In the last two planner posts, I talked about my daily pages. Today I’m going to talk about the monthly ones. This is what the monthly pages look like:

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Yearly Preparation:

At the beginning of every year, I fill in birthdays and anniversaries. I have a master list in my home management binder. (See link at the upper right of my blog for more information about my binder.) Using this list, I write them in. Birthdays/anniversaries are all written on the bottom line of a day’s square. A birthday gets a first name and, where necessary, a last initial. If I need to make a note to myself of how old the person will be, I put the age in parentheses afterward. An anniversary gets a last name and, where there are two or more (as with my anniversary and my mother-in-law’s, for example), the husband’s first name, or an initial. (So my anniversary says “Ramey (M).”)

When I have written in all of the dates, I go back through the book with three highlighters. I highlight all of the birthdays in one color. This year, they’re purple. I highlight all anniversaries in a second color. This year, they’re blue. Finally, I highlight all holidays (most of which are preprinted by Day-Timer) of relevance to my family in a third color. This year, the holidays are green. This preparation only takes a little while – perhaps thirty minutes – at the beginning of the year, but it allows me to see at a glance what is coming up.

Regular Use:

Throughout the year, my use of the monthly pages is pretty basic. Whenever I find out about something coming up, I write it in. Where possible, I try to write near the top of the square if it’s a morning event, the middle if it’s a middle-of-the-day event, and the bottom if it’s an evening event. If it spans several days, it goes across the top, and I use horizontal arrows to indicate which days it covers. The only thing I write in this space is the event and the time. (Leaving off the “m” of “a.m.” and “p.m.” and just using “a” or “p” helps save space.) At the beginning of each two-month period, when I pull out my new daily booklet, I copy all pertinent events from the monthly calendar to their appropriate daily pages. If necessary, I then jot down any additional information on those daily pages. The monthly calendar lets me see my schedule at a glance, but is not used for recording large amounts of information.

The “notes” section at the right side of my monthly calendar does not get used very frequently. This month, I have a note about the upcoming exhibit at our local history museum, because it’s one I’d like to go see. (It isn’t date-specific; the exhibit will be there all month, so I don’t really need it written down as an appointment.) In the past, I have also made note of something unusual I need to add to my grocery list in a particular month – paper plates because our baby’s due, lamb for Passover, etc. More often than not, though, this space stays empty. If you need to make an index of your notes for the month, and there aren’t too many, the space could possibly be used for that purpose.

I do use the monthly planner to keep track of certain small bits of information. Ladies, this is a good place to keep track of your monthly cycles. (A small notation, not easily recognized by outsiders, is good. 🙂 ) I also keep track of my scanner transmissions for a scan-your-purchases survey company. I just jot down the company’s initials, with a circle around them, on the days I transmit. Any lengthier types of information, however, simply do not fit on a month-at-a-glance calendar.

Coming up…my long-term to-do list…

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