I have struggled for several years to find *just* the right kind of planner to suit my needs. I have tried different ones and have found things that I liked about pretty much all of them, but there were still things that weren't the way I wanted them. I did get ideas from all of them, though, especially one for homemakers that my sil got me for Christmas last year. :)

 

Well, this year, I decided to take the ideas that worked for me from all of those and make my own! I wish I had thought of it sooner! I used Microsoft Word to make a table, and then divided it into the categories I wanted to have. I made two pages, one for Sun-Wed and one for Thur- Sat, made two-sided copies, punched them with a three hole punch and put them in a 3 ring binder.

 

 

It turned out like this:

This way, it is perfectly suited to my needs at this particular season of life, with homeschooling schedule and everything included. I can change it when I want to, as our needs change too. For example, we have been having one history unit and one science unit going per week, so I write that in for the whole week, and that way I dont have to write it for each day.

 

I made this planner to be suited to our individual needs, but if you would like to use mine, you can view and/or print it here as a pdf file.
Alternately, you can view it as a Word document. That way you could also make changes to suit YOUR exact needs! (The margins got a bit messed-up in the upload process, but hopefully if you download it to your computer, you could easily fix that. :) )

Anyway, you can make one to suit your individual needs, but following are a few suggestions:

 

-The day of the week at the top, and then a space where you can fill in the date after making copies.

 

-Next, a "Mommy's To Do List".

I cannot recommend this highly enough!!

A few years ago (maybe three), I was "challenged" by a friend to start keeping a daily list of things that needed to get done that day. It is a proven fact that successful people write things down! I took on the challenge and it has been SO beneficial to me and to my family.

I don't write down things like "dishes", because those are the things I do every day anyway. I write things like, bills that need to be paid, errands that need to be run, phone calls that need to be made, and other housework that I don't always automatically do on a daily basis. This is SO helpful, because when I have little "pockets" of time during the day, I dutifully go to my list to see what I need to do, instead of wasting that time on things that didn't really need to get done anyway!

At the end of the day, the things that I haven't gotten done from my daily list, I write on the list for the following day. And I try again tomorrow!

And since I make my own calendar, I have "Vitamins" and "Bible" on the calendar on my "to do" list every day, which is a great constant reminder. I also filled in a few things that I typically do on the same day every week with the computer before making copies, so I don't have to keep writing those things in. For example, "laundry" on Mondays, "Bake Bread" on Tuesdays and "Garage Sales" on Thursdays.

Another benefit to keeping a list like this is that at the end of the day when you look back on it, AAAHHHH, what a sense of accomplishment to actually SEE all the things you got done that day!

 

This is where I put any plans that we have, and I have to write eveything down, or I WILL forget!

 

I try, on Sunday or Monday, to jot down what I plan to make for supper each night for that week, based on what I have available and what I feel like making. :) I don't always religiously stick to what I wrote, but it really helps to have something written in, so I know if I need to pull meat out of the freezer or what I need to get when it's grocery day. I keep a running list of meals the family likes in the back of my binder, so if I get stuck when it's time to write in my week's menu, I can refer back to it. Here is my sample list of meal ideas. Stay tuned for more on meal planning here in the future!

 

Under those things I mostly have school stuff, and then a section on the right-hand side of the page for "Notes".

 

 

Simple, eh?

 

Also, since it is a three ring binder, you can include other lists in the back sections. I have a list there for all of my many passwords for different websites, a list of letters I need to write, a list of books I've read, a list of things I've loaned out and also of things I have borrowed from other people. I also like to keep a list of supper ideas, so if I get stuck in a rut, I can refer to that for some variety. And the possibilities can go on and on!

 

I recently heard of one lady, Cindy Rushton, who referred to this sort of thing as a "Brain in a Binder". Funny, but it is so true! When I have several "items of business" floating around my head, I can start to feel stressed. Once I write them down, I feel so relieved! I can clear my mental slate and know that it will still get attended to.

 

So, become a "proven, successful" person by getting organized, writing things down and becoming a list maker! All for pennies from your own home computer! :)