You have that brand new planner sitting in front of you – either physical or digital – it’s a blank canvas staring at you – your mind starts to RACE. What do I start writing down? I don’t want to mess it up. The idea of now setting up that planner has become overwhelming, so you put it aside for another day…. which never comes.

You should now have a decent-sized list of life main and subcategories, and more specific areas you want to keep track of. I want you to continue to add to that list for the next few weeks. Whenever you do a task, I want you to think about, is this on my list, how often do I do this and how long does it take? I want you to also start thinking about who I am now, and who I want to be. Start making a list of the weaknesses and strengths you have and how they can be improved. I want you to start diving deeper into your categories and get even more specific.

The very first layout and most basic is the monthly layout. The monthly layout should always be your first stop for your most important information, future planning and planning ahead. Any day-specific and timed-events such as birthdays, doctor’s appointments, bills, or anything high priority you don’t want to forget, should always go into the month first, then shuffle down to your week and then to the day depending on your flow. Most monthly layouts are going to be four or five weeks. You can store a lot of information on a monthly spread and depending on your needs, a monthly planner or wall calendar may be all you need.