Here are fifty unique ways to use your personal planner.

Sure, your personal planner is for tracking your daily appointments but it can be used for so much more! I practically keep my entire life in my planner (full disclosure, I have more than one planner LOL).

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A planner is a great way to stay organized but it also serves as a way to track personal areas of your life as well. Think of it as a scapbook of sorts.

I’ve listed 50 unique ways you can use your personal planner down below.

Some paper personal planner options: EC Life Planner, the Productivity Planner, Happy Planner

Some electronic planner options: Trello, Evernote

Ways to Use Your Personal Planner:

Daily Planning

Daily Responsibilities:  Keep track of all daily errands in your personal planner. These things can be as simple as mailing a letter or going grocery shopping.

Appointments: This includes personal and business related appointments. This can include doctor’s appointments, beauty appointments, and meetings.

Daily Habits: Your planner is a great place to keep track of daily habits. This includes things like exercising, drinking water, meditating, flossing – whatever you want to make a habit of doing daily.

Reading: Write down what you want to read and how much. This can be fun reading, reading for school, or scripture reading. Set goals for how much you will read every day.

Deadlines both work and extracurricular deadlines.

Relationship builders: Make dates with your significant other, with your kids, your parents, and your friends.

Special Events: Make sure to note birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.

Catch All: Make a catch all list of things “to do.” These may not be scheduled tasks. They can be listed as things to-do when you have a free moment.

Planning: Yup, you gotta make time for planning in your personal planner. If you don’t make time for planning it’s hard to make it a habit.

RELATED POST: 10 Tips for Using a Day Planner for Maximum Productivity

Household

Grocery List: Keep an ongoing shopping list in your planner.

Menu Planning:  Use this in conjunction with your grocery list. Also keep track of meals so that you don’t cook the same thing to much and get burned out.

Cleaning: Keep track of your daily cleaning tasks. This includes things like dishes, laundry, dusting- small, everyday jobs.

RELATED POST: Planner Accessories Roundup : Planner Stickers, Pens, and More

Health

Health Tracker:  Keep track of blood pressure, blood sugar levels, the appearance of your skin- whatever you need to track to keep your health on track. 

Exercise: You could make this a simple box to check off or you could plan out all of your workouts in advance.

Water: My personal trainer wants me to drink a gallon of water a day. Say what?!? I can’t drink enough without tracking my water consumption.

Pills and Supplements: Keep track of all your medications, vitamins and supplements.

Weight: I try to track my weight only once a week. I don’t want to get obsessed over it but it’s nice to see how I’m doing.

Menstrual Cycle:  I use an uppercase P to help me track my cycle.

Self Reflection

All of these ideas are great things to do at the end of the day.

Gratitude: Give thanks for the good things that happened during the day. Make sure to include the good things you did personally.

Mood: How did you feel today? Did you struggle with depression. Did you have a positive outlook? Were you able to change your mood. Keeping track of your mood can help you spot patterns and trends.  

Memories: Your planner is a great place to jot down all of the little memories that happen throughout the day. Did your kid say something cute? Write it down.  

RELATED POST: How Productive Women Crush Time Management and Get So Much Done

Monthly Tasks

Make a checklist of tasks that need to be taken care of on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Special Dates: Have a place to keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, start dates, and holidays. Grab the FREE Special Dates Printable.

House Maintenance: This includes things like changing air filters, washing the windows, weeding the garden, cleaning deck furniture, spraying for insects, etc.  

Plants: Set a plant watering schedule.

Cars: Track car washes, oil changes, registration, and routine maintenance.

Bills: Keep track of your monthly bills so that you don’t accidentally forget one. (Been there, done that.)

Goals

Debt Payoff: Keep a record of how you are taking care of your debt. Whether your tracking savings to put towards debt or using a debt snowball method, write it down in your personal planner.

Health and Fitness: Set fitness or weight loss/gain goals.

Learning: Want to learn something new? Make it a goal. Whether it’s learning to knit or how to speak a new language, break it down into a manageable goal.

Accomplishments: Make sure to celebrate reaching each and ever step of your goal. Make it fun!

Blogging

Blog Posts: Plan out blog posts a few months in advance. That way you have some wiggle room if something comes up.

Blog Stats: You won’t know how much you’ve grown if you don’t track your progress. Track your pageviews, bounce rate, and social media followers. 

Social Media Posts: I have a really hard time keeping up with all of my social media posts. This year I’m making a chart so that I can keep track of each social media account.

Affiliate Tracker: I list all of the affiliates that I use in one list. That way I have a handy list and never forget about one or how often I’ve promoted it.

Blog Expenses: Keep all expenses in one place. I keep track of hosting fees, email service fees, software fees, and all other receipts on one graph.

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Entertainment

Books: I always have a loooooong list of books I want to read. I keep a list of books in my planner and check them off when I read them. It’s also nice to have a handy list when I find myself at a book store.

T.V. Shows: I’m not a huge TV watcher but I do like to binge watch shows. Keeping a list of all the shows I want to watch is a nice way to keep track. It’s also to have all of the shows that my friends suggest in one list.

Movies: I don’t use my planner for movies, but I think a real cinema buff could find fun in tracking movies they’ve seen, release dates, etc in their planner.

Podcasts: I’m constantly running out of room on my phone because of downloaded podcasts. If I keep a list of podcasts in my planner, I can check on the podcast manually and not run the risk of automatically downloaded podcasts taking up precious space. Like history? Check out this one that I produce. 

Social

Parties and Events: Have one place where you keep invitations for weddings, showers, birthdays, etc. I use these snap-in sticky notes to put the invitation right into my planner.

Gifts:  Keep track of hostess gifts, birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, etc. I often stock up on Bath and Body Works candles when they are on sale and give them as gifts. There’s a place in my personal planner where I keep a running total of how many candles I have on hand.

Relationships: Make a checklist of how often you contact your friends. It’s a great way to stay in touch with people who live out of town.

RSVP Deadlines: Sometimes you don’t know if you can go to an event or not. Make a list of RSVP deadlines so that you don’t miss the cut-off.

RELATED POST: How to Have Your Most Productive Year Ever

Misc.

Ebay and Amazon Sales:  Keep track of current auctions and inventory. I make side income by selling on Amazon. It’s a great way to make money and work at home.

Party and Event Planning:  Use your personal planner to plan parties and events. It’s perfect for weddings, showers, and office parties. Keep track of your guest lists, RSVP’s, and food.

Special Thoughts and Prayers: Make time to send love to others.

Quotes:  Find quotes and proverbs that speak to you. Use the extra space in your planner to keep them with you always.

Craft Projects:  Have you ever wanted to start a project only to realize that you don’t have one of the things it calls for? Keep a running list of craft projects you want to do and list any supplies you need to get while you are out.

Photos:  Paste photos of people and places you love inside your planner. The Erin Condren planner has an option where you can make a collage of your own pictures and they will incorporate it into your planner.

Love Letters: get a planner for each child or other important people and write a little love note to them each day.  Also include pictures, ticket stubs, and anything else that will have sentimental value. Pass it on at a later time.

Volunteer Work: Keep track of your hours, where you are volunteering, and future opportunities.

These 50 personal planner ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. Any quick search on Pinterest will give you even more ideas.

I’d love to hear how you use your own personal planner. Let me know in the comments!

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