You have chosen your planner and now it’s time to start setting up your dividers. Some people go crazy, setting up sections for everything imaginable.
My first planner had TWO dividers, Calendar and Notes. Yes, you read that right, two! My planner was a mess, notes were all over the place and the calendar pages were raggedy and full of crossed-out entries. But, it was the best thing I could have done, because it allowed me to see precisely what sections I really needed. Now my planner has evolved into the perfect planner for me!
Notes
Today the notes part of my planner has evolved into 5 sections.
- To Do
- Budget – includes meal planning and shopping
- Projects – mostly craft projects
- Lists – with sub-dividers for books, TV, movies daily and weekly cleaning lists etc
- Private – doctors notes, passwords
I used to have additional sections for my blog and another for my Etsy shop but those are now in separate planners.
Sub-dividers are used to break down an existing section into more useful parts without setting up a whole new tab. I keep these tabs barely peeking out of the top of my planner.
Calendar Dividers
The calendar pages are different now as well. I keep my month and week pages together, January month pages follow by the weeks of January with at least one or two blank pages for notes. Because of this change, I use month dividers to make it easier to forward plan. For example, a visit to the dentist in May might result in a follow-up appointment in July, it’s easy to quickly flip to July and mark down the date. No more lost appointments because of writing it into the wrong date.
In conclusion, I highly recommend starting out with a minimum number of sections. As your needs become apparent you can break the sections up into their own dividers or even try using sub-dividers.
