My Planner and Planning Binder

The past two weeks, we have talked about why menu planning is so beneficial and how to make menu planning for you.

As we focus more on intentional living and making the most of the time God has given us, it's important to find and time organization system that works well for you and your family. For me, I find that I need to have a paper planner to organize my activities and responsibilities. If I need to do something, I write it down. My husband is always asking, "Did you write it down?" Recently, I also put together a planning binder that holds some additional resources that I need at home.

Here's a glimpse at my planner and planning binder. While I hope this will be a source of inspiration and encouragement for you, please understand that this is my organizational system. This may not work for you, but I do encourage you to find a different way that works for you! The most important thing is that you find a way to keep your own life organized and intentional.

My life on paper last week

I purchased this planner at Walmart in January very inexpensively. It has a monthly calendar for each month, and then it has these weekly spreads for each week. The weekly spreads are where I make most of my notes.

Saturday, October 15

For each day, I have two columns: "To Do" and "Blog." At the beginning of each week, I plan out my week. I write down all of my cleaning and household/homemaking tasks on the days I intend to do them. I write down all of the blogging tasks and posts that I know must be done (like store match-ups). Throughout the week, I add to my lists as new responsibilities come up. If someone asks me to do something, I immediately schedule it for a specific day, using my planner.

One of the advantages to this is that I can spread out my household tasks. I love to cook and bake...but I don't love cleaning or laundry (who does?!). By scheduling out my week like this, I can put cleaning the bathrooms on one day, laundry on another, sweeping or mopping on another, and so on. By doing this, I don't feel so overwhelmed when it comes to my responsibilities. I am also making every effort to schedule household tasks for weekdays and evenings when my husband is at work, so that I am free of those tasks when he is actually home.

Now, clearly, there has to be some leeway. Do I get every task done on its intended day? No. Not by a long shot! Quite often, one or two (or more!) tasks are moved to the next day. As I've mentioned before, I am a substitute teacher, so there are days when I get called in to sub - so I obviously don't have as much time that day as I anticipated. On days like this, I simply prioritize my tasks and make sure to complete the most important or critical tasks.

My simple planning binder

Recently, I also put together a planning binder to help organize my thoughts - and all those loose papers in my house! My binder is definitely in its early stages, but right now it has four tabs:

1. Blog (affiliates) - I use this mostly for record-keeping now.
2. Substitute - In this section, I keep track of the days that I substitute and where.
3. Menu Planning - This is my favorite section! As I've mentioned before, I plan my meals monthly, so I keep all of my old menu plans in this section. I also keep a list of "Recipes to try" in this section. (Although, Pinterest might have eliminated the need to for that list!)
4. Homemaking - There isn't much in this section now. It's still in the development stages. :) My "Weekly Goal" sheets are in this section, starting this week!