A Guide for Self-Organization: Planning

If you connected with my Recovering from Planner Addiction post but are unsure about where to even begin, then this is the post for you!

I’ve gone through my own personal battle with planner addiction and managed to come out the other side with an organizational system that actually works for me and my lifestyle. Having a system that supports me in outlining and accomplishing my goals has been a life changer when it comes to making different things in my life become more than just ideas and dreams, but my actual reality.

The benefits of self-organization

• Less anxiety - which is a benefit to your health

• Helps support your goals by giving you focus and a plan for the things that are important

• Better time management which ultimately gives you back time to do with as you please

• Increases efficiency with tasks and goals

• Less risk of burnout

• Helps with avoiding procrastination by having a clear simple plan for your goals and tasks

Tips to remember as you get started.

Form habits and routines that work for you

One of the most important parts of having a planner or organizational system includes forming habits around those systems that will support you and your goals.

Some important habits you should be utilizing for the most success:

• Checking in with your planner or organizational system multiple times per day.

• Forming routines in every area you can - morning routines, night routines, work routines, etc.

• Make planning a habit that you adhere to daily.

Avoid procrastination

Avoid procrastination by having your tasks and goals clearly laid out in your organizational system.

This means having the goal or task broken down into smaller parts that you can accomplish easily as you go. The last thing you want is one giant goal and no plan. That is a sure fire way to end up avoiding looking at your goals and your organizational system.

Your brain is not reliable.

Write everything down as often as possible to get it out of your brain. Free up resources for brain power by keeping all the tasks and to-dos that pop into your mind written down in a reliable place you’ll come back to.

Along this same lines, your brain is also not good at multitasking so try to stay focused on one thing at a time.

Keep it minimal and simple.

Although fancy organizational systems and planners may seem alluring, try to keep your system as simple as possible for the first few weeks. If you get into a system that is working for you and you decide you want to add your own spin on it, do it then. But keep your first few weeks simple to avoid planner anxiety and burnout. This can include simple things like giving yourself a reasonable amount of notifications but not so many you become overwhelmed and can’t keep up, make a to-do list that is easy to manage (adding and deleting items should not be stressful or time consuming), and having a minimal number of organizational apps or planners that keep you structured.

Set limits for decision making.

Do not give yourself the time to agonize over making the best choice when it comes to your planners and organizational systems.

I’ve learned recently that just making a choice and seeing where it takes you is much more effective than spending valuable time trying to figure out which choice is the best one for you.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give decision making time, you should, but limit the amount of time you’re going to give yourself to make the decision. Set a time limit that gives ample time to research, if needed, and then make a decision when that time is up or even before time is up if you can.

Getting started with organization.

First, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself to get started:

Ask yourself why exactly you want a planner or organizational system?

What exactly are you trying to get out of a planner or organizational system. What needs do you need your system to fulfill?

Ask questions like: Do you want a more productive life? Are you trying to achieve more balance in your life? Are you hoping to become better at managing your time?

Write those needs down and use that as the base for trying to find the systems and planners that work best for you.

Do you prefer physical notebooks and planners or electronic options or maybe a mish-mash of both?

Because of my own experience, I strongly suggest not being 100% convinced that one will or will not work for you.

I have spent my entire life dedicated to physical planners and notebooks. I was adamant that everything needed to be written down for the system or organizational tool to be useful for me. Almost a year later, I do ALL of my organizing and planning in an online space. If you would have suggested this to me a year ago, I wouldn’t believe it.

Not holding myself down to one system and opening up to other possibilities helped me find a system that was perfect for my lifestyle, routine, and the things I needed organizational help with.

What do you have that is currently already working for you?

Do you have apps that you constantly use that assist in making your life easier? Do you have a bullet journal or physical planner that does a good job at currently supporting you and that you already keep up with? Do you have a specific physical or electric calendar that you use?

Don’t mess with what already works. Use the things that are already a part of your system and that have become habits to your benefit. KEEP WHAT WORKS.

Identifying the forms of organization you need.

First off, I can’t say it enough, keep what is already working for you.

If you have a calendar that you religiously update or an app that you use for tracking that works for you, KEEP THESE THINGS! Don’t make setting up your system any harder than it needs to be for you. If you have habits that are working, let them keep working, and use those to build the rest of your system off.

Second, what forms of organizational systems or planners do you still need?

Some ideas:

• Calendar

• To-do list

• Habit tracker

• Planner

• Area to dump random information

Helpful tips - Try to keep the number of apps and physical items you are using to create your system to a minimum. At the very least, start with one or two and then add more as you need them. Starting with the very basics and then adding things as needed was essential to helping me find a system that worked with my lifestyle.

Diving into self-organization.

Calendar

The first part of any organization system is having a calendar!

Time management is one of the most crucial parts of remaining organized and a calendar helps us do this by keeping our appointments and important dates right in front of us so nothing is missed.

Now, the calendar can be used in a bunch of different ways so you’re going to have to decide which way you would prefer to try first.

Some different options:

• Using your calendar ONLY to store important dates and appointments.

• Using your calendar to store important dates, appointments, and to time block (what works best for me).

• Using your calendar to store important dates, appointments, time block, and create task notifications.

Some things to think about when deciding on your calendar:

• Will you pay attention to the calendar notifications if you have too many on your phone? I have found with adding task notifications into my calendar, the calendar and my notifications become too cluttered and I end up dismissing all of them together and not paying a lot of attention to what each one was for.

• Digital calendars give you a lot more flexibility when it comes to optimizing your calendar to what works best for you. Example: When I used a physical calendar in my bullet journal, it was really only useful for writing down appointments and due dates. Once I switched to a digital calendar, I had a lot more flexibility and could add time blocking into my calendar.

To-do list

There are so many options for creating a to-do list that the decision can be one of the most overwhelming.

Tracking your to-do’s for the day in one central place is necessary to staying organized.

First, do you want a physical to-do list or are you more digital based?

If you’re looking for a digital option, I strongly recommend checking out some of the top do-do list apps: Notion (my ultimate favorite and what I use for organizing my life), Asana, Todoist, OmniFocus, or Things.

For physical options, these can range anywhere from a daily checklist notepad or in a notebook, a regular planner, or a bullet journal.

Planner

The purpose of your planner is to have a place to do all of your planning. This is an essential part that I feel like a lot of people miss or leave out of their organizational systems. Planning essentially helps you set up a foundation and process for implementing plans to meet your goals and help you achieve your dreams, both short-term and long-term.

The idea of your planner is to make a schedule of your tasks, especially ones that need breaking down, and planning out how you want to accomplish them by their due date. If you don’t have an actual due date, give them one. This will help you stay focused and motivated towards getting your goals and tasks accomplished.

Being able to see what you need to do in a day, and also in wider span like a week, helps make planning and organizing so much easier. This helps keep you from overbooking yourself with too many tasks or to-dos in any given day or week.

Personally, I plan and have a to-do list in the same app, Notion. I strongly recommend Notion as it’s an app and tool that has so many different options for layouts and can meet so many different organizational and planning needs.

If you’re planning in a physical planner, you may need some extra space than what the planner offers to really map out your goals and what you hope to accomplish for any given period of time. Bullet journaling or even just a plain notebook can do this job for you.

Have a centralized location for all your important information.

This was probably one of my biggest mistakes when it comes to planning and managing my life effectively - not having a centralized location or spot for all of my important information and other random notes or ideas that I wanted to keep track of.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a strong advocate for the use of the app Notion for planning and organizing because it is so versatile in what it can do for the user. No matter which type of planner or organizer you are, there is something for everyone. The only thing you have to be willing to do is plan and organize online with a digital product.

Some other ideas on where to store information: Google Docs or Google Keep, Evernote, Monday, and Obsidian.

If you’re into more physical planners for this type of thing, the bullet journal is a great tool when it comes to creating templates and places to store your information in an organized and easy to find fashion.

Getting started with your self-organization tools.

Start small.

For week one, you should only be introducing 1 or 2 new things into your schedule to try out.

Trying to rush into a new full organizational system with multiple new apps or ideas is bound to set yourself up for failure and will lead to planner burnout.

If there has been something that has been working for you for a long time, keep that.

But then add one additional new organizational tool to go along with or support that.

Do not try adding more than 2 new things. It’s more important that your make your new organizational tools a habit or a part of your routine slowly to help ensure that you are not getting overwhelmed with the process and to give yourself space to really figure out what works and what doesn’t.

For week two, if you felt comfortable and at ease with adding in one new additional tool, then this is the chance to add in another.

However, if you felt overwhelmed and slightly chaotic the first week, give yourself another week to get used to what you are using.

The goal is to only focus on one part of your organizational system and tools at at time to really figure out what works and what doesn’t and to ensure that you can handle the addition and stay committed to what you’ve decided on so far.

Be open to change.

As you begin slowly adding in your new organizational tools, you may find that some of your favorites just don’t work with your lifestyle and aren’t meeting your organizational needs or aligning with your goals.

Instead of trying to force something that isn’t working, be open to change early on in the process.

When a process or tool is getting overwhelming or confusing, step back, take a look at what you’re doing, and ask yourself how or why this tool isn’t working for you. Is it too much work? Are there too many moving parts? This will help you decide if the system or tool just needs some tweaking or if you need to go back to the drawing board and find another option for your lifestyle.

Plan time to plan.

Although it may sound counterproductive, you need time set aside each day, week, and month to really sit down and plan out your time in a way that makes sense for your life.

Having a set daily routine where you review your planner in the morning and again in the evening is a must. This helps you keep track of what you should be focused on today and helps you plan out your next day in the smartest way possible. Not leaving planning until the day of will help keep you more organized and more focused on your goals.

Planning time is time you’ll really focus on what goals you want to achieve for the week or month and plan out the time that it will take to achieve those goals. Doing a monthly reset each month and identifying which goals and priorities are my most important that month has helped me actually meet and accomplish the goals I’m setting out to achieve.

Create reusable templates and guides.

Do you find yourself writing the same lists out week after week?

Create reusable templates that allow you to save time by already being ready to go.

This is an item that is more fitting if you’re someone that uses digital products for organization, however, you can create the same effect by making up one template on the computer and printing out multiple copies of this to use when needed if you’re more into the physical planners and organization. Use a binder to combine your templates together in one place if you’re someone who likes to keep your templates for future planning or assessment.

Planning Goals

Your first goal should be getting your organizational system set up in a way that fits your lifestyle and needs. You should be using this system for a minimum of a few weeks before moving onto other goals. This will help make sure that your organizational system is truly meeting your initial daily needs and demands.

Jumping fully into goals planning with a system that doesn’t have a great foundation for you and your needs is likely to leave you frustrated and unmotivated.

Once that is completed, you can move onto the next step, actually planning your weekly/monthly/yearly goals.

Planning out your goals will be the next series in A Guide to Self-Organization!

If you’ve enjoyed this post, comment below some of your hacks and secret tips to making planning work!