As soon as Moleskine planners for the following year are available on Amazon I select a colour and wait for the price to drop. Whilst I love Moleskine daily planners they are expensive – £22 is extortionate. The feature I like the most is the usually, daily planners have Saturday and Sunday on the same page, Moleskine does not, with each day having a full page.

My 2020 planner arrived mid August, having paid a reduced price, somewhere in the region of £12, so a bargain! I normally select navy blue, green planners; or perhaps black but this year I went for snappy pink!

The first thing I do is add dates and bookings to the planners, taken from the future date log I keep at the back of the previous planner. I then flip through the planner moving any odd bits of paper etc from the planner cover or the inside pocket. I also check that all actions and to do’s have been done or migrated to a new date. Any that have not, I put them on a large post it note, fixing it in the front of the planner and work through them.

2019 was quite disruptive in many ways and there were a great many tasks that simply have not been done. Some research notes and ideas have found their way to the planner. Sometimes I have an idea and schedule it as a to do. Sometimes I achieve it and other days I migrate it to a different day. On occasions I complete the action and subsequently give myself another task. I always track my research, even if it’s a quick Google search, which might lead to interesting articles or a valuable research tip.

I usually set up my planner for the New Year by about mid November, as by then I start have started to accumulate commitments for the forthcoming year. For 2020 I set about organising dates much later than normal. I always keep the old planner in my desk in case I need to access it. The process for the incoming and outgoing planners, has not changed significantly in the last two decades, but there might have been the odd nip and tuck here and there!

What are your practices? Do you maintain a physical planner or is your planner digital or even a mix of both?