The To Do List Calendar – Planning Series Part 3

Welcome to the third part of my planner page series. This week’s download is The Weekly Big List, a to-do list calendar.

If you would like to watch the video for this blog post, you will find it at the bottom of this page.

We’ve gone over goal setting, breaking down goals into manageable pieces and today I want to bring all that together with a weekly action plan that is inspired by a to-do list.

I am a planning junkie, probably because I work for myself and I have to stay accountable in some way, but it’s also just part of my nature. I’ve tried tons of different planners and strategies, but I find that a written planner and this particular system works best for me. You can take parts of it or use all of it if it works for you. We’re all different, and so we are motivated in different ways. The most important thing is that you get all the stuff that’s swimming around in your head on paper or some system. Getting everything in one place will make it real. Consequently, you feel more compelled to take action.

When I feel scatterbrained, the simple act of making a list can calm me down every time. I write lists for everything. I even make clickable lists for my resources, as you can tell just from the articles on my blog. I’ve shared some of my clickable lists with you as well.

What is the To Do List Calendar?

The to-do list calendar is a weekly task sheet that funnels down from the top. As the week goes by, you collect all the things you have to do in the top section of your weekly calendar for next week.

The top section holds all the stuff you have to do. In the middle part, you assign it a day to get done. You can do this as you go or pick one day to get everything organized.

The bottom section of the to do list calendar is more like a traditional calendar for those things that need a specific time set.

Why you should use this Calendar system

It’s Flexible  

I tend to organize everything at the beginning of the week, so I know what I need to do.  This way I can get myself ready for it mentally. Preparing ahead of time may not be the best thing for you. You might need to look at it first thing in the morning, and that’s it.  Either way is fine.

It’s quick

A to-do list calendar is easy to organize and doesn’t take a lot of time for planning because you’re writing in your list items as you think of them during the week.

It’s Easy to use

Having everything all in one place will make you feel less scattered. By adding the planning element to it, you will feel more organized.

How to use the to-do list calendar

Method #1 Freestyle

The first time you use the to-do list calendar, it’s just a matter of transferring all your to-do list items from all the sticky notes and all the different apps on your phone to one place. As the week goes by you will add your to-do list items to the next week of the calendar. That way when you start off the week, you already have a good list going, and all you have to do is add items from last week’s list that didn’t get completed.

Quick tip: Tracking to do list items like this is a good way of tracking what you keep procrastinating on as well and figure out why that’s happening. In my case, I find myself putting off things for several weeks. But it’s all there in black and white, so I’m more aware that I’m doing it.

Method #2 Goal Based

Using your goals: When you did the goals worksheet, you identified categories of your life and goals for each. You can list those in this section as categories. Using this method makes the goals you’ve set a centerpiece of the to-do list calendar. In the goal setting form, where you broke down the big goals you already have a list of goals and mini goals that you will break down even further here.

The appointment section

This is time specific. For example, we all have things that have to get done at a particular time and on a specific date. Since these things don’t fit very well on a to-do list, this calendar also has date and time particular element for your appointments and things that need time set aside.

Examples of things that should go here:

• Meetings
• Medical and work appointments
• Life events like birthdays and anniversaries
• Infrequent chores like changing the batteries in your smoke detector

For a tons more ideas for things that you should track with time and date specific section of your calendar, check out this list.

So that’s the third and final portion of my planning series. Don’t forget to check out part one and part two of this series as well. If you enjoyed this series, subscribe to the newsletter to get more resource videos and tutorials.  I release free printables and graphics sets every week for your blog and business. Make sure you never miss one by signing up!