Planner Quick Tip: monthly calendars

This week's planner tip is all about monthly calendars! I've been asked by a number of people how I use my monthly calendars, and how I decide which things to write down on my month view and which things to put in the weekly pages- sometimes it can seem redundant! As with all things planning, my use of the monthly and weekly pages has changed over time, but today I wanted to share how I use my monthly calendars to hopefully help you use them more effectively.

For me, the difference between my monthly and weekly pages (and why I use both) is that the monthly calendar gives me a way to see my availability more long-term and plan ahead for things like birthdays and holidays that I need to know before the week of, and the weekly pages gives me the space I need to write out details for each day. In theory I could just write everything on my weekly pages, but the problem with that is I would have to be constantly flipping through pages to make sure I send a card for that birthday 2 weeks from now, or see when our next free weekend might be for a playdate, or make sure I have set up a sub for that doctor's appointment next week.

Here are some more specific examples of the types of things I tend to track on my monthly calendars:

• holidays and birthdays
• school/ work special events and days off
• doctor and other appointments made long in advance
• my children's custody/visitation schedule
• vacations and trips

I used to write anything that came up before the actual week on my monthly calendars- I never wrote anything on any weekly pages until that week. But now if it's something that I don't need to know or see until that week, I'll add it to that weekly page instead to keep the monthly calendar less cluttered (that might be things like assemblies or meetings that I'm not preparing anything for).

I know others also mark things like bills to pay, trash days, and other regular occurrences, but I tend not to include things in my planner that I already do as a matter of routine. If you have the space and want to mark those things, there's no reason not to!

If you want to stay up to date on all my planner news and share inspiration and ideas with other planner friends, you're welcome to come join my planner group on Facebook! The newest updates to the #PlanMyWholeLife planners for the 2018-2019 school year will be coming very soon...

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