Planner Peace: Wherein Giftie Is A Lady Under Stress

It's hard to describe the peace that comes with processing your planner and knowing that your life is in order.

But describing the mess that occurs when you neglect your planner? Easy. Feeling *&%#'ed. (That word is only as naughty as you imagine when you read it. I'm a lady, after all. :))

Seriously, though, today is Sunday, May 11th. (Happy Mother's Day to my Loyal Readers who are moms.) And, as you can see in the picture above, I've neglected my planner since Thursday!

(Neglected is perhaps too strong a word. I wrote things in it a lot. I just didn't bother reading it.)

So I processed my planner. I went in order, from the front pocket, where I had a receipt to write on my budget page, through today.

TIP: For simple budgeting, set one budget goal for "free spending" (spending that is for non-set items, like groceries and clothing) for the month, and just subtract out each purchase during the month as if you are entering in a check book. When you get to zero, stop spending!

On Thursday, I had done most of the list, but had not scratched out each item. Simply scratching through the items made the list shorter. One step closer to peace...

Some things had to be rescheduled. I have a box of green onion sausage in the refrigerator that needs to be cut into separate servings and frozen. That got rescheduled. (It's not a rush, since the meat stays fresh for several weeks, but it really crowds my fridge.)

Once Thursday was processed, I moved on to Friday.

I understand that, to many of you, this step-by-step explanation is boring overkill. After all, you don't have sausage to put in the freezer!

But it is really important, when you are paralyzed by indecision and overwhelmed by the tasks that you are facing, to find a method of getting through it. Working your planner is a great method to achieve that sense of accomplished peacefulness.

Sometimes, doing the most critical item and working your way through is effective. Today, starting at the beginning and working through to the end proved successful. Just remember that each step brings you closer to planner peace.

Once all the completed or rescheduled items were taken care of, there was a short to-do list left.

TIP: Rather than recopying the list somewhere, use a different color pen or highlighter to indicate tasks to do right now.

I simply worked through those tasks from top to bottom.

Some of the tasks were items to put on my grocery list. So I went ahead and started this week's list.

TIP: If you use coupons or check sales papers, go ahead and note that in the upper left hand corner of the grocery list.

I shop at Target, so my codes include: Cartwheel, gift cards, coupons, text coupons, sales, and a discount for using reusable bags.

Finally, everything for this week was done.

I moved my today page marker to next week.

For Monday morning, I now have a simple list of what needs to be done.

This, my friends, is planner peace. I've caught up on overdue tasks and I know the plan for tomorrow, so I can relax and enjoy Mother's Day. 

Etcetera.