As per my previous article, I mentioned that for next year I have bought a B5 monthly spread planner. It is a thin booklet size that lightweight and can be easily carried around. I find that the design is quite creative and the contents are useful – perhaps something you can consider to incorporate in your planner or Bujo (bullet journal). The monthly planner is the one on the right based on the picture that you see below:
There are the more plain or businesslike monthly planners available. However I find from experience through using the plain planner from Daiso and another colourful planner that I actually ended up using the colourful planner a lot. I just love colours and pastels which motivate me to pick up the planner, to plan in it and check on what I have written.
The page above contains the yearly calendar at a glance with Thai public holidays and important telephone numbers in Thailand (such as numbers to police stations, ambulans, etc). I quite like it because it is a reminder that I have been to Thailand. After all, you would need to go there to buy the book.
The next page is what is deemed a project planner where each month is being shown. There is writing space for you to plan on the projects that you wish to do. You can even use it plan out the timeline for goals that you wish to achieve.
Then you have a year at a glance. In the past I used to use it to write down birthdays and important dates.
Above is the main section of the planner which consist of the monthly spread. Each month has its own monthly spread. In this type of colourful planner, each month comes in a different design and colour theme. Below is also another sample monthly spread. I would use it to write down important reminders and tasks like paying bills (my bills have different due dates), to check on my accounts, my mom’s doctor appointments, work that I have planned out.
If I happen to set a blogging goal for my blogs, I also break down the goal into my monthly planner. For example, if I target to write 20 blog posts within about 2 weeks, I need to evaluate my daily schedule and then plot in a target for that day. I also have different publishing schedule for certain blogs and I would plot in the dates. I did that a few times using my monthly planner and even though I did not achieve my actual goal, I was actually close. Compared to having the idea just in my head…. it will never get done.
After the monthly spread from January to December finishes, there comes the yearly spread for the following year. It is useful if you have appointments, projects, events or tasks coming up in the following year but do not have a proper place to write them. You can just plot them there and then transfer the information when you buy your next planner for the following year.
There are a few creative pages. One is blank, another is for you to write your to-do-list. For me, it would be useful for me to list down ‘genetic tasks’ that I need to do on a regular basis.
At the spread above, the left is a freestyle page while the right is my list. From the picture, it suggests that perhaps you may consider listing down the books that you plan to read.
There are also a few note pages, each one with different design and colours that enables you to use it to write down what you want. I have used these pages to write down certain things such as how to operate a printer (the printer I am using is a little complicated… you know like where to place the paper for double side printing or photocopying my ID on the same page, etc).
But one thing though, if you are taking the book in your bag or sometimes leaving it around, please do not write sensitive information such as your bank account number or passwords in this book. Because you could risk a lot if the book gets misplaced or stolen.
