Having a planner has been an important system for not just goals but also for keeping track of healthy habits, planning fun ahead, and adulting which helps in my overall mental clarity.
This blog is dedicated to figuring out my 20’s and now that I am in my 30’s one of the biggest tools that has helped me continue to be goal oriented and helps keep me motivated is my planner.
Every single year, I rave about my previous planners and the set up for the year ahead. Along with creating a vision board and planning goals ahead for the future is breaking down those big lofty goals into smaller chunks and while being an adult can be challenging and a juggling act here are the ways in which having an agenda has helped me with mental clarity and has become a vital part of my self care routine.
1. Place to dump all of my ideas
Having an agenda with blank pages is the perfect place to brain dump. When you have a long to-do list and don’t know where to get started you can do a brain dump. This helps me then sort all of those tasks into three different categories, quick tasks which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes, to-do’s which can be things that take longer anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Finally, projects are chipping away at a big goal to get closer to the end goal. This can be completing assignments to get a good grade in college and therefore get your degree.
2. Habit Tracking
I am passionate about the topic of creating healthy habits and sticking to them long term. When you look at some of the most successful people and what things they do to stay healthy it has to do a lot with their healthy habits. Having healthy habits is about discipline and when you check off a box that says you met your goal of drinking water or going on a hot girl walk those are tallys or points towards that lifestyle that you envision yourself having. I am a firm believer that healthy habits are a great foundation for having a well balanced lifestyle.
3. Big goals are always present
When you create an actional plan every single day towards your goals. You are making progress towards achieving those goals. When your goal might have been to be fit, that isn’t very specific. But every single day you write down that you want to stretch, workout on the treadmill for 30 minutes, do a workout routine, and after stretch and you write it down, by the time January 2026 comes around you would have gotten way closer to your goal. Even though you might have not lost the amount of weight you wanted, showing up for your goals every single day and writing it down on your agenda gives you evidence that that lifestyle is you.
4. Never forget anything important (even the small details)
As adults, that can be college students or even adults outside of school we are juggling so many responsibilities. Many who are parents are not just juggling their own goals, habits, appointments, they are also juggling a household, which includes children and pets. Therefore an agenda with a calendar is helpful to keep track of everything and being prepared and on top of things which makes them so much better. This can give parents mental clarity when they have multiple doctors appointments for their kids or when they have to go to soccer practice. Agendas can also give college students mental clarity. Many college students are working full-time, going to school full-time, and some even have children to take off. To take care of the big and small details such as assignments, this is the best time to make sure that you are using an agenda to give you peace of mind.
5. Creativity
If you love stationary as much as I do you will realize that it’s not just about jotting down what you are going to have for dinner or a grocery list (although it can be that) but it’s also creativity. There are so many types of agendas to suit everyone’s needs. If you are more creative and like to create your own page layouts you can always bullet journal, there are agendas of various price ranges, there are agendas that help you with budgeting, there are agendas that focus on achieving health goals. There are agendas for so many different kinds of needs and one thing that I love about agendas is customizing it and making it my own. For example, for July I printed some cute images and made my monthly vision board in my agenda. I love creating color themes and using washy tape and colorful markers to create a theme and therefore my agenda not only becomes a place where I keep track of mundane things like habit tracking and my general to-do list of things that I have to get done, but can be a place of creativity.
6. Timed Tasks
As someone who can feel overwhelmed with my to-do list and feels like she has to do it all in a day, you know Rome was not done in a day, but that’s the way that it feels in my brain. Having a timer and organizing tasks based on how long they will take made me realize that most of the struggle is mental. Most of my to-do list can be done in three- four hours. With an agenda, writing down at least two or three tasks that can be done in a short period of time can give me the momentum that I need to get started.
7.Time blocking
Plenty of agendas have time blocking so that you know how you will break down your schedule. From appointments to tasks, etc. This helps out plan the day ahead not just by the tasks you have to do, but how much time in a day you will allot to that task. We all have the same 24 hours, but we all do different things throughout the day. When you know what comes ahead for the day it really helps with mental clarity.
Do you use an agenda too? How does it help you out in your day-to-day life?
Check out my YouTube: @candidlyyadi
