There must be a better way than this. When I sat down this past weekend and started perusing through my Happy Planners, this was the recurring thought. I needed a better way of organizing my time rather than just playing it all by ear.
There’s something to be said for Happy Planners. If used properly, a planner can be a great tool for organizing time and planning out daily activities. However, if you are not using a planner to its full potential, it isn’t going to help you at all.
Lately, I have been obsessed with the Me and My Big Ideas Happy Planners. I purchased a Happy Planner at the beginning of the year, and yes, I was caught up in the idea of stickers and cute layouts, but my planner wasn’t efficient. Over the summer, I purchased another Happy Planner to use as my teacher planner, and I found myself dividing up the pages, adding in sheets for parent contacts, adding in student information, and more. My Teacher Happy Planner went from meh to fantastic. It was useful and functional.
From extra discs, I created a FlyLady control journal, and I picked up a pack of the Happy Planner budget add-ons and created a budget planner. Once again, I made these functional with additional items that I created and put into them.
What’s the solution?
After looking these over, and then looking at my dysfunctional planner, I realized what the problem was: I hadn’t made it mine. I needed to decide what I wanted to truly track, and I needed to add in things that I used often that took me away from the planner. As long as I had a reason to open up the planner and use it, I would.
How to Create a Happy Happy Planner
My first job was to decide what each row would track: Personal, Household, and Business (websites, blogs, YouTube, etc.). My second job was to include a place to make notes that incorporated all of the business items. Often I would write down my blog ideas, product ideas, etc. in a notebook, but those things never were created because I didn’t have it in a place where I always looked.
I’m also considering moving parts of my control journal into the Happy Planner, but I know that when I do, it will be too big for the large expander rings. It is, after all, an 18 month planner.
I purchased the punch, and it has helped out a lot when it comes to making my planners personal. I would definitely recommend doing this if you are going to use the Happy Planner.
