How I Organize My Day Designer // Agenda Organization

If you’ve been following along for a while then I am nearly positive that you are aware of how much I love a good planner and a solid organization strategy! In the past some of my most viewed posts have been about how I organize my planner. Ever since about half way through last semester I realized that my Jumbo Lilly Pulitzer one just wasn’t going to cut it anymore as my schedule got busier and I took on larger roles in various organizations. I had heard all about the Day Designer from a few friends and decided to bite the bullet and purchase one to start using once the new year came around and I haven’t looked back since. 

I have always been a huge fan of color coordinating my agendas and I knew that I wanted to do that with my Day Designer as well. I swear by Le Pens and have used the same ones for about 3 years now (worth the investment!) and the best part is that in addition to writing really smoothly they don’t bleed through the pages! At the start of each semester I take a post-it note and assign each class and activity a different color pen! For reference: Pink – Kappa Delta // Orange – Social // Grey – General Events // Green – MTH 301 // Light Blue – EDU 331 // Royal Blue – EDU 333 // Turquoise – REL 310. I use this color coating both on the daily pages and on the calendar overview. After a week or two I automatically start associating each color with its class and don’t even have to reference the post-it note. 

The daily pages are set up in a really user friendly way with lines to fill in what you are doing during specific times of the day from 5 am to 9 pm on the left hand side and check boxes for your ever growing to do list on the right side of the page. Above those are a place to write down your top three things to do on a given day, what you have due, dinner plans, and a don’t forget section. While I don’t always utilize each of those boxes it is nice to have them on especially busy days! Also at the top of each page is a quote and as silly as it sounds I love flipping the page to see which quote will be next! 

When filling out the hourly lines I like to write in generally what I’ll be doing at that given time whether it be class, the library, laundry, meetings, or even the errands I need to run. If I have a test or big assignment due in a given class I also include that in the hourly section just as an extra reminder! The to-do list section is definitely what I utilize best as I write down just about everything I need to accomplish. In my opinion with organizing an agenda there is nothing more satisfying than crossing off something on your to-do list! 

For the weekends the agenda is organized so that both weekend days are on the same page which is useful since I usually have less going on on Saturday and Sunday than I do during the rest of the week! I don’t typically actually use the hour times on these pages and instead write down generally what I need to get done over the weekend. My favorite part of the weekend pages are the overview boxes at the bottom of the page to fill in what all I have going on the following week. This is a great way for me to get an idea of how hectic my next week will be before the weekend is over so that I can prepare accordingly! I keep this part color coordinated as well and try my best to include meetings, assignments, and tests as well as any other exciting events for the week to come.