How I Set Up My Daily Purposeful Planner

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Hey friends hey, happy Monday to ya! Did you guys have a good weekend? I tried to relax on Saturday but found myself trying to map out my plan of action for the next year. That may sound a little dramatic but with starting graduate school, finishing a grad certificate, the changing landscape of my blog/consultant biz and more, I am totally out of sync. While I was prepping all that information, I remembered that a few weeks ago, when I posted my planner round-up, I received an overwhelming number of requests for a tutorial on how I set up my purposeful planner. As I mentioned in that post, my Purposeful Planner has been my ride or die for years at this point. In college, I tried using a few others and last year, I tried using the Happy Planner. Though each of those planners were amazing in their own way, I kept coming back to the Purposeful Planner. So, let’s jump right in!

Starting with a fresh page, before I open my Google calendar to see what is planned for the day, I like to fill in the Prayer & Praise section. Now more than ever, I have to keep worship songs continually in my mind and on my lips. I like to get this portion done first because it sets up my flow for the day and gives me sweet words to meditate on. This day, I had Surrounded by Upperroom stuck in my head, “I may feel like I’m surrounded but I’m surrounded by You. This is how I fight my battles.”

Next, I add in all my scheduled events. Some days, my time slots fill up quickly and I don’t have much free time in between. When that happens, my “Today I will” section is used to highlight the importance of those timed events. On days when I teach, I estimate an extra 30-40 minutes of time on campus to set up and answer questions at the end of class. I pre-select my workout classes on Sunday so I am not debating back and forth throughout the day about which classes to take. Depending on my work load, I end up at 10:30am barre or 4:30 Pilates on Friday. Either way, I always make sure to end my week with a workout. For consults or blog meetings, I like to set an estimated time to spend and a few items I want to accomplish during our call. When chatting with a potential consulting client, I need to get a handle on their expectations, timeline for deliverables and a contact list. When chatting with brands to collaborate with, I try to be as intentional as possible with our call realizing that that time is part of the overall time I am going to spend creating, prepping, shooting and promoting content.

After adding in my timed events, I write in my prep or to-do’s in between those times. With trying to establish a better morning routine, I like to pick the 2-4 things I want to get done that take 30 minutes or less. Since I’m not a morning person, creating a schedule where I complete an hours worth of activities before starting my day would be a waste of time. On days when I only teach one class in the morning, I don’t worry much about get a ton done in the morning because I know I have the afternoon to get big tasks complete. In the afternoons, I like to take a screen break so I make a plan to get a few house tasks done. Since each of these tasks (laundry, dishes, cleaning my desk, sweeping) take 20 minutes or less each, I can multi-task by throwing a load of laundry in the wash while I wash dishes. Doing so helps me start cleaning my desk since I usually have tons of glasses and bowls on my desk and shoes under my desk that I need to throw in my bedroom. This also helps me not feel bogged down by house tasks during the night/weekends and gives my eyes a break from the screen. And to be completely honest, I am so spoiled with having a flexible schedule that working for a complete 9 hours with no break is incredibly daunting. The last thing on here is my “timed” lunch date. The reason why I didn’t write that in first is because most of the time when I want to grab lunch with a friend in town, because they are usually working in a traditional business office, the lunch may be changed or rescheduled for a different day to accommodate their schedule. Because of so, I have it on my calendar to see the time block but know that it’s a flexible event, just like house chores, since they can change by the day if I get caught up in other tasks.

Next, I finish off my timed schedule for the day for things like dinner and my final tasks for the evening. Since it’s usually pretty quiet at night, I can spend time engaging with my readers, answering blog comments, posting on IG stories and checking on outstanding invoices. The reason that I choose to check invoices in the evening is because if I have to send a reminder, it will be at the top of that companies/person inbox the next morning. I hate to “chase” for timely payments, but sometimes a gentle reminder is needed.

Last, I complete the “Retail Therapy” section with sales for the day. As a blogger, one of my favorite parts of the job is helping my readers find great deals for any budget. Since new sales pop up all throughout the day, I write in the sales as I go along. That way, whenever I hop on IG stories or answer comments/reader emails at night, I can let people know if something I posted is on sale for a few more hours. The “brain dump” section generally gets filled throughout the day as well. I use this section for everything including to-do’s, ideas I may have, emails that require an immediate response and whatever else in between.

Okay, whew, that was a lot. Even though it seems like a ton of steps to follow, this entire process takes about 10-15 minutes and is so therapeutic for me. When I spend the time planning out my day, I’m more likely to get everything done instead of just flying by the wind. On days when things get changed or moved, such as a class being canceled or a meeting getting rescheduled, I may change my workout to earlier in the day or spend more time working on small tasks I’ve been putting off.

How do you guys plan your days? Do you like to plan in the evening or in the morning? Let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget that you can score 15% off your Purposeful Planner with code LOTSOFSASSBLOG.

Score 15% off your Purposeful Planner with code LOTSOFSASSBLOG