My favorite day of every year is the one on which I start a new planner. Over my ten years of using planners, I have tried every type under the sun—complicated productivity systems, pretty spiral-bound agendas with stickers for every possible occasion, the most basic of datebooks. I liked all of them, loved none of them.

Enter the Confidant Dateless Planner. I had planned on snagging one of ourPlanner 2019 editions, but leafing through the dateless version on launch day changed my mind. I could start using it immediately.

I have a lot of deadlines and appointments in separate places; my Google calendar, my 2018 planner, the project management platform we use here at Baron Fig, to name just a few. It was time to bring it all together, to have one place that documents all of my big things each day.

It’s only been a short time since I’ve started using my new dateless Confidant, but it’s safe to say I’ve reached organizational nirvana. How, you might ask? Check out some tips below.

Planner Tips

1. Fill out your planner at the beginning of every week. Taking a few minutes on Sunday night (or Monday morning) to plan out your week—keeping in mind social obligations, work deadlines, appointments—helps to not only keep you organized for the coming days, but also to fend off the Sunday scaries. Mondays are much less daunting when you’re ready for them.
   

2. Include everything—even the small stuff. Things like laundry, paying bills, and scheduling dentist appointments take time. A lot of time. Having these in your planner at the beginning of the week helps to manage time accordingly.
   

3. Keep your work life and personal life in one planner. Hear me out. There are few things better than crossing everything off your to-do list at work. The best way to top it off? Seeing that the next thing on your schedule is dinner with friends or a relaxing yoga class. Also, what better way is there to keep you motivated all day?
   

4. Color-code to compartmentalize. Yes, I was that girl in middle school who had different colored highlighters, pens and sticky notes for all of her different classes and extracurriculars. These days, I’ve chilled out a little bit; black ink for work, blue ink for after work. It helps me to keep work at work, and prevents me from spending my day stressing about things that aren’t important until after I’ve left the studio.
   

5. Make it yours. The notes section in the back isn’t just for grocery lists. I’ve started using mine as a daily journal (more on that soon), and I use the last page as a spot for information I need to reference regularly—a few addresses, a few phone numbers that don’t quite merit a contact in my phone. And okay, fine, I might have a list of favorite Trader Joe’s products in there somewhere.

Ready to get organized for the upcoming year? Check out ourConfidant Dateless Planner, ourVanguard Dateless Planner set, and ourPlanner 2019.