It's 2020! Time to Make a Plan

I was in the office supply store waiting for my sweet hubby earlier this week just drooling over all of the beautiful planners.  I kind of choked on the price they were asking and decided I would continue with my plain and simple planning pages I get for free online.  Then, as so often happens with me, I had one of those brilliant ideas.  Why not make my own pretty planner this year.  It took me almost two straight days to get it put together but I rather like the end product.  It very well may get some tweaking as I use it, but for now it is a good start.

I wanted a planner that incorporated my goals into steps that I could take to accomplish them.  I seem to be more productive when I work this way.  I like having a "to-do" list I can check off. 
I did pick up a pack of new colorful gel pens to use with my planner as I love seeing things in color.  I might even color code my goals with my to-do list to see at a glance how things go together, hmmmm....

Since I have done all of the work to put this together I thought I would make it available to you.  Right now I just have January ready but will soon be adding the rest of the months.  You can get the pfd file bly clicking on this link: 
​ 2020 Planner PDF
​
I started with a month at a glance page to make note of important appts, etc.

I put together a page to record my goals.

Then, as I like being able to see my whole week at a glance to get the big picture
​of what I need to accomplish  I arranged this on two pages that face each other so they can be opened up and seen all at one time.

And finally there are my daily pages.  This is where my rubber meets the road.  I like to keep track of how I am spending my time, so that is how I use the schedule on the right side of the page.  I can also highlight appts on it as well.  But I start my day looking over the previous day to see what tasks I need to carry over.  In my goals section I also make not of any deadline associated with that goal.  Then in the To-Do section there is a place for me to record which goal the task is associated with.  I played with this idea last year and really felt it helped me to focus on just what exactly I needed to get done each day.  I also added a place at the bottom to cross out the water I am drinking.  I get so busy sometimes that I foget to stay on top of that.  Hopefully this little reminder will help.

I have just been winging it with my schedule the last couple of months and it shows in how disorganized I feel and how little I am actually getting accomplished.  There is something about using a planner like this that helps me to be more productive...and less stressed.  All things that will help to make 2020 an enjoyable year.  If you end up using my planner I hope you will let me know; and let me know if you have ideas to make it better.  It is a work in progress.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!