Hello lovely readers,

I’ve been searching for years for a planning template or system that works for me and I think I’ve finally stumbled upon something good so I wanted to share.

For a couple years, I tried Bullet Journaling, and while there are some things I really liked about that system (simple, clear, solid organization), I just couldn’t get the habit of keeping up with it to stick. I tried adapting it to my own templates in Evernote, a web and mobile note taking application, and it was better (because it was on my phone and so I always had it with me) but I kept rescheduling the same tasks over and over and over again because I’d write them down but I just wasn’t getting them done.

Then, one of the social media influencers I follow recommended the Day Designer, and the format was really nice but again it’s a physical notebook and I’ve simply decided those do not work for me. But I looked at their free printables and the structure they lay out there and one of the things that stood out was they have a section that specifically calls out “today’s top three”. As a recovering perfectionist practicing imperfectionist, I’m quite skilled at making a to-do list for days and it’s so daunting and overwhelming that I often don’t do any of it. Prioritizing just a few tasks is KEY for me.

Feeling inspired, I set to work on a new template in my Evernote notebook that was a modified Day Designer + Bullet Journal system and here’s what I ended up with..

Word/Phrase of the Year

I took this straight from the Day Designer, which recommended choosing a word that represents the focus for the word. For me, I expanded it from just a word to a phrase and my selected phrase for the year is Let go. Let go of what I can’t control, of the past, of judgment, of things I do not need.

Setting Yearly Goals

I also borrowed from Day Designer for the yearly goal categories and just tweaked it slightly. Originally, I was only going to have two focus goals this year (starting this blog, and completing the self wellness project) but I allowed myself to fill out the other categories with some very light goals. I’ve included examples for three of my goal topics. My self care goals at 6, 9, and 12 months into the year are not currently defined. I’ll flesh those out at the beginning of each quarter, as I reflect on how how the previous quarters’ goals have gone.

	SELF CARE My mental + physical wellness	RELATIONSHIPS Family, friendship, human connection	PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Learning + growing	RESOURCES Time + money	PURPOSE Contributing to society
GOAL	Set a baseline for physical health		Learn/practice water coloring		Start a blog
3 months	Clean floors 8x Brush dog’s fur 8x Brush cat’s fur 8x Exercise/stretching/breathing 900 min		Complete 1 water color art		Publish 10 blog posts
6 months	Above + sleep goals		Complete 3 water color arts		Publish 22 blog posts
9 months	Above + hydration goals		Complete 6 water color arts		Publish 34 blog posts
12 months	Above + nutrition goals		Complete 9 water color arts		Publish 45 blog posts

Yearly Log

This is my yearly overview where I list important dates to remember (holidays, birthdays, major scheduled events like weddings) and tasks or reminders related to a month (like doctor appointments that need to be made or health insurance open enrollment).

January	February	March	April	May	June
01 New Year’s Day 18 MLK Jr. Day (Work Holiday)	07 Super Bowl 14 Valentine’s Day 15 President’s Day (Daycare closed) Schedule cat vet appointment Schedule dentist appointment	17 St. Patrick’s Day File taxes	04 Easter 15 Taxes due	02 Greek Orthodox Easter 09 Mother’s Day 31 Memorial Day	13 Father’s Day 17 Cat’s adoptaversary Schedule doctor appointment

July	August	September	October	November	December
04 Independence Day	28 Dog’s adoptaversary	07 Labor Day Schedule eye doctor appointment	31 Halloween Schedule dog vet appointment	14 DST ends 25 Thanksgiving 26 Thanksgiving observed At in-laws’ for Thanksgiving	24 Christmas Eve 25 Christmas 31 New Year’s Eve At parents’ for Christmas

Weekly/Daily Log

This is where I’m most excited for how well my format is working for me. It helps me prioritize and focus my tasks. At the top, I repeat my goals (but only for the current quarter) and record what my progress looks like at the beginning of this week.

	SELF CARE	RELATIONSHIPS	PERSONAL DEV.	RESOURCES	PURPOSE
GOAL	Set a baseline for physical health		Learn/practice water coloring		Start a blog
2/3 months	Clean floors 2/8x Brush dog’s fur 1/8x Brush cat’s fur 1/8x Exercise/stretch/breathe 520/900 min		Complete 0/1 water color art		Publish 4/10 blog posts

Next, I set three and only three priorities for the week based on a combination of my goals and what’s going on that week. This means that at most I will only be prioritizing three of my above goals in one week. If there’s a special event or holiday that week, one or more of those goals might be bumped so I can prioritize celebrating that event and completing whatever tasks I need to for that event. For example, my priorities this week look like…

Celebrate son’s birthday

Physical health goals

Write blog posts

Once I’ve established what my three priorities are for the week, I can break those out into tasks for each day of the week. I like the below structure for each day…

Monday, February 15, 2021
TODAY Things to remember about today that I don’t necessarily have to take action on (like “Daycare closed”)	DUE Task (if any) that are DUE today.
INSPIRATION Inspirational quote, mantras, affirmations, etc	TODAY’S TOP THREE [ ] Task from “Due” if there is one [ ] Task related to weekly priority [ ] Task related to weekly priority
SCHEDULE Appointments, events, or tasks that need to happen during a particular time frame. Seeing this helps me scale back my to-do list if I have a lot scheduled for the day. 9a-5p Work	TO-DO [ ] Task that would be nice to do but is decidedly NOT a priority so don’t beat myself up if it’s not done [ ] Plan tomorrow
I AM GRATEFUL FOR… Daily gratitude.	ONE THING I DID WELL… Acknowledgment of something I did well today. No matter how small.

I’ve been using this format for all of February so far and I’m just loving how it’s organized. I’m keeping myself limited and focused and am practicing not beating myself up whenever there are incomplete tasks at the end of the day. I’m only prioritizing three things for the day and anything else I accomplish is just icing on the cake.