Life can be overwhelming sometimes. With appointments, play dates, and school, how do you keep track of it all? Many people might use their smartphones to track events or to-do lists. While this can be helpful, I often forget they’re even there! Sometimes it’s difficult to see everything you have coming up in your schedule on your phone or computer. Because of these reasons, I went back to a tried-and-true day planner. Using a planner has many benefits; it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and we believe it’s a great choice for others too.
You probably wonder why you would waste time writing these things down. There are multiple reasons why a planner could help you manage your daily life and stay organized. But in case you’re not convinced, we are sharing the top 10 reasons to start using one today with tips on how to use a planner.
What is a Planner?
A planner is a portable paper calendar that can be used to write down important events and due dates of projects or even bills. Some people might use it as a diary to write notes or other things they want to remember.
Many planners include daily or weekly pages that break the days and weeks down, making adding comments next to certain times easier. It can keep you on track each day and help you maintain a good routine. There are also full-month calendar pages in planners. I like to use these pages for birthdays and countdowns for vacations or fun events. You can also use these pages for other important reminders.
10 Reasons to Use a Planner
1. Manage Your Schedule
This is likely the most important reason to own a planner. Keeping track of your and your family’s schedule is the biggest part of time management. It is helpful to prepare for appointments, errands, and other events if you can remember when they are happening. It’s easy to overbook things and forget, but writing everything in a planner lets you look at everything daily so you can adjust accordingly.
2. Clear Your Head
If you’re like me, sometimes you try to keep track of things in your head, making you overwhelmed and forgetful. If you have a place to keep all those thoughts and important notes, it relieves stress by allowing you to clear your cluttered mind.
3. Stay Organized
Staying organized can be difficult for many people, and that’s completely normal. This is especially true if you have a hectic schedule and struggle to track everything. A planner can help you break everything into easier-to-understand sections. That way, you can accomplish all your tasks on time.
4. Set Goals
You can use a planner to help you stay consistent and achieve your goals. It can begin with small, attainable goals, like drinking more water, meditating, reading more, and getting fresh air. This is a wonderful benefit of using a planner. You can also use a planner to remind and motivate yourself to achieve bigger, important goals, like work goals, scheduling consistent date nights with your partner, saving more money, and more. Treat yourself to a coffee when you remember to use your planner for a week and accomplish all your to-do’s and goals. This is a great way to stay motivated! Simple things to keep you on track to ensure you complete all your tasks and be on time for functions and events will benefit you greatly in the long run.
5. Increase Productivity
Being productive is essential for your job and at home. If you are putting things off, using a planner lets you see your whole day at a glance and keeps you accountable. This can be for anything from house cleaning to paying bills on time. Mark items off as you finish them (who doesn’t love crossing things off their list) and use that as an encouragement to keep going!
6. Enhance Your Memory
It is so easy to forget things regardless of their importance. This is especially true if you have a lot on your plate at home, work, or both. Not only does writing things down help your memory, but having it to look back to as a reference can help remind you of unfinished tasks.
7. Stay Focused
A benefit of using a planner is that it’s a great guide to staying focused if you are easily distracted. This can also go hand in hand with setting goals. Giving yourself something to look forward to can help you focus on accomplishing the most important things first. This includes being on time for appointments and meeting deadlines.
8. More Motivation
Everyone could always use a little more motivation. How would using a planner motivate you? Writing out my goals, notes, and to-do’s inspires me to get them done so I can cross them off my list. This act of crossing things off makes me feel like I’m being productive and motivates me to accomplish more. This practice can motivate you, too. Once you get into a good routine of using a planner, you can use that as a reason to reward yourself. Those rewards will keep you motivated to continue to use your planner. And when you start seeing the benefits of accomplishing your goals, etc., this will encourage you to use your planner even more.
9. It’s Good for Your Health
Another benefit of using a planner is it can do wonders for your mental health. It can help relieve many people’s stress and anxiety — even when completing simple daily tasks. If you have much to do or remember, writing it down puts everything in one place. This may also help many people who are easily distracted.
10. You Have More Time for Fun
Doing things efficiently gives you more time to do things you enjoy. Using a planner should help reduce the time you spend procrastinating, allowing you to complete the most critical activities. This way, you can relax, read a book, nap, or dine with friends.
Tips for How to Use a Planner
Here are several tips for how you can use a planner in your daily life.
- Set priorities for all your tasks to ensure you first complete what is most important.
- Have manageable daily goals that are realistic to achieve.
- Choose the same time every day and week to write things in your planner to keep you from forgetting something.
- Choose the right planner style for you. Here’s a great list of planners to choose from!
- Spend some time decorating your planner to personalize it before you start using it. It can help get you excited!
- Bonus: write something (or several things) you are grateful for daily in your planner. You will begin to realize how much you have to be thankful for in your life. And the more goodness you see in your life, we hope, the more good things come to you.
Staying organized doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or stressful. A benefit of using a planner is it can help you manage all your tasks in one place while also getting all that information out of your head to relieve the burden. Anyone can use a planner for just about anything! We recommend you start looking for the right one for you.
