To be a successful functional planner, your planner system must be integrated into your daily routines. If you are not consistently reviewing and maintaining it throughout your day, your planner cannot effectively keep you focused on what is most important. Reaching for your planner to review your plans for the day, record a new appointment, or make a note about an idea should become a habit – something you do automatically. So, how do you establish these habits?
Are you ready to break through the barriers and start using functional planning to become more organized and productive? If so, then you have come to the right place. This post is the second post in a series on Functional Planning. The first post, which was all about identifying what your need in a functional planner system, can be found here. This second post will discuss:
- where your planner system fits in your daily routine,
- how to establish functional planning habits, and
- what you need to get started.
Follow-up posts will address steps for implementing solutions for specific types of information into your planner system: annual/monthly/weekly/daily pages, tasks, tracking, goals, projects, lists, etc.
Recap
In the previous post, we looked at: what a planner system is, the types of information that might be collected, and the options for creating a planner system. The assignment at the end of the post was to identify what information your planner system needs to store, where you currently have the information, whether or not you need to share the information, and where you think it might best be stored (paper or digital). You also should have identified your area of greatest need.
You may be chomping at the bit to learn how to better manage your overflowing task list(s) or juggle everything on your schedule. But instead of sharing any wisdom on those area, I’m writing about habits and routines. I promise you, this is important. The only way we change from our current self into a new more organized and productive self is by developing new habits.
Functional Planning in Your Daily Routines
Throughout our day, from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, we follow routines. More precisely, we act according to our established habits. Take a moment to mentally review your own routines.
- What are the things you do when you first wake up each day?
- What do you do before you go to bed each night?
- What do you do when you arrive at work?
- What do you do before you leave work?
These are just a few examples of the routines you may have. Now, how often does “planner” (or an app that is part of your planner system) come to mind? The most common reason we are not fully successful with our functional planning is that we have not built “functional planning” into our routines. If we aren’t habitually reviewing our plans, capturing new information, recording our progress, and establishing new plans as we go through our day, we aren’t on the road to successful functional planning. It is important to develop routines that make using your planner a habit. Reaching for your planner must be something you naturally based on a need to review, update, or add important information.
Establishing Functional Planning Habits
If you haven’t already done so, write down your daily routines. Include only the things you actually do – your current habits. Do not list what you think you should be or would like to be doing. Where in these routines would it make sense to add a planning task? Where would it be helpful in transitioning from one part of the day into the next. A daily planner routine at the start of your day (or work shift) can help focus you on the important plans and tasks for the day. Adding your planner to an evening routine (or end-of-workday) is an opportunity review progress, capture new ideas you want to consider, and plan for the next day. Doing a brain dump before bed can help clear your mind and allow you to rest more easily.
Creating a New Habit
In his book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018), James Clear outlines four “laws” for developing good habits:
- make it obvious
- Write it down and in specific, clear terms – what, when and where.
- Identify a well established (good) habit that you can stack the new habit on – when I finish <established habit>, I will <new habit>.
- Set up your environment so that you have a visual cue to begin the habit.
- make it attractive,
- Tempt yourself to do the new habit by bundling it with something you already enjoy doing.
- Align yourself with other people who already have the desired habit.
- Motivate yourself by doing something you enjoy before doing a new, and difficult, habit.
- make it easy, and
- Prepare ahead of time to minimize the number of steps required to execute the new habit.
- Scale the new habit to something achievable, yet challenging.
- Invest in the tools or equipment needed.
- make it satisfying.
- Use positive reinforcement when you complete a habit.
- Use a habit tracker and monitor your streak of continuous repetitions.
- If you miss a day, get right back on track the next day and rebuild your streak.
An Example
So how might you do this for any new habits you are adding to your daily routines? Let’s say you need to add “review plans for the day” to your morning routine. You would start by clearly stating your intention:
“I will review my plans for the day in my planner at 7:15 am
at the kitchen counter while I enjoy my morning coffee.”
You could prepare for success by placing your planner(s) on the kitchen counter before you go to bed at night. Place any other tools (pen, highlighter, sticky notes) you might need there, too. As you savor the last sip of coffee, you can check off the “morning planner review” item in your habit tracker. Then look at the long row of check marks and feel accomplished. You have taken steps to be prepared and focused on what’s most important each day.
What You Need to Get Started
My intent when I started to write this series of posts was to help people who want (or need) to realize the organizational and productivity gains that are possible through functional planning. The number of planner options these days seems infinite, so choosing the “right one” can seem daunting. And if you toss in all the beautiful planner spreads that are being shared all over social media … stickers, washi tape, fancy pens and markers … it’s just overwhelming.
The good news is that for basic functional planning, you don’t need to have the “right” planner. You may not even know what that is yet. And all the decoration in the world, won’t make your planner more functional. I want you to focus doing only the things that add value for you. That bring you increased productivity, greater organization, and less chaos. And if decorating your planner brings you joy, do that, too. But functional should come ahead of a photo worthy spread.
What do you need?
- Paper – blank, dotted, grid, lined, white, color, basic printable templates
- Writing tools – pen, pencil, highlighter
- Binder or folder – just something to keep your pages together
- Punch (optional) – to punch pages for your binder, if using
I will provide some basic templates as we go along, but sketching out a template for whatever section in your “planner” you are developing is a great way to start. It allows you to define what you personally need, rather than trying to fit into someone else’s forms. I will offer suggestions for adapting common formats to specific needs as we continue forward.
Already have a planner and just want to use it more effectively? That’s perfectly fine, too. We all can start wherever we are in our journey, take in the new ideas, and implement changes that meet our needs. If you are starting with a planner, I do urge you to give yourself permission to change things up and try new formats by inserting a different template find out what you really need.
Applicable Free Downloads
I have added several new PDF format planner pages to the Free Planner Downloads page. Now you can find:
- daily routines lists
- habit statements/trackers
- blank calendar pages – monthly, weekly, and daily
- blank notes pages – lined, dot grid
- brainstorming pages – lined, dot grid
Habits for Functional Planning Summary
Developing the habits in which we are active using our planner functionally, is key to becoming a successful functional planner. Establishing the basic habits of reviewing and updated at transition points – waking up/going to bed, starting/end our workday – are just the first step. These habits should only take a few minutes to complete each day, but enable us be prepared for each day and to focus on our most important tasks.
Developing habits will play a role in meeting our goals and achieving our dreams, Yes, I will be writing about habits again and again. If you have not read Atomic Habits, I highly recommend you do so. I have both the Kindle and Audible versions; I use the Kindle copy for reference and the Audible copy when I want a refresher (like before writing this post).
Homework
Use whatever templates, paper, or planner pages you have available to complete the steps below. If you don’t already have some type of binder or folder to keep your planner pages together, you will probably want to get one now. Just stick with basic supplies as you are determining what will work best for you down the road.
Step 1 –
Document your daily routines. Just the habitual steps you take every day in your personal and work lives.
Step 2 –
Determine what new habits you need to add with regards to planning and following the example above write them down. You should document each new habit separately, as the cues or habits you stack it with would be different. It would also be helpful to state your purpose for the habit. The purpose will tell you what information you need to have in your planner, too.
For example, the purpose of my morning routine planner habit would review my plans for the day including any appointments or personal/home tasks I have planned for the day. I would only consider work plans as far as they extend into what is normally personal time, such as a late meeting. The purpose of my bedtime or evening routine would also be more personal and home focused. I would celebrate what I accomplished, capture any new ideas, plan/re-plan the next day and add to my gratitude list. My start of work routines would be for the purpose of focusing on the highest priority tasks, meetings and such. The end of work routine would be where I capture my progress, plan/re-plan for the next work day, and leave all the work stuff written down in my planner so that I can let go of it until the next work day.
Step 3 –
Start where you are. If you are already a regular planner user and are here to fine tune your planner system, then proceed to step 4. If you are just getting into the idea of using a planner system and have bits of information here and there; this will be the first baby steps of building your planner system.
Use whatever you have been using, even if it means you have some stuff on your phone or computer, and some stuff stuck on the refrigerator. Utilize the free downloads and begin to collect information that you would like to have collected in a single view. I do recommend you start on paper, even if you move to a digital app in the future. There is no learning curve with a pen and paper like there often is with a new app. Don’t rush to put it all together before starting the habit. Give yourself grace and use the 5-10 minutes you set aside for planning in your daily routines to start to build the views you need.
Step 4 –
Create a “Habits” page in your planner and write down your new habits. Remember to state what, where, and when you will perform this new habit. Remember to include any of the trigger cues or stacked habits that will help remind you to actually execute the habit. Create a simple habit tracker to record your successes, if you are not using one of the free templates.
Step 5 –
Begin executing your new habits and record your success in your trackers. Keep a notes page or brainstorming page handy and make note of things you thing of that you need to add to your planner or change about your current planner system. Reflect each day on how using your planner is helping you to be better prepared for the day. Is there anything you need to change with regards to the new habit(s)?
I’ll be talking about how you might use the various sections of your planner system during your daily planner habits as we cover them.
Next in the series …
The next topic in this series will be calendar type pages – yearly, monthly, weekly, daily; appointments/commitments; and task/to-do lists.
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Happy planning!
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