The Planner Chronicles: Part 4

So I am still using my pretty blue Martha Stewart planner and liking it a lot.

Because I’m such a geek when it comes to things like office supplies and paper, I recently made a trip to the store for some more stuff to help me make this planner even more useful for me.

I was hoping to find some daily pages that were dated but there was nothing like that. I did buy some more filler paper for project planning, some dividers, some stick on divider tabs, and some cute paper tabs with paper clips. Oh and I bought another planner. I don’t know what I’m going to use it for, but I “needed” it.

Before these new additions, my planner had monthly calendar pages and plain filler paper. I made some dividers for the months from index cards and washi tape, but I wasn’t really happy with them.

I found I was taking notes on various things and just leaving them in the back of the planner along with the blank paper. Not very efficient.

So here’s what I did.

I used the sticky tabs to make new dividers for each month and put them on top instead of at the side. That allowed me to see my divider tabs more easily. I have 5: business, notes, to do, menu, and gratitude.

Anything to do with ADD Moms goes into the business tab, including notes on things I learn.

The other section for notes is for personal stuff.

To do is self explanatory. This is where I keep my dump list.

Menu is for planning meals and writing my grocery list each week.

And I try to keep a gratitude journal each day. Having it in my planner just makes it easier to do.

My monthly calendar has appointments written on it, my schedule, and the due date and amount for bills. I find that noting my bills this way makes it much easier to keep track of them.

Each day I take out a sheet of paper and write the date on it along with any to dos for the day. I also color code things to make it easier for me to see what’s what.

Bills are green, family stuff is red, personal stuff is pink, and business stuff is purple. I even color code my dad’s appointments and stuff so I can tell right away that it’s for him.

I’m finding that writing everything down this way keeps me organized. My next goal is to get into the habit of taking my planner with me when I leave the house. After all, a lot of your appointments and other things to remember happen outside the home.

Oh, and you might notice from the picture that this is what is called a disc or arc planner. Instead of binder rings, there are discs that hold the paper in. The paper is punched for the discs and then it has a little cut next to it that makes it easy to just pull the paper out or put it in. I think it’s much easier than opening binder rings.

Here’s a pic from Staples.