Your Guide for Personal Planner
Bringing together your work day
What's Inside the Personal Planner
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About me
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Why this planner
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Reading & Movies to watch log
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Subscription
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Spiritual growth pages
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Colorful bookmark
2Miles Personal Planner is where dreams, goals, wishlists, ideas, to-dos, deadlines, and many more can co-exist. Planning is the key to a well-structured day. This planner is designed to help you - prioritize, work effectively, plan better, and follow through.
It is intentionally designed for every working Christian, whether you are a stay-at-home parent, a missionary,
an owner, or an employee. The planer is undated so you can start any time of the year.
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
Colossians 3:23 (NLT)
Planning your week or month is hard work. But it is fulfilling since you get a glimpse of what's coming up. That is one sure way to stay in control.
Few guidelines would make using this planner beneficial for you. Follow these, and you will see results.
Where to conduct: Choose an uninterrupted setting to focus on planning
How long will it take: 1 hour or a bit longer
When should I conduct it: Ideally a Friday evening/morning before the following week. Or a weekend. The time required may vary based on how much needs to be processed.
How often should I do this: Once every week.
I like to call it a 'planning workout session'. This is when you take stock of the week that went by and the week that's coming up.
What will I need: Laptop/Desktop, Monthly calendar, Weekly planner, Upcoming To-Do, any other form of media (loose paper, post-it, phone etc.) used to capture a commitment/to-do/list, e-mail.
Method you can follow while planning:
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Include personal and professional priorities. Bring in all items that you have written down or that came in suddenly.
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Ensure your routine is planned into your day too.
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Fill in the basic physical needs and necessities, e.g. sleeping time, eating etc.
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Review your monthly calendar and upcoming to-dos. Check for soft commitment and deadlines.
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Time-box item wherever you can - especially the one that has deadlines, meetings, checkup etc.
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Block time to get essential things done.
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Check your energy level and schedule things appropriately.
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Keep an eye on what's coming up in the next few weeks. So, you can block time to work on your smaller goals that contribute towards a more extensive plan or any deadlines.
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Block time for rest and rejuvenation. Remember, Rome was neither built in a day nor is more the merrier.
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If there are too many things, look for ways to move it to a later date. But push aside procrastination.
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Leave some room for the unseen.
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Again, review and update your monthly calendar and the upcoming to-dos.
What's in it for you:
By carefully planning your week each time, you will find a decent amount of free time for you than you thought there was. Planning keeps anxiety at bay and reduces stress. You get a clear view of your week - busy spots and light spots.
Think of it this way - "If you don't plan your time, someone or something will plan your time instead."
The planner has an about me page that gathers a quick summary of who you are and your favorite things.
Guide to setup your monthly calendar
Setting up your monthly calendar should be the first thing you do while using this planner.
Best practice: For effective planning and execution it is good to prepare your 3 month calendar in advance.
The monthly pages are placed right in the middle of the planner. Each month has a two page spread with a Monday start.
Before you make entries in the planner
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Choose a time and space where you will have the least distractions and other interruptions.
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Gather up any pieces of paper, gadgets or other calendars that you use to write deadlines or appointments. The idea is to bring together all your schedules & important dates and create a single view in this planner.
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Bring in schedules and important dates from school, work, personal etc,
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e.g. family outing dates, travel dates, follow-ups dates, repair/service/subscription renewal dates, ongoing due dates, personal development deadlines, meetings, special/important dates, events, holidays and non-working days.
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Next step is to categorize your to-dos
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Hard deadlines - These are deadlines you cannot miss since it may impact others. e.g. assignment, school PTM, volunteer duty, etc
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Soft deadlines - These are to-dos that may not have a concrete deadline and are less critical.
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Now you're all set to make entries.
Making entries in your month layout
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The first column labeled To Do is where your soft deadlines go.
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The week starts with a Monday. Enter dates at the top right corner of each box to build your month calendar view. Enter your hard and soft deadlines in these boxes.
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Make entries for the next 3-4 months. This will save you time later.
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On the far end of the page is a place to write the month name.
Month planner example
The weekly planning pages starts on Monday.
Each week has a 2 page spread. The cells give you freedom to break your hour into several small segments. If you find it hard to time-box your to-dos, you can ignore the intend to place a time against each task.
However, go ahead and write down the to-dos.
Writing is half the journey to getting things done.
Weekly goal:
The idea is to break your monthly/long term goals into bite sized portion. Based on what you entered in the monthly planning section, you can work backwards and spread out your tasks across weeks.
Completing these goals is a sure way to inch closer towards your larger goals.
Habit tracker:
You may have heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit. However, the main component of developing a routine does not lie in the number of days. It is in staying consistent.
The only way to measure consistency is by tracking it closely. Use this space to track habits you want to develop or get rid off.
Habits are easy to form. So, enjoy the journey and don't feel guilty of missing few days.
It says in the Bible, God's mercies are new every morning. Each day brings in new hope and a chance to start afresh.
Character of the week:
At the bottom of each week planning page you will notice a character of the week. These are some of the traits demonstrated by Jesus and a gentle reminder to us on how we ought to live.
The planner covers 52 traits, one for each week to practice.
The character trait follows with a definition and a Scripture reference.
The intent is to look for ways and opportunities to practice that trait through the week.
The notes pages can be used in many functional ways. Here are some ideas and screen captures for you to use.
(Please take special note on upcoming to-do as this is crucial in a planning session.
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Create a vision board. Take the first two note pages and transform it into your vision board - health, spiritual, career/academics, travel, hobbies etc.
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Budget or purchase tracker/bill paying checklist
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Write down travel ideas, note recipes you may want to try, project planning pages, journaling
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Capture your upcoming to-dos. You can choose to set aside 4 or more pages to record them. These are items that don't have a specific due date yet you would like to accomplish at some point in time. However, you may not want to miss these, cos some of them may evolve into something valuable sooner.
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It could be an idea or some project/course you would like to take up, your short term and long term goals etc.
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Time spent writing your upcoming to-do is going to be fruitful. So get everything out from scraps of paper, post-it, reminders, notices, e-mails, phones etc and bring them altogether.
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Identify when you would like to start each of these items.
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Do this exercise regularly, and you will be less likely to forget things.
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Are you struggling to spend time with God? If so, I want to encourage you to prioritize your time with God and use this tracker.
You are mostly familiar with all the benefits of having a quiet time with God.
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You hear God.
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It strengthens your faith journey and it encourages you to keep on keeping on.
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It helps you focus on what's right and important.
and more.
But if you have a constant struggle with finding that time in the day to read God's word and patiently wait for his voice to speak to you, you can choose to use this tracker to develop a consistent habit.
One definite way to know your progress while developing a habit is by measuring it.
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The tracker has a month column as header. You can start from the month you purchased this planner.
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The grid has 31 rows. A box to tick for each day in the month you worked on this habit.
Don't be hard on yourself when you miss few days. The aim is to get back up and continue building this habit.
Remember to celebrate your wins!
The 5 finger prayer is a way to help you focus on others and pray for them first. It is not the only way to pray, but you may choose to include this model during your prayer time.
The page explains the role each finger plays and is thus an easy way to know whom to pray for. Write down the names of people you will be praying for in the area given. You may choose to write with a pencil instead of a pen.
When the hands are folded, the thumb is the closest finger to your heart. Pray for those closest to you, your loved ones.
Pointer finger represents people who point you in the right direction; your teachers, and other leaders in your life. Pray that they will operate in God-given wisdom and will have support of fellow believers too. (You can include even your children's teachers).
Middle finger is the tallest finger in our hand. They represent people who stand tall for us, lead us; those in government (our President, Prime Minister, military leader etc), church & workplace leadership. Pray for guidance and wisdom.
Ring finger is known to be the weakest finger. Remember to pray for those who are sick, poor, in pain, trouble.
Little finger represents us. Pray for ourselves and our own needs.
Your prayers are important.
Do you have a plan for your Bible reading? If No, you may choose to follow the chronological Bible reading plan present towards the end of the planner.
What's in it for you?
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You will read each Bible book in its entirety and chronologically.
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The plan spans over 365 days and you can start any time.
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You can place a tick after you finish each day's readings.
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You will be in God's Word daily.
Note: The chronological Bible reading plan present in this planner is used with permission from Blue Letter Bible.
(permission received via email on Oct 30, 2023 from ...@blueletterbible.org)
The grid gives you 31 different ways you can go the extra mile at your work world (school, college, business or home). Of course you can choose to include your own flavor .
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Choose a day to start these challenges.
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Look for opportunities throughout the day where you can practice the day's challenge. It could be a trait to practice, or a task you need to do.
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This challenge is a great way to blend your work world and practice Biblical principles.
As Christians in the workplace, we have unique opportunities to demonstrate what Jesus is like, by the way we conduct our day and that includes our attitude towards work and others. Following Biblical principles each day and rooting for it is a certain way your friends and colleagues will know it.