What You Need to Create Order in Your Day

There are only 24 hours in a day...I needed 27. This has left me feeling as though I was running on a hamster wheel. Somewhere along the way, I had lost the order to my day and am reacting to whatever came my way. I cannot tell you how bad I felt about myself. 

One of the best tools to help create order in the day is to use a planner. This can be paper or digital. I have found the planner to be instrumental in moving from a “yes” person to one with purpose and intention. Once I got the hang of the using the planner, every aspect of my life improved.  

My planner helps me to:

• Keep less in my head 
  • I used to think I could remember everything and I was wrong! Missed appointments, paying late charges for bills I forgot to pay caught up with me. Now that I have a planner, there is very little of that kind of thing in my head. I have less brain fog than I did before that planner.  

• Set goals that are in line with who I am.
  • I have a clearly defined mission statement that is in my planner as reminder to maintain a balance life. I was not completing the goals I had set for myself because they were not my goals.  

• Say, “NO” 
  • There is so much power and freedom in this little 2 letter word. Before I had a mission statement and a planner, I said “yes” to everything and anything that I was asked. To create order, I had to let go of that or the chaos would remain. When I say “no” to something I do it kindly after consulting my planner. 
•  Stay on task 
  • When there are a million things to do, it’s easy to jump from one task to another without completing anything. The planner help me set a priority for each day and those tasks are done first. If I have time, I can go on to other things. With a visual cue, I can see what my day looks like.  

Here’s what to look for in a good planner: 

Overall view of the year- this can be useful in working on bigger more time consuming goals or planning bigger things. I like to see when to plan a trip so I have the planner to create deadlines pertaining to the trip.

Monthly view allows me to track many things at a glance. I use it a lot for business tasks as well as the family budget.  

The weekly view is helpful so you can capture what the week looks like ahead of time. This allows you to be proactive rather than reactive. I am able to make a menu based on the weekly view. If I know if’s going to be a busy evening, I have a quick meal planned. This also shows me if I have too much going on and need to take something off the calendar. There is going to be times when this isn’t possible, the goal is for this to be happening infrequently.  

Daily view is where I can really set the priorities for the day. This is where I hold myself accountable because I can see things in better detail of time up against other things I may have planned. Being able to visually see  12 hours or 24 hours is where the order comes into view. I can better see if I have over scheduled myself and make changes as needed.  

A NOTES section is of great value. This is where I record thoughts or Bible verses that resonated with me or projects I would like to work on. It is a blank slate and can be used in many ways. 

The planner is the best way to create order in your day. There is so much room to grow with this practice. It allows for better use of time. I have found it has helped me save money by planning menus according to the calendar. It is a practice so give yourself a chance. If you have a paper planner, I would encourage you to take it everywhere with you. If you are using a digital planner, I would tell you to check it constantly. You could set alarms with your digital planner that would trigger you to look at the planner or move on to the next task.