How to Use a Planner for Work
Do you feel like it’s hard to juggle everything at work? Between meetings, conference calls, to do lists, emails, and project deadlines…it can get a bit overwhelming!
Why not go old school and use a paper planner for work?
In this article, I’ll take you through everything you need to know to use a planner at work for the best productivity and time management possible.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure for more information.
Why Use a Planner for Work
Studies have shown you’ll be able to better remember things once you write them down and you also won’t have to worry about keeping it all in your head.
Just use your planner to keep your entire workload organized.
How to Choose a Planner for Work
There are so many planners to choose from it can be a bit overwhelming. I’ve made a checklist of things to look for when choosing a planner for work.
Things to look for when choosing a planner
Select a planner size. Make sure there is enough room to record all of the information you need. Since the planner will most likely live at your desk, don’t be afraid of choosing a larger planner.
Choose a planner with monthly, weekly, and daily views and see the next bullet point below for additional needs.
Think through all of the things you will put in your planner. Then make a checklist of those items. When you go to purchase a planner, it will be easier to weed through the options available and narrow in to one that fits your needs.
What type of binding do you want? Planners come in spiral bound, ring bound, lay-flat, wire, disc bound, and more. These affect how you can use the planner and whether or not you can add/move pages or not.
Need a little more help? Here’s my Buyer’s Guide with links to my favorite planners (and yes, I use them for work!).
How to Use a Planner at Work
Ok…you’ve selected a planner and you’re ready to get started. Let’s talk about how to begin using your planner and make it part of your everyday work life.
Sometimes making the first mark on the page is the hardest part!
Just know that planning is a process. How you start may not be the way you finish your planner. There will be tweaks and changes as you go that will make you more efficient and effective.
Those changes are to be expected. When I started using a planner for work, I figured that I’d thought of everything…guess what, I couldn’t have been more wrong!
Planning is a process that changes and evolves as you do. So set a plan and be open to changing it to make it better.
You may want to also checkout this article I wrote on How to Use a Planner for Life.
Tips for Productivity and Organization
Give yourself 10 minutes every morning or evening to plan for the coming day. Turn off technology while you take the time to organize your day. Record all of your upcoming meetings, conference calls, email follow ups, tasks, and projects for the day.
Start big and scale down. When recording information start with the monthly layout. Record dates, meetings, and other important items. Then record the information weekly and finally assign the tasks to a daily pages. Here’s more detailed info on How to Use a Weekly/Monthly Planner.
Use time blocking. Once you’ve put a task on your daily to do list, block out the time necessary to complete that task. In the beginning, it may be hard to figure out how much time is needed for a task, but the more you track it the better you will become at anticipating the right amount of time needed for a project.
Take your planner to all meetings. You don’t need to record everything word for word, just take notes on the important information you need to remember at a later date.
Have a notes section in your planner. This is a great place to record goals, projects, and meeting notes.
Say good-bye to sticky notes. It’s hard to do…you want to have sticky notes posted on your computer, desk, and even on papers but sticky notes get lost, misplaced, and forgotten. Make an effort to write the information in your planner instead of on sticky notes.
Try color coding. Write everything in black pen and then use highlighters to denote various tasks or events that need to be completed. For example: put all meeting in yellow. conference calls in green, emails or phone call follow-ups in blue, and urgent tasks in red.
Use your planner for everything. Get in the habit of keeping everything in the planner. The more you use it, the more vital it will become in your work life. By having everything in one place you’ll find yourself less likely to forget things and more productive overall.
Use lists in your planner. There are 4 types of lists you can use including: action lists, project lists, running lists, and template lists. I recently wrote article on Lists to Put in a Planner for Organization and Productivity which explains when and how to use these lists.
I love looking at examples of how other people do things and that tweak the idea to make it work for me.
I’ve rounded up a few work planners for us to take a look at.
I love this flow chart! In fact, it would be handy to put in the front of every planner I ever own. When you are having trouble making a decision on work projects, this Getting-Things-Done stye chart will help! If you want to make your own, this was made using Happy Planner and Me & My Big Ideas Sticker Packs. I wrote an article all about Happy Planners with lots of links to planners, stickers and accessories!
Here’s a vertical planner that lists daily tasks with open circles to check them off when accomplished. I also like that there’s room to have fun the planner with stickers and doodles.
This clean and simple planner has two sections for each day - one section has space to record appointments and meetings and the other section provides room for tasks and do to lists. It uses a disc-bound binding system so that pages may be easily added or removed.
This planner is a perfect example that you can use a simple notebook as a planner. The lined pages have a space at the top to record the date. Then the user records top priorities first followed by a list of tasks to accomplish.
Here’s another Happy Planner but this one shows a monthly layout instead of weekly. It’s helpful to see the major plans and goals for the entire month at-a-glance.
Here’s the most traditional Filofax style ring bound planner. You can also add or remove pages easily. The pages show a weekly overview with spaces for tasks and todos as well as appointments.
Will you be using a planner for work? What style works best for you? Let me know in the comments below!
