How to Use a Planner in the Midst of a Pandemic

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I keep seeing memes about how the worst purchase of 2019 was a 2020 planner. And I get it. This year has hit the fan and it’s pretty much impossible to plan two days ahead, let alone weeks or months out.

But… that doesn’t mean your planner is worthless. In fact, my Passion Planner has been one of the things keeping me sane throughout this pandemic.

Journal

Time is moving so slowly right now, and it’s all blurring together. We’re traveling less (hopefully not at all), so there are likely fewer photos to remind us what we’re doing, and holidays seem to be going by without a lot of hoopla.

But I guarantee we’ll all want to remember this… interesting time in our lives. That’s why a COVID-19 Journal is so important.

Depending on your setup, this could look a bunch of different ways. Maybe you use a totally different bullet journal or notebook to write down what you’ve done every day, or maybe there is a blank spot somewhere in your planner to jot your thoughts down. I personally use the Passion Planner Daily, so I use the Space of Infinite Possibility (it’s a full blank sheet every day) to write down how I’m feeling, what’s bothering me, etc.

I know I’m going to look back on those journal entries one day and be so glad I wrote them down. I definitely don’t get to it every day (I’m lucky if I write one entry per week), but I still try to make it happen so I have a keepsake when this is all over.

Use It to Track If You Can’t Plan

I actually adopted this system years before the pandemic hit, because I hate having to cross things out in my planner when plans change. Instead of using it to plan ahead, I use it to log things I’ve already done. When I worked, what I watched on TV, what we ate… those types of things.

This is especially useful now, because it’s so hard to remember everything you have done when the days all blend together. I reference my Passion Planner and Passion Planner Daily (yes I use both) every week when I sit down to write Sunday Scratches because I typically have no idea what I can report on.

This can be helpful whether or not you’re working. You’re just writing down the things you’ve done, so it doesn’t matter if you’re blocking off an hour to watch your favorite TV show or to sit in a meeting. Whatever helps you remember how you spent your time!

Track Your Entertainment

I wrote a full post about this, but if you’ve got a lot of free time during quarantine, you likely have a lot of entertainment you want to catch up on. TV, movies, reading, podcasts… you name it. But it’s often so hard to remember everything on your To Be Read / Watched / Listened To List, so when you sit down to watch something, you end up watching The Office for the 50th time (speaking from experience).

Instead, keep a written list of all those things! The bonus is that it makes mindless entertainment feel way more productive. If you’re feeling like you need to be productive but have no motivation or energy, you can cross a movie off your list and not feel the least bit guilty about it. (Not that you should ever feel guilty doing what’s best for you, but… you know.)

Create a Gratitude Log

(This is my spread from December 2019, hence things like going out to movies)

I also started this in 2019 and have found it so helpful now that we’re in quarantine. Instead of being doom-and-gloom (it’s so easy to fall into that mentality right now!), take a moment each day to think of one thing you’re grateful for, and put that in your monthly log. Then you can look back each month and think “yeah, this time was hella stressful… but I also have a lot to be thankful for.” And we could all use a lot more of that right now.