Planner for the new year!

It's NOVEMBER!! Holy cow, how did that happen? I've been throwing around planner templates here...making one, and then deciding it doesn't work too well, and then trying another. Much like my post about chore charts, I have a problem with coming to these decisions because I want it to work perfectly! Pointless.

Anyway - here's what I have now, and I want to share it with you. I think this is going to work really well! First of all, a few weeks ago I got this awesome binder thingy from a cool little place called Crown Bindery on etsy. It's not clumsy like a regular binder and you can take any page and flip it all the way to the back so it's so much easier to use.

I added the tabs myself (they are those little sticky ones you can buy). Right now, my sections are calendar, notes/doodles (this is one section), To do's/to get's (this is also one section). The nice thing is that the laminated paper this binder is made from is very sturdy. There are three main sections in this particular binder (three main hard laminated papers sectioning off the sections).

In my notes section I jot down any thoughts, verses, or inspiration. I also use this for doodles and designs that just come to me on the fly. Sometimes I just have to get stuff OUT of my head!

The to do/to get is a general, sort of longer term type of list. I divided it into two sections. One for things to do like "Get sister a birthday gift!" and then the to get is more like a grocery list. Anything else I need to do or get will go in my daily planner in the calendar section. These are usually more urgent things and I actually plan them into my day.

For the calendar section, I printed off the months for the next year so I can jot down things like when I have to teach children's church etc. and then I'll turn to my daily planner section and write them into the day that corresponds. This full month one is more of an at-a- glance look.

Now, for the daily planner part, which is right next to the months: I was going to use up a full page for each day, but decided to try a half page first. Pictured below is what I have going now, just edited it today and hope this will work! I printed off a couple of weeks worth to see how it goes. I just realized I needed more space to write things down and it helps so much to have them into categories.

I have blocked out spaces for each day. I have a block for the date, a block for my business stuff to do, a block for my son's school activities like when he needs to remember to bring something or he's out early etc. and then there is a block for notes/reminders/appointments/to do/etc. Again, this is a daily thing, so it's not like I need to write everything I need to do for the month on that day. Those things can be saved for the to do section of the whole binder.

So, there it is! I'm a little obsessed with organizing. Please tell me I'm not alone! Sometimes I have to just find something else to do because I get overwhelmed with trying to make it right....what I'm learning is that nothing is forever and I don't need to make everything perfect. Amen?