DIY Digital Planner

Bullet Journals (or BoJos) have been around since 2013 and there are a ton of resources available for newbies and advanced planners (just search for "BuJo templates" in Pinterest!). But I didn't get into journalling until very recently when I took a few Time Management courses that had journaling as one of the aspects.

The art supply addict in me decided to check out a few journals but none of them inspired me. Some had pretty layouts but didn't have templates to track what I wanted. The ones that did were too drab and boring to hold my interest.

In the end, I decided to put together my own planner based on learnings from different courses that worked for me. I had three things in mind when I designed this planner

It should be easy to update/keep track of (didn't want to spend hours maintaining the journal)
It should be flexible so I could add/edit if I found a more efficient way to track something
It should be digital so I can access it across all my devices

Start with the Year

The planner starts with a retrospective of 2022, memorable moments and learnings to take over to 2023.

The 2023 goals are spread across 8 different spheres covering Career, Finances, Personal Development, Family, Health, Spiritual, Contributions, and Fun. I take my time to work on this list since this will guide what I focus on during the year.

Chunk it Up

Once I have the 2023 goals and the top 3 of my year, I start with picking the ones I will work on each quarter. I'm used to quarterly OKRs at work and I decided to use the same for my personal goals too. Listing both my professional and personal goals on the same page ensures I make time for both.

The end of the quarter retrospective (also something we do at work) helps me tweak my plan for the next quarter.

Split by Month

Going into the month-wise breakdown, I pick the top 3 goals from my Quarterly page and add it here. Some months may have more than 3, which is why the flexible format really helps. The calendar is linked to the daily pages (more on that below) and marks off any holidays so I know how much time I have during that moth.

I also have a habit tracker and energy tracker at the monthly level. This gives me a quick view of how the month is progressing.

Plan your Week

The Weekly plan breaks down the top 3 Goals into even smaller chunks. These could also include tasks that are not part of your goals but need to be completed (for eg. maintenance tasks or unexpected tasks).

The end of the week retrospective helps you figure out how you can minimize or manage these unexpected requests.

Laura Vanderkam's book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think has been a useful resource in helping me plan my week. Here's a modified version of her time tracker if you want to try it out.

Plan your Day

And finally the daily plan. This is something I fill out in two segments - the priorities and gratitude sections in the morning and the daily wins section at the end of the day.

Color Theory

One of the fun aspects of creating this planner was using color theory to design the different segments. I used:

Yellow for the Annual pages. Yellow enhances creativity, collaboration, and brainstorming and can inspire you to come up with interesting goals.
Red for the Quarterly pages. Red denotes alertness and has a stimulating effect on the brain. Just the color to help you get started with your ambitious goals.
Orange for Monthly pages. Orange leads to enthusiasm, activity, and endurance – all related to high productivity levels.
Green for Weekly pages. Green is calming, relaxing, prevents eye fatigue and improve focus.
Blue for Daily pages. Blue offers dependability, calmness, stimulates the mind and promotes creativity.

Do you think it worked? :-)

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