How to Use a Planner Effectively

Looking for insight regarding how to use a planner effectively? While everyone’s needs and preferences will vary, effective planner use boils down to three basic steps: choose a planner well, prepare the planner properly, then use it regularly and thoughtfully.

Choose Your Planner Carefully

It might seem like stating the obvious, but the first step in using a planner effectively is choosing a planner effectively. You need to choose a planner that’s a good fit for you, or you won’t find yourself using it consistently.

This means you’ll need to balance things like size (is it large enough to contain what you need, but small enough to be as portable as you need it?), binding style, layout style, etc.

As an example, I know that I need something that’s pretty compact but lets me add information to it when necessary, and with a moderate amount of space on each daily layout. But I don’t need an hour-by-hour breakdown of my days, because I don’t have a lot of appointments.

I also know that digital doesn’t work well for me (as much as I might like the flexibility) because I just don’t end up using it…but you might find that digital options are a better fit.

Prepare Your Planner to Use it Effectively

Once you’ve selected a planner, you need to set it up for use. The key components are some sort of to-do list system/setup, and a calendar/place for appointments. Beyond that, different people will probably want to include different sections and/or information. Some people, for instance, might want to have a section for contacts, while others just keep those in their phones.

What you need for your daily work will differ from person to person. For instance, I have a section with all the color numbers for my website images, but someone who doesn’t work with websites wouldn’t need that. Someone else might need a place to track mileage, but I don’t because I rarely have a need to record mileage.

I like to get mine all set up basically once a year (in late December), and then just tweak later if/as necessary. Because I “DIY” a lot of my pages, for me this includes making sure I have all the parts and everything’s all together. I also like to mark birthdays & anniversaries, key holidays, etc. I also like to note pay days and that sort of thing. Anything that I’m going to want to check on when it’s coming up.

It’s also a good time to make sure you have on hand anything you need that goes with your planner. Whatever pen or pens you use with it, sticky notes if you use those, etc. If stickers and washi tape are your thing, that, too. (I use functional stickers, like when marking pay days and holidays. I don’t really use decorative stickers, so I use most of my stickers all at once when I’m prepping, and not throughout the year.)

How to Use Your Planner

Perhaps the hardest part of using a planner is simply getting in the habit of using it. Remembering to pull it out every day — especially if everything you do most days is at home — can be a challenge.

If you struggle with this, my advice would be to just not give up. If it sits unused for two months, and then you remember, pull it back out and pick up where you’re at. If you wait for perfection, you’ll never build the habit. If you use it when you remember, it will benefit you when you remember, even if there are large gaps in between. (I know this because I’ve been there. Repeatedly.)

CONTEXTS & NEXT ACTIONS

A couple principles from Getting Things Done can be particularly helpful in the day-to-day use of a planner. These are “contexts” and “next actions.” Contexts is all about your to-do list — keeping your to-do’s “sorted” by where you need to be or what you need to have access to in order to do them, so you don’t waste a lot of time reading and re-reading tasks that you can’t do anyway.

The idea of “next actions” is even more key. This is the idea that whatever task is written on your to-do list needs to be the very next action you can take with regard to whatever you’re trying to get done. This sounds overly simple, but it can actually be a pretty big shift, and help deal with a lot of procrastination!

For example, if you need to make a vet appointment for your new cat, but you don’t have a vet, the next action might not actually be, “make vet appointment,” but “choose a vet’s office” or “look up phone number for a nearby vet.” Much of the time, if you find yourself repeatedly avoiding a particular task, it turns out to be because it wasn’t actually the next action; there’s a necessary intermediate step.

REVIEW

The other major key goes back to being in the habit of using it. If you aren’t looking at your goals, your to-do lists, your calendar…you’re not going to remember to work toward the goals, get the tasks done, or make it to the appointments.

I like to look over everything pretty closely once a month (and reboot my goals as necessary, figure out what’s next, etc.), and then more quickly on a weekly and daily basis. (Again, this is when I’m doing it well. I totally drop the ball for a while sometimes, too. But when I pick it back up, this is what I go back to.)

Planner Extras

Basic elements like a calendar and somewhere to write a to-do list are all you really need to make a planner workable. But there are any number of tools, tips, and hacks, that can help you to use a planner more effectively, depending on your particular needs.

A few that have accumulated around here over the years include:

habit lists
organization gifts for personal productivity buffs (roundup of fun & useful tools, etc.)
making a spiraldex template
how to create an index card pocket
DIY zip pouch

And of course, there are options for “prettying up” a planner and just adding a dose of beauty and/or fun, if that’s something that appeals to you. Stickers, colorful pens, books about getting “beyond bullet journaling,” etc.

My Planner Over the Years

And for those who like to see how others do thing in order to get ideas, a peek inside my own day planner as it’s evolved over the years. Not everyone will care, and that’s okay. But if you’re one of those people who likes to look at other people’s planners for ideas, and/or if you’d like to get a peek into how a personal planning system may change and adapt over time, here you go:

My Day Planner, part 1, part 2, part 3, & part 4 — This is from 2007, shortly before I discovered Getting Things Done.
My Day Planner, “Redux” — This is how I adapted right after discovering Getting Things Done
DIY Day Planner, part 1, part 2, & part 3 — This is from 2014, and I used this approach effectively for a number of years, with just minor tweaks.
DIY Daily layout – Somewhere along the way, I created my own daily layout format to print out/have printed.
DIY/Tula XII — In early 2021, I discovered Tula, and made a shift to this traveler’s notebook-style approach. I created an adaptation of my previous page layout, designed to fit in this booklet.