A new week begins tomorrow (actually today because it’s after midnight right now while I’m typing this!).  I thought I would share how I use my weekly pages.  My weeks generally start off being fairly empty.  But by the end of the week, I have filled up all the spaces with appointments, activities, photos, stickers, and journaling!  I love that my planner can also serve as a scrapbook, mini photo album, and just a daily record of life!  I can’t wait to have years and years worth of these sitting on my bookshelf!

I’ll share how I use my spaces, starting on the left side.

1.  Weekly Goals & Notes…
A.  The first thing I put in this section is my Flylady info.  This reminds me which Zone we are in for the week.  I am not hardcore about this yet, but I want to get better at following the cleaning schedule laid out for each Zone.  I just use a blank event sticker and write the Zone number with a Sharpie.
B.  Next is a space for my Weekly To-Do list.  Anything that needs to be done during the week, but isn’t specific to a day or time goes in this list.  By the end of the week, this area will be full, if not overflowing.  Because this space is rather small, if a to-do is specific to a time and/or day, I will just put it on that particular day, and not add it to this list.
C.  Menu-This is something new I’m trying.  I saw it done in someone else’s planner and loved the idea of having the meals be flexible.  Inevitably, when I plan a certain meal for a certain night, something comes up and I have to swap meals.  This allows me to meal plan, so I know what we are going to eat, and I know what to shop for, but it also allows me to fix what works for that particular evening, and/or to fix something that I feel like fixing that night!  I think this is going to be the end of my menu planning failures!  I’m excited to give it a try!

2.  Monday…
A.  Tomorrow looks like a free day so far.  I have so much work to do around the house, I just haven’t written it down yet!  The lines at the bottom have been designated for my business to-do’s.  Tomorrow I have a couple calls to make.  I don’t feel like I need the printed words that are under the boxes and above the lines.  They are in my way, and I don’t use the lined space as suggested, so I have actually gone through my entire planner and used Bic white-out tape and covered all those words.

3.  Tuesday…
Pizza-This is no longer applicable to my schedule.  I was doing a Pizza hot lunch at the school once a month, but it got canceled due to school kitchen issues.  I will find a cute sticker to cover this since the event stickers don’t remove easily.
Michelle-I have a friend coming over in the afternoon sometime.  If I knew a specific time, I would have that written down beside her name.
There is a Zumba class at 5:30pm Tuesday.  We *might* check it out.  Not sure yet!
Daryl, who is “orange”, has a training class Tuesday night.  I usually try to write any appointments that pertain to certain family members, in “their” color.  We each have a color that we have been using for years, so its second nature for me to see “orange” and immediately know it’s something for hubby.

4.  Wednesday…
I always put my birthday stickers at the very beginning of the day, the top of the sticker lined up with the top of the “morning” box.
My youngest has a club meeting Wednesday night.  The sticker color “green”, immediately tells me who is involved!

And that is how the week progresses!  I do use the “morning”, “day”, and “night” sections for their intended purpose…to keep track of activities that happen in the morning, during the day, and at night.  On Saturday, I will be reminding everyone in the Erin Condren Fan Club, that is participating in the Secret Santa exchange, to be sure they have mailed their gifts.  December 14 is the deadline, so people receive their package by Christmas!  I am also a lover of little check boxes, and as the week progresses, many more of these will be added for events and activities that need to be accomplished.

At the beginning of the week, I don’t do too much “decorating” because I preserve my space first for the necessary items that must be accomplished during the week.  At the end of each day, if I have space, I then will print photos on Avery labels and/or find stickers that inspire or motivate me, or are appropriate for the month or activity that happened during that day.

The end result is a week that is bursting with activity, color, and a life record that sparks many memories!  I often find my teenage children paging through my planner, looking at the tiny pictures and remembering the activities with smiles on their faces.  Nothing is better than that!! ~Kristy