Daily Planner Pages - An Update

Today was the first day of school for my kids, complete with an hour and a half carpool. I had my home office phone line hooked up. I worked (for my real job) for five hours. I put away laundry, made and served breakfast and dinner, heated up lunches, and dusted the table and cabinets. I made my weekly menu and grocery list. (I promise a menu planning post is coming soon. Keep me honest on my Facebook group, Giftie Etcetera.) I oversaw cccchhhhhhhoooooorrrrrreeeesssss (dragged out to approximate Loki's whining about doing chores after having to go to ssssscccccchhhhhhhhooooolllll). (First grade is going to be special, y'all.)

It was a busy, stressful day.

Tomorrow is more of the same. Carpool, five hours of scheduled legal work, errands to bank, produce stand, and grocery store, and lots of little tasks. I also need to remember about karate lessons, even though my husband will do the driving.

I already blogged about using daily pages or a daily docket on busy days, separate from your usual weekly entries. Today, I wanted to show you that supplemental daily page in action.

First, I write over the weekly entry "SEE SUPP" (for supplement) in my highlight color. All of the weekly entries will be copied onto the daily page, along with any new stuff.

Second, I plan out my upcoming day on the daily page. I just keep several copies printed out (from a quick template in Word) and hole-punched in my planner. This supplemental page goes right in between this week's weekly pages.

The details...

*I circle the day of the week and write the date on top of the page. At first, this step felt like wasted time. But I realized that I use my planner as a calendar more than I thought. I also would be looking at the wrong page sometimes, if I didn't write the day of the week.

*I basically have three columns (though the page is only divided into two parts). Timed events and FYI times (both in the first large box) and tasks.

*In the timed events column, I write in start and end times.

*In the FYI times column, I write things like where I'll be (if it varies from my usual routine) or times when other family members have activities.

*In the tasks column, I schedule tasks.

Tasks go in that order so that I accomplish my tasks throughout the day. Some tasks are time-specific, like prepping for dinner.

On a regular day, I can keep track of when tasks should get done in my mind. But with so many tasks and timed events, I need my daily page on a busy day.

*Any unscheduled tasks (rarely, but it happens) or notes go on the back of the page.

*I still use my context codes (like E for errand) and a circle to indicate a task. I use an * to refer me to another page in my planner, like my daily chores sticker.

I don't love daily pages, but for now, they are working one or two days per week.

Seriously, though, only do this if you have an appointment driven life or an extremely busy day. It's not worth the trouble otherwise.

Etcetera.