Today, I want to talk about how I like to set up my planners using the Cultivate What Matters Season-By-Season Daily Planner. I'm not sponsored; I just really love their products.
About the Planner
It comes in a beautiful box that you can store it in, but I use mine to hold stickers (which I have way too many of). I absolutely love the cover design. I'm a sucker for pretty florals. It also comes in a bluish-purple cover. The planner covers the 2023-2024 academic year and retails for $64, but you can sometimes find it on sale.
The paper is very high quality. It has a nice smooth surface, and every pen I've used glides over the paper (sigh). It's everything you could want.
Note: This planner is geared towards women, but it could be used for men, too. If you don't mind flowers.
Cultivate What Matters also produces a goal planner called Powersheets. That product is what they're know most for, and you can see some elements from the goal planner built into this planer. You'll see what I'm talking about when you see the daily pages.
Step 1
The first thing I always do is write my name on the nameplate page. You don't have to, but I always have. I'm not sure why.
Step 2
In this planner, you get a page titled "Weekly Rhythm Ideas for the Season" This is one of my favorite pages because it gives you a "bird's-eye view" of your week and what it looks like. You can really get a feel for how busy you are, where you can add in some things, or where you may need to step back. I have a mock-up here, but it's just an example. I wouldn't put my real schedule on the internet, of course.
I have it color-coded based on categories. This is a sample schedule of someone who is a work-from-home mom. If you work full-time in an office, or maybe a student your schedule blocks would look different. The reason I like to color-code is because you can immediately see the boundaries from one activity to the next. It helps me break up my day into manageable chunks. I can also easily see where I could have time for an extra playdate or coffee with a friend. It's important to remember to leave "white space" when you make your schedule, to have time to rest and recharge. Unless you'd like to plan when you do that, too. Maybe you're an overachiever like me and need that reminder actually on your calendar.
Step 3
Now that you have an idea of what your weeks look like, you can move on to the monthly tabbed pages. You get your basic calendar here, so just fill that in however you'd like. I add paydays, bills due, appointments, birthdays and anniversaries, and things like parties or vacations. Anything that doesn't happen weekly or you just need multiple reminders of, should go in this space. Once you're done with August (or January, if you're reading this to set up your 2024 planner), go ahead and fill in the rest of the months with things you already know are happening. As things come up throughout the year, write it down so you don't forget (like I sometimes do).
Step 4
The daily pages. This is where the color-coding can come in handy again. You can correlate the same colors to the categories you made for your weekly overview, making it even easier to plan your day. I'll leave a couple of examples.
This is a sample schedule of someone who works in an office full-time. This hypothetical person gets up early to go for a run at six (no thanks!), comes home and gets ready to kill it at the office. She takes her lunch break on time because self care is important, and maybe texts her friend to confirm their dinner date. She leaves the office on time (hopefully), and meets up with her friend as planned. She goes home, feeds her cats, waters her plants, and passes out after her busy day.
You can see at the bottom where some of the check boxes (check circles?) have things like "Tend to my goals". This is where it ties into the Powersheets system as a whole. Just a nice little reminder to work towards your goals, and be a nice person.
This is the schedule of a college student. She made the mistake of enrolling in an eight a.m. class (not that I would know anything about that), so she's up early for History 101. She has a small break to grab breakfast, because we all know she didn't wake up early enough for that, before she goes to her Biology lab with her partner who doesn't do their part of the assignment (I wouldn't know anything about that, either). After that, she meets up for lunch with her friend before she goes to work at the college bookstore. She has time to make a quick call to home, before she spends the rest of the evening studying for hours (and not watching Netflix)
Step 5
Enjoy your well-planned and organized life. As a reminder, your life won't magically change or become perfect by using a planner. It's a tool you can use to help you accomplish more in your day, make time for what matters, and maybe waste less time (I'm looking at you TikTok).
I hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions, please reach out to me and I'll do my best to help!
-Alycia
P.S.
Check out one of my favorite planners here (Ashley Shelly): https://ashleyshelly.com/ref/103/
And here (Silk + Sonder): https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1461423&u=3765598&m=93424&urllink=&afftrack=
*I earn commissions from my sponsored links*
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