Sanity Savers #1: What Planners Can Do for You

Hello Scholars,
Welcome to part one of Sanity Savers! I know I've been promising to do this series for months now and I finally feel like I have enough tried and true tips to share that have actually worked for me long-term. I'm going to be posting a lot of tips and giving advice in this series that will help even the most disorganized person become a little more disciplined in their everyday life.
Today's post is going to involve planners and how I use them to keep track of the many commitments in my life. For those of you who don't like reading longer posts, you may want to click away now and wait for my YouTube video to go up on this topic in the near future. Here’s a little background on why planners are my favorite method of organization:
A while back, I posted about my struggle with ADD and how I was a horrible student because I was very disorganized, frequently missed homework assignments or forgot textbooks, and was late with my projects. You can read more about that here and here.
After being diagnosed, my therapist instructed me on different ways to managed my ADD symptoms. One of those ways was to choose a method of keep track of my activities and appointments. I've dabbled in productivity apps on Android like Google Calendar, Google Keep, Any.do, Toggl.

Top Row: Google Calendar & Google Keep
Bottom Row: Any.do & Toggl

I've also tried using sticky notes to jot down every task and to help document bursts of thought, but ultimately, a planner just worked better for me. Physically having to write things down helped to solidify whatever information I was given and allowed me to recall with more clarity later on.

My Absurd Amount of Sticky Notes from a  Few Months Ago.

When I set out to find a planner I had a few criteria for locating the perfect one planner my lifestyle. 

• I needed to know what was going on for the entire month.
• I needed a page each day with enough space to write out my appointments, notes, observations, etc.
• I would like to have planner pages in a spiral, binder, or sewn-in form. 

Planners #1 & 2: Heather Bailey for Target Planner

Image Credit: Amanda Dorough from Blue Skies & Blueprints
You can view the entire post with this Planner here.

I found a great planner at Target by Heather Bailey for Target. It was an undated, daily calendar. It was almost perfect except for the lack of a month-at-a-glance calendar, so it was hard for me to look ahead and see what I had planned of a month.
I used this planner frequently in Eli's first year of life. I scheduled both of our appointments, wrote to-do lists and goals, and was even documented his milestones because there was so much room on the page to write! I was only able to fill it about halfway during it's run, since I purchased it in June 2012 and the pages were dated from January 1st - December 31st.
In November 2013, I purchased a second planner in this style, in a different color. All was well until,  I misplaced it while doing a deep cleaning of the house for Summer. My Target no longer carried that model planner, so I was forced to purchase a different style.
Planner # 3: Mead Spiral Planner

I purchased another planner from Target and it has everything I could want in a planner!

• Four-Year View
• Year-at-a-Glance View
• Monthly View
• Dated Daily Page View
• Notes View

Each  day of the month has plenty of space to write the day’s tasks and appointments. I have so much room on the pages that I sometimes put sticky notes and tape memo pad pages in there! They usually consists of updates I need to make to Google Calendar, my random thoughts and musings, hard copies of phone numbers, and daily tasks or To-Do Lists.

Now that I have the perfect planner, I've been trying hard not to lose it, like I did my last one. Chronic disorganization is always going to plague me because of my ADD, but I've learned to navigate around losing all my data by also keeping a digital copy of appointments on Google Calendars.
My Current Routine:

In the beginning of the week, I glance at what’s going on and then I turn to each dated page to see if there are any notes or stickies with more details. If I feel overwhelmed with a larger task such as cleaning out a closet, I just break down the task into smaller, more doable tasks, and then put the sticky note on the corresponding page. Being able to check off each smaller task is comforting and makes me feel accomplished, instead of overwhelmed.
Just to be sure I am never without my planner again, I spend one day every week (usually Sunday night) on Google Calendars adding any new tasks from my physical planner to my digital calendar via my mobile device or PC. If I’m out without my planner or it happens to get lost, I can look on GCal and see what I need to do and never miss a deadline or appointment.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Please come back for my next post in Sanity Savers and look out soon for a corresponding YouTube video for this post. Any updates will be found through my Facebook Fanpage.

Until Next Time Friends, ♥ Domonique ♥