Have you ever had the feeling of excitedly buying a planner and using it with great enthusiasm in the beginning but after a few days, weeks, or maybe even months, it starts to collect dust and end up in the back of the closet?

 

Or, maybe it’s led to paralyzing planning guilt, and you’ve abandoned the exercise entirely and sworn off buying planners.

 

In this week’s episode, I talk about what it looks like to use a planner in different seasons of motherhood. Spoiler alert: sometimes there are a lot of blank pages, and that’s okay!

 

Your planner is meant to support you, not give you anxiety or guilt! Depending on where you are in your life and your motherhood journey, there are so many ways to approach planning that make your life better. 

I’ve found there are four phases when it comes to planning. These work best when you’re using the Thriving in Motherhood Planner, but you can also implement them into your planning system.

4 Phases of Planning in Motherhood

1. Reality check - This is a great place to start if you’re out of the habit of planning or in an intense season of survival. This includes a monthly review to celebrate what you accomplished, learned, places you went, things you did with your family, and books you read. This helps you see all that you’ve accomplished and track the important milestones in your life. 
2. Management - This is what we typically focus on when we think of planning. This would be writing down your appointments, context-based to-dos, meals, think and process pages, and brain dumps. 
3. Momentum - This is a more proactive phase of planning and includes a monthly planning session at the beginning of each month and a weekly Big 3. This planning phase allows you to look ahead to where you want to go and plan to get there in small steps.
4. Alignment - This phase would include using all of the Thriving in Motherhood Planner systems and living your life in alignment with your vision and goals. In this phase, you are doing a quarterly review, setting your intentions for the day with a daily Big 3, deciding on a weekly focus, and tracking the habits you want to create. 

When you have to pause and set your planner aside, don’t panic! You will be able to pick it back up and jump right back in when it’s time. 

The goal is to have the support and resources you need in your planning. The Thriving in Motherhood Planner is designed to scale up and down to support you in every season of motherhood. 

Are you surviving or so busy you just wake up and take things as they come? Perfect! Use the planner to Reality Check once a month and celebrate all that happened.

Are you ready to think one step ahead and know where you will be or what everyone will eat for dinner? Adding in Management will help you take care of that.

Do you have projects or goals you want to work toward? Then, you’re ready for Momentum and giving monthly planning and a weekly Big 3 a try.

Are you ready to intentionally align your time and energy with the things that matter most to you? In Alignment, it’s time to add quarterly reviews, daily big 3s, a weekly focus, and habit tracking. 

You might switch from week to week or month to month with how you use your planner. That’s completely normal! The important thing is to know it’s normal and that your planner is a TOOL that is here to support you, not rule over you.

If you’re ready to start, it’s not too late to get your 2023 Thriving in Motherhood Planner today! Click here to learn more.