So many people, adults, teens, and children alike want to use a planner. Many of us have visions of being the hyper organized individual who lives by their planner, with all of the information they need to run their life neatly recorded inside. Most of us have probably tried a planner on multiple occasions, excitedly picking one out, then faithfully using it for a few weeks before leaving it on a shelf to gather dust. So, why is using a planner such a tough habit to build? Why does it seem more challenging than other habits, like meal prepping or going to the gym? The answer is simple: it’s a much more complicated habit, consisting of several microhabits, than some of these other examples. That doesn’t mean you can’t build the habit, though. It just means it’s more difficult. This blog post breaks down the complicated nature of using a planner and how you can build the habit.
Using a planner isn’t really one habit. It’s the combination of four different microhabits that all work together to help you use a planner with consistency. One of the main reasons that using a planner is such a challenging habit to build is that you’re not really building a single habit. In order to successfully use a planner, you have to consistently build four different habits and perform them all consistently, which is quite a challenging task!
The first habit involved in maintaining a planner is filling in your planner. This habit is twofold. Typically, most planner users will build a regular habit of filling in their planner once per week or twice per month. In this time, they will review all upcoming events and tasks and make sure they are all recorded. Building this habit is a great way to feel in control of your day to day life and have a good sense of what is coming up.
There is a secondary habit in filling in the planner, which is remembering to add to your planner as new events and tasks arise. If your boss tells you about a new meeting that’s not on your calendar, or if a teacher announces a new assignment, there is a habit involved in remembering to take out your planner and add this new event. Remembering this step can be more difficult in the early stages of using a planner, because it isn’t yet an established habit.
The second piece of using a planner successfully is to remember to check your planner. Having all upcoming events and tasks in your planner is great, but it’s only useful if you’re reviewing those tasks to find out what you need to do. There is no right way to build a habit around checking your planner, as long as it’s done with consistency. Some people have designated work time, where they will check their planner before beginning work to prioritize their tasks. Others build a habit around checking it every morning, every evening, or both, to help them organize their day. Whichever method you choose, building the habit of regularly checking your planner is essential to making your planner a useful tool in your life.
The third, and perhaps most obvious, piece of using a planner is actually completing the tasks listed in your planner. Surprisingly, this piece of using a planner is often the easiest part of the task, because it’s the one we’re most used to. It is likely that with or without a planner, you have some habits in place to complete necessary tasks. For this reason, building the habit around actually completing tasks is typically the easiest part of maintaining a planner. However, it is an additional step in the process, demonstrating the high level of executive functioning required to keep a planner because of its multi-step nature.
There is a fourth step to maintaining a planner after completing tasks, that is often the most forgotten or overlooked. After completing tasks, a successful planner habit involves crossing off the tasks that have been completed. One of the reasons that this action is so important is because it helps build the habit of frequently revisiting your planner. Crossing off a completed task will give you a sense of accomplishment, and that positive reward will encourage you to keep revisiting the planner.
The other reason that revisiting your planner during task completion is important is because it will give you a chance to review tasks that aren’t completed. Successful planner usage involves noting any tasks that didn’t get done and moving the tasks to another time, to ensure that they are still completed. Without following through on this step, tasks are likely to get lost if they aren’t completed on the initial intended date.
While the multi-step nature of using a planner is typically the biggest challenge in allowing people to fully adopt the habit, it’s not the only challenge. There are additional factors that can make using a planner a challenging habit to build.
Choosing the right planner can be challenging due to the wide variety of factors that you need to consider, such as deciding between digital and physical formats, determining what needs to be tracked, and balancing personal preferences with practical functionality. Each option comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks: physical planners offer simplicity and accessibility, while digital planners provide customization and integration with other tools but may pose distractions. Additionally, factors like size, layout, features, cost, and whether you want to track tasks, meetings, or daily schedules all play a role in the decision. If you’ve never used a planner before, it can be difficult to fully understand what format will work best for you, and can even lead to decision paralysis. For some tips on selecting the right planner for your needs, check out this blog post.
When building the habit of using your planner, remembering to have it on you at all times can be a challenging barrier. If you choose a digital planner, you might be able to alleviate this concern by having your planner on your phone, which most people have with them at all times. However, if you choose a physical planner, you’ll need to build the muscle of remembering to pack it in your bag daily or make sure to have it with you. Additionally, you’ll want to remember to have something to write with to be able to regularly add to it. Although this is a fairly solvable problem, it can create additional challenges for those opting for a physical planner.
One of the most difficult parts of building the habit of maintaining a planner is pushing yourself to use it when you’re busy or stressed. During these times, we tend to push tasks to the side that feel less important or too challenging. It’s easy to dismiss maintaining a planner by telling yourself “I’ll still get everything done, I’ve done it before.” However, maintaining a planner will ultimately help you optimize your workflow, be more productive, and feel much more in control of your daily life. When you have a strong planner habit, you are much less likely to experience feelings of overwhelm around workload and task completion. For this reason, while you’re building the habit, it’s essential to remind yourself that the short-term challenges will pay off in the long run, with you becoming a more empowered individual with your life events and tasks under control.
Building any habit requires intentionality, support, and a structured approach. Before you start building the habit, make sure you feel totally committed, and understand the importance of the habit you’re building. Without total buy-in, it is difficult to build a new habit. Start small, breaking down the different pieces of the planner habit, starting with the piece that is most manageable. For example, you might start with simply building consistency around filling in your planner and not putting pressure around checking it regularly. Once that habit is successfully built, you can move onto the next piece. This slow, gradual approach, is much more likely to build long-term success. Be sure to celebrate your progress, and give yourself grace if you face setbacks and fail to maintain consistency. Make sure to always emphasize progress over perfection and try to start using your planner again, even if you fall out of the habit. The most important piece of maintaining a long-term habit is having systems to rebuild the habit when you fall off. Remember that small, gradual changes are more likely to result in long-lasting changes, and that celebrating progress, rather than perfect consistency, is more likely to motivate you to keep going.
Some teens need more support than others when it comes to organization and other Executive Functioning difficulties. While parents can do a lot to support their child, sometimes they might need an expert to help. YA Success Coach offers 1-1 coaching sessions for teens to support them in building systems that are supportive to their unique needs and centered around building independence for long-term success. If you think your child might benefit from more specialized support in Executive Functioning, contact me today to learn about the different options available.
Having a conversation is the first step to helping your child realize their full potential and set them up for success!