How to Use Multiple Planners Effectively

Sometimes in life, it can feel like you don’t have enough time to do anything. You start to feel stressed out and anxious about not being able to accomplish the tasks you have at work, school, home, and or personal goals you have set for yourself.

You are not the only one who feels that way and you aren’t going to be stuck feeling like this forever.

There are many different things you can try to do to avoid feeling stressed out about tasks and goals you need to get done by the end of the month, week, and or day. Using a calendar might not be as productive as you hoped it would be, which is why you should try using a planner.

Now you might be asking, isn’t using a calendar the same thing as using a planner? Not exactly, a calendar is a type of planner, but a different calendar style might be more effective for getting things done.

There are so many different planner formats, but they all involve places for you to write down the tasks and events happening in your life. Typically people use monthly, weekly, or daily planners. Maybe you already use multiple planners or maybe you haven’t used a planner at all.

Here’s how to get the most out of each planner type and some drawbacks that might come with each.

Monthly Planners

If you aren’t a busy person, or if you don’t get overwhelmed with the number of events and tasks going on in your life, then using a monthly planner might be the best option for you.

Most of the time, monthly planners are found in the form of a calendar. Sometimes using a calendar is all a person needs in order to accomplish the tasks for the month. Calendars can be useful for remembering anniversary dates, birthdays, holidays, etc.

How to Effectively Use a Monthly Planner

Most of the time calendars come with holidays already printed on them. Your job is to make the calendar as personalized as possible. Start by adding birthdates for the people you care about, anniversaries you are a part of, and other big events going on. Once you have all those important dates down, then you can begin to use the calendar as a planner.

At the beginning of each month, you can write down important things that need to get done by the end of the month. For example, if you have a job, write down your work schedule so you know that you need to set aside time for that. If knowing someone else’s work schedule is also important to you, then you can also write down their schedule. Monthly calendars can also be useful for knowing when to go grocery shopping or when to clean the house.

Drawbacks of Monthly Planners

Unfortunately, written calendars can become very crowded with information and might cause more stress if you aren’t able to fit all the events and or tasks going on. If that troubles you, try using a planner on your phone or computer to create more space for yourself.

If you end up not loving the way the calendar is set up because you tend to procrastinate, weekly planners might be more beneficial for you.

Weekly Planners

If you are a semi-busy person, or if using a monthly planner doesn’t seem as effective for you then using a weekly planner might be the best option for you. Usually, when people think of a planner they envision a week-based calendar in their head.

Some weekly calendars start on Sundays whereas some start on Mondays. Some people use weekly planners the same way they would use monthly planners, however, they write down more specific tasks for the week.

How to Effectively Use a Weekly Planner

At the beginning of each week, write down the tasks, events, and or other important things you need to have done by the end of the week. Sometimes with weekly planners, it’s convenient to use multiple colored pens so things are color-coordinated. For example, blue pen ink could be used for work-related tasks or events whereas red could be for academic-related tasks.

Using a weekly planner can be incredibly beneficial for college students because there’s enough room to write down assignment due dates, work schedules, and other planned events happening. Being a college student can be very overwhelming, especially when working, and writing things down with due dates can save your grades!

Drawbacks of Weekly Planners

Weekly planners can make you hyper-focused on the tasks you need to get done by the end of the week, leading you to forget about important anniversaries or birthdays. It might make you feel like you need to get everything done on Monday instead of spacing tasks out throughout the week as well.

Sometimes the number of tasks that need to be done by the end of the week seem incredibly more nerve-racking than the amount on a monthly planner. You might get overwhelmed with the amount of ink splattered across the pages. Using a daily planner can limit the number of tasks you have to look at all at once.

Daily Planners

If you are a very detailed person or if you like knowing what you need to do for the day then using a daily planner might be the best option for you. It can be very nice to have a detailed list of what needs to get done by the end of the day for some people.

How to Effectively Use Daily Planners

Some people choose to write down the same things they would for a monthly calendar or weekly calendar on to their daily calendar. Acknowledging important events in a daily calendar is just as important, however daily planners can give you the opportunity to be more specific about the tasks you want to have done by the end of the day.

For daily planners, you can write down important events for the day or tasks that need to be done. You can also write down things you can work towards such as starting on a project due by the end of the week.

Try Them All

Depending on the type of person you are, you might only need to plan events and tasks by the month. However, if you have a terribly busy week, using a weekly planner might take away some of the worries about getting things done in the time frame you have. If you have a lot going on in the day, try using a daily planner to make sure you complete all the tasks.

You can use all of these at the same time and feel even more accomplished when you complete a task by checking the task off on three different planners. Or you can use just one to get the job done, either way using planners can be extremely beneficial for lowering the amount of stress you put on yourself to get tasks done.