Before beginning this step, you should have filled out your labelled days of the week pages as well as your “type of day” pages (from the last step) with all of your tasks, checklists, routines, etc.
Got those ready? Let’s get started!
Make a Household Planner Notebook: Weekly Planning
There are four files I use in my weekly planning.
1.) At-a-Glance Weekly Planner 2 Page Spread (choose a theme)
2.) At-a-Glance Weekly Planner Inserts (Routine Page)
3.) At-a-Glance Weekly Planner Inserts (Daily Do List)
4.) At-a-Glance Planning Boxes (2 rows, 7 columns)
Daily Tasks
Please print 1 copy of the At-a-Glance Planning Boxes Page.
Label the first row of boxes with the days of the week (Mon-Sun).
Label the second row’s columns with “1 x week”, “2 x week”, “3 x week”, and so on until you get to the seventh box and label it “Every Day”.
Now, take your notes from your Monday-Sunday pages and copy the info to the appropriate box on your planning page according to the criteria below:
1) If it’s a task that is specific to a particular day(s), copy it to that day(s)’ box.
2) If it’s a task that is not specific to a particular day(s), copy it into the appropriate box in the 2nd row.
Examples:
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DAYS OF THE WEEK
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# of TIMES PER WEEK
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Get the idea?
Do you have to write EVERYTHING down in this planning stage? No, of course not. I do not need to remind myself to make dinner every day. It’s going to happen — I have nine mouths to remind me! However, there have been MANY days that I forgot to thaw meat or to put something in the crock-pot. So, I do need to write down “morning prep for dinner”. You know yourself. Writing down a plan helps you see where you are spending your time and where you have time available for other things. It also keeps you on task so you don’t let those important things you should be doing fall between the cracks.
If you like the saying, “a place for everything and everything in its place”, then how about:
“A time for everything and everything in its place.”
Routines
Please print as many copies as you need of the At-a-Glance Weekly Planner Inserts (Routine Page) …each page will hold 2 routines.
Pull out your notes from your “types of days” pages. How many “types of days” do you have in a week? I have 4-5, but so far I have only filled out routines for 2 because they are the ones I need most. I can manage my other days without the routines detailed for me (for now anyway). Using your notes, create your routines/flow for the day for these special “types of days”. I have one for “School Days” and one for “Work Days”. There is a column on either side to record the time for each task, but don’t feel obligated to use it. I use it for the initial planning stage of my routine so that I know there should be enough time to do all I want to do in the day, but I do not follow it perfectly when actually living out my plan. Print out and fill in as many routines as you need. If you find tasks from these days that need to be moved to a specific day or to one of your other planning boxes, go ahead and do that now.
At the bottom of the At-a-Glance Weekly Planner Inserts (Routine Page), you will see an additional table. I use this to keep track of certain goals I’m working on. I recently found out I am pre-diabetic, so I am carefully monitoring my diet. I use these boxes for tracking my food, drinks, and exercise each day. I fill in the first column with the days of the week, the second column represents my morning, the third is my afternoon, and the last is my evening.
Weekly Planner
Now it’s time to customize your At-a-Glance Weekly Planner 2 Page Spread using all of the info we’ve pulled together. Decide if the headings included will work for you. If not, simply delete and recolor the headings to your preference. Then print for one week.
Here are my suggestions for the headings included:
- AT-A-GLANCE: Write the routine to follow for that day if one applies
… School Day, Work Day, Errand Day, etc. - MENU & MEAL PREP: If you don’t have a dinner meal plan, make one RIGHT NOW for this week and fill this in. If any morning meal prep will be needed, be sure to write it down.
- HOMEMAKING, HOMESCHOOLING, BUSINESS/MINISTRY, etc.: Using row 1 from your Planning Boxes, add the tasks to the appropriate days under the appropriate headings. Using row 2 from your Planning Boxes, add the tasks to the days you want to complete them (or see Daily Do List below for another option)
- MUST-DO LIST: (leave blank for now)
- PERSONAL, PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL, PRAYER, ETC.: Use these headings or change them. I fill these out at the beginning of each week during my planning session on either Sunday night or Monday morning.
- PERPETUAL TO-DO LIST: (leave blank for now)
Now, throughout the week, if you think of something that needs to be added to your weekly plan, put it on your At-a-Glance Planning Boxes Page so that you can include it in next week’s planning session.
Daily Do List Option
The At-a-Glance Weekly Planner Inserts (Daily Do List) is something I recently added to my planner. This page gets folded in half, hole-punched, and inserted right in the middle of my weekly planner 2 page spread (between Wednesday & Thursday). I take a transparency (cut in half and hole punched) and paper clip it to both sides of my daily do list so I can use a wet-erase marker to mark things off each week and not have to reprint it. I use this insert to record all of my “Daily Do” items. I will add things to this insert that need to be done every week, but do not necessarily have to be done on a certain day. I make a list of things to do 1/week, 2/week, etc. all the way up to “every day”. These are things that repeat every week, but that I don’t want to have to re-type or write in my planner every week.
Hole-punch everything you have created today and add it to the front of your temporary binder.
Keep up with your paper trails by adding them to the appropriate section of your binder.
Coming up next . . .
Creating the PLANNING section of your household planner.
