When setting up a new planner, the blank pages offer the opportunity to get things done, get rid of mental clutter, and fill your days with things that you want and need to do.

If you’re about to start a new planner for the New Year, or your old planner has run out and you’re about to start another one, here are some things to include when setting up your new planner.

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IMPORTANT DATES

The first thing I do when setting up a new planner is to create a section where I list down anything that I’ve already booked or committed to, along with the dates that they fall on.

Examples of these things are doctor, dentist, and optometrist appointments, school holidays, school free days, birthdays, anniversaries, date nights, bank holidays, and weddings.

If you don’t have room in your planner to do this, you can keep a list of these items in your phone, on paper in your house, or on your computer. Wherever you have these important dates stored, make sure you add them to your planner on the date they fall on so you don’t forget them.

HOLIDAY PLANNING ACTIVITIES

If you want to be super organised for the holidays you may even include a list of things in your planner that you need to do for holidays, including Easter, Christmas and vacations.

This can be a to do list at first, which you can then start to assign deadlines to once the holiday starts getting closer.

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CHORE SCHEDULE

Having a list of chores that you need to do on a weekly basis, and what days you want to do them on, allows you to enter these chores into the weekly or daily section of your planner so you actually get them done.

This also means that you don’t have to spend a big chunk of time on any particular day getting everything done at once.

As well as listing chores you like to get done when setting up a new planner, you may also like to break down any decluttering projects you’d like to do, or list home improvement projects you’d like to work on during the year, so these larger projects don’t seem too overwhelming.

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MASTER TO DO LIST

One of the best lists to include when setting up your new planner is a master to do list, which allows you to get everything out of your head and onto paper.

This list allows you to list everything you need to do in one place, so when you find yourself with time, you can start to tackle things on this list, which once done gives you a great feeling of accomplishment.

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GOALS

The chance to start anew when setting up a new planner is a great time to also set some goals that you’d like to accomplish during the amount of time your planner lasts for.

Goals don’t have to just be set for the start of a New Year, anytime is a great time to work on goals that you have for personal or work reasons.

When setting up a new planner, set some dates to work towards parts of your goals, and make sure you tick off goal related things once you’ve achieved them.

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The best thing you can do to make sure you get things in your planner done is to look at your planner each night, and make sure that you’ve given yourself enough time to do what you’ve planned for the following day.

If you don’t think you’ll have enough time, move items to another day.

Another great planning tip is to plan for the week ahead at the same time each week so it becomes a habit. For me, my planning day for the week ahead is every Sunday night.

I hope you’ve found some of these things to include when setting up your new planner helpful, and you’re now excited to start setting up a new planner so you can be as organised as possible.

What do you do when setting up a new planner?