PLANNERS

I bet you have a lot of time on your hands.

You probably have enough time to do everything you need to do.

In fact I bet you even have time to do all the great things you enjoy doing.

Am I right or wrong?

If I am right you must be a good planner and organizer.

If I am wrong you need some training in this area.

For most people time just slips away and there never seems to be enough.

In fact most people need practice in using their time effectively.

Are you using your time sensibly and in the best way possible?

Everyone uses their daily 24 hours differently. How do you use yours?

It is important to have a healthy balance.

First make sure you are fitting enough hours of sleep into your day.

The average amount of sleep needed is 8 hours but this varies from person to person.

You want to make sure you are getting enough rest for your body.

Too much or too little can effect your health, temper, and concentration.

Next you need to fit in your working hours. Most people work 8 hour days.

Students spend about 6-8 hours in school and on homework.

Spending too much time on work after hours eats up time in other areas of your life.

Be careful that you are working for a living, not living to work.

The last area of your life is YOU time. This is the time that needs to be planned the best.

You have to make time for friends, family, and home responsibilities.

This includes making time to be alone with your bestfriend...YOU.

Think of yourself walking on a balance beam.

It is pretty tough if you don't have a sense of balance.

Make sure your personal responsibilities are being taken care of.

Think about how your two arms stretch and move to improve your balance.

One arm is "family" and the other is "friends." You need both arms for balance.

Keep this in mind the next time you say to yourself,

"My grandma won't mind if I don't go visit her this this week"

or "My friend will understand if I don't go to his birthday this year."

These activities are very important to the balance in your life.

They need to be planned into your daily life.

Even if they are unplanned be prepared in advance by taking into
consideration family and friend time and scheduling it in automatically.

Planning for your recreation or fun is just as important as other areas in your life.

Remember balance.

Always have a little plan to do something for the weekend it gives you something pleasurable to look forward to and can be used for a reward or motivation.

Make sure you give yourself a half hour per day to spend time alone it will give you a clear perspective your life.

Use it to do nothing, soak in a bubble bath, exercise, take a nap, daydream, vegetate, or do any favourite relaxing activity.

You will be more energized and able to give quality time to others.

Yearly Planner

Spend a day to reflect on your past year and plan for the upcoming year.

Using the goals from the various areas in your life plan for the ones that you are ready, willing and able to do this year.

By placing them on a yearly calendar you can actually see how your year will take form.

Give yourself a reasonable amount of time and plan for celebrating the successful completion of key steps.

(A general rule to live by is double the time you think a goal will take to allow for delays, difficulties, and the unknown).

Also remember to balance by writing in birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other social commitments.

It is a good to refer to last year's calendar or agenda (if you still have them) to look for any information that you may have missed.

After all your information is added you need to go back to see if there is any over scheduling.

If there are days or weeks with too many commitments you will need to reorganize the activities to create a balance.

If the events are out of your control you will need to do the changing by being flexible, creative and planning ahead.

Keep your yearly planner where you can see it.

If you keep it by the phone you will be able to quickly add or update appointments, purchases, events, goals, accomplishments and other information you receive.

Make sure you transfer events monthly to the family calendar where everyone writes down activities and events that are coming up.

Using your months at a view will help you and others get organized.

Remember the more you have written down the less you have to worry about, allowing you to concentrate just on TODAY.

Weekly Planner

Every week transfer general items from your yearly planner onto your weekly planner.

These will be a little more detailed.

For example when transferring "Scott's Birthday" you would also include more information such as, "40th, 5:00 pm BBQ."

You can also keep records of diet, exercise, goals, health, etc. for patterns of progress and future reference.

By using pencil you can easily change dates and times.

Include a section of important weekly TO DO's.

For example if you need to order a cake for the birthday it should be on the list.

A weekly planner will help you fine tune any over scheduling so that can you look forward to accomplishing what you set out to do for the week.

Think of your weekly planner as your budget for time.

Remember be it should still be flexible so that you can adapt to any changes that come up.

Daily Planner

Every day transfer weekly items to a daily schedule.

This is your TO DO list for the day.

This is where you put more detailed reminders.

It can be divided into three areas "Must FINISH Today," "Start Today" (with deadlines) and "Personal To Do's."

Each item should have its own scheduled time

For example you could have "8:00 pm make a Mixed CD and a birthday card for Scott."

Keep it mind that you should not cram activities back to back.

It will begin to feel like over scheduling if you don't plan "breathers" in between your activities.

Also don't spend too much time on one single activity give yourself some variety.

You will work better if you switch between tasks. For example study intensely for 30 minutes then take the pressure off by doing something effortless like walking the dog.

Then study intensely for another 30 minutes.

The brain performs best when you practice a balanced approach that focuses on "quality" rather than "quantity."

If you use computers daily you can take advantage of electronic calendars, planners, and automatic reminders.

Any extra little reminders always help.

Remember planners help measure your daily success, make sure you praise yourself as you check off each item.