How to Create an Effective Planner

Hello everyone! In this week’s blog post, I’ll be giving you guys a couple of tips to help you create an effective planner. Read on to learn more!

Creating planners or schedules to help you go about your daily tasks is something I talk about a lot in my blog posts. Whether it's finals week or a relaxing week in the summer, a planner (or minimal to-do list) saves you a lot of tension and can help you feel on top of your tasks.

However, it’s not always easy to spread your tasks throughout the week, especially if you’re an extreme procrastinator like me. Somedays you may not feel as if you want to do anything, but your schedule may be too hectic, and you would not be able to rearrange your tasks since you were procrastinating them the previous night. Trust me, I know how it feels to put something off for so long, and then be pressured into doing it since you weren’t able to plan around it.

That is why it’s important to create an effective, adaptable, and reasonable planner. Many people get thrown off at the thought of creating aesthetic planners, but it doesn’t need to be fancy or sophisticated; all you need is a piece of paper that effectively outlines upcoming days or the week ahead. Here are a couple of tips to help you create an organized planner:

Tip #1: Write it all out

In order to gather your thoughts and plans for the week ahead, it's important to note down everything you need to do before you start working on your planner. Just make a list of every single task, class, or event in the next week, so you have an idea of how busy you'll be. It'll help to organize your thoughts and ensure that you aren't missing anything when you create your planner. Simply "write it all out!"

Tip #2: Work around events

It’s important to make sure you’ll have enough time to get all your tasks done throughout the week. For example, if you have an all-day event to attend on Wednesday, you may not be able to work on any homework assignments that day. Therefore, it’s important to work around these events, in the event that you cannot get any work done. I recommend leaving enough space for you to have enough time to work on your tasks on other days.

Tip #3: Leave room

Always have time for yourself. In a busy week, it’s easy to get tired and exhausted from the piles of work you have to do. You may not expect to be tired on a certain day, but you’ll certainly come across days where you find that you simply cannot do anything because you’re mentally and/or physically exhausted. Therefore, it’s essential that you have enough room in your schedule to rearrange certain assignments at the last minute.

Tip #4: Don’t leave it till the last minute

When you’re planning out your week, don’t leave tasks or assignments until the last minute. If you have an essay due on Thursday, don’t plan to write it all on Wednesday. You may have some unexpected tasks pop up, and you may not have enough time to work on them. It’s safer to have your schedule planned so that you aren’t leaving anything to the last minute.

I hope you all found these tips useful! Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Until next time, bye!