Enthusiastically, Dawn

Welcome to Day 25 of the Planning with Purpose Series! This post will round out the previous posts, “Top Tips For (Wanna Be) Planner People” and “More Top Tips For (Wanna Be) Planner People” and give the final 4 Top Tips. Briefly here is a list of the tips we’ve covered so far. You can head on over to the posts if you want to get more detail.

1. There Can Be Only One

2. Check your planner daily

3. Keep it Simple

4. Master Your Tasks

5. Schedule “Renewal” Time

6. Don’t Plan to Eat an Elephant

Final Top Tips For (Wanna Be) Planner People (#7-10)

7. Try, Try Again (It’s OK To Fall Off the Wagon) – Just like with any activity that is done regularly, there are times when we get off track. Sometimes it’s when we are busy, other times one too many curve balls are thrown our way and the planner gets left by the wayside. Here is the thing, if you get off track, getting on track can be hard- BUT it’s better than staying off track. When you feel like you have gone astray, don’t bail on yourself. Chase after that wagon, climb back aboard and try, try again! The one thing one must never do is QUIT. It’s OK to fall off the wagon, so long is you get back on the wagon. Heeya! Saddle back up on that planner and ride!

8.   If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It – Another common pitfall I see with both exercising peeps and planner peeps is this: looking at other people’s ideas and activities and thinking they need to try something different EVEN THOUGH they are doing fine with what they have. There is a time to experiment, explore and try different approaches, but I think sometimes people need to give things a bit more time to truly assess accurately one way or the other. Also, just because someone else uses, post its, sticky notes, a Color Coding system, etc. does not mean you necessarily need to. Habits and routines take time to be established. I know I have said this before, but keeping things simple will help you focus on doing what matters most and spare you from being distracted by what matters least.

9. Dreams Need Deadlines to Come True- OK, so guess what? Your big dreams can only be realized when they find a way into your real life. Your planner needs to reflect real life. Your real life is where you need to live out your big dreams. What is your big dream? Or what big dreams do you have that need to be scheduled? You want to go back to college, learn how to belly dance, be a professional singer, write the great American novel? Well, that will take some planning. That’s what planners are for, my friend. If you don’t make time to meet up with your dream on paper, in your planner, how can your dream meet up with you in real life? Dreams need to have deadlines. Dream on…

10. Plan to Live , Don’t Live to Plan – You can spend a lot of time, planning, gussying up your planner, and planning to plan, but to what end? If you spend more time planning than living, how can that be good? The planner should facilitate living life on purpose, not be an end unto itself. Be careful of spinning your wheels by getting sidetracked with playing with planners more than living life. Balance in all things, yes?

A Practical Tip: Look over the tips to see if there is any that might need to be applied in your planning life. You can see the first three here, and the second three here in more detail.

Quotes to Ponder: 

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. ~Pablo Picasso

 Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. ~Winston Churchill

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. ~Francis Chan

A  Prayer for  Today:  Lord, I ask to be successful in your eyes. I accept that it may look different than what I think even now. I am willing to persevere knowing your good and perfect will is coming to fruition in my life. Help me not major on minors, but keep all things in proper perspective, knowing that the days are evil, yet still abiding in hope. May I plan my days according to the grace and truth that has been revealed to me. One day at a time. In Jesus Name, AMen.

This is Day 25 of the series Planning with Purpose: 31 Days of Planner Tips

I wrote an INTRO POST here explaining everything!

I have also made designated a PAGE for it. Hope this makes it easy. I am happy to tackle a topic, or issue with regard to your planner habits.

Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. 

I pray this series is a blessing to you.