#3 - How To Use Different Layouts - Monthly Layout – How to Plan Series
Growing up, I thought my mother was the coolest because she had a Palm Pilot. This was of course the days before cell phones, and even before this, I watched my mother use a Franklin Covey. I remember the day she upgraded from a black and white device to a new colored one, and when I asked for her old one, I was so excited when she said yes! I just loved having it in my hands and feeling like I was my hard-working mother, only I had a busy schedule of elementary school and playing Monopoly, Yahtzee, and Tetris; the games my mother had bought and let me keep on the device.
Throughout the years she upgraded to various devices, and let’s be real here still kept her Franklin Covey up to date to have both a digital and physical planner, I would always ask for her old devices, which most of the time she would give to me, probably because I was the only one of her children who kept asking for them!
It’s not shocking how my mother’s influence and example while growing up would lead me down the path of planning. To me, a successful woman planned her day, and it was something that I would try to do as I grew up, but as was my head, my planning style was a mess. I knew I needed to write things down, I would, then I would lose that piece of paper or sticky note. I understood some of the concepts of what to do but didn’t quite know how to execute or organize them. There were not as many options as far as layouts, and as I continued to get older and busier and when the layouts I did try didn’t end up working, I just thought maybe I wasn’t a planner and I eventually gave up on physical planning.
When I became an adult the Palm Pilot was no longer on the market, and yes there were new technologies and apps coming out, but I still loved the idea of the one device with a stylus. I had an idea or illusion of what I thought planning on a device should look like and I was not happy with any of those options either. I was living in the exact season of my life I dreamt about as a little girl, using my Palm Pilot to plan my career and my family, and yet I wasn’t that person at all. I was desperate for answers, and I somehow wanted my vision of digital planning my way to come to life.
When I decided that I needed to plan my homeschooling, I had a rough understanding that I could take a document, download it on my tablet, and be able to write on it. I made a very simple Excel Spreadsheet that had five columns for the five-day workweek, and three rows that would be for our family subjects, my daughters' subjects, and my son's toddler activities. I saved this spreadsheet as a PDF document and downloaded it into my Samsung Notes app on my tablet. I was so happy with myself; it was the closest thing to me at that time that brought that Palm Pilot experience. It was digital, I could write on it with a stylus like I wanted, and it was perfect! Until I showed my mom, and she showed me there was more out there.
She planted the planner community seed in my mind. I began watching the planning videos she recommended and learning the new layouts on the market, and how my idea of how to break down my boxes and sections wasn’t that different from the other planners I was watching. They too needed to make what they had in front of them into their OWN creations, and that gave me the permission I needed to not only use other layouts but to make my planner MY OWN and work for me. Certain rules I felt I was keeping went out the door and although there were lines on the pages, I now saw it as a blank canvas. I no longer saw borders and boundaries but guides on how to decorate my thoughts and tasks.
Not too soon after, I created my first hyperlinked planner, which I was very happy with, which led to me making one for my mother, and that led to me making other planners for the other people in my life. In the next couple of posts, I am going to dive deep into each of those layouts and each of my planner identities, who in my life inspired the design, how to start seeing beyond the lines and made-up planning rules we keep, how to make the layouts your own and work for you, and how they could work for your different Main and Subcategories. I will also provide planner spread examples of different characters that I’ve created to represent a wide range of people and how they all could use the same layout. These characters include: 1) Single Person 2) Working College Student 3) Working Family 4) Homeschool/SAHM Family 5) Busy Entrepreneur.
All my tips and tricks can be applied to any planner layout on the market.
Monthly Layout
The very first layout and most basic is the monthly layout. The monthly layout should always be your first stop for your most important information, future planning and planning ahead. Any day-specific and timed-events such as birthdays, doctor’s appointments, bills, or anything high priority you don’t want to forget, should always go into the month first, then shuffle down to your week and then to the day depending on your flow. Most monthly layouts are going to be four or five weeks. You can store a lot of information on a monthly spread and depending on your needs, a monthly planner or wall calendar may be all you need.
Blank monthly spread
1) Single Person
In this monthly example, you can quickly glimpse the working schedule, bill due dates, payday tracking, delivery tracking, workout tracking, work deadlines, and relevant holidays.
Single person monthly spread
2) Working College Student
In this monthly example, students can keep track of their work schedule, study schedule, class schedules, assignments, grades, and overall GPA.
Working Online College Student Monthly Spread
3) Working Family
In this monthly example, this family needed to stay on board with whose day it was to drop off or pick up the kids from school, the difference between practice and game days and the multiple medical appointments for each family member.
Busy Family Monthly Spread
4) Homeschool/SAHM Family
In this monthly example, this homeschool mom planned her curriculum around the upcoming holidays, tracked games and activities she wanted to complete, and planned her family’s meals.
Homeschool / SAHM Monthly Spread
5) Busy Entrepreneur
In this example, this person can track their business trip itinerary, important deadlines, and meeting reminders.
Busy Entrepreneur Monthly Spread
My characters are fictitious, so the data doesn’t exactly make sense, but my goal is to give as many examples of what can be tracked and inspire you to figure out what your monthly views need to contain and how they could look. I like providing many examples of how to organize the data to make it visually appealing and how to make certain data more noticeable to the eye.
I also highly encourage you to look up other monthly spreads. There's a video out there of a planner who uses her monthly spread to track the interruptions she gets at work, so when the boss says “Did you do this and this?” she can say “no because you told me to do that and that instead.” I love watching how other planners use their planners and how they adapt their planner to fit their needs, and how one video can give me that light bulb moment of “oh so that’s how I can plan that” or “I didn’t even know I needed to track that, so now I will start”. How do you have new ideas if you aren’t looking for them?
Have you figured out or decided how you’re going to use the monthly layout? Is a monthly layout or wall calendar the only planning system you need? Let me know, I would love to hear it!
I am Sylvia, The ACME Planner, helping you to achieve the ACME in your life! Bye for now!
