordle
- read for half an hour
- wear sunscreen
- clean the kitchen before you sit down at night
- praise your kids
- hug your partner
The ‘Habits’ section is slightly different in each planner –
Daily planner
At the bottom right of the monthly goals page, there’s a space to write in 5 daily habits. Write in your 5 habits you’d like to adopt. Then on each day page, there are 5 tick boxes – tick these off for each habit you complete that day.
Weekly planner
The weekly planner has a habit tracker for each week. Write your top 3 habits on the line and tick off the boxes underneath throughout the week.
So there you go! That’s how I use my planner to stay super organised! The great thing is that there’s plenty of space for you to make it your own and include things that are important to you.
Happy planning!
