Three Ways to Upgrade Your Planner System
I want to preface this entire Planning Resource Post with the confession that, for me, intentional planning is a deeply spiritual practice. Sitting down with my planner, looking at the week ahead – planning it, bracing myself for it – is the perfect blend of preparedness and prayerfulness. It’s where my control and my utter lack of control meet. It’s where I can be mindful of the things that I’m excited about, the things bringing me joy, the things terrifying me, and the things I’m dreading – and in that, it’s where I most consistently invite God to meet me. When I look at my planner and see Committee Meeting next Tuesday night at 9pm and feel my stomach drop, dreading what might come of it, fearful that the meeting will go poorly and that everything staked on the meeting going well will thus not come to pass, I am drawn into grace. I am reminded of my lack of control and redirected to the one in control. God, meet me here, I pray. God, I am dreading this meeting, I am dreading this process, I am terrified. God, be with me here. I need you.
All this to say: if you are looking for a post about Planner Productivity Tips, you might find what you’re looking for here, and also might not. If you’re looking for a post about Prayerfulness and Planners and Grace and Productivity and how to find God in our days by intentionally using our planners (as if that’s exactly what you were looking for), you’re at the right place. I want to share with you three ways I use my planner prayerfully – that also do, I will confess, make me more productive. But, first they make me more prayerful, grace-oriented, and at peace. And that’s the focus of this post here.
Okay, here we go!
1. Color-Code Your Planner
I truly cannot imagine a life without a color-coded planner. At this point, my brain automatically thinks of anything work-related in pink; when I think of The Grace Lab, I think of purple. When I think of my second job, it’s red. When I think of my professional life, I think of the warm hues (red, pink, yellow). When I think of my personal life, I think of the cold hues: blue for fun personal (FaceTime calls, Bachelor watching, Saturday city adventures), dark blue for adult personal (budgeting, doctors appointments, taxes… I don’t get particularly excited when I see dark blue in there). Why does this matter and how does it help me find grace in my days? First, it’s incredibly satisfying and clarifying. If I see a ton of pink in my planner on a Monday, I know that it’s a huge work day for me. If I see a whole week with no light blue (fun personal), it’s my indicator that I’m out of balance. Whether it’s a walk during lunch or a date with my husband or an ice-cream and rom-com night, it’s my cue to add it in and make time for it. It helps me stay integrated and faithfully tend to all the areas of my life to which I feel called to be a steward in: work, family, health, relationships, and so forth.
It also helps for reasons I mentioned above: it’s a fabulously accurate way of discerning where you are finding joy, where you are feeling drained, and where you need God to meet you. More on this in the next two points, but depending on how you choose to color-code, the way your mind and body react when you see a given color is a helpful, and often instant, indicator of how you sincerely feel about that area of your life. If you read the post on Ignatian spirituality, you’ll see that here at The Grace Lab, we believe that all of you matters to God. If you are unhappy with your work, if you are struggling with finding joy, if you are longing to get in shape but loathe exercising – it all matters to God. Intentional color-coding is a great way to help us hand our honest dispositions to God and trust that God will meet us in them. And, it’s a great way to name God’s faithfulness and grace, too, when you find yourself leaping for joy when you see a certain color. I do this when I see The Grace Lab pop up in my daily to-do and I am reminded that God longs to see us joyful, longs to use our gifts, and longs to be faithful. So color-code your planner and find out yourself. ;)
2. Make a Regular Date with Your Planner
Again, this too is a great productivity tip, but one that also converges with planner-prayerfulness. I love asking people what kinds of day-organization they rely on (I’m sort of obsessed with this stuff) and one of the things I often hear is that people are excited by the prospect of their paper planner, but they fail to put one thing in it, then another, then one week passes by and they haven’t used it, and now it’s back to trying to keep everything together in their brain. One way to mitigate this is by having a consistent date where you set your week up, reflect on the week prior, and figure out ways to be intentional with your time.
Even on the weeks that I’m exhausted from the week I just had and have zero interest in thinking ahead to the week coming, I am always grateful that I honored the time to prepare. It always, always, always pays off and is a discipline that keeps me grounded in grace. And just grounded in general. And one of the best ways to honor the time is by having a time set apart. Maybe it’s a Friday afternoon before the work-week ends that you look towards the week ahead. Or, maybe it’s Sunday evening and you light a candle, make a cup of tea, and intentionally look towards your week ahead – maybe even two weeks out, whatever feels manageable to you. But my point here: make it a regular date, be consistent (with whatever planner system you have), and get a feel for what’s ahead that week.
And here’s why…
3. Pray Through the Items on Your Planner
…what better way to invite God into your days than to, literally, invite God into the days as you’re planning them? I mentioned this at the start of this post, but one of my favorite and most grounding spiritual practices is letting my honest reactions to my week ahead guide me in asking for grace. Without any pretenses or fancy prayer methods, look at your week ahead and genuinely observe how you feel. Are you looking forward to that meeting? Great. What grace. Are you beyond exhausted and overwhelmed just looking at Monday? Lord, I need you this week; and maybe something needs to change, because I am so tired. Guide me in discerning what the next step is. Help me see possibility. And be with me on Monday. Are you dreading a conversation with a coworker? Lord, give me your patience, I’m really going to need it.
I love letting my planner guide my prayers, because those are some of the most real prayers I pray. It’s powerful, too, to look back at that week, knowing that I prayed desperately for God to open a door, to make a way, to show me the next step and realizing that God did just that. At The Grace Lab, we wholeheartedly believe that God cares about the real stuff of your life and your day – that’s why we are so passionate about day-design and daily spirituality. One of the most tangible ways I have found to invite God into my days is to look at the things that actually filling my day and literally welcome God into them – sincerely, honestly, prayerfully, without pretense. Nothing fancy. Just praying for grace.
The cool thing about all these tips is that they may also make you more productive. Color-coding my planner has turned me into a whiz with maximizing my hours (hello time-blocking) and regularly checking in with my week ahead helps me be prepared and thus more productive when Monday morning comes. But ultimately, they make me more prayerful. They make me a more ready recipient of grace. And that’s what we all really need.
Happy grace-filled days, friends. May the Lord meet you in your next planner session.
