The Writer's Lifestyle

How Planners Improve Your Quality Of Life Envision this: The sun touched your face early and it was nice, warm. You get out of bed not forgetting to stretch out those neck muscles. You tie your hair in a bun, changed into yoga clothes and prepare to meditate. After 30 minutes, you tidy up and fixed a healthy breakfast. With the morning TV news on, you then finished up, brushed your teeth and hurried to change into work clothes. The time was 45 minutes after 7 am. The last thing in your routine was to feed the cat, managed a kiss on its little cheek and then said a quick goodbye. Sounds like a productive morning, right? All these things in your to-do list of morning rituals which you committed to do, got DONE. One at a time, you ticked off your tasks. When you’re self-disciplined, rituals matter a lot in your life. This was all part of your planner journey with the goal to keep repeating your mornings as best as you can. But why a planner though? Is it important to maintain one in a digital world? Our answer? Oh absolutely so. Actually, even more so in this fast-moving world. Sure, all your devices at hand could keep up with the changing world. Your smartphone can also easily remind you of any upcoming schedule. So why rely so heavily on a notebook? There’s a system in planners that builds you up for becoming better at everything you do. Lifetime Benefits of a Good Planner Analog as it may seem, planners are and will always be a gateway for positive self- reinforcement. And it takes just one planner to change your life. If you get one - the right one for you - your present mindset can potentially turn. But it would do that with the best of intentions. Brain Stimulation. Psychology is always behind every planner system there is. And it’s rooted on one thing only - the ability of your mind to influence routines. There exists proof that people who keep a planner, are better at remembering, organizing and mapping out thoughts. Every planner’s main methodology involves mentally stimulating yourself to produce more work. That is, when your brain gets fired up to perform a task, it segregates it into what’s important and what’s not. So consider it a daily exercise for the brain. When you keep stimulating it this way, you'll eventually trigger a mechanism within you to effectively plan a daily workload. And when your life is always revolving around schedules, plans and organizing them, this will be very helpful routine-building exercise. Keeping Focus. Do one thing at a time and you’ll do it properly. Sounds like an antithesis for multitasking but it does have a stringent meaning in terms of why planners are effective. One can easily get into the bad habit of doing so many things at once and then spreading yourself thin on each task. You’re just not giving your best and it could lead to lousy work. Planners have a unique way of having you create priorities. An example is a TO-DO list or dot journals. This way you’re able to accomplish one task at a time and give yourself the opportunity to give your 100% on each one. Self-Discipline and Structure. Planners are great at forming good habits. They are tools you can leverage to form rituals that promote discipline. Like the scenario on the first part of this blog, you can make yourself commit to doing one task and then doing it daily for days or months until you simply do them out of muscle memory. You can add some much needed structure in your life if you have good rituals. So tell yourself, no more lazy excuses. Unique Health Benefits. Your planners can be used in a multitude of ways, not just to simply list things down. Utilize it for jotting down the calories in your food, for example, to form eating habits. You may also write down important doctor appointments, not just birthdays and anniversaries. There are people who successfully incorporate their prescribed exercise routines in their planners to monitor health conditions. Some even pencil in their relaxation schedules to keep their stress-levels down. In a nutshell, you can organize your planners in a manner which promotes long-term health benefits. You’ll thank yourself later, if you do. Creative Outlet. It may be unusual for some but a unique benefit of a great planner is to give your creative side a chance to shine, if you so choose to do so. A lot of great planners out there such as this one, allow room for some embellishments like adding in a washi tape, even coloring as a highlight to indicate a task fully done. Some add structure by doodling. If you knew the things you have to do and when to do them, you’ll be less overwhelmed. That will always be the most important benefit of a great planner. Your life would be less cluttered, always organized and eventually free from stress. If by now you’re convinced of getting a planner, you’re already a winner, in our book.