Planner, Planning, Plans . . ..

I had planned to finally get back into full time blogging this week but, as I mentioned before, I got hit with the stomach flu Sunday evening so my well laid plans did not happen!  I do plan on getting back into my daily blogging again and already have the next 3 weeks planned out. 

A couple of years ago, I jumped on the Erin Condren planner bandwagon and ordered my first planner.  I will admit that I did not use it - I ended up picking up something different half way through the year.  I then ordered a different planner last year but again, it just wasn't perfect.  Well, last December I got sucked in again and ordered my Erin Condren planner.  I decided that this time I WOULD make it work for me.  It has taken almost 6 months but I am not using it to fully plan my week.  I don't have lists laying around nor am I typing out a to do list every day but rather, I plan my week, write it down and cross it off.

 Here's a snapshot of my week-at-a-glance.  On Sunday, I take time to write down everything I want to get done during the week.  I do have a master to do list that I keep (it's the paper shown above laying on the planner) and that paper holds my "brain".  I take basic weekly things like laundry, grocery shopping and budgeting and fit those in first then I add things from my list.  For example, this month, I'm focusing on deep cleaning the dining room so each day I list a task to do in the dining room or I'm trying to work on scrapbooking so I list one thing I want to get done each day.  I also, at the bottom of each page, list the main course for dinner (so I know if I need to prep something for dinner) as well as the blog topic for the day.

 This also allows me to list appointments on a given day AND make notes about the day (notice the big "SICK" on Monday!

As I work through the week the list actually gets smaller until I get to Friday where the main item is "finish tasks from the week".  I know that I will never get through everything on every day so Friday gives me time to catch up.

I also use the sides to make notes - songs to sing, Christmas gift ideas, or something funny someone says.  

Yes, I take my planner just about everywhere with me.  It fits in my purse or in my Sunday-go-to-church bag so I always have it handy for planning.