Plan Your Way to a Great Year in 2020

Not everyone is a naturally organized person. In fact, a lot of us muddle through life in a near-constant state of chaos when left to our own devices. Learning to be organized is a skill and like any other life skill, it takes practice to master. Practice, perseverance, and sometimes, the help of a few good tools. If your ready to plan your way to a great year in 2020 (and every year afterward) then read below for a few tips to help you out.

Plan Your Way to a Great Year in 2020

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I happen to be one of those chaos blessed people who need a lot of help to stay organized. Cleaning, budgeting and keeping something running for more than a few days just doesn’t come naturally to me. If you happen to be in the same boat then I completely understand your pain. It’s a crazy feeling when you continually procrastinate a specific chore and at the same time stress about not doing it!

A couple of years ago I said that enough was enough and somehow I needed to get this under control. I stumbled upon a pretty simple and popular solution. I’m not going to lie and say it’s a perfect solution, I still slip back into old habits now and then. It hasn’t made me love cleaning (don’t think anything can!) and I’m still pretty terrible at math when it comes to budgeting.

However… it has made these tasks significantly easier and I accomplish them with far greater success then I used to! Ready to know what this simple solution turned out to be?

Plan YOUR Way With a Bullet Journal or a Planner

I have made several posts in the past about using a bullet journal and a planner to keep organized. While some people stick to only one or the other I find myself using both – for completely different but equally helpful tasks! If you feel like you only have time for one then I’ve already broken down a few things to keep in mind when choosing between the two in this post – Bullet Journal vs Planner.

Regardless of which one you choose, taking the time to sit down, plan out your week, month or even your year a little bit ahead of time will be beneficial. I have kept this blog organized and running smoothly for quite a while thanks to my planner and I expect that this trend will continue in 2020.

Why a Planner or Bullet Journal Can Help

Some of us need a bit more routine in our lives. Keeping a planner and actively using it is a really great way to make sure that important tasks don’t fall through the cracks. While many of us only use a planner for birthdays, work schedules or deadlines a planner or bullet journal can help with many aspects of our lives.

Bullet journals and day planners can be a great way to express our creativity and there are so many tools available for this nowadays that you don’t have to be an artist to do so either! Spending time making your journal and planner pretty not only allows us to express our creativity, which is a well-known way to help keep us happy, but is also a good way to keep you motivated and continue to use it. You can even use different themes for each month or season just for fun!

Writing down our goals, plans, and even our achievements in a gratitude section makes us far more likely to continue trying to achieve them. When it comes to more mundane items like chore lists or household maintenance a great deal of satisfaction can be had from marking items off a to-do list. Keeping a running list of things you need to do means your far less likely to forget about them or put them off longer than necessary. By writing it down your brain will have an easier time remembering it and you’ll be subconsciously making it more of a priority.

Ideas To Put In Your Planner

• Household Chore Schedules
• Meal Planning/Shopping lists
• Budget/Bill pay reminders
• Events/Meetings and Dates you don’t want to forget
• A Record of Fun Things You’ve Done
• Daily Task Schedules
• Maintenance Reminders

And so many more! Really the great thing about using a Daily Planner or a Bullet journal is that you can customize it to fit your life and your needs!

Getting a Planner to Work For You!

I have had many people tell me they have tried planners in the past but seen no difference when it comes to organizing their lives. Getting a planner or bullet journal to work when it comes to helping you stay organized does mean making some changes.

• Stay Committed – A planner can’t help you if you don’t fill it out! I find it easiest to spend some time on Sunday afternoons to try and plan out the next week.
• Actually Do What You plan – Writing down items in your planner is only the first step. Once it’s written down you actually have to make sure you do those tasks. If you take the time to make a manageable schedule but then slip and let things pile up you will quickly become overwhelmed and are unlikely to continue.
• Be Creative But Not Perfect – It’s great to spend a lot of time making a beautiful layout, placing stickers and otherwise devoting time to making your planner beautiful but you also have to keep it functional. Don’t place so much energy into the decorations that you stress out when you need to scribble a quick messy note or rearrange a few things. In order to help you say organized a planner needs to be fun AND flexible, just like life!
• Be Reasonable – When it comes to scheduling items in your planner it’s usually best to overestimate the time something will take then underestimate. If you plan so many items in one day that it’s impossible for you to reasonably achieve them you will quickly become frustrated and give up. Part of the magic with this sort of planning is the motivation you get from accomplishing your goals on a daily basis. The success of each day builds up your confidence and keeps you going while you build better habits. Over time accomplishing your daily tasks becomes something you do without really thinking about it and since they tasks are often being done more often then they used to be they become quicker to accomplish and you find yourself with more free time then you thought you would! When it comes to most chores, regular maintenance is far less time consuming then irregular bouts of deep cleaning.

If you commit to using your planner or bullet journal on a regular and ongoing basis you will quickly be surprised at the difference it can make in your life!