Someone pinch me….Am I dreaming, or does it finally feel like spring out there?!
I ran 5.5 miles this afternoon, 95% pain free and it was incredible!
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Are you interested in seeing how crazy I really am? Because I’m about to show you! 🙂
I’m a planner. I plan my days, I plan my hours, I plan my weekends, I [try to] plan for my future. I like everything in one place and to never feel like I’m missing something or their won’t be enough time to get something done. Since I’m super Type A, I am in love with my planner [sorry, Russ]. I thought it would be fun to show the way that I organize my life in this book that I keep close to me most of the time.
Before I get into that, I should say that I haven’t always been into planning, but after enough “oh, do we have a quiz today? Or,” we had homework?”s in high school, by the time I got to college, I needed something to keep my homework/ exams/ projects/ meetings/ work/ workouts/ social life in order. Memorizing it all wasn’t cutting it and I give major props to anyone that relies on their brain to remember their to-dos.
I know some people spend big on a quality planner, but for me, a $10.00 planner from Target each school year has been more than adequate. My go-to planner each year is the BlueSky Weekly/ Monthly planner. I like having the calendar view each month, as well as weekly pages with enough space for me to write my homework and assignments. The calendar view is great because it allows me to see what’s coming up during the month in terms of everything in my life. I even color code so I know when academic things are coming up vs. meetings vs. work vs. social.
Did I tell you I was Type A? But I only color code for the following week or two, because if something changes, I don’t like crossing things out! Crazy, I tell ya.
In addition to the calendar, I use the weekly pages to fill in my assignments. This helps me remember all the small tasks, such as “case study assignment due Friday”, or, “bring in peer reviewed journal article”. I look at these pages each night and cross of the tasks as it gets done.
I have tried using electronic planners, such as Google Calendar, but I don’t keep up with it and I don’t get to physically cross things out. One of the most satisfying things in my life is crossing things off in my planner. Yes, I am aware at how pathetic that is and I am a-ok with it!
Crossing things off…that brings me to my next form of organizing every minute of my life. Each week, I take a fresh post-it note and add it to my planner. Each night before going to bed, i plan the following day out hour-by-hour. In my “free” spaces, I write down everything that needs to get done over the course of the day, or should be finished in that hour, such as “call ___”, or “make dentist appt” or “respond to ___ e-mail” or…”shower” because then I get to cross it off :).
Writing it all out helps me feel accomplished at the end of the day, but also helps me sleep better since I don’t have a to-do list running through my head. I even schedule things like “paint nails, go to the gym, eat lunch, and shower”. Me Time is just as important as studying for exams, working, and doing homework. And….putting a dark line through that finished task is so very satisfying 😉 I have found that seeing things uncrossed irritates me to the point that I’ll do them fairly early, like write a paper that isn’t due for two weeks, or start studying an exam really early. Hey, there are worse habits, right?
On the weekends, I don’t write my schedule out, but I do write a check list of things that need to be completed during the course of the weekend.
I despise the “Sunday Night Scramble” of trying to get things done and just feel stressed and unorganized until things are finished, so I usually try to work on that list throughout the week and Friday afternoon.
Okay, now that you all think I’m coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs, I think that’s it!
I would love to hear about all the ways you stay organized, if you care to share!
