Tuesday 29 May 2012

Some planning realisations

This summer I have no essays, just 2 giant projects: my 20,000 word MA dissertation, and my PhD application. I have barely any appointments, and my shifts at work will be straight-forward. Therefore, I was planning on using a simpler planning method for this summer. If I had so few appointments, surely a week on 2 page planner in my personal filofax, or even in my pocket filo, or EVEN a week on 1 page planner, would suffice?

Well, I'm finding the answer is no. In my boring, long summers, the days go very quickly and I find that I have done barely anything all day. Worse, all the days merge into 1, and I can't even remember what day of the week it is! Suddenly, the summer is over and I feel like I have wasted all that time, during which I had intended to do so many things I had never finished or even started. So just now I realised that I don't need a simpler planner- I need a complicated one!!

Imagine 2 types of planners: a week on 2 pages filofax insert, and a day on 2 pages insert. The first one is almost empty because I feel like I have nothing to write in it. So I don't realise I actually have things to do that day, and what's worse, because I feel like I have nothing to do, even if there are things to do in it, I don't actually check it! Then, imagine the day on 2 pages insert. It is full of to-dos, notes, reminders, and even though there are no appointments, I have structured my day. It is all colour-coded and organised, unlike the week on 2 pages which is so unstructured it is a huge muddle. Because I know there are lots of things written on it, I remember to check it a few times a day. Even though I don't get everything done on that page, I get some of them done, and that's more than I would have got done if I were using the week on 2 pages insert.

So this is my plan: switch to my A5 filo, which I am going to use for dissertation/PhD stuff anyway. Print out a few day's worth of Steve and Ray's day on 2 pages A5 insert. Test it out! If it doesn't work, no big deal, that's the beauty of filofax- I haven't wasted money on a whole planner. But I think it will work better for me than what I'm using now...

I'll keep you informed!!

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