Better Planning and Goal Setting with these Planner Pages
Recently, a video I ran across included a planner where new pages and inserts could be added. I felt like I was having deja vu as I thought back to a friend in college who showed me the planner she used. She had a bunch of inserts and stickers, created lots of different pages and decorated them all. I thought to myself “who has the time for all of this” and “is all that really necessary?” I’m laughing at myself as I look back, because here I am, making the time to plan in a way that’s creative and fits my needs.
I’ve found myself more and more drawn to videos and content related to planning and organizing. I am a to-do list queen, but I have multiple journals where I keep my lists for the day and week. As you can imagine, this gets pretty hectic. I’ve had planners, but they never included exactly what I want and I found myself with so many empty pages and unusable lines.
Planner Page are Flexible
Switching to a planner with removable pages and inserts has been more fun than I anticipated. The time it takes to design and redesign is worth it because it makes me happy to use my planner pages. I’ve purchased a few inserts as well and that also brings about so much enjoyment. It’s so nice to select inserts that fit with my planner as a whole and to have the flexibility of changing the order of everything when I see fit. The ability to change the order of your planner is a game changer. I never realized how much of a difference this could make until I changed from a regular planner to a planner with inserts.
Some weeks you may want to put more emphasis on tracking habits, the next you may really need to see your schedule broken out hourly. Whatever it is that you need or prefer, you have way more control over it. My favorite pages are simple, a bit girly, and have a bit of encouragement throughout. If your tastes are similar at all, you’ll love the page inserts I’ve created.
Yearly Summary Pages
Let’s get into the planner pages. First up, we have the “Yearly Summary” pages. These are great for when you want a high-level look at your year and are perfect to look back on in the future. I like to add 3 intentions for each month to my future planning page.
Tip: It's also fun to have a tracker of something you want to do often throughout the year. If you plan to read several books, keep a book tracker. If you plan to take yourself on several dates, make a date tracker. Maybe you're into perfumes or candles. Maybe track your purchases. These all might seem small, but when you look back later you'll get excited all over again.Having an in depth “Goals” sheet is also helpful. I like to break my goals out into result goals and action goals. It’s so important to include both and outline them both to have the most success.
Result Goals
Result goals are exactly as it sounds – it’s the result you hope to obtain. Result goals should be very specific. Some examples of result goals would be:
- Lose 20 pounds
- Travel to 3 countries
- Write 1 fiction book
- Build a new kitchen
Action Goals
Each of the result goals above require specific action goals to complete them. Oftentimes, there will be multiple action goals needed to complete one result goal. With that in mind, our action goals could be:
- Workout 3 times a week (including strength training and cardio)
- Include 2 more servings of vegetables/fruits daily
- Research and select travel locations for three countries (including costs and requirements for entering countries)
- Save a monthly amount to prepare for trips and book trips
- Select a subject and main characters for my book
- Determine my audience and who I’m targeting for my book
- Write 1 chapter per week
- Create a kitchen design, outlining how the kitchen will look and function
Progress Checks
Keeping track of the work you’ve completed is fulfilling and can help you continue to propel forward. The section for “steps completed” should include big and small steps made towards reaching your goals. It can include the completion of your action goals and the additional steps needed to complete your action goals. Remember some action goals might need numerous steps.
Monthly Pages with Printer Tip
Next are the Monthly planner pages. Here’s where you can go into more depth with plans for each month. I like to use my monthly calendar for big events and birthdays. If I know I’ll be out of town for a few days, I can mark that on my monthly calendar or if there’s a big event, I make sure to highlight it as well. Monthly calendars are great to track the activities you look forward to doing in the month and remind you of plans you have.
Printing tip: The monthly calendar is two pages and when printed, should open with the first page to the left and the second page to the right. If you add the monthly calendar to a pdf file with other pages, make sure the first page of the calendar is an even page number in your pdf when you print. This will ensure it prints correctly and you are able to use it as purposed. Weekly Pages
Now admittedly, the weekly planner pages are my favorite because they also have daily breakouts. There is something about organizing goals and events into bite-sized chunks that makes a busy schedule much more palatable.
I have a portion for goals on my weekly pages, to encourage momentum on my action goals and result goals. I use the weekly sheet and annual sheet in tandem. As I complete my weekly goals, I can check them off here on the weekly pages anddd go back and write a summary of the steps completed back on my yearly goal sheet. Give this a try and I bet constantly seeing the progress made will be encouraging! And if you start veering away from your goals one week, you can get back on track the next. You’ll have so many reminders in your planner to help!
Make It Your Own
YouTube and Pinterest are a big help in getting inspired. Also, Canva has so many templates that helped me put together the pages you will find below. Special shoutout to Kamillah Rae- her video titled December Monthly Reset – Reviewing My 2022 Goals is where I heard the best explanation for action and result goals. Such a simple concept but so great when put into practice. And shoutout to The Organized Money. My planner cover (seen in the linked video above) is from her Etsy shop (it’s lovely!) and I’ve used some of her pages. I decided to start creating my own to make tweaks as I’d like.
Happy planning and doing! Whenever you start, it’s right on time! The file below includes the yearly “future planning” sheet, the goals sheets, the monthly planning and weekly sheets. A few have different variations that you can choose from. I like adding the amount of sheets I need into one file and then printing double-sided. Don’t forget the tip above about numbering and printing.
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