DIY week to view super personal planner page

That's right, I've come up with the ultimate planner page for personal size organisers - ultimate for my needs anyhow. Scroll down for the actual product or read on for the explanation of how this came about...

Aims

The criteria in mind when designing this were:

1. Week on 2 pages

2. Meetings schedule

3. After work and weekend schedule

4. To do list split by categories:

    a. work deadlines

    b. work things that I aim to get done because I should really

    c. chores - why not?

    d. other non work things to do

    e. calls to make - Being at work during normal office hours and only half an hour for lunch can make it easy to forget to do simple things like call to book appointments, but also I find I always remember my friends and family when I'm busy but when I actually have a moment I just think.... who do was it I was planning on calling?! NEVER AGAIN!

5. For the these separate lists to appear in some kind of prioritised order

Inspiration

Before even getting my faux Filofax from Paperchase I went on YouTube and was so inspired by the different set-ups .. I could go on and on about this but that's for another time, for now, I refer you to the video below by Enjoyette which should  start just in time to show how the days are split into categories. What a shame she has only 3 videos, she has a lovely voice right?

Design

At first I was inclined to do the same thing - split the top of my existing diary pages as follows:

Work deadlines | Work to do | Personal to do | Chores | Call

But that wouldn't fit and wouldn't look neat, so you could try:

Deadlines | work | home | chores

What about calls? Well I guess you could put that on the bottom line of each day, and as for appointments just write them across the day, perhaps in a different colour. But it wouldn't be neat!! 

So instead I split the pages into 2 columns: appointments/schedule | TO DOs, and it actually works for me, take a look! Note there are weekly goals and notes sections which could be useful, with lightly bigger lines.

Rather than split the different tasks into columns, I have adopted a staggered start column. I'll warn you, the lines are tiny but I have no trouble writing on them with a normal ballpoint pen, when I was expecting the need for a mechanical pencil. Here's an example of how it looks in use:

How to use

Its hard for me to explain in words how the to do section is laid out, but basically you just start writing the task in the left edge of that category. that didn't make sense. Ok, if you are putting in a deadline, you start writing in the first column for the to do section, for work to dos you write in the second column, personal in the third, and so on. I'm hoping the picture demonstrates it.

I usually put any appointments and meetings into the schedule and any deadlines into the deadline column as soon as I become aware of them. (eg lunch meeting with AB, Dinner with CD, Pitt Case, etc) 

A good idea then is to go through and back track along the process and put the relevant to do in the relevant days for that task. For example I'd normally aim to finish before a deadline so I'll put "finish Pitt" a day before, or "Pitt draft" the day before that. It's particularly important to plan ahead in this way if your work requires signing off or approval before you can complete it. 

Then as ad hoc tasks arise, I add them in. Chores can sometimes be put in a week at a time. As for the schedule, I use the empty timeslots to then plan my day, factoring in the mundane but timely things that can make you feel like you haven't achieved anything, for example clear email inbox or... water plants!? 

You'll note that there are tick boxes in the to do column - this is important if you need to keep a record of what you've been doing, but I actually now find mine is rather redundant as I just put a line through my tasks as I complete them.

Result

The initial sheets I created are undated, however I then got to grips with mail merge and figured out how to put dates in. I've currently just made pages from 03 June 2013 to 17 November 2013 as I didn't want to bulk my organiser out and I've only tried this for one week!

I also used mail merge to put an inspirational quote on alternate weeks - I'm not sure if this is my cup of tea but its all part of the anti-mildlife survival kit!

Comments and requests welcome! If you would like the dated version, for certain dates, let me know and I can do a how-to or post them up. Also if you'd prefer bigger writing area/less hours in the schedule let me know. Peace and Love!!!