Latest / The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler / 25 years of planners and this is the one thing that matters

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25 years of planners and this is the one thing that matters · The Christian Homemaking Podcast: Simply Convivial with Mystie Winckler

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So I have used planners for 25 years.
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I've used expensive planners.
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I've used cheap planners.
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I've used spiral notebooks.
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I've used my own printables on a clipboard I've used digital planners.
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I've made myself spreadsheets
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I've done the bullet journal thing
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I've set up detailed layouts in disc bound binders
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After all this experimenting for over two decades, I can tell you
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the feature that matters most in any planner is not the layout, or the
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paper quality, or the binding type, or the size, or whether the planner
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page has the exact right little boxes.
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The one thing that matters most is actually looking at it.
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I know that sounds ridiculously obvious
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But how easy is it to put all of our time and effort into setting up the spread
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and then not look at it, and not use it to inform our day-to-day decisions?
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I know m- many, many times I would sit down, think through
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the week, write everything out beautifully, close the planner.
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Maybe I would look at it Monday morning, but not Tuesday morning.
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I would think about it on Thursday, but I really didn't open it up again
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till it was time to plan the next week.
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I was really running entirely from memory, and maybe making the plan
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improved my memory a little bit.
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But what really improved my planning system, my efficiency, my effectiveness in
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my life, is when I built three intentional habits for looking at my planner.
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When I have these three habits running, it doesn't matter what planner I use.
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I can go to whichever one feels the most doable in my current season.
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I know that it will work Because I know that I will look at that plan that I made.
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So often my failed plans didn't really fail, I just didn't look
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at those plans in the first place
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The three little short, quick check-ins that I'm gonna tell you
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about today have mattered more than any planner that I actually ever used
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So the reality is that your planner is not the system in and of itself.
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When we think of the planner as the thing that matters most, then we spend a
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bunch of time researching or creating the perfect spread, doing the things that need
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to be done Figuring out the right boxes that are on our page where if we fill them
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all out, then we get an A+ on our plan.
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No.
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Really, planning has two distinct parts.
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We make the plan, and then we look at the plan.
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And most of the planner videos out there, and most of our time spent figuring out a
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plan focuses entirely on that first part without investing in the second part.
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But it's the second part that will make your planner work
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Now, if practical planning that works in ordinary family life without
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turning homemaking into a perfectionist project is what you need, then
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subscribe to this show, the Christian Homemaking Podcast, Simply Convivial.
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I'm Misty Winkler, wife, homeschooling mom, grandma, and author of the book How
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to Use a Planner Without Wasting Time.
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Every week, I have bite-sized practical encouragement for busy moms who
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want to love their lives at home and invest intentionally in their families
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If that's you, give this video a like, then grab a basket of laundry
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to fold, and let's talk planners
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So the three intentional times where I look at my planner
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that really make my plan work
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It's the third one that's going to be most surprising, but first, we
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have to start with the weekly review.
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We have to look at that plan once a week.
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And so the weekly review is the time that we spend setting up our
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planner for the week to come, but we don't wanna start that plan
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from scratch, from the blank page.
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Our weekly review should have some review in it.
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We actually need to go back and look at the plan we made for the
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week that's just ended before we make the plan for the next week.
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So often our planning is based on wishful thinking for the future,
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but we need to get tethered to the reality of how our weeks actually
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go and what's still on our plate.
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Maybe the things that didn't get done this last week need to move over to
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the future week, and that will fill most of the slots, and that is real
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life, and that's a real workable plan that's in touch with reality.
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Sometimes we look at our plan for this last week and the things that did not
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get done, and we say, "You know what?
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It didn't get done 'cause those things are not important, and I'm not gonna
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move them forward to the next week."
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But we're making that decision intentionally with reflection and wisdom
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rather than just ignoring what has happened and pretending the future's going
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to be so much different, so much better.
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A weekly review should really take about 30 minutes tops.
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Even 15 minutes is enough to do the trick.
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You wanna look at the calendar for the last week and just think
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about how it went, and then look at the calendar for the upcoming
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week and see what's on your docket.
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What, where is your time spoken for this coming week, and what
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themes or responsibilities do you already see taking up your time?
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Where do you need a quick meal?
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Where do you need a Crock-Pot meal?
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Where do you have some more time to have a bit more fun in the kitchen?
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You can meal plan accordingly after you have a sense of your week The point
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of the weekly review and of making any plan at all, what we write down for
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ourselves for the week, isn't filling out every blank on our template.
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The point is being prepared for our own real life this coming week.
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And so starting with looking back and looking at the calendar is
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where making a plan becomes helpful
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Now, of course, making that weekly plan is key to having a plan, but it's only
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going to be a useful plan if I bring it back into view and look at it on
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a day-to-day basis and not just that weekly basis So the second important
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time to look at your plan, not just your calendar, but your planner, your
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notes to self about what needs to be happening this week, is in the morning.
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In the morning, you wanna ask, "What matters today?"
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You want to remind yourself of what's on your to-do list.
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What food are you making today?
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Where does your time need to go today?
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So in the morning, you wanna do a quick calen- So in the morning, you
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wanna do a quick planner checkup.
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You're gonna look at your calendar.
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You wanna look at your weekly plan that you made, and then you wanna write a
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daily card based on those realities.
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And your daily card goes on your planner.
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Some planners have a spot for a daily top three.
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I like to use a Post-It Note and put it on the front cover
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so that it's way more visible.
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I don't have to open it up to see my daily card on my planner
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The calendar and the planner give us the context for what's going on and
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what our reasonable options are, and then the daily card gives us focus
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Now, if narrowing down the whole plan into a daily top three sounds impossible, if
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that's something you struggle with, then that's exactly what I teach in my free
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Overwhelmed to Organized workshop.
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I'll link that in the episode description below
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But for sure, the morning me is not always a reliable predictor of what, of
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how the day is actually going to unfold.
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And so the third And so it's really this third time.
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And so it's really this third key time for looking at the plan
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that makes all the difference
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The plan that we have written down, the notes that we have made
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to self are the most useful after something has gone wrong in our day.
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We should just acknowledge that things will go wrong in our day.
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Having made a plan does not mean that we have accurately predicted the future.
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And if we have not accurately predicted the future, that doesn't mean that
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our plan is broken or messed up.
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The plan is there to help us adapt and be prepared for real life
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The planner is not a tool of control for the day.
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The planner reminds us of important things on our plate so that we don't let those
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important things, so we don't let those imp- uh, so we don't let those important
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balls drop when the day gets eventful.
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So really, the most valuable time to look at that plan page is
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probably when you don't want to.
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It's right after the interruption, right after you've spent too much time on your
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phone, and now you have to face reality.
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It's when
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The children have made a huge mess you didn't expect, and now your time,
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and now that schedule you had in your head is just off for the day.
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Maybe something comes up and you have to run errands, but
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that wasn't part of your plan.
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These are the moments where we feel like we would be defeated
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if we looked at our plan and then tried to match it up with reality.
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But this is a key practice of effective women.
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We're not afraid to mesh the plan with reality and adapt the plan as we go.
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We're not judged by how accurately we predicted the future
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We are effective if we can keep our balls juggling and let the n- less
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important ones drop when need be when important ones come into the picture.
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And we're better able to make those judgment calls when we refer to our
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written sen- our written tasks and priorities and things to remember
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When we look at our plan right after things have gone off the rails, then
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we actually release a lot of the mental and emotional load of feeling
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like something's broken in our day.
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Instead of refiltering everything and trying to remember, we just glance
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at our plan and say, "All right.
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Based on where we're at now, which of these things here matters most right now?"
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Maybe you even cross some things off.
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I check things off when I get things done, but I cross things out with a little curly
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cue at the end when I say, "You know what?
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This is not happening, and that's okay."
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Just remind, like I am in charge of my plan.
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I can do that.
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You can do that.
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Pick the best next thing, but let the planner hold your options
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so that you don't have to mentally rehearse those options on the fly
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Anytime you realize that you've lost the plot for the day or even the week,
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glance at your planner and let it bring you back to center That's its job
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now the reality is that your planner choice matters far less than
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establishing these basic habits of looking at whatever plan you've made.
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You- the plan that you make will improve over time as you actually look
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at it and use it, so that you don't spin your wheels on the front end
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over-planning and over-engineering, but you end up making notes to self that
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you actually do need in the moment.
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No planner layout automatically creates effectiveness or attention or focus.
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And constantly changing the planner that we use, I have been guilty of
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this, interrupts that whole practice.
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One rule that I made for myself about 10 years into homemaking was that I
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was not allowed to change my planner until I had used one For six weeks.
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Six weeks minimum before I made changes
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I had spent years trying to figure out a planner that would â¦ where
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the planner would keep me organized, but what I actually needed was just
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the habit of looking at what I wrote down to help me stay on track and make
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more, and make better judgments about what to do next So look at your planner
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weekly or and assess where you're at.
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Look at it every morning and choose your top three for your daily card, and look at
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it during the day when you feel off track
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Don't buy another planner because your current one isn't working until
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you've established these habits of actually looking at whatever
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planner it is you have right now.
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Use what you already have, use what you wrote down, but actually use
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it by looking at it Keep that plan in conversation with your real life
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now, don't forget to check out my free workshop on using a daily card,
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which will help you keep that focus going day over day You can find that
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at simplyconvivial.com/organized,
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or the link is in the description
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with all our plans, we want to repent, rejoice, repeat