On Friday, I came across something that I think will really with my productivity.
Let me preface this by what I’ve been doing up until now. I’ve been using the InnerGuide Planner for a few years now, and really love it.
It helps me plan out my weeks, my months, and keeps track of my blog posts for multiple blogs.
But it was really lacking in one thing.
I keep reading that you should have a number of “must do’s” each day, and you should do those things first before you did anything else.
There really wasn’t room for a daily list of “must do’s” in the planner.
So when I was shopping on Zulily on Friday, I was shocked to see a daily tear-off planner that looks like what I wanted, and MORE! (The Zulily deal already ended, but you can get the exact same price on Amazon if you either have PRIME or spend enough for free shipping.)
It’s the Bloom Daily Planner Planning System To-Do List. It’s a tear off sheet planner, which I think is great as you can keep it near you during the day, and then put it aside or in your planner afterwards (if you use another planner) or discard it at the end of the day. Sometimes it’s annoying to keep the whole planner near me all day, so I like that this is just 1 piece of paper!
On each sheet, you have the following sections:
- Must do today
- Other to-do’s
- Important times
- To buy
- Today I’m grateful for
- Meals
- 8 glasses a day
- Exercise
I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this, and how excited I am to start using it once it gets delivered.
First off, everything I’ve read about productivity says that you should have a short list of things that you HAVE to do each day, and you should do those first before anything else. So that goes in the “Must do today” section. Awesome.
I love that there is a lot of space for other things I want to get done as well, and they can be both work related as well as anything else I want to add.
I like that there is an “Important times” section because once in a while I have scheduled phone calls, appointments, etc… and planners that have times usually only have work hours! This is great since you can put in whatever times you want.
I absolutely love that there is a “Today I’m grateful for” section, as I’ve read a lot about people who are grateful are a lot happier.
The food and drink section is awesome to make sure you’re not eating too much, and that you’re drinking enough. Can’t argue with that! I’m pretty bad at keeping a food diary, but this might just work.
That empty “Exercise” box will hopefully annoy me enough to do something about it and force me to exercise!
The “To buy” section is helpful as well, as I can keep track of groceries or other things I need to buy the next time I’m out.
I like that it has everything I want, and is still pretty small so I can keep it with me and hopefully get everything done that I want to.
Update: I received the Bloom Tear-Off Planner 2 days ago, and have been using it since. I really like it! I think that the best way to do it is fill out the “Must do today” and “Other to-dos” the night before. The morning I received it I tried using it for that day, and I found it difficult to come up with my to-do list right there and then. I felt like I was trying to make busy work just to have things to cross off.
But when I started filling out the 2 sections the night before, it made it a lot easier to decide what I needed to get done the next day, and also made it less stressful in the morning when I was trying to decide what to work on. Instead of having many possible options, I knew I had to work on one of my “must do today” items first!
It’s under $10 (and if you’re just using it for weekdays will last you 16 weeks), and I strongly suggest using it if you don’t think you’re getting enough done each day. The extra sections make it even more helpful!
Enjoy,
