Preparation

Preparation for a new year involves, obviously a change of planner. My choice for 2018 was going to be my black personal Original but I decided on my black, personal Piazza instead, the reason being that I wanted to keep the Original in pristine condition. I'm not buying any more Filofaxes (!!!!!) so the ones I have have to last. I'm using the battered about ones first and also I like the Piazzas as they feel soft and smooth.

Not decorations for me as my everyday planner is purely functional. The only pattern I've got at the moment is the patterns on my dividers, which are postcards. If I'm feeling at a loose end I can colour these. Mind you that looks like a lot of hard work so maybe I'll leave them as they are.

First section is the To Dos and I'm using up my Filofax papers for this even though the lines are a bit far apart. I'll just ignore them, I think.

Section 2 has the years at a glance - 2017, 2018 and 2019. I've ringed some important dates already.

After these pages come the monthly pages - one side in listed view and the other for monthly plans.

After the next divider ...

I have the weekly pages. I've decided on WO1P for this year as I don't have many appointments and my To Dos only need to be day specific here.

Behind the next divider ...

... are some more colouring or jotting papers which may or may not come in handy. I'll wait and see. These papers are from a colouring in book which I thought would go with the black and white theme.

I've a few daily pages for if I have a busy day or want to write a bit more.

That's it for now. No doubt I'll tweak as I go along as I did last year. I've streamlined a few things and this planner should work well from me. I've decided to move into this planner now starting with November as I only want to use one planner rather than have two on the go, plus I get to flip through brand new pages - just like starting a new exercise book when I was at school.

Let's hope I can control my very untidy handwriting. 

Happy planning!

Goals

One of my monthly goals is to de-clutter as much as I can and I''m purging up to 5 things each week. It's the books' turn as I have too many and quite a few most I haven't opened for a long time.

Five plus have left the shelf and will be off to the Charity Shop. The others I shall 'test out' so my trusty Filofax has come in handy for monitoring the testing and chucking procedure. This task will fit in well with menu-planning.

My next aim will be to sell some items so a LIST is in order now, I think.

Happy planning.

Recording and planning daily

Recording

Best Bit Book - here I record the 'best bit' of each day in a single phrase, on a single line. My note book should last from 2016 until 2021 and I'm in the second year of recording. It takes no time at all to jot down my 'best bit' and it's fun looking back at last year's entries.

Bullet journal - this is by the side of my bed to capture flitting thoughts during wakeful hours. I also have other 'in boxes' in bags, the kitchen and my office. All bits of information are sorted and acted upon - to dos in my every day Filofax on the master list or scheduled, thoughts put into a projects list and immediate tasks acted upon.

Notable occurrences are written on my monthly pages. I have a 2 page spread with the dates noted down one side. On the first page are meetings, birthdays, anniversaries etc and on the second page are dated journal type entries. These monthly pages are the only pages that I will archive so I like a few memories on them. 

Planning

The every day Filofax is my most important tool for planning and I also use my online calendar for alerts on my watch. My 'computer game' Filofax contains my next steps for each game I play and my Christmas Filofax contains planning for Christmas (of course!). I have an Ebay Filofax which houses information of things sold and notes for future items to sell. 

Each day I will - 

1. Fill in my 'best bit'.

2. Record a journal entry or just look at upcoming dates.

3. Enter information in my gaming planner.

4. Enter information and next steps in my every day planner from my 'inboxes'.

Happy Planning

Don't Do it

I put a To Do page in between my WO2P and on it I wrote To Dos that did not have to be done on a certain day. I even slitted the holes so that the list could be moved from week to week until the tasks were done. I've lasted 3 weeks like this but have now decided that splitting up my week with another page is not conducive to productive flow as I cannot see the whole week at one glance. It was very disconcerting as I had to keep turning the To Do page back and forth in order to see the rest of the week or the beginning of the week.

The offending page has been taken out and is now next to my monthly page. Some ideas work, some don't. One system works for a few weeks and then doesn't when circumstances change. The beauty of ringed binders is that pages can be moved at will.

Keep it simple planning - part 2

What I do need to do

1. Use my monthly dividers as a front picture at the beginning of the planner. This will utilise the dividers and also mark my monthly page.

2. Make better use of the space for each day on my WO2P. My logging of spending can take up less space and I can devise a system on the page to make a running total of spends each week. It is not beyond my wit!

3. Neaten up and make my pages look smart. I shall experiment.

4. Introduce some long term goals and start putting them into action. I'm just drifting along only doing what is necessary and not particularly challenging myself at the moment. It's time to get out of a rut. I can make an initial start with this list!

5. Tidy up my spare bed office desk.

Happy planning

Keep it simple planning - part 1

What I don't need to do

1. Write out a cleaning schedule. I've been there and done that and I now know that I've got the T-shirt because the schedule I started and refined now works for me and I hardly ever have to write routine cleaning tasks down as I know them. The initial logging of the To Dos has been a success and now it can cease.

2. Put month dividers at the beginning of each month. They are not needed and just take up space. I am currently using Filofax WO2P. There are not many pages to make up the year and so finding any particular date is easy. The Today marker marks where I am. I can put the current month near the front and I there's not much shuffling of pages to find where I want to be.

3. Log my spending on a separate sheet. I'm sure I can incorporate it on the daily sections. My logging and tracking should be done on my weekly pages so I have only one piece of paper to work with.

4. Include any pages which are not conducive to everyday planning and organising. I seem to have accumulated dividers, plastic envelopes, contact pages and spare paper. They will have to go elsewhere.

5. Write in different coloured inks as I invariably lose my pens amongst the debris on my bed working areas on my office desk.

Happy planning