Planning for Success with a Paper Planner

I've been a paper planner user for many many years and I've always used Franklin Covey planners. This year I wanted to try something new and purchased the Erin Condren Life Planner. 

Now, a planner is not just for entering appointments. That's what your smart phone is for. It is for planning and staying organized. If you have dreams, if you have goals, if you have a desire or if you have a bucket list, I suggest getting a planner to help you reach those goals. I wanted to share how I plan for success and stay organized using the Erin Condren planner. (By the way, this post is not sponsored)

1. Here is the customized front cover. I also put the name of the new venture I'm working on as a reminder to keep working on it. Launching and growing The Growth Studio is my ultimate goal and vision for the year. By the way, I went with Erin Condren this year because I wanted something pretty.

2. This section of the planner is for writing down birthdays and anniversaries for every month. I basically remember everyone's birthday, and then there's Facebook to remind you so I use this section to keep record of my face to face Avon customers orders and payments. It is easier to write this down rather than enter it electronically somewhere. I also have a little section to list monthly expenses. Not all planners will work perfectly to suit every need so here, I customized this section accordingly.

3. I taped my 2014 bucket list on the last page of the January weekly calendar (January was almost over before I got my planner so I don't need that page any longer). It is important to have your bucket list, yearly goal or dreams front and center. It is the first thing I see when I open my planner, it is also easy to refer to because you know it is in one of the first pages. Refer to this from time to time to remind you. Here's a bible passage I love dearly "Write the vision and make it plain so that others may read it and run..."(Habakuk 2:2). If your vision is not in plain view, you may not be able to run with it (take action).

4. There's a little section on the right hand side of the monhly calendar pages  for notes. On the top part I will be writing my prasie reports and what I accomplished each month and on the bottom part will be goals for the month. This will be high level goals which I get from looking at my bucket list. What would I have to do this month to get me closer to the items on my bucket list? That is what I put down for goals...See how planner is not just for appointments?

5. And then on the weekly planning pages is where I enter all my weekly activities, appointments, games, blog post topics, planned outfits, bible reading etc. I love the weekly layout because you get to see your whole week as a whole. On the left hand is a section for Weekly goals and notes. This is where I write what I want to do or have to do for the week and doesn't have to be done on a specific day or time and also where I further break down what I wrote down for my monthly goal. The planner also comes with stickers which can be customized and some are already preprinted with activities like appointments, mani/pedi  (I know I don't have time for that), Game day, and so on. The bottom section is for meal planning and the bottom left section is for my shopping lsit. The shopping list is created based on the meals planned or I just list whatever we need for that week.

5. There is a section for notes at the back end of the planner. This is where I write down notes, thoughts, blog post ideas, scriptures etc. Unfortunately the notes section of this planner will not go with me into the next year. That's one down side. I also don't have a good system yet to organize all my notes in one place. There are some on the ipad, some on the phone, they're everywhere.

6. The planner also has a back pocket and pouch. I keep post cards, envelopes, business cards, etc for my Avon business in the pouch so I can easily use them while I'm on the go. The Target gift card peeking out of the pocket is for a customer who recently placed an online order. (You've seen my current Avon special right?). The pouch is for miscellaneous items such as stamps, little papers, paper clips, etc.  

So that's how I plan for success and stay organized, although I'm not perfectly organized.  Let me hear your thoughts on paper planning. 
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