My Planners
There has been some talk around the blogs lately about planning. Some folks use bullet journals, some use homemade spreadsheets, some use Google docs, and some use paper calendars or white boards. Here’s my system. At my work desk, I have a pocket sized refillable Franklin Planner that I bought perhaps 25 years ago on sale. I like the monthly tab calendar. I used to go into a physical store to buy refills every year, but those days are long gone, and I order them online. I keep track of birthdays and appointments, that kind of thing. Sometimes I keep a ‘to do’ list on a little yellow pad, but not always. When I do, I will admit to satisfaction in checking things off as I get them done. I’ve been known to write things down that I’ve already done, just so I can check them off.
In addition to the physical calendar, I have been slowly joining the 21st century and adding birthdays and other repeating events to the calendar on my phone. It’s helpful sometimes to get a reminder that someone’s birthday is coming up, though I’m pretty good at remembering those on my own.
The other calendar we keep is a big one on the fridge. There is some crossover between this one and my Franklin Planner, but in theory this one includes everyone’s schedules, so we can keep track and know whether we have plans, appointments, etc. I say in theory, because I’m the only one that uses it consistently. Maya and Ted keep track of their appointments on their phones, which works well for them, but leaves everyone else in the dark. We are a small family though, with pretty basic, uncomplicated schedules, so it’s not an issue. Back when Ted worked different hours all of the time, we kept track of that on the fridge calendar. When Maya was a kid, and was in Girl Scouts or on swim team, we kept track of that on the fridge calendar.
I’m lucky at work in that I don’t have a lot of meetings. There are two regular meetings every week, and then whatever pops up. I have Outlook for that.
What system do you use? Do you have a paper calendar, electronic, spreadsheet, or all of the above? Do you like to keep track of things like exercise, meals, sleep patterns, moods, and so on? If so, does tracking these things help you? I’ve tried before, but have never kept at it.
36 Comments
Daria
Thank you for the description! I just don’t trust digital LOL since I rather not use my phone for yet another thing… So I am still in the 19th century… We have three months spread on our refrigerator with pretty much everything, so tomorrow I will take january down, and put up April. I also have my own paper calendar and an accessory notebook. T is all digital. The pictures of your family are just… awww.
J
I’m with you, I tried digital for a year and I HATED it. I didn’t like having to scroll to see what was coming the next month and so on. I doubt I will ever go back. I’m sure it’s totally workable, just not for me.
Sarah
this was good to read because my planning self is a mess right now. I use an ical, an outlook cal, a google cal, a moleskine with lists, and a paper planner. plus we have a dry erase weekly cal on the fridge. GAH. must streamline
J
Sarah, with 5 kids and two adults, I can only imagine how complicated your system is!
Ernie
I have a notebook on my island where I keep my list of to do things. I write the date of the day I start a list and don’t flip to the next page until it gets full. On top of that, I’ve started writing a few things on a few slips of paper so I can focus on getting like 4 or 5 things done in one day. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. I have a big paper desk caldendar on my island near my notebook. Um, my islalnd is a mess and these things can get buried, but I know where everything is. Everything is fine. I swear.
Additionally we have a large dry earse board where we track all the kids’ games and days off and appointments so they can see what’s going on- but mostly they just ask me. 😉
J
I’m glad to hear people still use some handwritten stuff, rather than just everything online. Though online is great for sharing between family members, so I can definitely see why people do that.
NGS
It’s just me and my husband and we have a shared Google calendar. I do have Outlook for work and it annoys me to no end that I have to manually add my Outlook events to my Google calendar, but it’s what I do to make sure my husband and I both know what’s going on.
The shared calendar used to be far more important when we shared a car. We had to know who had the car where and when. But now we use it out of habit and it’s useful.
I have a paper planner where I track my progress on quarterly goals and things like that. I guess I could switch that to a digital spreadsheet, but I find that I like to do my progress right before bed and if I had to go turn on my computer or check my phone to fill in a digital spreadsheet, I’d probably also end up wasting time on the internet in other ways. WIth the paper planner, it just takes a minute or so right before bed and there’s no blue light before bed.
Whatever system works for you is the system you should use, I say!
J
I agree! Whatever works, works. I will admit that I’ve been tracking my January goals on my calendar, and it makes me happy to do that every night before bed. 🙂
Tierney
There was a podcast episode (Maybe on Best Laid Plans?) where a digitally-focused planner talked about merging Outlook, Apple, and Google calendars so you could see everything on all calendars. It actually seemed like that was her “secret trick.” I realize not everyone may be able to share workplace email accounts to public accounts but at some point, I am going to try to figrue it out. I’m sure that this will end up on my 2025 resolution list since I haven’t acted on it for several months already!
J
That sounds like a great system for folks with multiple systems going!
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Oh boy do I understand writing down things you’ve already done to cross them off. It’s called building momentum to cross the rest of the stuff off. I often put easier stuff first so that I can get a good streak of crossed off items going.
J
That makes total sense, I hadn’t really considered the WHY of it.
Nicole MacPherson
I have a paper calendar; it’s an agenda that I leave open on the corner of one of the kitchen countertops. I write everything in it – appointments, exercise, goals for the day, household chores, and dinners. I love seeing everything at a glance. I just can’t go digital – I need to just see the week ahead of me on paper, I guess.
J
Team paper!
nance
I religiously use the calendar on my iPhone for everything. When the boys were little, we had a paper calendar that we hung on the fridge and wrote everything on. Rick likes to Invite Me to things using his Google (?) calendar (maybe Outlook? I have no idea) via email, and I always decline just to be difficult. Or I reply Maybe. He keeps using that, knowing I DO NOT USE IT.
We also have a dry erase whiteboard at the back door for URGENT ITEMS that Rick ignores most of the time.
Like you, I sometimes have to make paper lists of Stuff To Get Done Today so that I stay on top of things AND get to cross them off. Love that.
J
Nance, you crack me up. Declining or saying Maybe, just to be difficult. Funny that Rick doesn’t give up.
Elisabeth
I am all paper (like 95% of my planning). I have a scratch pad of white pad that I use for daily lists and everything else goes in my planner (Sprouted). I LIVE by my planner. I also have a wall calendar where I put major things I know about in advance, but I don’t actually consult it that much. Mostly it’s my planner. I use it every single day and have worked out a system that I love for tracking to-do’s, workouts and all sorts of things. Planning on paper brings me real joy.
My husband, on the other hand, lives EXCLUSIVELY by his Google calendar. But I just…don’t like digital. I miss the tactile experience that paper provides.
J
I’m with you Elisabeth, paper FTW. I do have some birthdays in my phone calendar, though, and like that little reminder. But by the time it pings, I’ve already mailed a gift and a card.
Margaret
John has some kind of phone calendar that’s linked in with his kids; everyone’s appointments and special days are in a different color. Or perhaps it’s on his iPad? I use a regular calendar and a white board in my kitchen. Neither one works well when I’m away from the house and trying to schedule something though.
J
John’s system sounds smart, I like that! Yeah, the downside of a physical calendar system is that you don’t take it with you. Unless you carry it around, which I did decades ago when I worked in an office, but wouldn’t do now.
Tierney
I love my Hobonichi weeks. This is supplemented by keeping an eye on the weekly view of my work Outlook, and using my phone for meetings I need to set reminders for. While it works, I can do better I think.
J
I’ve never heard of hobonici. Looking onine, they are pretty! So yours is a weekly planner? That’s too much for my needs these days, monthly works.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I am mostly digital now. I still keep some notes on paper, or jot them down on paper but then if they are long term, I will put them in my calendar/notes on my phone. I actually was looking at my Google Keep yesterday and realized that I have notes in there from 10 years ago, so I guess I have been using it for a long time! I also have been using Google calendar for a while, but I used to copy things to my paper calendar/planner/journal but it started to get redundant so I just do it digitally now.
J
I don’t think I’ve heard of Google Keep! I’ve been using my low tech system for ages as well. I keep the tabbed calendar from year to year, it’s fun sometimes to look back, though there really isn’t a lot of information in there. If I tracked more, I think it would be more fun to look back.
Ally Bean
What system do you use? Do you have a paper calendar, electronic, spreadsheet, or all of the above? I use a paper calendar to track when I post to my blog. I just shared a photo of it yesterday on IG, in fact. I use a Franklin-Covey datebook with monthly pages to record any appointments I have. I never use anything electronic or a spreadsheet for planning my life.
Do you like to keep track of things like exercise, meals, sleep patterns, moods, and so on? If so, does tracking these things help you? I do not keep track of those things formally, but trust myself to know if I’m doing them regularly enough to be healthy.
J
Your system sounds like mine, very low key. Though I don’t track my blog posts. I trust myself to do what is needed there to keep me healthy. 🙂 (I like that)
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Oh this was so interesting to read. At some points similiar to my system and then very different. I feel like I want to immediatly sit down and start writing my own post. But is’s close to midnight so I will postpone.
Anyway it is always so interesting to see how everyone is organzing life, appointments and fun adventures. Thanks so much for sharing.
J
I’ll look forward to reading your system!
coco
I love your calendar with all the photos! Print photos bring so much joy!
I mainly rely on paper planner because I like to look at it and writing on it, once written I remember more. I do use google calendar for kids activities, shared with my husban so he knows as he’s the one taking them to and from. At work, we have a calendar system too sync to my phone.
J
Coco, I think syncing calendars is one of the things that electronics do better than paper, along with reminders. Thanks for the comment on my photos, they do make me happy.
San
I love learning about everybody’s planning habits. I am definitely a hybrid-kinda girl. I still have – and love – my paper planner, but I do a lot of digital planning as well (because it’s easy to move things around and I love being able to get alerts for certain things. One thing, paper planners can’t do ;)).
I love that you’re still using a big paper planner on your fridge. I think it’s so satisfying to to see a whole month at a glance.
J
San, we used to get a big paper calendar every year from Ted’s step-dad, who worked at a printing press where they gave them to clients every year. Just a few years ago they stopped making them, putting us all into a shock where we had to figure out WHAT TO DO! Imagine our surprise when we learned that we could buy them at the store? LOL.
Stephany
Like San, I’m a hybrid planner person! I like using Google Calendar for appointments/plans so that I can easily pull that up when I’m making plans/appointments and know what my schedule looks like. But I also have a paper wall calendar that I fill in every month. I have weekly planner that I use to keep track of habits + give myself a few goals to accomplish each day, BUT I’m interested in Birchie’s Excel system for planning so I want to give that a try too!
J
Stephany, your system sounds pretty good, especially for someone as busy as you are. The only electronic calendaring I do is for work, or if something adds itself to my calendar automatically, like a birthday or a restaurant reservation.
Anne
Julie, I confess, your fridge gave me hives. 🙂 Shows the difference between a ‘household’ of 1 and a house with a family! I… don’t have a system, really. I don’t use Google calendar because I live and die by my work Outlook calendar, which i cannot sync (to my knowledge) to Google calendar. And, I don’t have to share my calendar with anyone other than work colleagues, so… Finally? I had no idea that people had jobs with *just two scheduled meetings per week*. The specific number varies by the week (we have recurring meetings on the 1st and 3rd Fridays, the 2nd and 4th Fridays, etc. And yes, our recurring meetings are on *Fridays*, which is even worse! Aren’t you glad you don’t have my job? ;))
J
Anne, my fridge is definitely cluttered, isn’t it? I love having pictures of family, plus I collect magnets whenever I go to a museum. Only two standing meetings a week! So awesome. One is our weekly team meeting, one is my one-on-one with my boss. My job doesn’t require a lot of meetings, and I am thankful for that. Definitely not true for everyone at my company.