With the summer half over, I thought now would be the perfect time to share how I use my day designer planner. Back to school is right around the corner. There is no other time like the present to get your stuff together. This is going to be a bit of a mix of why I love Day Designer and how I use it.

If you know me, I am a huge planner. My resolution this year was actually to go paper less but that just didn’t work out. I need to write things down so that I remember them and see them. My go to planner is the Day Designer Weekly Academic Planner. I have tried so many planners and this is the one that perfectly fits my lifestyle.

The first step in my planning journey is to fill out the month calendar. I like to do this either a few days before the new month or on the start of the new month. I write down all of the events I know of and my work schedule so that there is no need to wonder what goes on. This post is written in July so I don’t have much other then work and a grad party on the calendar!

After I have everything written on the month, I go in to each week and re-add the events the day they take place. This helps to keep me in the loop each day of what is going on. It also ensures I won’t forget anything.

For each week, I actually won’t plan it out until the week of. I sit on a Monday and fill out each day with the tasks I want to get done. Sometimes I will pre-write these things down if I know they are coming up. I use my planner as almost an organized sticky note. I make to-do lists for each day and also have the bigger things like work and events too.

Because this post was prepared in June and I didn’t want to write out my whole July to do list yet, I included this picture of my previous planner. This is a day designer mini. When I was in college, this was literally my favorite type of planner. I liked how each day had the times so I could block off what I was doing when.

Now that I am out of school and working for myself, I need to see the whole week. It’s important to just write down a list of tasks. I also needed more room which is why I went up to the next size day designer. I also rarely use the top 3 sections so it was a waste.

If I know anything about planners, its that you really have to try them for yourself. I could tell you all day why I love Day Designer but you just wouldn’t know until you try it. This is what works best for my lifestyle and how I like to plan. It might not work for you but you never know until you try!

Let me know in the comments below how you like to plan.. are you a paper planner or a digital one?

You can read my other planning posts here.