Planners and getting things done

 

I think a lot of us have a planner or calendar that we use to record that various appointments and meetings that we need to attend. Being able to figure out what works best for you is very important, and it can change over time. You may use a variety of methods of recording the various things that you need to accomplish each day, or just one thing that catches everything.

For us, I know that we have a calendar where we both record the various appointments and deadlines that effective either both of us or either of us, but we want the other person aware of the event. This is the place where we also put the various vacations that may impact us, either clients on vacations or family members, and of course our own vacations. This is the spot that we check when we are trying to schedule work meetings and even a lot of our social events because it lets us know what could impact the event.

Besides having our joint calendar, I have a planner that I use to document the things that I would like to get done daily. It is also the place where I put the appointments, deadlines, and meetings as well so that I can see at the beginning of the day when is ahead of us. Yes, it means that a lot of the things are documented twice, but at least I can see them quickly and my planner is beside me on my desk throughout the day.

My planner is also where I document what I have accomplished each day so that at the end of the day I can see what I got done versus what was planned to get done. There are days when I can get lots of things done that weren’t even on the to-do for the day, and then other days maybe only one thing that was on the list can get achieved before it was a larger project than I originally thought. Being able to manage things in a couple of ways make it so much easier because it at least lets us see what is going on.

I use my planner for a lot of the little things that I need to do and things that I would like to do each day but not they have to do that given day. Normally in the planner I am writing when bills need to be paid, different notes that we want to have available but don’t need to be on our calendar that may interfere with planning of other things.

Yes, having multiple planners and calendars can be a challenge, but you need to make sure that you have a method of getting things done. One calendar may work for a lot of people, but we have found that having a shared calendar for a lot of the stuff and then me having a separate planner for other things works great. See what works for you, and then you may end up changing things around, but at least give the idea a chance and see how it goes.