My job is office-based but I spend a lot of time out on the
road running errands and shopping. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds but I do
love the fact that I get to change the radio station to whatever I want, turn
it up as loud as I like and sing along as badly as humanly possible (for reals!
Dying seals make a prettier sound than me).
I don’t have a dedicated company car (we have several cars
and you just book one out when you need it) so I can’t store things in the car,
I have to carry them with me in my handbag. Luckily, because I’m a mum I have a
huuuge handbag so I can carry my work planner and my personal planner plus shopping
lists, print-outs, tape measure, cash etc.
I thought it might be useful to show my planners and how I
juggle the two so I snapped some quick iPhone pictures in the Officeworks carpark
earlier today.
The large A4 planner is my work planner. It’s just a
day-to-a-page diary. Where something has to be done on a certain day, (for
example, when I have a meeting) I just write it straight into my diary. Where
something is variable (ie I know I need to have some prices on 2 door cabinets
by the end of the week) I’ll write it on a post-it note and stick it in the
side column. That way if I don’t get to
it that day, I just move the note to the next day rather than having to
re-write it for each day.I mainly use my diary as a “to do” list but I also
write down when I’ve made important phonecalls, sent important documents etc so
that I can go back and look up that information if I need to, even if I’m
out-and-about.
I use a similar system for my personal planner. It’s a
Filofax Metropol personal size planner and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I’ve had mine for about 3 years now and there’s not a mark on it despite the
fact that I carry it everywhere and have even broken two (yes, I’m a klutz)
pens inside my handbag. Well worth every cent! The official diary inserts are
quite expensive so this year for the first time I am experimenting with some
cheaper substitutes. They’re not quite as good as the Filofax ones but they’re
about half the price so definitely worth putting up with the slight dip in
quality. They also have smaller boxes for Saturday/Sunday so I rely on my post-it’s
a bit more heavily. I’ve also made my own notepaper as that is also expensive
to buy and I tend to jot shopping lists or extensive notes (ie party planning)
.
Another benefit of the post-its system is that I can
transfer post-its between my work and personal planners (ie to remind me to pay
a bill on my lunchbreak or bring something from home in to work). To make my
work planner a bit more user-friendly, I’ve added simple tabs to the calendar
and address sections with scrapbooking paper so I can find those sections
easily.
Laura x