Can you imagine deciding that you’d like to travel to Italy, jumping on a plane and arriving without knowing where you will stay, where you will eat, what you want to see, or even how you will get out of the airport? Just like planning your vacation is critical to having a good time, mapping out your daily tasks is a crucial part of building a successful business. If planning seems overwhelming, keep in mind that doing it even a couple of times a week makes you more effective than 95% of designers out there. Not to mention that even planning a couple of days builds a foundation for more frequent planning. Nobody’s life looks the same. That is the reason that Carina’s planner has a very flexible planning layout. It can include what is important for you and how you work.  

There are a variety of ways to use this planner. You can plan based on the hours you have available for designing. If you have a full time job, for example, and you only design in the evenings and on weekends you can plan those hours only. If you are not a morning person or you have a morning routine you want to keep, use the planner to design in the afternoon. Your planner, after all, should be a reflection of your life. 

Some ideas on how to use it:

Monthly calendar page –

• Fill in dates and put in big tasks that you will be completing for the month, appointments, and events, etc.
• Use the large bottom block to list your tasks by priorities.
• OR – use the large block to journal what you want to happen in the month.

Daily calendar pages – 

• Plan your day by filling in your month, year, and date
• Use the  smaller blocks on the left side to plan each time slot based on the estimated time it will take to accomplish your chosen tasks.
• If planning out each hour doesn’t appeal to you, try breaking up your day by blocks – Morning, Noon, and Evening. Alternatively you can break up your day by task priority.
• Use the small block, top right  to  include one of the following: a daily positive affirmation, a scripture verse, a gratitude, today’s wins, 3 top goals, design ideas, your big dream, journaling, things to remember or anything else that you choose.
• Use the long block, right side to include one of the following ideas; Gratitudes, stream of consciousness journaling, details about the task that is in that time slot, top goals, 10 big dreams, recent accomplishments, design ideas or anything else that is beneficial to you. This block could vary or even change day by day.

Some of the benefits of planning include:

• Writing your top goals everyday is a great way to make them happen.
• Writing recent accomplishments really works to boost your confidence if self esteem is something you struggle with.
• Writing design ideas is a good way to catalog your ideas for quick inspiration.
• Writing positive affirmations infuses positivity into your subconscious. Positivity makes the best designers.

Some other ideas to add to your daily plans are fitness, meals, household chores, kid activities and appointments. 

Planning is a habit that has been proven to work! Even if you don’t think planning is for you, give it a try, you might be surprised!