Last Updated on May 6, 2023 by Corynn
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Do you sometimes feel like you’re missing deadlines, always being late to events, and having everyone say you’re disorganized? A weekly/monthly planner can help you with that!
According to Start Planner “Using a weekly planner can help calm the chaos. It’s a place where you can write down everything you need to accomplish: appointments, goals, shopping lists, and more.”
Scheduling out what you have to do will limit the number of appointments you miss, show up to events on time, and even remember birthdays!
Monthly Planner vs. Weekly Planner vs. Daily Planner
Before you jump right into getting a weekly organizer, let’s also compare the different planners that you can get for yourself. Not only can you use a weekly planner but you can use a monthly planner or a daily planner.
Below are each type of planner broken down in detail;
Monthly Planner
A monthly planner is basically a monthly calendar that you can use to plan out your entire month.
If you prefer to write in a short form then this type of format of planning is for you!
Weekly Planner
A Weekly planner helps you to break down everything you are doing during the week. Instead of having the entire month in front of you. You will only have the days of the week.
Some weekly schedules will start by; Monday to Friday, Monday to Sunday, or Saturday to Sunday.
When you’re looking to purchase your planner, remember to read the description and check inside to see how you would prefer to plan out your week. I prefer to have my weekly calendar Start on Sunday and then end on Saturday.
Daily Planner
This is a great planner for those who love to get in detail about their day. This daily times table is great for college students and also for people who have lots of meetings during the day.
A daily planner breaks down the day by an hour or every 30 minutes. You can plan from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. down below is a quick little video that you can watch to further explain how a daily planner works!
One con about a daily planner is that you won’t have enough space to place birthdays, reminders for the next day.
If you are wanting to get into time blocking this is a great planner for you!
Down below we are going to go step by step on how to use a Weekly Planner
How to Fill out a Weekly Planner
Filling out a planner can be quite easy and personalized for you, here are some ways on how you can fill out your weekly organizer!
Write Out a List of Things Going On This Week!
This is a place where you are going to brain dump everything that is happening this week. Such as; birthdays, due dates, meetings, deadlines, work schedule, events, etc.
Right beside each thing, you are going to place the exact date and time of the things happening this week. If it’s just a reminder you can just place the day of the week it’s going to happen.
For example, Running Errands – Tuesday.
Place Them in Your Planner
Depending on the planner you choose this will all look different.
For a weekly planner, you will start from the first of the week on your organizer and then work your way down. For instance, let’s say on Monday you have that morning meeting, you would write
“Morning Meeting @ 10am”
Then if you have anything else for Monday you can add the rest underneath. I prefer to go by order on my weekly planner. The first thing I would do is write the first event happening in my day to the very last event happening.
For a daily planner, you would place each event at the time it starts, then you can draw an arrow down to the time where it ends or color it in.
Similar to a weekly planner, a monthly calendar would just place it in short form. For example “Meeting @ 10 am” that’s it!
Goal Setting For The Week
Remember to set your goals for the week! Setting goals for the week will help you stay focused on what you need to complete and also teaches self-discipline
Planner Tips For Beginners
1. Pick a Day for A Planning Session
Pick a day prior to you starting the week and plan out your day. This could take as little as 10 minutes to an hour.
For me, it takes 15 minutes to plan out my week and 30 minutes to plan out my month (this includes adding in events, birthdays, blogging content, and wedding planning.)
2. Plan What You Can Handle!
I’m very guilty of this! Sometimes I tend to schedule several things in one day. My to-do list will be a full page on and then I only compete like 2 or 3 things on my list.
Plan your days/week on what you can handle!
3. Always Update Your Weekly Planner
Keeping your schedule updated helps so much! You can always relate back to your planner so you don’t double book. Or to place reminders for yourself!
4. Have a Physical and Digital Planner!
Having both a physical and digital is great for reference. I use either google calendar or the calendar on my iPhone as a digital planner.
I usually keep my physical planner at home to look back on and then I use the digital planner whenever I am on the go and someone is trying to make plans with me.
Then when I get home I’ll update my physical planner so that both planners have the same information.
5. Choose the type of planner that suits you!
Following tip #4, find a planner that works for you. This could be a physical binder planner, printable planners, or even using a bullet journal type.
Physical
For physical planners, you can use Day Designer planners which oversee a variety of planners; monthly, daily, and even a to-do list planner!
Printable
Printable planners are evergreen that you can print off and use as many times as you like. Some printable planners (like mine) will offer the monthly, weekly, and daily schedule for you to use! Click here to check out my FREE weekly planner printable bundle!
Digital
Digital planners can range from google calendar to purchasing a digital planner template to use in your iPad/Tablet.
This type of planner is great for people who are always on the go and are not a big fan of carrying a planner with them everywhere.
You can find tons of digital weekly planners on Etsy!
Final Thoughts on “Using a Weekly Planner”
A weekly planner is best to organize your life and for improving your time management. I absolutely love using my planner and also my printable planners.
They help me so much to know what is going on in my life, and limit the information in my head!
Related “How To Use A Weekly Planner Effectively”Post
How to Create a Daily Schedule!
How to Fix your Messed Up Sleeping Schedule
How To Plan For a New Month | Being Prepared For The Month Ahead Of Us!
