How to set up your Planner to Stay Organized

Are you looking at those clean pages and wondering the best way to set up your planner to truly be organized this year? Don’t worry, these planner organization tips should help guide you on your way to achieve maximum productivity with that shiny new planner!

For me, there’s nothing more exciting than a new, empty planner. It represents the dream of finally achieving true organization in life!

Second to that is when your planner is finally organized and you get to accessorize it! Make sure you look at our Happy Planner Accessories Guide to find the perfect finishing touches for your planner.

That might seem a tad dramatic, but using a planner typically means you are trying to take control of the busy schedule you, your spouse, and possibly your kids have daily.

The idea of a planner is a great first step in chaos control. But having a system for using your planner can take things to the next level!

That’s how our planner organizational method can help you make the most of your planner.

If you don’t have a new Planner, check out my post on Choosing the Big Happy Planner to Start Your Year Organized. I love the Big Happy Planner system and this planner method was designed for it.

If that’s not your planner of choice, don’t worry because these tips can be loosely applied to any planner system. You’ll just have to be creative as to where you record your information.

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The Weekly Calendar is super important when you set up your Planner

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First, let’s look at the 3 sections of the weekly pages. There are numerous ways to set up your planner using these weekly sections.

One way frequently used is as ” morning, afternoon, and evening” planning spaces. You would write down all of your events and to-dos in the time frame that they need to be accomplished.

I’ve tried this way and it became easy to miss important events because they were surrounded by my many to-do’s.

Do you prefer a planner system that lets you separate your to-do’s from your scheduled appointments? Me too!

Do you like having your scheduled items, ones that you can’t skip, highlighted so you don’t miss them? Yep, me too!

So, let’s take a look at how picking your 3 most important planner areas can help you do that!

Pick Your 3 Most Important Areas to Organize

This is the first step in deciding how you are going to utilize the space in your Happy Planner weekly pages. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to organize information outside of these 3 areas, but these are the three most important areas you want to keep organized.

I recommend having spaces for:

1. Schedules
2. Home/Life To-Do’s
3. Your Highlight Section (more on this in a bit!)

The Top Section | Use as your Schedule

The Schedule section is where you record all the important events. Anything you need to be there at a certain time for yourself and your family. When you set up your planner include:

School events

Sporting games/practices

Medical appointments

Work appointments/trips

Social Events – Parties, Showers, Girls Nights (I need more of these!)

In keeping with this section highlighting the most important events, this section can also record:

Meal Planning [See the little brackets at the bottom]

Bills – Sometimes I write down when large bills are due to have a double-check system for paying them. Examples could be your Taxes, Mortgage, various Insurances, etc.

All Holidays, Birthdays, Anniversaries

The Middle Section | Home & Family To-Do

This middle section is the area that can be your “catch-all” space. If it needs to get done, it goes into this section. For example:

Weekly Cleaning

Big Cleaning Projects – rotating seasonal clothes; cleaning outside windows, etc.

Grocery Shopping

School project’s due dates

Upcoming Gifts to Purchase

Keeping up with Photo Projects & Photo Storage

Bill/Budget Maintenance

The Bottom Section | Use as your “Highlight” Section

Most people will have the first two sections in their planners in some form. It’s this third section that is really a personal preference.

You can use this section as a place to track anything you wish! I have used it for all of my blogging tasks, exercise tracking, and favorite quotes!

A few ideas that would be great for this bottom section include:

Exercise Log

Water Intake

Meal Plans

Bill Log

Savings Log

Bible Study

Daily Journal

Quotes/Motivational thoughts

Goals

Homework

Grocery List

You don’t have to label this third section if you want a place to simply be creative or jot notes. If you do have a third area that you want to focus on, this last section is a great place to keep it organized and yourself on track.

How to Use the Monthly Calendar

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So we’ve discussed the weekly pages and now it’s time to look at the monthly calendar. To truly stay organized this is a place to keep it simple.

This page needs to be a true calendar; only recording important events such as birthdays, doctor appointments, school events, sporting schedules, work trips, family trips, etc.

If it’s kept clean of distractions, there is less of a chance of missing things or being late for appointments. The Big Happy Planner has so many places to customize and be creative, that having this monthly calendar “simplistic” is also a nice change of pace.

Speaking of customizing your Planner, check out my Pinterest Board – Planners & Supplies and follow along to see all the creative planner ideas! There are some gorgeous layouts and designs people use to make their planners their own.

Personalizing your planner is made easy with all of the Happy Planner accessories. This post on Accessories for Your Happy Planner describes several of them!

Check out my favorite accessory for the Big Happy Planner available on Amazon. Hint – it lets you add papers right into your planner.

How to keep your Planner Updated

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So you have set up your planner and have chosen the best way for you to use it. Now, you need to think ahead a little about the easiest way to keep your planner updated.

Let’s take a peek at how to keep your planner up-to-date and useful for you.

Day One with Your New Planner

The first day you start using your new Planner, take a little bit of time & go through all the Monthly calendar pages and write down:

Birthdays

Anniversaries

Any Events that you know about (school, sports, work, family, etc.)

Monthly Planner Maintenance

Now, fill out the appropriate monthly sheet with your important events, goals, etc.

This is a good time to make sure that your planner, calendar app, and wall calendar all match and you haven’t missed any important dates.

At the end of the month, it’s time to update the next Monthly sheet and start the process all over again.

Weekly Planner Maintenance

Finally, update your first weekly spread. Every Sunday evening I meal-plan & update the next week’s planner pages. It’s a system that works well for me, but a different day might work better for you.

Have fun with your new Planner

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One of my favorite parts of a planner is that you can personalize it to your needs and tastes. If the idea appeals to you, take some time & decorate or personalize your planner too.

Add festive holiday stickers here & there, or go all out and decorate your weekly pages with flair! The more you enjoy using and looking at your planner, the more productive you will hopefully be in the coming year.

Have fun getting organized and starting your new journey of having a more productive way of living. Don’t forget to take a peek at all of the great Happy Planner Accessories too.