How I Set Up My Planner

Planner is lyfe. 

But really. I absolutely love my planner, and I don't know how I managed to keep my life together but I started keeping one. There's a huge community of people that really get into decorating their planners. I tried that, and it took too much from my organization, so that I can't really touch on. But I will show you how I set my planner in a simple but efficient fashion, and also the different kinds of planners and how you can find your best one.

Types of Planners

There are SO many types of planners for different lifestyles; planners for moms, planners for college students, planner for high schoolers, etc. Since I am a blog geared more toward the college student, I will be explaining planners that college students would find most helpful, although these can be used for anyone, really.

The day planner. These planners list out your days with hour increments. Most usually go from 7am - 8pm, Monday-Sunday. Some have a monthly/weekly view, some don't. These are for really busy people, because you can plan your day hour by hour.

Here's the DayMinder from Target the cheaper alternative, and the DayTimer, a pretty customized but more expensive option.

The vertical planner. Really, I don't know what else to call this. It's a monthly and weekly view planner, but the week is set up vertically, balled "morning" "afternoon" and "night." These are used a lot by people who really love to decorate planners, because a lot of shops on Etsy sell stickers that let you personalize it. It's also used by many bloggers and YouTubers for that same reason. The most popular is the Erin Condren LifePlanner, but it is pretty pricey. 

The horizontal planner. Again, I don't know what else to call this. It's pretty much the standard planner, and can have a weekly/monthly or just monthly view. These are the most diverse kind of planners, I think, because it can come in all sizes, colors, and varieties. Last year I used a Lilly Pulitzer Planner, but I got a Sugar Paper Planner. The Lilly planner is pretty expensive, but any agenda at Target or Walmart will run about 10$, maybe more maybe less.

You can always personalize a planner on Paper Source. I've never done this, because I never needed to, but I do know people that have them and love them. These are for people that are extremely particular about how they plan.

How I Set Up My Planner

Since I haven't gotten any of my syllabuses yet, I have to show you pictures from my planner last year. I tweaked a bit what I will be doing for my planner this year, but it's pretty similar.

Whenever I buy my planner, I look for three things; a monthly and weekly view, spiral bound, and the weekly views are horizontal without any hours.

Overall Set up:

1. I color code EVERYTHING. Each class I use a specific color (pink, purple, green,light blue, red) and highlighters that almost match, since they don't make red highlighters I use red pen and yellow highlight. Whatever color I assign to my class, I use for my both my planner and notes. It's really helpful in keeping me organized, and also when I'm taking notes it helps me remember better, since color is helpful in retaining information. I generally use my least favorite class on my favorite color, too, because I love using that color, I will take more notes and write more down so I can see the color more. It's a weird tidbit but it helps me a lot.

2. For other activities, like school events or fraternity events, I always use the same color: orange for school events, and dark blue for APhiO events, If there's a coffee date or something small and social, I just use black ink, because there's only so many pen colors in the world.

3. I use a lot of post it notes for my planners. Target has really cute ones for $1 in the dollar section, along with post it flags. Whenever I run out of room in my monthly or weekly section, I will use a small post it to write more down. I also use it to make lists so I can move it around if I need to. Lastly, I use Post It brand large lined post its in my weekly view so I can take notes at my chapter; dates of fellowship events, times I signed up to help with service events, things like that. It's so I'm not wasting time flipping through my planner to find a certain date to write things down. I will copy it down in my planner when I get home from chapter.

4. By no means do I decorate my planner extensively, but there are a few things I like to do. I put my monogram on the front from an Etsy shop called IHeartHoundstooth, and I just love having my monogram on things. Since I have a white planner with gold polka dots this year, I ordered a mint monogram and I'm so ready for it to come in. I also will get cheap stickers for holidays; valentine's day, Christmas, 4th of July, etc. just to spice it up. Lastly, I use a bookmark that I made from a jumbo paper clip, and I hot glued a paper bow on it I got from hobby lobby.

Monthly View Set Up:

I use my monthly view for my important dates, because it's what I can look at it and see all of my due dates and how far away, or close, they are.

1. Whenever I get my syllabuses, the first thing I do is find all of my quiz dates, exam dates, paper due dates, project due dates, and other due dates, and write them in my monthly view. Like I said earlier, it helps me visually see how far away those are and plan accordingly. For exams, paper due dates, and project due dates, I highlight. By all means, quizzes are important, but not as important as the other things. 

2. I never write down that I have chapter at 8:15 on Sundays, because it's ingrained in my brain. But sometimes we have to move it, and when we do, I write it in the monthly view. Since I glance at my monthly view everyday, it's something that I just remember after looking at it all week.

3. I will also write down the home football and hockey games. I like hockey a lot more, but in case I ever feel in the mood for a football game, I have it written down. Along with that, I have big events the school is hosting, like homecoming, parents weekend, or sibs n kids.

4. For bills, I write down what it is on a post it flag and stick in on the date it's due. I put it on a post it note so I throw it away when it's paid. I don't really like to be reminded I'm an adult with bills.

I always suggest making your monthly view for the most important things. You can see it all at once and know how long you have to plan for it.

Weekly View

1. Like my monthly view, when I get my syllabus I write down all my homework. It can take a few hours, but I know I won't have to worry about it afterwards. In college, most homework involves reading, but this is when I'll also write down quizzes I have coming up. 

2. I organize my weekly view by writing each class the day I have it. For example, I have 4 classes Monday; sociology, psyc, and two criminal justice class. When I put them in my notebook, I call them by the class, but abbreviated. For exmaple, since I have 2 criminal justice class, I write one as sem (senior seminar) and ins (institutional and community correction). I really just abbreviate it however I feel like. And all of this is all done in my color coding system, my class and assignment.

3. Along with monthly view, I also write down on the day when my due dates or exam dates are. I will also write down everyday that it's coming up the week before in that class section. My freshman and beginning of my sophomore year it happened too many times I wouldn't pay attention to dates, and now, I do what I can to make sure I'm not missing any dates, or scrambling at the last minute to get stuff done.

4. Whenever I sign up for something in APhiO, I write it down in the weekly view. If I sign up for a service event, fellowship event, or anything like that. 

5. I have the unfortunate luck of having 4 classes on one day most of the time. So whenever I run out of room on a day, I just take a small sticky note and write down any of the above on it. Next I explain how I explain how I use sticky notes for list, but I only use small sticky notes for this purpose.

6. Ok more sticky notes! And lists! Both of which I love. Every night, I make a list of what I need to do the next day on a sticky note. I will stick it on the next day (ie sticky notes of Monday go on Tuesday's day) so it won't interfere with what I'm seeing that day. As I do it, I check it off, and throw it away. On Sunday nights, I make a list of the week, which I stick on the page I'm not currently using (either Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday if it's Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and vice verse), again so it doesn't interfere with my exact day. Like I said earlier, I take my chapter notes on a post it that I keep posted on Sunday.

7. Lastly, this is where I keep all my social events, small things like "coffee with little," or "lunch with Keely." I will also write down group meetings or organization related meetings, the day we are meeting and when/where. 

Planners are the best way to keep yourself organized. So, go to Target, buy a cute planner, and help keep yourself on track. Feel free to set it up however you'd like, or copy exactly what I do, whatever helps you stay on track.