Using a Planner Without Stressing Yourself Out

I have had a love-hate relationship with my planner in the past. In this post, I share how I have my planner set up and learn about using a planner without stressing yourself out.

Do you want to organize your time, but also feel like it can be stressful?

For many years, my favorite method of planning and scheduling was a wall calendar. I had one every year that I enjoyed picking out (still do) and it would hang on the side of my refrigerator on a heavy-duty magnet.

As time went, I would write in appointments, holidays and meetings… Whatever I knew was coming up, and I would also go back after the fact sometimes, and write in a few words about other things that happened that day or places we went.

I always have kept all my calendars in a drawer in my desk. I have them for the past 10-12 years or so. It is nice to be able to go back and look at what was happening at different points in my life.

I bought into the planner craze!

Remember about 5 years ago when planners became a huge thing? With all the stickers and the meticulousness and the having 50,000 accessories and pouches of pens and bookmarks and washi tape?

That seemed so appealing and fun to me!

I bought a pretty planner from Target and some stickers and started planning everything out down to the nth degree.

I did that for about a year and a half. and then you know what?

IT STRESSED ME OUT SO BAD!

Yep. My heart sank. I thought “What is wrong with me? Why Does this bother me? Isn’t planning supposed to make things easier?”

So then I just stopped completely. Stopped writing in a planner. Didn’t pay much attention to my calendar. I thought I would just wing it.

And you know what happened then?

I couldn’t remember anything. I couldn’t remember where I had to be when, or what my week looked like or when to say yes and when to say no.

And guess what?

THAT STRESSED ME OUT TOO!

If you’re chuckling, then you’re not alone, cause I’m laughing right along with you.

Isn’t it funny how long it takes for us to get to know ourselves? And how much we change throughout our life?

I guess you never say “I get it now. I know exactly what I like. The end.”

We are always changing and our needs do too, though different seasons of  life.

Right now, in this season of young children and maybe not quite enough sleep and being a little bit hair-brained from it all, I need a planner. And I also need a wall calendar, alarms on my phone…  And a skywriter. Ha.

My Low Stress Planner Set Up

One thing I have discovered, is what stresses me out is having my whole day scheduled. I no like it. I want to be able to go with the flow a little.

These are the elements I work into my planning.

1. I don’t worry about making special time on the weekend to plan out the following week. If it happens, great. And if the week starts and I don’t have my appointments written down or anything on the calendar, I don’t worry about it anymore. Like at all.
2. First, I write down things that have to be done at a certain time on the wall calendar and in my planner.
3.  I then fill in on the side or on an extra paper that I keep in my planner, things I want to accomplish in the near future. Oil change, clean out fridge, library trip, clean the bathrooms, make a craft with my daughter, etc… But in no particular order or schedule. Then as my week goes, when I feel like doing those things or I have the time, I do them!
4. Another great thing that I like to do is what I call post planning. It means that I go and write in things that have already happened. It’s a great way to see that you were productive and to keep track of things you did. I am not much of a diary writer, so this is the next best thing. Some weeks I feel like I didn’t get anything done that I thought I should, but if I write down what I actually did do, I can see that I was getting things done.
5. I don’t do any fancy stickers or decorating really anymore. I like the clean, quick and simple nature of a page with some lines and I write. That’s it. That’s where I’m at right now, anyway.

If I miss a week or 3, oh well.

I used to be bothered when I could not do it perfectly, so I just wanted to give up.

But then I realized that I was sort of lost without it. And that I get SO much more done when I spend that little bit of extra time being intentional and setting a few goals for the week.

Each season of life has it’s own needs and style.

That’s something I am learning.

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Are you in a planning and list making stage of life? Or are you always a planner? Or never a planner? Haha! How do you keep track of your life? Share below in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to Dig the Good Life!

Love,