How to Set Up Your Planner | Part One

How to Set Up Your Planner | Part One


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We are thrilled that you have chosen Day Designer to plan your upcoming academic year!

Our mission is to help you live more productively and joyfully in the coming year. We want to enable you to manage your time better and make each day truly count. Your first step is to set up your Flagship Planner!

To get started, you’ll want to open up your new planner to what we refer to as the goal-setting worksheets. The first four steps of setting up your new planner are outlined below!

1. Choose Your Word For The Year

As you open your Flagship Planner, you’ll see our prompt for your Word For The Year on the very first printed page. (The blank page before this is there for protection only and can be removed!)

When choosing your Word For The Year, think of a word that sums up your vision for the coming year. What will guide your goals and priorities? What will help keep you on track when you feel overwhelmed? Is there something that you want to keep at the forefront of your mind throughout the year?

Write in the word that you choose. You’ll now be reminded of it each and every day.

2. Assess Where You Are In Life

The first worksheet in your Flagship Planner is intended to serve as a personal assessment.

We believe that self-awareness is the start of self-improvement. This worksheet can help you identify if your actions currently align with what matters most to you. Once complete, review your answers to determine what stays, what goes, and what needs to change.

The next worksheet is entitled “What Is Important To Me?”

Each circle represents a different facet of your personality: your values, your passions, and your strengths. Combined, they make up your core: a snapshot of YOU!

Fill in your top five to help you solidify what is most important to you as you develop your goals for the coming year.

Pro-Tip: Refer back to this page when life feels overwhelming!

3. Define Your Goals

It’s time to set some goals that encompass what is important to you. We created this goal-setting worksheet to help you create balanced goals, which enable you to live with intention. We encourage you to prioritize your goals in the following order:

– Self-Care
– Relationships
– Personal Development
– Resources (Time and Money)
– Vocation (Job, Career, Community)

Complete the row entitled “3 Months” to reflect your goals for July, August, and September. Return to this page on a quarterly basis to adjust and refine.

To the right of your goal-setting worksheet, you can break down your goals, step by step. Fill in your goals down the left column, and then identify what you can do on a monthly basis, weekly basis, and daily basis to achieve each goal.

Remember, progress is success!

4. Visualize Your Ideal Month and Week

Map out what an “ideal month” looks like to you! This page is designed to help you further break down each of your goals – and visualize how the various actions will fit into your life.

Take the process one step further by mapping out your “ideal week.” Write the most important items or non-negotiable items in first, and fill in the rest. The result is a realistic yet achievable guide – a personal roadmap for success!

The Ideal Week worksheet also serves an amazing tool for time-blocking, the practice of dedicating specific “time blocks” for certain tasks or projects. Need extra copies? Download the worksheet for free.

• • •

Way to go! Setting up your Day Designer and completing these worksheets helps to build the foundation for a meaningful, productive, and successful year ahead.

Continue to Part Two of this series where we’ll cover the next few steps you’ll want to take in setting up your new planner for the coming year.


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