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I was sorely neglected as a child. One of the ways I was neglected is that no one taught me ANY study or homework skills. My mom just expected me to KNOW how to do all things required of me, without ever teaching me any of them, and punished me when I failed to live up to her expectation.
So one of the things I really wish I had learned at a young age was how to make a plan and follow through with it. Or even something like how to use lists or calendars to remind myself of things. Instead I was just expected to remember it all. I can't even tell you how many homework assignments I remembered the night before they were due, because as a kid it never even occurred to me to write things down. And the same thing plagued me when I entered the workforce. I thought I was supposed to remember everything in my head. When I didn't, I felt terrible about myself and of course was embarrassed at work. Eventually, at the clinic, I started writing every task I had to do in a composition book that I carried around with me, and crossed out each task as I finished it, but that wasn't until 2002 or so.
When I was around 22, my then-GF gave me a planner. She actually kind of made it herself and I really liked it. It was very basic. I tried to use it, but really the only thing I did with it was write down doctor appts, birthdays, pagan holidays. I didn't know how to use a planner to its full potential.
So the real genesis of planning for me came from something recommended by another woman in OTO. She made excel spreadsheets of her daily magical practices. I started doing that too and it was helpful but hard to keep up with all the time. I used this system off and on for awhile, but in terms of things other than magical practices, I basically used to-do lists. In 2015, I was looking for something new, something besides to-do lists. I had specific things I wanted to do every day or almost every day, and I needed a way to track them. At this point I hadn't used daily practice sheets in a few years, but it occurred to me that I could use something similar for my daily tasks, so I started doing that. I would print out several weeks' work of these lists on one sheet of paper, and on the back of that sheet I would write my to-do lists- tasks that weren't on the sheet. I kept doing this until early 2017, when I switched to using the Dragontree Dreambook + Planner. At first I tried to use my checklists along with the planner, but soon switched to using the planner only. Instead of the long list of daily tasks, I scheduled my tasks throughout the week. And it's working for me.
I really like the changes made to the planner for 2018. I opted to buy a pdf this time and print it. It was very expensive to have it printed at the B5 size, I am not sure how I am going to handle that next year. ISO B5 printer paper is very hard to get. At least I won't have to buy the pdf again, I am very happy with the current iteration of the planner. I opted for disc binding, but since the B5 size is still pretty large, I decided to carry only one month at a time with me, and I figured out a folding technique that will make my planner even smaller in footprint. This is why I decided to print my own and disc bind, the B5 book is just too big to carry with me.
I still don't really know how to make a plan and then execute it, at least I don't think I do, really, but I am learning.
So one of the things I really wish I had learned at a young age was how to make a plan and follow through with it. Or even something like how to use lists or calendars to remind myself of things. Instead I was just expected to remember it all. I can't even tell you how many homework assignments I remembered the night before they were due, because as a kid it never even occurred to me to write things down. And the same thing plagued me when I entered the workforce. I thought I was supposed to remember everything in my head. When I didn't, I felt terrible about myself and of course was embarrassed at work. Eventually, at the clinic, I started writing every task I had to do in a composition book that I carried around with me, and crossed out each task as I finished it, but that wasn't until 2002 or so.
When I was around 22, my then-GF gave me a planner. She actually kind of made it herself and I really liked it. It was very basic. I tried to use it, but really the only thing I did with it was write down doctor appts, birthdays, pagan holidays. I didn't know how to use a planner to its full potential.
So the real genesis of planning for me came from something recommended by another woman in OTO. She made excel spreadsheets of her daily magical practices. I started doing that too and it was helpful but hard to keep up with all the time. I used this system off and on for awhile, but in terms of things other than magical practices, I basically used to-do lists. In 2015, I was looking for something new, something besides to-do lists. I had specific things I wanted to do every day or almost every day, and I needed a way to track them. At this point I hadn't used daily practice sheets in a few years, but it occurred to me that I could use something similar for my daily tasks, so I started doing that. I would print out several weeks' work of these lists on one sheet of paper, and on the back of that sheet I would write my to-do lists- tasks that weren't on the sheet. I kept doing this until early 2017, when I switched to using the Dragontree Dreambook + Planner. At first I tried to use my checklists along with the planner, but soon switched to using the planner only. Instead of the long list of daily tasks, I scheduled my tasks throughout the week. And it's working for me.
I really like the changes made to the planner for 2018. I opted to buy a pdf this time and print it. It was very expensive to have it printed at the B5 size, I am not sure how I am going to handle that next year. ISO B5 printer paper is very hard to get. At least I won't have to buy the pdf again, I am very happy with the current iteration of the planner. I opted for disc binding, but since the B5 size is still pretty large, I decided to carry only one month at a time with me, and I figured out a folding technique that will make my planner even smaller in footprint. This is why I decided to print my own and disc bind, the B5 book is just too big to carry with me.
I still don't really know how to make a plan and then execute it, at least I don't think I do, really, but I am learning.
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