HOW TO CREATE A DIGITAL PLANNER

Have you ever purchased a planner and then never used it?  Then, you are probably just like me.  Or you do use your planner but don’t always bring it with you, so you need to make it digital.  In this video below, I show you how to set up a DIY digital planner on your phone to work so that you can get your schedule on track to keep yourself accountable and regularly accomplish your tasks and goals. If you need help organizing or just love organizing videos, be sure to subscribe! And, for an updated version of this digital planner including time-blocking and loop-scheduling techniques, click here!

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I make this DIY digital planner super easy for you so that you have no excuses.  Everybody has some kind of memo or notepad app on their phone and they also have a calendar.  And that is literally all you need to set up a digital planner!

Let’s start with creating your schedule.  Everybody has things they have to do at specific times, so you will, first, list everything you have to do–like bring the kids to school, go to work, sleep–and list the times you have to do them.  Then, list the things you want to do.

You will then fit these tasks in around your scheduled to-dos.  This might sound crazy to you, but if something is very important to you, though it doesn’t look like it will fit into your schedule, then wake up earlier.  Believe me.  I understand that can be hard to consider especially if you are not a morning person like me … but it can be life-changing.  You will be so much more productive, and those early hours are a great time to concentrate as they are usually the most quiet.

Now, back to setting up your schedule, this is where we create time-blocks for multiple tasks that don’t necessarily have to be done at a specific time or within a certain amount of time.  For example, you may pray longer than you read or vice versa so you will put those two items to be between whatever range of time you decide.  Then, continue along fitting in everything you listed within specific time blocks.  For anything that may not fit within a weekday, you can move that item to the weekend.

It’s very helpful to keep a list of tasks you need and want to take care of and then, you can add a priority section to your schedule where you can add and check these tasks off.

So, when you have a crazy day where you can’t even get your normal tasks accomplished, you can at least remember to take care of those priorities and check them off as they are accomplished.  You can even distribute these tasks throughout your time blocks if you have gotten into a good routine.

Don’t forget to add a “plan for next day” task at the end of your schedule on your DIY digital planner, then, you can first, scroll through your schedule that day and see what tasks you aren’t taking care of so you can be more conscious of what distracted you from taking care of that task or you may just need to re-evaluate your schedule and move things around to make a task easier to accomplish.  Secondly, you can plan for the next day and review any tasks you need to make sure you take care of the next day.

After you have created your schedule on your DIY digital planner, you can also add these time blocks into your calendar.  You can choose to have your phone send you a little ding or not whenever you’re in a new time block.  This can help you even more in keeping yourself accountable to how you are spending your time.  You can check to see if you accomplished your tasks in the previous time block and you can move on to accomplishing your tasks in the next time block.  Adding these time blocks to your schedule can also help you to see if you need to move laundry time to a different time or day if you will be attending an event during your normal laundry routine.

You will want to make events a different color from your schedule or routine.  My daughter will ask me if she can go with a friend somewhere and it is always when we are driving!  I make her text me the details of who with, when and where so that I can check my schedule and put in a reminder on my calendar.

I believe the calendar notifications can be helpful; however, to avoid distractions and increase productivity, social media notifications should be turned off.  I actually scheduled blocks of time to respond to email and social media because I know they will be increasing more and more now that I have started my YouTube channel.  So, you will want to do the same where you schedule maybe only using your lunch break at work to check or the time you are waiting in the car to pick up your kids from school.  If you are still in school, it would probably be best to turn your phone off altogether if you are safely home with your parents so that you can focus on getting your homework and chores done.  Reward yourself later.

It’s important also to review your visions and goals daily so, first, create a list of your goals.  Then, you should fit time to review your goals into your schedule.  I review mine in the morning and before I go to bed.  As you re-evaluate your day, you will be more conscious of whether or not you did anything to work toward your goals.  It’s helpful also to have your goals in categories so that you don’t neglect important things like your family while you pursue personal goals.  Let me know if you would like me to go into detail about goal setting as there are ways to set them up so that you keep yourself accountable to working toward them and accomplishing them.  This digital planner system I just showed you is very helpful to ensuring you keep yourself accountable to pursuing your goals.

Do you use a physical planner or are you more into digital planning?  Let me know in the comments below and let me know what you wanna see next.  Don’t forget to grab your free resources here!

Happy Organizing!