Planners and other organizational aids

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HOW do you keep organized so that you get things done?

I've tried any number of planners. I guess my brain does not work right for them. I find the one page per day or two page per day set ups to be total failures. I have to see the whole week.

Daytimer--fail. DayPLanner--fail. Just using my phone calendar alone--fail. Phone calendar and notebook--better but fail.

But I find I cope better if I know what is coming.

I tried creating my own color coded weekly planner pages and putting them in a notebook with a to-do list on the facing page. Was OK in school, but ONLY if color coded and the current printer doesn't do color and the highlighters made a mess.

What worked: color coded, whole week on one page, BLOCKS of time for important actions.
What did not work: having to create and print the pages on the computer and then insert them into the notebook AND having to create a whole new form if anything changed.

I tried a doctor's appointment book, it had columns for each day and the times down the margin. This is OK, but again, it lacks places to write notes. I end up missing information, or writing on envelopes which can get lost, or post-it notes that lose their sticky and get lost.

I tried a teacher's planner. Showed the whole week. Columns for each weekday. Decent sized blocks to write in. but lacked a weekend. Tried putting my weekend in a separate notebook--disaster. AND it was too large and floppy and awkward to carry all the time so it was only good at a desk.

The two page per week with horizontal divisions is no good. I cannot visualize my week that way, nor do I SEE my day that way. The doctor appointment book was better that way. I could block out the big things, and highlight transition time in front of each thing as I added it to the calendar.

But that STILL doesn't fill my need for note space.

I tried a larger doctor appointment book. Ended up not carrying it because it was too awkward.

I tried electronic-- another fail. The only electronic that works is my monthly calendar. I can insert appointments and give them warning beeps to remind me they are coming up. I use the alarm on my phone to mark certain hours of the day so I am aware of the clock. But this doesn't get anything else done, it just makes sure I arrive at various points on time--but not always prepared to function once I get there.

I tried a more complete electronic system and that too was a total flop. Even tried a great calendar on the iPad which I could color code--the blocks could take more notes than were visible. But that proved too bulky and a smaller screen I cannot read with my older eyes not even with bifocals.

I tried just using my notebook. Lots of room, plenty of pages for notes, works OK with my phone calendar. BUT, still not well organized. I cannot always find what I need, and I fill up the notebooks with several partial projects and end up unable to find what I need when I need it.

I tried making a list of what was where-- lost it.

But it still isn't helping me to get and keep things together. I may go along fine, then something will over-load my system and I freeze up and cannot get anything done--for days--and this is something I am trying to solve.

Current attempt is a Franklin Covey Easy PLan, weekly planner, 5.5 by 8.5 so a size I find I do carry (it has a note tablet inside the back cover). I can see using the monthly at meetings to list all the events and meetings planned. Then migrating (learned that term this week when I spent a day watching utube videos on Franklin Covey planners and a thing called the Bullet Journal) these things to their respective days at their time slot on the weekly spread. I can also migrate the most important ones to the electronic calendar on my phone. But I already filled the small to-do note section below the Monday and the note tablet worries me because if it fills up and I tear it off, it goes in a front flap and no telling if I will lose it or not. I prefer my notes in something less likely to be lost-- but I can see keeping a grocery list on that tablet. I was thinking about adding a tablet to the front too, one narrower, and use that to create my to-do list for the day ahead of time. Not sure how that would work.

I've spent most of my adult life trying to get past this limit on my brain and I am still not there. Nothing seems to fit my brain-- either not visual enough or the visual takes too much time to implement.

HOW have you all organized to be able to function?

For some bizarre reason, people seem to think I'm highly organized. I do try, but it always feels rather precarious, and I HATE that... but this is what has been working mostly OK for me for a while. I hear you on the eyesight thing - I think I'm going to have to get a tablet because reading stuff of any length on my phone is just not fun, but I do all right with short stuff.

Anyway.

(Focus!! !)

I use Google Calendar on my computers, and I love it. I have different sub-calendars for different parts of my life, all with their own colours, so I can see at a glance that I've got a rehearsal or my husband's off somewhere or there's something school-related or whatever. It also lets me choose among a bunch of different views, like by day or 4 days or week or month, which I find really handy. And I use an app called Calengoo on my phone which has a great widget that shows the next two weeks (admittedly I have to scroll down to see most of it, but it's there - I don't have to open the app properly). I also use Google Tasks, which shows up in the calendar, although I SO wish they would make tasks repeatable, and I keep trying other to-do apps.

Looking forward to hearing how other people manage to keep themselves and their wits together

I REALLY relate to the feeling precarious.

The calendar I was using on my iPad was like the google one. It had nice features but I ended up having to accept that, for me, the planner had to be concrete. I'm just not able to hold onto anything when it is purely electronic. There are some things that do work, like appointments on my cell phone that buzz me at intervals leading up to the appointments. This was good. It has been the only abstract element that works for me.

I see kids for whom the electronics work wonders and I feel a little sad that I am not able to be helped the same way.

One annoyance I have with my paper planner is the inability to get all my religious holidays on it-- too much to write them all in-- but there isn't one that comes printed with them that works out.

I tried adding them to the electronic one on my phone but not everything is supported. I used to have a really cool liturgical calendar on my wall but it was only for the year and I didn't get a new one. I liked having it on the wall and then moving the specific observances I wished to include onto the daily calendar. My current wall calendar for religious observance is not complete.

I can see how the google views are useful to you. That is awesome.

Ah, ok, if you need paper then that's a whole other kettle of worms. My husband makes his own - he has pages formatted the way he wants and prints those out, but he writes in the dates manually. If you have a lot of religious holidays to track, though, that could be painfully time-consuming. (One of my sub-calendars is a public one for my religious holidays, and I love it!)

Well, the simple two pages per week Franklin Covey is serving me reasonably well. There is a tablet in the back for lists and notes, so I am taking advice off the Bullet Journal pages and testing things out to see what helps me the most.

Had a productive morning today-- thinks to the notes styled like Bullet Journal. I separated out categories, like AHG and I did a Brain Dump page but rather than spell out things like the AHG stuff, I noted it and then spelled it out on the separate to-do list. I also did a Financial list page, and this has dropped my anxiety quite a lot. I was able to note the money my husband needs in the coming week and match it to a buffer amount I had in my budget. Lost the buffer early this month, but had this covered as soon as I wrote it down on the financial page! Talk about a relief!

I have difficulty remembering everything. I have difficulty categorizing, and I have difficulty with executive function. One entry on the Bullet Journal page included a picture of her page of what she does before bed, what she does in the morning, and so I copied that onto a note page; changed a couple of entries to fit me, and surprisingly it helped me.

I never understood the idea of "migration"-- in the evening, when the to-do list of the day or last two days is really full and now messy-- many things marked off-- I "migrate" the items still in process to the new sheet-- and this time I made the brain dump sheet AND the two focused sheets. I don't know if I can keep it up, but I would like to try.

ON a silly note, I ordered what they call washi tape-- it is paper tape that comes in what looks like thousands of patterns and colors. I'm not much of an artist, and I do not want to spend hours doodling my book into pretty. But I can fold this tape over the edge of some paged to make them stand out, and get pretty quickly done. I'm kinda excited about that.

I still have anxiety before tasks that are not daily habits. Big problem. I am learning though. After all the classes in how to manage time. All the classes on using organizers and systems of many types that ended up useless--well, except for teaching me that a system is possible and makes productivity happen more often.

I think I should blog this process. Thank you all for a safe place to brainstorm and share!

I don't write anything down on any planner, I don't like that, and it doesn't work for me.
I keep everything in my head, this works for me.

I like to use a giant desk calendar and post it on the wall. I use different coloured markers for different types of tasks. I keep it in the kitchen. That way I always have to see it. That has worked for me a lot. I like planners but I sometimes forget to even open my planner to check what I have to do.

I also use google calendar; i got color-codes (seperate calendars even) so i can toggle certain types based on importance if i want to plan something.
When planning a new thing which can't be planned in a free space in my own calendar (for whatever reason), i toggle off other calendars one by one, based on how much less important they are based on the new event (coffee with the neighbors can be skipped for a performance of a good friends' theater group, for example).

my phone also has a function where i can see the entire next day on the home screen, so when the alarm goes off, i can see the entire day at a glance, before i even take a shower, and the default calendar app are set on weekly indeed (days horizontal, hours vertical, office hours shaded a bit less than non-office hours).


Amongst these calendars, there is one which i use for planning recharge time, when i can see that i will need it (for example; if i have an important meeting planned at work, i'll plan an hour of recharge as soon as i get home), which is the highest priority for me, second only to work (above work-related events)