Planners, Planners, Planners!

When you get the kiddies all tucked into bed, hubby is out of town and the teenagers are saving the world from the zombie apocalypse via video games, and you have a few minutes to yourself, what do you do? Sometimes I read, I often fold clothes or tidy the house (just being honest) and occasionally I just drop into bed. But what I like to do is use the quiet, uninterrupted time to plan meals for the week, look ahead for upcoming anomalies in the schedule so I can set an alarm so we don't miss it, make sure I've got time to get all the people to the right places, on time...or at least know in advance that I can't be in two places at once so I can make alternate arrangements. At any rate, tonight I thought to myself, "It's been a few days (OK, more like a week) since I spent any time updating and working in my planner. I'll work for 20 minutes and then head off to bed with less mental clutter." That was nearly 1.5 hours ago. Oops.
I just LOVE my planner! Just call me a planner nerd. I won't mind. 😍

I've used nearly a kajillion different planners between my years as a student, as a young wife, as a new homeschooling mama, and as a seasoned veteran of wifely duties, homeschooling organization and lively motherhood. I've used everything from simple pencil and paper (any little scrap will do), a homemaking binder with tabs, color coding, highlighters, schedules and every piece of info anyone walking into my shoes would EVER need, to a desk calendar, daily dockets, fitness tracker apps, daily email reminders, FlyLady website, the much loved "Chandlers" school assignment notebook of yesteryear, and even an app that sent me notifications of when to clean things. I currently have 11 daily alarms to help keep me showing up at the right time and place each day. I lead a B-U-S-Y life and until the last year or so, had never found the perfect balance between usability, portability, affordability, longevity and efficiency. But this one is just right for me. It's called the Print and Go planner by Life As Mom.
A planner that you can print as you go and pop it into a 3 ring binder, or all at once and have it spiral bound somewhere like Staples or Kinkos. It's got a monthly overview page for each month, plus a week's worth of daily time schedule/meal plans/to do lists on each 2 page spread. Also featuring a few pages of lined pages for notes, plus a goals page, which I'm really enjoying this year. Now then, I DO color code my people's activities so I can see at a glace who is where at any given time, but the rest is cake. A few post-it notes, some colored pens, a good black pen, and some white-out tape and I'm ready to plan ALL.THE.THINGS.
From this planner nerd to you, check it out. You won't be sorry.
What do you use to keep your ducks in a row?