What Should You Write In a Calendar Planner?
People usually buy planners and calendars around Christmas or New Years. Calendars and planners—or a combination of both—have a way of giving hope. They symbolize a new start and give you a sense of control over what your life can become. Hunting for the perfect planner is a good idea, because having the right calendar planner adds to the excitement of a great start to another year.
Why does design matter? Because calendar planners are more than just a place where important dates are written down. These journal type calendar planners carry a lot of information within its pages.
A good planner doesn’t just track deadlines and birthdays; it has organized places for important life strategies. A good planner may include a monthly budget, for example, or meal plans, grocery lists, education schedule, as well as pages for tracking your goals. Admit it! Writing goals and details down on paper appeals to our visual senses. It may be psychological, but getting excited about something that brings the necessary motivation to the table.
What Should You Write in Your Planner?
But what should be written down in a calendar planner? Some people are hesitant about the idea of having calendar planners because of a misconception. They believe that calendars are used for dates and dates alone. They also think that they can track everything much better on their smart phone or tablet, without the need for carrying around another item.
Planners, however, are making a comeback. Whether it’s from a need to better manage the breakneck pace most of us have been living, or perhaps there’s a sense of nostalgia tied to the ritual of writing down plans, more and more people are opting to use good old fashioned calendar planners. There’s just something about writing your ideas onto paper that makes them come to life. Something about writing your goals with ink holds you more accountable than just typing them into cyberspace. Little by little, people have begun to rediscover the joy of writing things down. But when you think about it, who wouldn’t be enticed by the idea of organizing your life through the use of well thought out strategy?
Let’s get down to some ideas on what to put in your calendar planners. Let’s bring fun and functionality together! At the end of the year, if your life has improved and your well-being has gone to an all-time high, then you’re doing the calendar planning right.
The best way to maximize your calendar planner is by customizing it to your lifestyle, self care needs, personality, and what works for your life rhythm.
1. First step: the important dates
The key strategy here is going back to the previous year’s engagements. Begin with special dates like birthdays or anniversaries or even due dates. This is also the chance for you to mark appointments with managers, co-workers, family, health professionals or other engagements that come annually. The dates are usually appointed ahead of time so get to checking old calendars for notes or important reminders. It would also help if you mark dates that are important for other family members, too. This will ensure that such important dates will not go unnoticed.
If you or anyone in the family goes to school, run through the important events and dates stipulated in the school calendar and mark them up in your planner. You may also want to look at holidays for the year so you can plan out major events, vacations, mini-vacations or sporting activities.
2. Goals
When it comes to aiming for development and success, nothing beats writing them all down in a timeline. Start with the long term goals.
These goals are usually the harder ones to achieve and take time to be strategized. Keep in mind that these goals—like everything else that will be written down in your calendar planner—take commitment and effort. While you’re at it, you may also include a game plan on how to achieve the long term goals and vision for your life.
Short term goals must be included too. These goals are the easier ones to reach. But it must be said that proper planning is still important for achieving short term goals. Write down your plans and be sure to stick to them–the key here is accountability and responsibility. Let those plans guide you in taking control of your life! Let these be a reminder of what you’re working to achieve.
The coolest thing about short term goals is that you get to check them off as you achieve them. Achieving short term goals–and having the visible evidence of what you’ve accomplished–will help motivate you to continue towards your long term goals.
3. Daily logs and tasks
Well, to be fair, this is what most calendar planners are about. They provide a place for everyday “to-do” lists that boost your commitment and excitement. This narrows down your focus to the things at hand that must get done. This can help you become really productive because everything that needs to be taken care of on a daily basis is in a single place. What more, you get to cross tasks out! Imagine the feeling of being productive daily!
4. Self-reflection and overviews
Life can bring failure and struggle, along with accomplishments. Learn from all of them and say thanks every day! This opportunity to reflect through your calendar planner could help you internalize and think of things that must be done or eliminated in order to be a better athlete, better version of yourself, or simply reach your goals.
It is easy to just focus on accomplishments, but trust me when I say that writing down what you learned from your difficult times while not dwelling on them can help you stop repeating any negative behaviors that may have caused them in the first place. Try to gain clarity from each situation or loss and then let it go.
Unattained goals are just moments in time when you have the opportunity to reset. Planning could help you regroup your thoughts and energy. It is not a bad thing to miss dates on your calendar, as it is more important to realize what you must do to stay on track. This may help you reflect and realize what you have been doing right and what may have led to your past success in some aspect of your planning.
Overviews help break things down. Looking at these broken down segments of your goals—be they monthly or weekly or daily—is easier than having to take all of the big chunks in. This is an opportunity to always go back to your timeline. Are you still on track? Celebrate your wins and look at your progress. What do these wins mean? What did they teach you?
5. Affirmations
Combine celebration, with self-reflections, positive actions and affirmations and you will feel better. Write down quotations, scriptures, psalms or sayings that you live by or that you find inspiring and motivating. Boost your self-confidence by writing down affirmations that speak to your heart. Nothing beats a good pat on the back.
It is important to remind yourself that you are enough and that you are doing a good job keeping things together. Even when things don’t go according to plan, appreciate yourself for holding out just fine. Plan for success, because winning takes planning! This is a great game-changer in terms of outlook and attitude in life. A happy heart gives you a sound mind to help you make more informed decisions.
6. Self-care strategies
Set positive behavioral strategies for your own health. Practice ways to eliminate distractions and people that seem to cause more disharmony in your life. Don’t be mean, but rather just evaluate and take positive peaceful actions when necessary. Like books to read or movies to see, they will definitely afford you more peace of mind when you need it.
Learn how to differentiate things you’d say yes and no to and be committed to sticking with them. Stay away from habits and decisions that bring you instability or discourage you from activities centered on your life vision. Identify them and make sure to have them listed down to serve as warnings for you.
You may also include stickers or pictures in expressing these self-care strategies. What brings you energy? For me it is prayer. It is my faith. It is all the important things and people I value in my life. What brings chaos and disorganization to your life? Find a way to fly above or eliminate these things. The biggest take away here is that you prioritize your well-being in the process of writing important activities in your calendar planner.
Why You Should Write in Your Calendar Planner
Having a calendar planner will help you. It increases your commitment to your desires, goals and vision you have for your life. You must be intentional about the goals you write down or the dates you want to remember. Remember that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals when you write them down. Calendar planning helps you improve areas of your life through careful planning and writing down and scheduling critical action details in it.
With all that said, it is also good to remember not to become unadaptable. You should use your calendar to create more time for essential, healthy activities in your life, not for squeezing every possible activity into eash time slot. Stop pushing yourself too much. I am talking to myself now! Not because there are things written in your calendar planner that you must do, but rather it will ultimately help you identify the things you want to do.
Yes, it takes commitment, but you must also have the discernment to let go of things that do not help you in achieving your goals, or things that bring you great anxiety and pressure. It is good to remember all the important dates and details, but do not forget to live your life and be in the moment! Be free, let your light shine, and I will do the same.
If you are looking for a Calendar Planner to help you tackle today’s unforeseen challenges, click here!. We have a calendar designed for families to manage every season of life, and a calendar designed specifically for athletes to help you track your athletic progress and measurable development.