Most of you know that I have been planning for years now. When I got to middle school, I began using a planner that I bought at Walmart; you know those day-planners in the black leather book – that’s what I had. It was very bland, and lacking color, but it worked for me at the time. Fast forward a few years, I was now in high school and still using a variation of this no-name planner (you can actually see my old planner in one of my first YouTube videos). Once I began to take planning even more seriously, I purchased my first Filofax planner – and I absolutely loved that thing! After a year with my Filofax, I was introduced to the Erin Condren Life Planner, and this thing has seriously changed my life! These planners are mostly marketed towards females, but the bright colors and fancy designs didn’t scare me away! I loved the fact that this planner was full of color, able to be personalized, and overall structured well. In 2014 I began my journey with Erin Condren and haven’t looked back!
When I first got my planner, it was in August and I was not back in school yet (only taking one summer course). With it being the summer time, I didn’t have much to schedule or plan. As a result, the first bit of “planning” I did was schedule my work hours. As you can see from the picture above, I scheduled my work hours, a few assignments, my pay-days, and birthday events!
When school was back in, my planner began to fill up! I used the monthly layout to schedule all my important test dates, assignment due dates, bill payments, and work. As you can also see from the picture above, I used a color-coding scheme for most of these events. First of all, each class has its own specific color, and then work and bill payments had a color assigned as well.
In the picture above, you can see my “week-at-a-glance” spread. I absolutely loved the way that the Erin Condren planner is set up for the weekly view. The morning, day, and night separation really worked well for me. I was able to put in my daily class schedule and keep that separate from the rest of my daily tasks. I liked being able to split my day up – I was much more productive this way!
As you can see, I still used the same color-coding scheme with respect to my classes. On the weekly view, I also used little round color-coded stickers to mark when my car payment and credit card bill was due. I also used color-coded stickers in order to designate certain tasks and events – grocery night in green, and meetings in yellow!
Above, you can see another weekly spread to see how I organized my planner.
In addition to the actual weekly and monthly planning, I also used my EC planner to keep track of my bill payments and spending. Above you can see my “credit card log” that I created in the note section of the planner to keep track of my credit cards – the amount due, the payment date and if the bill was paid yet. Just as a side note, always pay your bills in full kids! Like my mother always told me, the two things you never want to ruin are your reputation and your credit!
So what’s next? Well… I just recently received my 2015-2016 EC Life Planner in the mail and am ready to take my planning to a whole new level. I just recently discovered the “sticker community” and have fallen in love! So I made an account on Etsy and went a little crazy ordering hundreds of stickers! I can’t wait until they come in so I can begin reinventing my planning technique! Stay tuned!
