When To Customize A Planner

I generally follow a planner "system" of a dashboard, project pages, monthly calendar for appointments/events/time sensitive items, weekly calendar for tasks, future pages, and notes/files.

But sometimes, something doesn't quite work in the system.

For example, my grocery list doesn't really work as a project, because it needs to be VERY accessible. I don't want to have to find the tiny tab. Plus, because I use the page up and start a new one weekly, it's not worth relabeling each week, unlike most of my on-going projects.

I'm solved the problem, quite organically, by writing the grocery list on the second sheet of my planner. I just started doing it one day. And guess what? It works, I know where the grocery list is, and I don't see any reason to add weight and thickness to my planner by adding a tab.

Understand, this only works because the rest of my planner is so organized that I can simply remember the exceptions to the system.

I also have a running list of things that my husband is supposed to take care of on a one-time basis. (For his regular tasks, like much of our bill paying, I only note very important things, like paying the mortgage. He can deal with the electricity bill. He has always paid on time, and if he doesn't, he can pay the penalties and get the energy reset for us.)

This week, I've asked my husband to call the roofing company (definitely his area of expertise, if you can even claim that either of us is remotely qualified to have a conversation with a roofer), check on the OT for my kid (covered through his insurance, so he needs to check with the insurance representative at work), and order sunscreen (because he has Amazon Prime on his account and we need free shipping).

I just put my husband's task list on my weekly task sheet and recopy. It isn't really an active project, after all, since I don't have to do anything. And the items are time sensitive (must be done in the next week or two), so I don't want to "hide" them. The @ symbol is followed by my husband's initials to tell me that I am waiting on him to take care of it.

TIP: Making a note of the date that you communicate with your significant other or roommate about something keeps a lot of arguments from ever happening. Strike that. Making a note of the date that you communicate with your significant other or roommate about something keeps lets you WIN a lot of arguments.

Happy planning!

Etcetera.