My Planner Revealed (& a Few Free Downloads)

What do you put inside a household planner to help you manage the day to day without going crazy? Here are the planning pages that make a great household notebook.

My notebook, or household planner, is like my brain on paper. I have tried different systems over the years and even gone digital with some things.

Hello, contacts in my phone, thank you for saving me from copying over my address book over the last few years.

That said, I still enjoy paper for other things. I create a large to do list of my work projects each week so that I can see everything in one place. I jot down my meal plan each week so that the kids can easily access it. And, I keep a household planner, complete with a weekly schedule, or time budget.

Over the years, I’ve tried new things, experimented, and adapted to new and better ways of keeping a household planner and getting myself organized, and I’ve yet to find something better than my Print & Go Planner.

I developed the PGPlanner back in 2015 when I found myself wanting a simple, streamlined household planner that was easy to get me moving in the right direction.

My Household Planner Revealed!

Years ago I realized that in order to work really well for me, my household notebook needed to be spiral bound. I realize that for some this might seem wasteful because it’s a consumable product instead of a reusable one. But I actually use this planner, whereas I have shelves of abandoned binders that didn’t work for me.

–> Click here to get the PDF planner for yourself.

What I love about the spiral-bound planner:

1. It’s compact. Since it’s spiral bound, it can fold back on itself and take up very little space on the countertop. This makes me more likely to have it handy, to write in it, to carry it around the house with me.
2. It’s highly portable. Due to its compact nature, it’s pretty easy for me to tuck it into a tote bag and take it along to the doctor’s office, on errands, or on trips.

1. It’s easier to write in. I love the ease of a spiral notebook and how it doesn’t interfere in writing in the same way that those three rings do.

This is what works for me. Maybe it will work for you, too. 

I struggled for years to find a planner and accompanying checklists that would help me do my work. I’ve seen some good ones, but, I still found myself making up my own forms on the computer, tailoring my worksheets to fit my daily life. 

Today I thought I’d spill my guts. Or at least the guts of my notebook. Here are some of the things I’ve included in my planner:

What I want 

Not too long ago, I realized that I needed to be clear about my dreams and vision for my home and family if I were going to be productive and achieve any goals. Writing down that “What I want” vision in my notebook reminds me what I’m working for, namely peaceful days, intentional family times, a strong marriage.

This year I took it one step further and created a vision board inside my planner. I had so much fun making it and I love having images to help me really see what I’m working toward.

–> Click here to get the PDF planner for yourself.

Priorities for the Year

Once I can articulate my overall longterm vision, it’s time to break it down into yearly priorities. It’s a work in progress so I add to it as time goes on.

Goals or Systems to Develop

I’ve mentioned before why I am not focused on goal setting, but there arise benchmarks I want to hit. I’ve lumped those in with the systems I want to develop in this space so I can start envisioning what things to be working on during the coming weeks and months.

Monthly priorities at a glance

Facing every calendar page is a monthly priorities at a glance page. Here I can track the things I want to focus on that month in my marriage and family, home, business, and finances. I grab these from my vision pages and my yearly pages, not all at once, but a few at a time as they fit the coming month.

A calendar

While I rely on Google Calendar for a lot of things, I still keep a paper calendar handy for planning.

–> Click here to get the PDF planner for yourself.

My To Do’s and To Cook

Each week, I’ve got a two-page spread that helps me manage all the things of the week. I grab tasks and projects from my monthly page to jot down on my weekly to-do.

Then each day I grab a few from the weekly to-do to add to the daily to-do. I use post-it notes for the daily to-do’s so that I can stay on this same spread throughout the week.

If my week’s to-do’s exceed the space, I can layer my lists with 3×5 post-it notes.

My Time Budget

While I never loved the idea of a schedule, I’ve found that in this stage of life, with five kids at home, a homeschool, and a home business, I can’t get much done unless I allocate time blocks for different activities.

My time budget sheet helps me tremendously. I have a copy of this sheet for every week of the year, and reassign my time blocks each week so that I can account for whatever a week holds.

Those are the pages of my planner, with ample lined pages at the back for notes and miscellanea. Five years in, I’ve found that the Print & Go Planner is exactly what I need in a household notebook. If you’re looking for a planner to help you handle the basics, and then some, I hope you’ll give it a try!

What’s in YOUR planner?

This post was originally published on August 16, 2014. It has been updated for content and clarity.