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When Passion Planner announced the Passion Planner Daily this fall, I wasn’t super into it. I wanted to be into it, because it’s a Passion Planner product, but I didn’t see how it would fit into my life. I had already bought a 2020 Passion Planner, so I’d need to use them together, and I already have a to do list going in the Notes app on my phone. Did I really need a second planner?
But then I printed out the sample pages to test them out… and fell in love with them. A few days later, I ended up ordering my set of four Passion Planner Dailies (I went with Tranquil Tones!) on Kickstarter and began testing out how I would use them in conjunction with my regular Passion Planner.
I have the feeling this will evolve over the next year, but I wanted to share my current set up in case it inspires anyone else currently struggling to balance the two!
Tasks
My biggest priority with a planner setup is how I can arrange my tasks. I’ve got a lot going on (doesn’t everyone?) so I want to keep all of my tasks organized so I don’t let anything fall through the cracks.
But with two planners, can’t that get confusing? Absolutely! But I’ve planned out a specific way to organize everything that will really help me… as long as I can stick to it. 😊
In the Passion Planner Monthly Spread
At the beginning of month, I go into my monthly spread and write out my goals in the to do list section there. Instead of utilizing top priority project vs. project, I use the four quadrants for the four categories that make the most sense to me: Home, Personal, Work, Blog. Sometimes I’ll merge Home and Personal together. These are the goals you see monthly in my goals posts.
In the Passion Planner Weekly Spread
Also in the regular Passion Planner, I write out my weekly goals in the to do list section on the weekly spread. Every Monday, I meet with my team and we talk through our priorities for the week. It’s nice to have my Passion Planner ready to write down anything I may have forgotten.
This then feeds into…
In the Passion Planner Daily
A bulk of my task management happens in the Passion Planner Daily. There are spots for Gamechanger tasks, personal tasks, and work tasks. I typically use these for my highest priority tasks of the day in each category. If I need to break something down into smaller tasks (like “Cookie Materials” for work, for example), I’ll use either the Free Space to Grow or the Infinite Space of Possibility.
You can see in yesterday’s Passion Planner Daily spread above that I had Kitchen and Laundry on my personal list, but since there was a bunch to do for each (hosting Christmas will do that to you!), I split it out into smaller tasks on the right page.
I also use the Infinite Space of Possibility for anything I want to accomplish over the weekend. I typically don’t need to do a full spread for Saturday and Sunday, so if I haven’t filled up Friday’s extra page yet, I’ll write out the things I want to accomplish at some point on Saturday and Sunday there.
Once the day is done, I either move unfinished tasks to the next day, or I add them to the weekly spread in my Passion Planner if I know I won’t get to them the next day. That way I never lose a task!
Time Tracking
Passion Planners are, well, planners. So time tracking is a big functionality in them. I’m not big on using them to plan my time, because my agenda changes a lot throughout the day and I hate having to scribble things out. 😂
Instead, I use the agenda portions to track my time, filling it all out after the fact. My regular Passion Planner’s weekly spread gets a more high-level time tracker, while the Passion Planner Daily gets a more detailed version.
For example, in the Weekly spread, I’ll block off the time I’m working and color it in with a Mildliner pen. On a Daily spread, I’ll create a header when I start working, and then write down everything I accomplish in that chunk of work time.
Clearly I don’t always use every feature of the Passion Planner Daily, but that’s totally okay! Sometimes I only need to utilize parts of it, and I’m giving myself the grace to do that without guilt.
Project / Goal Tracking
One of my favorite parts of my Passion Planner is tracking different projects in the back. I started it at the very end of 2016 with savings and debt payment trackers. From there it’s expanded into basically the entire back of my planner. In fact, I wish the back pages were all dot grid instead of half blank and half dot grid, because I’d probably put more trackers back there if I had the room. 🙈
The back pages of my 2020 Passion Planner aren’t super exciting yet, because… 2020 hasn’t started so I haven’t begun filling them in yet. But here are a few pages from my 2019 Passion Planner!
I’ve already planned out my 2020 back pages, and basically doubled the number of pages each tracker gets. 😂 I ran out of room for most of them, so I’m giving myself plenty of room to grow in 2020!
In addition, I’m taking out the 101 in 1001 tracker, because 1) it wasn’t the most helpful of all of the trackers, since I already track everything online, 2) it took up 4 pages that I no longer have room for after expanding everything else, and 3) with my current 101 in 1001 ending in October, I’d actually need 8 pages for two separate 101 in 1001 lists. It’s just not feasible.
I seriously love these pages. They bring me so much joy. The Dailies have similar dotted back pages, but since they only cover about 3 months instead of the full year, I’m keeping them all in my regular Passion Planner. I’m still not sure what I’ll use the pack pages for in the Daily… any ideas?
Daily Check-Ins
And finally, I do my daily check-ins in the Passion Planner Daily, now that there is a spot for them! I typically do these the following morning as I’m getting my spread set up for the new day. I try to always add in what I learned, the best thing that happened, the word of the day, and my mood.
However, I’ve also identified a great way to do more daily check-ins in the regular Passion Planner. For the past several years, I’ve struggled to remember to go back to the monthly spread to add things. As I’ve mentioned, I use my planners to log time instead of plan time, so I’m not filling it out at the beginning of the month with appointments and deadlines.
Instead, I’ve decided to turn my monthly spread into a gratitude log, where I go back and write down something I’m thankful for each day. It’s been a really nice practice, especially on frustrating days. No matter how bad the day was, I can always come up with something I’m thankful for.
In conclusion… If I was stranded on a deserted island and could only bring one of my Passion Planners… it would be my Passion Planner Daily. This is definitely the one I’ll use most actively and most regularly—and who knows, maybe in the future I’ll only use a Passion Planner Daily. But for now, I’ve found a really nice balance of the two, and I’m excited to see how it evolves over the next year!
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