3 Things You Need In You Planner

Simply owning and even using a planner doesn’t automatically make you more organized and productive.

It would be awesome if it did, but how you use a planner and what you put in it are even more important.

Now, exactly what that is, is going to look different for each person because we are not all the same obviously.

But there are some basics that every person should include in some way or another that will turn their planner into the powerful tool it can be.

1-Master, monthly, weekly and daily todo lists

You use your planner to plan your days so it only makes sense that the todo lists you choose your tasks from, be inside. Its a lot easier to track, manage and refer to your various todo lists when they are only the flip of a page away from where you are planning your day.

2-Goal planning and scheduled tasks

Want to know a secret to achieving your goals? Keep your goal planning inside your planner! This was game changer for me because it kept me super focused on my goals. Before I would often set and forget but now the goal plan and the tasks I have identified are right at my fingertips and in front of my eyes on a daily basis, with no extra effort from me.

I know what you are going to say, where the heck do you find a planner that has space for this?!

I get it, I never was able so I created my own! The Life Book planner is a complete goal planner and day planner in one, with built in features for all your todo lists, habit tracking, meal and exercise planning and of course goal planning and more! Learn more about it here.

Or take it for a free test drive here with the free one month printable version.

3-A clear daily plan (not just a to-do list!)

A todo list is not a complete plan. You planner needs more then your appointments, meetings or to do list. A plan is a layout of all the things you have going on in your day, from school drop offs, to meals you are cooking, to business meetings, to tasks you are doing.

Now, I strongly feel that you don’t need to create a plan that MUST be followed to the letter or that doesn’t allow for freedom and flexibility. But in order to be able to accomplish what you desire, you need a clear idea of all the things going on in your world.

I also DO NOT recommend planning your day down to the minute; buffer time for transitions, rest and interruptions is very important.

But do create a plan with all the things happening and the things you would like to accomplish so you have order and direction as your day going on.

There are other things that are super useful to have inside your planner, of course, but I think these 3 are some of the most important, if less obvious ones.

Don’t be afraid to personalize or modify your planner to suit your specific needs, personality and life!

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

The Planning Mistakes That Are Making Your Life Harder.

planning mistakes. save time and energy. — Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

The more you plan, the more time you save in execution.

And yet a lot of us still avoid planning because it feels too restrictive or because we think we can do it well inside our heads.

Except both of those are simply not true.

The time I have spent planning in advance has saved me so much time, so many headaches and energy that I can’t even convey it into words.

With 3 kids, a full time job (shift work!), a business, a role in my husbands business, a hobby farm and a home, I would be a serious HOT MESS if I didn’t take time to plan out my days, months and year inside my planner.

(I use the Life Book; a planner I created myself because I just couldn’t find one that worked for the ambitious, heart centred mom with a full life. Go here to learn more. Or here to take it for a free test drive.)

So the first mistake people make is not planning at all. If you don’t take time to plan out your time, projects or goals I can guarantee you, sh*t will often not go well.

Read on for 3 more common planning mistakes.

1- You are all over the place

Something I often see people do is use separate planners for work and personal life. I’ve even heard of people using 4 or 5 different planners to organize and manage their lives. Holy heck….I can only imagine how much time they have to spend flipping back and forth from one planner to the other before they can plan anything, or how often they double book or forget things.

Get ONE planner and organize your schedule for ALL THE THINGS in it. Of course you might have separate calendar where you plan content or business projects in detail but your time should be managed in one place. The only way to really have clarity on how much time you have and what you have going on, is to be able to see it clearly all in once space.

(The Life Book is a great planner to be able to do this as I literally designed it to be able to organize and manage all areas of my life. I call it my personal assistant, because its almost as good as one. You can learn more here. Or you can test it for free here)

2- Buffer time

You are not a machine and even the best made plans don’t always go according to plan. You need to make sure your day is not scheduled down to the minute. Its a sure fire way to burnout and get super frustrated that things never go according to plan.

Interruptions happen.

Your brain needs breaks.

Its takes time to transition from one task to the other.

Schedule in buffer time to account for these things. It really depends on a lot of variables but roughly, allow for 10-20% of your time to be buffer time.

3- A plan you can stick to

A day scheduled down to the minute is one example, but there are a lot of ways we create plans that if we are being honest, are simply not going to happen.

Personally, I know not to schedule pretty much anything after 5pm. Once the kids are home, its supper, bath and bedtime and by 8pm, my brain is toast. I am simply not a night or even an evening person so I can plan to do all sorts of things after the kids go to bed all I want, but I know from experience its not happening.

So consider your personality, responsibilities, constraints, like and dislikes before creating a plan so you make sure its one you will actually stick with.

Do you do any of these?

Whether you do one or all of them, thats actually good news because it means there are some pretty simple things you can do to save some time and make life easier!

And who doesn’t want that?!

Jennifer

Organized Owl

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

How To Have Killer Focus

The key to getting things done quickly and efficiently so you have more time for whatever you please, is being able to prioritize the right tasks and having strong focus while you do them.

The problem is that a lot of us struggle to focus well.

A lot of things can get in the way of great focus however, so here are my top recommendations on how to dial in killer focus:

Deal with distractions.

This one seems pretty obvious, however most of us don’t actually deal with our distractions and simply try to ignore them…which would have worked already if it was ever going to. Be honest with yourself about what yours truly are and remove yourself or the distraction.

Get it down on paper.

Tasks, reminders, things that are stressing you, etc. Get everything swirling around in your mind, down onto paper. It’s practically impossible to truly focus when you are trying to manage things in your mind.

Stop multitasking.

You can’t actually multitask. Trying to do 2 things that require focus takes longer than doing them one after the other because your brain is wasting precious time and energy re-focusing on one task then the other.

Get clarity.

The more clear it is exactly what you have to do, the easier it is to focus on it. Make a plan with clear actions steps or do some research so you know exactly what to do in order to complete tasks that feel vague.

Also, make sure to plan out your days. Wondering what you need to do next is another distraction. Use a planner, paper ultimately works best for your brain but if you prefer digital, do that. I use my own planner that I created precisely to keep me organized and focused on my goals. Complete day planner and goal planner in one, The Life Book planner has had the biggest impact on making progress on my goals the past few years. You can learn more about it here.

Or, you can give it a test drive with the free 1 month printable version here. Just keep in mind the mini version doesn’t have all the features the full size Life Book does.

Prioritize your health.

You can’t focus well if you are tired, stressed or unhealthy. Laser sharp focus starts with a healthy body and mind. In fact, this should probably be number 1 because if you are unhealthy the other points are going to have very limited effect.

Whatever you do, just make sure you don’t try to fix all of these things as once. Bonus tip: Spreading yourself too thin makes it hard to really focus on any one thing. The more things you’ve got going on, the smaller the progress on each one.

This goes for goals, problems you are trying to solve, new habits or things you’ve got going on in your life.

Jennifer

p.s. If you enjoyed this post and would like access to daily free content on all things organization and productivity, you can find me on IG @organized_owl.

5 Habits That No One Talks About That Make You More Productive

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

You probably have heard about a lot of productivity habits that help you to get more done. Ways to manage your time and be organized that help you to work smarter so that you can be productive without burning yourself out.

But there are also some seemingly unrelated habits that have a big impact on your productivity and they don’t have anything to do with time management.

Self centering habits like meditating or journaling

Anything that calms your nervous system, reduces anxiety and helps you to process your thoughts, will aid you to be more productive on a daily basis.

Exercise

Energy begets energy. Daily movement will boost your energy and ability to concentrate.

Cooking

This one may seem weird but hear me out; Cooking is actually the most common habit you see among people who are the healthiest. Not exercise, but cooking. When you cook your own meals you have control over the quality of your food which means you are likely to be healthier and have more energy. That translates into increased cognition and that means you get more done in less time.

Reading

Again, this one may seem strange but reading is like exercise for the brain so it helps with cognition on a long term basis. Plus, all the information you take in is inevitably going to help you along the way to make smarter decisions and work more efficiently.

Socializing (with the right people)

This one probably even seems counter productive, but we are social creatures (yes, even us introverts) and being around people who lift us up, hold us accountable, encourage us to be better people and provide us with strong emotional connection, has a direct impact on our happiness and fulfillment. And if you have ever tried to get stuff done in a time in your life when you felt depressed or unfulfilled, you know how this impacts your productivity.

As you might have noticed, there’s a common theme with these habits: They make you a healthier, happier person.

And healthier and happier people tend to get more done.

So if you are struggling with getting things done or have found that all the time management and productivity tips in the world are not really working, its likely because one or more of these things are off for you.

Focus on being a overall healthier, happier person and your ability to be productive is going to improve for sure.

Of course, things like using a planner daily are also important and if you are not currently using one, I recommend you check out the Life Book Planner. This planner is like no other and with its unique features and layouts, its bound to get your more organized and productive so you can get things done without burning yourself out and still have time for rest, fun and family!

Want to give it a test run first? Try the free one month version here.

Jennifer

How To Plan Your Day

Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution – Brian Tracy.

Even if this is partially true, and I am inclined to believe its mostly true, imagine the time you could save over a life time if you started planning?!

I honestly believe this is one of the main reasons why I seem to get so much done compared to a lot of other people. I don’t think I’m a harder worker or have some special talent other don’t, I simply take time to plan things out.

My husband is one of the hardest workers I know and since he doesn’t plan very much (yes, I get the irony…) his days are often a hectic mess and he loses a lot of time to things he might have foreseen if he had done some more planning.

Goal planning, yearly planning, monthly planning, event planning, occasion planning and yes, day planning.

It all adds up to a heck of a lot of time saved and headaches avoided.

Today I want to share the 5 step process I go through to plan out my day so I can be prepared, organized and optimally productive.

Just before we get started, make sure you have a good planner to do this in. I use the Life Book planner, which I created myself because I couldn’t find one that worked well for me. So many planners lack the necessary space to plan properly. You can check out the Life Book here, or download the free mini version here to test it out.

1-Whats already scheduled

Look at your monthly calendar and see what is already booked or scheduled for today. Write that into today’s schedule.

2- Non-negotiables

These are the things you do, often daily, that take time and must be done. We often forget about them when planning our day because they are part of our normal routine but we have to take them into consideration before we create a to-do list so we know exactly how much time we have. So add in any non-negotiables, like school drops off, kids sports practises or meal preparation.

3- To-do List

Looking at how much time you have left in your day, create your to-do list. Look at your weekly, monthly or Master to-do list and decide what should be done today. Start with the most urgent items and add in whatever else you have time for (2-4 items max). If you want, identify any other task you will do IF you have time.

4- Identify your frog

Brian Tracey coined the term Eat That Frog which basically means you should identify and do your most important task of the day first. There are a few reasons for this; 1, since the longer the day goes on the more likely life is to get in the way, it ensures it actually gets done; 2, getting done the task that is the most important first takes off the pressure and makes you more productive the rest of the day. So figure out which task that is and schedule that in first or as early as possible.

5- Loosely schedule in the rest

Lastly, schedule in the remaining tasks on your list at the general time (morning, afternoon or evening) you plan on doing them. Being too rigid with your schedule by putting everything at super precise moments puts a lot of pressure on you to have the day go perfectly and if there is one thing we know, perfection is a myth. You are setting yourself up for failure by doing this because you will likely get off track, get overwhelmed and stressed because things are not going according to plan. So just pick a general time.

Bonus tip:

Start this the evening before so that you have time to prep anything necessary in advance. This is actually a super important step. I get asked all the time if we should plan in the evening or the morning of and I always say both. Start the day or evening before and then finalize it the morning of.

This may all seem like a long process but I promise you, once you get used to doing it, it only take 5-10 minutes tops! Especially if you have already started planning for your week on Sunday, which I also recommend.

If you would like more great content like what you read here, make sure to follow me on IG @organized_owl or on FB @organizedowl.

Happy Planning

Jennifer

How To Avoid Decision Fatigue

If you are human, you have experienced decision fatigue.

Every tiny piece of information or data our senses pick up on throughout the day becomes a decision. Your brain has to decide what to do with each one, even if that’s to ignore it.

And in today’s world, where we are bombarded with hundreds of thousands of bits of information daily, most of us experience decision fatigue every day.

Consciously we might not realize why it is that it can be so hard to decide what to eat for supper but often it’s because your brain is simply tapped out.

And if you’re an enneagram 9, this happens even faster, amaright fellow 9s?

So how do we get around it with the seemingly unavoidable stream of data coming our way?

Like this: by doing the following to reduce the amount of decisions we need to make each day.

1-Protect your focus

Remove or reduce the amount of technology around you when you are working. Constant dings and notifications are not only tiny decisions you have to make, they are a huge distraction.

Wait until later in the day to catch up on news and scroll social media. Delay taking in new information as much as possible until the bulk of your work is done.

2-Plan in advance.

Planning is simply making decisions in advance. Plan out your months, weeks and days in advance so that the amount of decisions you have to make in the moment are greatly reduced. Its also far easier to make decisions in advance then it is in the moment because the pressure is off. With a solid plan you can move through your day smoothly, simply following what you mapped out.

The absolute easiest way of doing this is by using a great planner. Check out the one I use here. You can also get a free mini copy here to test it out first!.

3-Habits.

You never have to decide to do something that is already a habit because its automatic and that’s why habits are so powerful. Create habits of things you do regularly so they are one less decision to be made.

The key here is for these things to be true habits. Meaning, you truly do them without thinking for the most part. If you still have to consciously get yourself to it, its not a habit yet. Building healthy habits can take some time and its important not to try creating too many at once. Start slowly, using habit stacking and one at a time, automate those things you do daily so they take less energy and mind power.

If you experience decision fatigue on a regular basis, you now know what to do to about it! Of course, its going to still happen from time to time because #life, but the goal is to avoid it occurring on a daily basis because its tiring and wastes a ton of time.

Jennifer