Hello friends!
It's mid-December, and I'm seeing so many tempting Facebook ads for pretty, clever, and amazing planners that promise to transform my life. I've used a bunch of different planners and phone apps, and I have even customized my own daily forms. But...
Now heading into 2021, I'm back to SIMPLE, or at least simpler. I cobbled together my own flexible system with a sensible mix of digital and paper formats. When part of it stops working for me or my ADHD brain gets bored, I tweak it. No big investment. No guilt over buying something that I won't use and then seeing empty planner pages.
Here's what I've got. Maybe a few of these ideas will spark something for you.
First, let me acknowledge that I've got a lot of plates spinning in my life. I am a single mother of 10, though only the youngest three teen/adults still live with me. I am still homeschooling one teen, as I have even before COVID. (I started with my oldest in the early 1990s.) I am a part-time seminary student, working through an independent study course this semester as I write a new book called Burned: Rising from the Ashes of Spiritual Crisis. I work part-time (as needed) for the seminary as a course assistant helping masters and doctoral students with the research and writing process. I also work part-time regular hours for a local community crisis helpline. So, yes, I have a lot going on right now and lots more big stuff coming up in the future.
Even with my Attention Deficit Disorder, I can hyper-focus to complete big tasks. However, I still get distracted with a lot of little details. I need help keeping it all together. Unfortunately, no single packaged system had everything I needed and many of them had extraneous features that distracted me even more.
So I designed my own system just for me. I used ideas from other systems and customized them for my life. It has some concepts from bullet journaling. It also incorporates SMART goals, which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound. It covers daily all the way through long-range plans. It also has a reflection facet. Best of all, it is intuitive yet semi-structured.
Here's the short story: I use a simple handwritten daily To Do list, supported by a variety of other printed lists for longer time periods and more specific categories. Nothing is bound, so pages can be swapped in and out as necessary. I can keep what I want and throw away the rest. I also use apps for scheduled tasks and events.
You want the more detailed version? Here are the main elements:
Clipboard portfolio and/or 3-ring notebooks:
- My clipboard portfolio has the clip on the front cover. On the inside of the portfolio, there is a pocket on the left and a pad of paper on the right.
- I use the clipboard portfolio daily for my current lists which I describe below.
- If I have time-sensitive pieces of paper that I will need in the next day or so, such as forms to fill out, I tuck them into the inner portfolio pocket.
- My main 3-ring notebook holds any other papers I need handy, such as notes from meetings, reference materials, and assorted other papers.
- I have more than one notebook either because some categories (like school or personal Bible study) need their own, or because I want to archive older information.
- If you want to keep your main list visible but you don't want to use a separate clipboard, you could also attach a binder clip to the front of a 3-ring notebook. (Yes, I've done this before!)
- If you like the pretty packaged planners but don't want to buy one, get some inexpensive stickers or colored pens at the dollar store and jazz up the pages on your own. Or buy a pretty notebook and/or clipboard that you can use from year to year. I found my lovely Vera Bradley clipboard portfolio on clearance at Staples, and I had a $5 coupon, so I paid only $4. It goes with the colors in my bedroom, as do my notebooks. They have the kind of plastic cover where you can insert a page of your own design.
Simple Daily To Do List:
- This is at the top of the stack on my clipboard. If I were using a regular notebook, it would be the first page.
- Each day (or the evening before), I handwrite a list of the main stuff I think I need to do for that day.
- I might write it in chronological sequence, or in order of importance, or just get it out on paper as it comes to mind. It's usually short enough that I can figure it out as I go, no matter what order it's in.
- Any scheduled events go in a boxed section to the right of the page.
- I might fit two or three days on one page.
- I try to keep it uncluttered and uncomplicated so I don't write all the little routine stuff, but just what is unique for that day. If my laundry is piling up, that item goes on my list. If a project is due soon, I write down what specific part of it I want to work on that day.
- I check off the items as I go. I also add in new ones that I've done that day and then I check them off too. It's fun that way, and I can look back in the evening with a sense of accomplishment.
- Whatever I didn't do either gets shifted to the next day or cancelled with an X. Some things just don't get done. Oh well!
- I don't keep these pages long-term. I save them for a week at a time so I can look back over the patterns of my productivity. If I want to "save" a page for posterity, I can take a picture of it and throw away the paper.
- I've tried putting habit-tracking features and food logs on my daily pages (the ones I have designed on the computer in the past) but right now this is just too much for me. To be honest, I am more likely to avoid my planning page if it makes me feel guilty. I can do those separately when I want. Little bits at a time here.
Ongoing To Do List:
- This is stuff that should be done soon, but not necessarily today. I add to it as I think of something.
- I consult this list when I'm writing my daily list. I keep it clipped just under my daily list on my folio, so I can easily flip the pages to see it.
- When most of it is crossed out or obsolete, I start with a fresh list.
Daily/Weekly Routines:
- For my daily routine of little tasks, I have a printed reminder list of specific things I could do on any given day, such as laundry or dishes or exercise. It jogs my memory when I am handwriting my list for a particular day.
- I also have a Google Docs table with time blocks for my general daily/weekly schedule. This page has columns for days of the week and rows for each half hour. I can merge table cells to make larger time blocks.
- This daily/weekly overview table has my scheduled work hours, church meetings, meals, blocks for studying & writing, etc. Though there are variations, my weekdays have a pretty regular rhythm.
- I don't follow this strictly, but it's a good overview guideline to structure my days.
- In addition to the printed version of my regular schedule, I also set alarms on my phone to help me transition from one time block to another or to remind me of essential short tasks, like taking my medicine. You can set alarms for certain days of the week if your schedule varies.
- I have lists for this month, next month, the next six months, and the next five years. I do these on the computer and often copy items from month to month. If I know the date of an event or deadline (even it its tentative), it goes on the this page.
- My lists are in categories: Kids, House, Homeschool, Seminary, Book, Health, Personal Growth, etc.
- Every month I print the list of tasks, events, and goals for that month. I put into my my clipped portfolio paper stack so I can refer to it when I make my daily and ongoing To Do lists. Much of it is copied from month to month.
- I also write and print a 6 month version, which I refer to when making my monthly lists.
- My longest range goal page is a 5 year version, with sections for each year and categories within each year. Obviously, what I have here is general goals rather than specific plans. I find that this is very powerful in helping me move forward by working backward. For example, since I know I will be selling my house within the next few years, I have to work backward and plan for intermediate goals of downsizing and doing home repairs before then. I even put things on this list that I am considering, such as getting a doctorate degree or writing more books. This will help me discern my path as I keep my options in mind.
Other Categorized Lists:
- These include upcoming house projects, books I want to read, Christmas presents to buy, etc.
- I type them into Google Docs where I can read them from my phone or computer.
- I may or may not print them out to put in my main notebook.
Calendar, Clock, Notes and Other Apps:
- I use the Notes app to jot down whatever I need to remember as I go along, whether I'm at home or not. I can add these into my other lists as needed. I can also email information to myself from here. This is often a reminder of what I need to get at the grocery store, or a website I want to look up.
- The Calendar and Clock app alarms alert me to pay attention to things like taking my medicine, picking up a teen from work, getting on Zoom for an appointment, paying my electric bill, or setting up my desk to work from home that day.
- My Calendar app events are color-coded: purple for church, blue for school, red for medical, yellow for work, orange for birthdays, etc.
- The alarms I set to remind me of time blocks each day are actually songs relevant to the tasks, such as Andra Day's "Rise Up" to get me out of bed, or Sandra McCracken's "We Will Feast in the House of Zion" when it's time to make dinner.
- When I am taking seminary classes that have a syllabus of assignments, I track my progress using Trello. It is a free planning system you can use on any of your devices. You can set up a Board for each topic in your life, then lists for sub-topics, cards for tasks, and checklists within the cards for sub-tasks. So I can have a board for seminary, a list for each class, cards for assignments, and checklists for the steps I must complete for that assignment. I will be using Trello again in the spring semester. I like having this digital because I often read textbooks on Kindle when I'm away from the home, and it's nice to be able to see what's next and to check off the chapters as I go.
- Journals are not technically for planning, but many packaged planner systems include a section for reflecting on the day or the week or for dreaming for the future. I appreciated this feature in the Monk Manual and want to continue it. However, I want to preserve my reflections and dreams, rather than discard them with my daily To Do lists. They belong in one of my journals.
- Right now I'm mainly using one journal for everything - diary of recent happenings (and my thoughts about them), prayers, reading notes, abstract musings, angst, etc.
Paper and Online Storage:
- Online in Google Drive
- Pictures on my phone of receipts and documents
- Two-pocket folders for specific categories of papers that I don't want in notebooks (mementoes, letters, artwork, etc.)
- File cabinet near my workspace
- Plastic file boxes in my closet and storage room
- Archive notebooks
- Paper piles that migrate around my bedroom (I gotta work on that!)
~*~*~
One of the books I chose to read for my independent research course in seminary is Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Life by Stephen A. Macchia. Though its primary focus is on spiritual growth, it gives much needed insight on creating productive rhythms for accomplishing goals.
If you're interested in planning and time management, you might like these two blog posts with videos that I made last spring, as well as a few posts from previous years. The first video, featured in my post Talking About Time, gives a flexible framework for getting stuff done. The second video, Time --- and Time Again, talks about time in the kairos sense, which focuses more in being attentive to opportunities.
