One of these days I’ll upgrade my phone and get the Periscope App, and share planner stuff in style, but for now, I’ll do my first “Plan With Me” right here on my blog!

It wasn’t long ago when I learned about using a weekly large sticky note to jot down upcoming events, appointments, and ideas. I had been using sticky note flags and I always had this worry that one might fall out and I’d forget or lose one of my notes. I don’t worry any more because I’ve attached a large sticky note to each of my weeks in the planner. 

 
This does not add a lot of extra bulk and I have done this for 3 weeks now, and I’ll never go back to the tiny notes. I call this my “scribble sheet”, and it allows me to scribble things down quickly with any old pen, and I can add “maybe” events as well as “for sure” events without worrying about plans changing. Everything can land on the scribble sheet without much thought, allowing me to see and contemplate what the final schedule will be.  

By having a sheet on every weekly layout, I can do significant future planning, just jotting everything down, without needing to cull my activities until closer to the actual date things are happening. This provides so much freedom for my brain because I can wait to make final decisions until closer to the event, allowing for schedule changes or accommodating things that may come up, like sick kids, or needed family time instead of another event. 

On Sundays, I pull my scribble sheet off my weekly layout and I begin to add my activities and appointments.

This is my sheet for Dec 21-27, 2015. With it being Christmas vacation and Christmas week, there wasn’t actually very much to add.  

This is my planner BEFORE adding anything. 

 
There are some things that get added along the way, so my week is never really a blank slate when I add my scribble sheet. For any events or activities or to do’s that I know are already set in stone, I usually just add those randomly as they happen, and don’t wait till Sunday to put them in. 

In the above photo, the very first thing I did when I got my planner was add all my rainbow weekend stickers, so those were already there. The day after Thanksgiving, I added my Krissyanne Designs (www.krissyanne.com) Christmas countdown stickers, so those were already there as well.  I also added along the way, a few Christmas decor stickers just because, so those were also already in place.  

Last Friday, I had a few puppies that were going to need medication all week, so I took the time to add all that information because I knew it HAD to be done, so it needed a prominent placement in my days and week. 

Having a planner is all about managing your time and being more productive, so getting the most important things into your schedule first, allow you to prioritize and accomplish those things that are most important in your life.

Now, with the space still available, I began to add the things off my scribble list. 

I get a little worried when the week is so full even before the week begins. Plans tend to shift and change, and that is much harder to do when the schedule is already packed. 

The movie stickers are from “The Pretty Planner” on Etsy. We are in the midst of a Star Wars marathon so we can have the story fresh in our minds before seeing the new one in the theatre!

This is what it looked like after I added everything from my scribble sheet!

   
1st half of the week

2nd half of the week. 

Next year I’m going to try and make Christmas week a little more festive with a LOT more green and red!

This is the final layout. We didn’t get all of the persimmons delivered and we watched “Terminator” on Sunday (which I did not enjoy at all).  And the week was basically overrun with dog chores, but it was the best Christmas day we’ve had in a while, and I was thankful for my family and our friends that spent the day with us. 

Merry Christmas! 🌲❄️⛄️