Getting the Most Out of Your Planner

It’s a good habit to get into using your planner, but it can often amount to nothing unless it is put to good, efficient use. Your daily or monthly planner is a tool, and like any tool there is a right and a wrong way to make use of it.

Right off the bat, a planner’s purpose is to add organization and forethought to your life. You’ve got your work and fun all planned out and will spare yourself from soul crushing last minute deadline rushes and having to cancel plans if you do it well. Of course, in order to make good use of your plan you need to use it as regularly as possible.

Every day you should look at and digest what you have planned for that day and the following day, to get your mind refreshed and ready for the work ahead. Along with that, each week you should have a day where you will spend the time working out your weekly plan. It’s your planning day. And it might not even take that long depending on how much you have on your agenda. Adopting this sort of regularity helps you get used to living by the planner and really adopting the lifestyle.

Another important thing is to use your planner for literally everything. Your planner is your life, it’s not your meal plan, it’s your everything plan. The more you can utilize your planner for, the better you are making use of the tool. Of course, don’t burden yourself with pushing to fill up every inch of the planner with ink. Clutter is the enemy of efficiency so the more leanly you can put your goals the better.

A final major tip is to take the time to write down every important date on the calendar section of your planner and visit it frequently so you never miss an event. Often enough people will mark these dates down on pages that they never review and it doesn’t serve to help. Making use of the calendar to mark down some long term goals and check them against progress you’ve made once that date comes around makes a good tool for monitoring how well you’ve been doing.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/getting-the-most-out-of-your-planner

Staying Motivated Through the Workweek

Spending half of your time awake at work throughout the week can understandably be draining on some people. Come Wednesday or Thursday, most people just can’t wait for the weekend to come and relieve them of their time in the office. That doesn’t need to be the case, though - there are some wonderful ways that you can stay motivated all week long and not feel as though the your every moment is spent in anticipation of the weekend.

 

Spend Some Time on Yourself

You don’t necessarily have to spend hours in solitude trying to figure yourself out or anything like that, but a few minutes of silent contemplation every now and then can really do wonders for how you feel about yourself. This also doesn’t mean you need to meditate (which is also a good option if you’re up for it), but get a pedicure, take yourself out to lunch at a sit-down restaurant or just veg out in bed watching some guilty pleasure on Netflix.

 

Participate in Creative Activities

If you haven’t done something creative lately just for the sake of creativity, give it a go - the experience can be quite cathartic and give you something to look forward after work every day. Not sure where to start? Try everything! Writing, painting, crafting, woodworking… eventually you’ll find something that clicks well with you.

 

Healthy Eating and Fitness Work Wonders

Okay, we get it, we talk a lot about eating right and tracking your meals, but there’s a good reason for that - healthy living in general will make you a happier person overall. Whether you’re not eating right or aren’t getting enough exercise, fixing either of those deficiencies can have a major impact on your ability to tackle the workweek. For an even bigger boost to your mood (and to live a longer life), both eat better and spend some time being physically active to the best of your ability.

No matter what path you decide to take when it comes to keeping motivated and staying on task, just know that you got this!

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/staying-motivated-through-the-workweek

Keeping In Touch With Friends and Family

With our ever expanding social circles it’s super easy to forget to get a hold of someone and touch bases every once in awhile. The longer you stay out of contact the easier it is to forget. Other than scrolling down from your recent messages into the backwater logs of dead conversations, what can you do to help keep those bonds of friendship strong?

Well, a name and date book can go a long way. Having something physical to organize information in stands as a good reminder to actually check the thing. A good tip for regularly keeping tabs on everyone in your social circles using your contact list is to use timestamped sticky tabs for the last time that you touched bases or had a date. This can be especially effective if you have color coded tabs for seasons or months so you have that flashy green reminder sticking out the side of your book letting you know that you haven’t called Auntie Mariel since last October. Any sort of easily noticeable and well organized visual reminder can work, but literally keeping tabs on the last time you called is a great way to follow up with any sort of frequency.

Another really nice tip for visiting people is to organize an extra contact list for other cities you occasionally visit. It’s best to avoid that embarrassing situation on social media when old acquaintances call you out on not making time for visiting them when you were already up in that neck of the woods. Having a travel contact list is just the perfect trick for these sorts of trips.

A final little trick is to use the bi-annual mass-email. Social media updates hardly convey any sort of personal message to your friends and loved ones, but giving everyone the occasional update on how your life is going - straight into their inbox adds a nice personal touch to this. Of course sending out real letters can be a whole lot more meaningful - but we’re trying to make things easier for you.

The take home here is that a little organization can make keeping up with everyone a lot more manageable and leave plenty fewer people scorned, but of course you should still have some sort of layered social circle who gets their own sort of frequency. You’ll hardly be able to keep up with tea time with everyone you know, but you certainly have time to say hello.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/keeping-in-touch-with-friends-and-family

Improve Your Life With Structure

A lot people think that structuring out your workloads will just help boost productivity, and those people are all sorts of wrong. Proper structure in your life can lead to a domino effect that will help you live healthier, happier and more successful than were you not to follow any organization.

So what’s the science behind this? Well, coming home to a laundry list of things to do and messes to clean stops the brain from processing out the Cortisol that you build up from working. Having unfinished projects in your life can lead to stress and the feeling that you’re never truly done with work letting that stress hormone Cortisol to build up and stay in your system making you depressed and miserable and helplessly in a slump.

Planning out your projects and tasks can help make them more manageable which can relieve some stress when you’re not swamped with the unmanaged mess. And doing this will allow you to schedule proper breaks and time off which the human brain desperately needs and often enough is neglected in this way. Getting everything organized lets you have real rest and let those Cortisol levels reduce.

When your Cortisol is reduced, you’ll feel more lively and energetic. This change in brain chemistry helps you make healthier decisions like working out and eating the right thing. A study found that those who worked in a cluttered workplace environment were more likely to choose a chocolate bar for a snack over an apple when compared to those who worked in a neat environment. Meaning that just having more organization around you makes you subconsciously choose the healthier option as you don’t need to resort to comfort foods to get a little boost to your mood.

In the end, getting things organized is the secret to a happier life.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/improve-your-life-with-structure

Getting The Kids Involved With Healthy Meals

It can be a real hassle nowadays getting the kids involved with home-cooked meals, especially since very few of us out there are gourmet chefs with impeccable tastes. That coupled with the growing reliance on fast foods has given our youngest generation a taste for some of the least healthy meals.

So what can be done to pull them back into a lifestyle that will be good for them in the long-run? Well punishing them for not eating what is provided will not get you very far, you’ll have better luck with getting them proactive with meals before they hit the table.

One major idea to get everyone in on the meal plan is to have the week’s plan written out in an easily viewable space. We’d recommend a whiteboard or chalkboard somewhere around your kitchen/dining area. After each meal you can have everyone in the family vote if they’d eat that again or banish it from the meal queue. This way you encourage a voice and get an idea of what everyone wants to eat. Running like this for a while and introducing 2 or 3 new meals each week can produce a large enough menu to rotate through and then you better plan out the week with meals that everyone likes. You’ll also likely save a bit on groceries if you find the ingredients overlap while writing out your shopping list.

Another way to encourage participation is to have them get their hands dirty in the kitchen (the degree of this will vary depending on their age, of course). Maybe making a batch of cookies on the weekend with your youngest is just a good enough start for them to get an idea of what goes into producing a meal, but if you have teens you can really encourage a good lesson by having them plan out a meal within budget and have them prepare it yourself (while you supervise… with a glass of your favorite beverage in hand). You’ll mostly be there to make sure the house doesn’t go up in flames and to give just enough encouragement to make sure dinner gets cooked. But having your kids get involved in the meal process in any way will help them voice their opinions of what does and does not work and to grow a better appreciation for what you do more often than not.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/getting-the-kids-involved-with-healthy-meals

How To Set Up The Perfect Secret Santa Event

In concept Secret Santa is a pretty simple event to host, everybody is assigned anonymously to give another participant a gift. Of course there can be a hiccup here or there that can can really bring down the holiday spirit. So, let's see what can be done to ensure your Secret Santa event goes off without a hitch.

 

Distribution of Names:

The tried and true method of assigning secret Santa is to have everyone write their name on a slip and toss them in a hat or our sidekick zipper bag to be drawn by each potential Santa to see who they’ll be treating this year.

If you can get everybody participating in the same room, this method works well enough save for the awkward moment when someone draws their own name and has to reveal and redraw. Another nice tip for this step is to include a little personal interests and hobbies on the name slip so that who ever gets to be your Santa has a clue of what to get you.

If you can’t get everyone into the same room, then there are plenty of websites like Elfster which allow you to list out names and emails on the service and each Santa will get an email with who their recipient is. This of course could allow people from out of town to participate, which means you might want to include a master list of addresses so the gifts can all get where they need. And while we’re being friendly to digital aids, maybe encourage everyone to have an Amazon wishlist of items that could be browsed.

 

Drawing out the rules:

There are always a few good ground rules to be set at the start depending on how personal the group is. The most common of which is to set a price limit on gifts that everyone can easily afford to help make sure some Super Santa doesn’t blow everyone out and set a air of jealousy around the Christmas tree. Another good idea or ground rule is to establish a theme or if gag gifts should be encouraged, especially if kids might be around or participating there are certainly some jokes that don’t need to be opened in many groups.

 

Planning out the exchange party:

This can take place anywhere that is convenient for the group, even over a Skype conference if that’s the only way to get everyone together. Wherever you do it, it’s a good idea to have it include some festive decorations to help set the mood, and possibly start out the mood of giving with a potluck. Any way you do it, as long as everyone follows the rules and gives from their heart, then it’s certain to be a wonderful festivity to end the year with.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/how-to-set-up-the-perfect-secret-santa-event

Our Favorite Timesaving Tips for Teachers

If there is one profession that could use more time in its arsenal, it’s teachers. These champions of education spend their mornings and afternoons preparing for and tutoring their students while the workday is spent making sure everything goes according to plan. If something goes wrong or an item is out of place, an entire lesson plan or class period could be derailed, and it’s with this in mind we have collected some of our favorite time-saving tips for the classroom to share with the teachers out there (note: these might be good if you’re a manager who has employees who tend to act rambunctious like schoolchildren, too).

 

Make Copies of Your Class List

Start with a few dozen copies, at least. By having a ton of class lists available, you’ll find organizing your students for all sorts of things a breeze. Whether for classroom games, taking behavior notes during presentations or as a quick-and-easy checklist during class outings, these lists can be a valuable timesaver for active teachers. Things these lists can be used for include tracking trip payments, supplies donated, substitute notes, signed paperwork, and more.

 

Become More Aware of Your Time

Using a planner or some other note-taking apparatus, jot down the minutes for every single thing you do throughout the day. Most people who undertake this task often find that they are squandering precious time on things like browsing social media, looking things up online and searching for needed items in the classroom. Once you’ve determined what’s leaching time out of your day, take steps to eliminate those things from your routine for a more efficient workday.

 

Share Your Instructions

After giving out an assignment, you may want to consider posting the instructions in one or two areas that students can easily reference. Whether kids lose their printed assignments or they didn’t pay attention to verbal instructions, getting asked what to do over and over again can eat up a lot of a teacher’s time. Instead, you can either print an extra couple copies and post them in special areas in the room or, if you work with older students, post the instructions to a shareable document site like Google Docs or OneDrive.

from
https://startplanner.com/blogs/news/our-favorite-timesaving-tips-for-teachers