Daily Planner
An organized Day

Keeping a daily planner is one of the most important steps you can take towards getting organized.  Have a read of personal time management which has 5 great steps to getting organised with your planner.

With the help of a planner you can keep track of what you are going to do from day to day. A daily planner will help you to spread out your workload while also helping to make sure you don't make conflicting commitments.

One of the difficulties people often have in making a start is choosing whether to use an electronic planner or a paper based planner.  To help you decide I've set out the benefits of the systems.

Electronic Calendar

There are a variety of electronic daily planner software packages that you could use.  They range from Outlook from Microsoft to much simpler spreadsheet based systems.  Which one you pick depends a lot on what you're going to use the daily planner for.

The chart on the left shows the type of things that you'll want to consider when figuring out what type of user you are.

At the bottom on the far left are people who don't have a lot of business meetings or personal social engagements.

At the right hand side are those people who have lots of engagements both at work and at home.  Often these people have keep up with lots of birthdays as well.

There are a lot more factors you could add to this graph but really you can probably judge where you fit just by thinking about it.

If you are at the left hand side of the graph a simple paper based system is probably the right thing for you.  Have a look at the section below.  If you are in the middle moving towards the right then I'd suggest you seriously consider an electronic daily planner style calendar.

Connectivity

You can set up an electronic calendar pretty easily.  If you want a free version that is pretty good then you can download one from Mozilla as an add-on to their Thunderbird application.  This provides similar functionality to Outlook from Microsoft which you need to pay for.  There are also a bunch of free online diaries that you could use.

Before you decide what system to go for it's worth considering how you are going to use your daily planner.  You could set up a complete system like the one opposite.

Accessing your daily planner from your PDA or laptop or desktop or even to a limited extend your mobile phone is possible.  If you have lots of appointments then possibly this is right for you.

If you are going to do this then you should check compatibility between the different devices.  You should be careful to make sure that you specify exactly the phone you have.

For people at the left hand side of the above graph the hassle involved in keeping all the devices up to date is probably not worth all the effort.

I find that electronic calendars have two main benefits.  First, they can be set up to allow you to share your calendar with others.  Sharing your planner allows other to figure out when would be a good time to meet up.  Most will then allow you to send an email initiation. Secondly most planner software will allow you to set up reminders for meetings and anniversaries.

If these two benefits are for you then I'd recommend going electronic.  If you're at the right hand side of the graph then I'd seriously consider getting the whole connectivity suite.

Paper Based Daily Planner

Paper based daily planners are still, I think, the most widely used calendar system.  It is easy to maintain and simple to carry with you.  I suspect that it remains so popular because the technology to replicate its ease of use still doesn't exist.

Which paper based system you choose depends on what you intend to use the daily planner for.  If you want to write a lot into the daily planner then you are likely to need a big schedule system.  Conversely if you will only write one on two items into each day or week then a pocket calendar will be fine.

It's also worth considering whether you want a bound calendar or a loose leaf page calendar.  Loose leaf diaries have the advantage that you can add in extra notes when needed.  For example you could choose a diary with a view that is a week to a page.  Then if one week was very busy simply slip in an extra page.  Working like this enable you to keep a thin diary and cope with the occasional high demand.

I've included a free series of daily planner forms.  I've set these up on a month by month basis.  They are useful if you want to a summary chart on the wall somewhere.  I've also added a free year planner form.  Although these forms won't substitute for a full planner they are nevertheless useful as supplemental forms.

Size

The other main consideration with paper based diaries is size.  If you want a lot of space to write then you are unlikely to be able to get a diary that will easily fit in your pocket or bag. You need to be carful not to get tempted to run two paper based calendars.

I suggest that if you feel you need the space to write a lot in then you are at the right of the graph at the top of this page.  If that's the case and you need to carry the planner with you then you should consider an integrated electronic diary.

Using a daily planner is a great way to get organized and to use your time efficiently.  By taking the time to select the organizer that best suits your lifestyle and needs, you will find yourself wondering how you ever got along before without it!