32 OF THE BEST THINGS YOU CAN TRACK IN YOUR PLANNER (THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF)

Why is it so satisfying to track our progress and cross things off a list?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a planner. And if you’re also like me, then you’ll always be on the hunt for ways that you can use your planner in a better way.

There are many options out there for how you can use your own - in a very minimal way where you track your goals for the month, to the most extreme where you include absolutely everything, from tracking your fitness to planning a wardrobe clear out. The possibilities are endless.

But when I’ve been doing research or looking on Pinterest, I’ve found it can get quite overwhelming. We’re sort of made to feel like we have to have all of these features in our planners, just because others do.

What I’ve found is that although these things might be great, they didn’t align with my personal priorities. For me, my planner is used to help me stay organised, be productive and prevents me from getting overwhelmed with #allthethings happening in my life, from blogging to freelancing and general day-to-day events.

I’d bet that you’re currently using your planner for your daily to-do list, right? How about a calendar, so you can see when you’re available? They’re both great and I track these things too. But there are actually so many other things you can keep track of that will really help to make a difference to your life too.

Now you don’t have to include all of these things in your planner - let’s face it, there are 33 of them 😉 But take a look through this list and pick out the ones that are going to help you feel less overwhelmed, be more productive and help you take a step closer to where you want to be.

#1 | Annual Goals

Goal setting is an essential part of living a productive life and moving forward in your journey. That’s why you’ll see quite a few posts on ABOH about setting goals. You can’t make a start on quarterly goals or even monthly goals unless you know what you to want to accomplish overall. That way, you can take a big goal and break it down into smaller chunks.

It’s so important to keep track of your annual goals in your everyday planner, because that way, you’re constantly putting them in the centre of your life.

Holly SuttonNovember 15, 2016planning, planners, bullet journal Comment

How to Create the Perfect Structure to Your Day

Building a structure into your day is an important and useful habit to become accustomed to, and if blogging is factored into that, even better. As part of the #BloggingBreakthrough challenge so far, I sat down and really thought about what I wanted my blog to be this year. This involved where it had come so far in 2015, and also where I want to make improvements, inspiring me to write a list of Blog Goals for 2016.

You may notice that right at the top of the list is “blog more regularly” – something that in my fledgling first nine months of blogging I have found difficult to grasp, with some weeks posting nearly daily and others only once. Having usually planned a whole bunch of great posts, not only does this push your schedule back, the sporadic nature can be irritating to your followers and appear erratic.

Therefore this year on Wooden Window Sills, I'm determined to design (and more importantly stick to) a regular calendar, both for blogging and more generally in life. Don’t know where to start? That’s exactly what Day 9 of the #BloggingBreakthrough Challenge is here for!

How Do I Start?

Firstly, use some of the pointers given on days 1-8 of this challenge. Trust me, they will be amazingly useful. For blogging in particular I especially refer to Day 4 on planning your editorial calendar, and equally yesterday’s Day 8 on writing lists. Because ultimately, the key to organization is both of these things – planning when you’re going to do things, and making lists of what you want to achieve.

I tend to use three calendar systems in my day to day life, and the beauty is, you may choose to not use any of them! The main thing here is finding what works best for you, so that it fits into your life and is easy to stick to.

What System Do I Choose?

To start, think about what style suits you.

Really, all you need to get started is a love for writing and creating content, enthusiasm and something you believe in

Planning

Everyone in the blogging world is aware that planning is crucial in terms of creating and maintaining your blog presence. But this is a lot easier said than done.

I start off by writing everything down in my notebook. I used to have a list of post ideas on my iPad, but I found it easier to get them down in writing first and then write them up in more detail on Evernote. This little app is an absolute life saver. My next step is to get a notebook for each topic I post about.

Once I’ve got the basis of some ideas, I transfer them onto the relevant note on Evernote, whether that’s Fashion, Beauty, Inspiration, Lifestyle or Food – see the pattern? This allows me to keep track of the posts I’ve got for different topics and write down exactly what I need to do for each of them. Plus you can add tick boxes next to each point and cross off things as you go along.