30th Anniversary Story: Angelena Soutar

Read Angelena’s story to hear how her Franklin Planner has helped her and her family stay on routine.

I begged my mother to start me on the Franklin planner when I was in junior high before Franklin merged with Covey. I loved using my Franklin planner and decided to, while in college, read “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, and “First Things First”. It is no surprise that my grades significantly improved when I implemented the principles discussed in those books.

I did not discover I had a learning disability until my senior year in college and I credit part of my success in college to the principles taught in those two specific books. The thing that has made the biggest difference in my life using the planner and all the things taught that go with it was creating a time management system specially catered to my high functioning autistic son. He is my oldest and I have two daughters as well. I struggle with keeping structure in my home and my son thrives on structure. It is when I read a book from the “Love and Logic” series that I realized that structure in the home is what helps children feel safe and secure, (all children not just ones with autism).

In understanding this I became more motivated to get something together for my family to have structure in our home with schedules and regular reviews of each day. The system was designed to teach my kids early about how they can be the most effective by learning how to make time for the “Big Rocks” in their lives and keep “them” a daily priority.

Most of us are visual learners in our family, so pictures are heavily used at first, and the schedule is flexible for events that are not apart of the everyday routine. The implementation of the system was the hardest part, but seeing my son start to do things independently without having to be reminded, or remind me about things if something gets skipped, has been very encouraging; it helps me feel that I am on the right track.

It has been incredibly healing to implement this system into my own daily routine. I am so very grateful to all the men and women that have worked so hard to make this company and companies like it a success. I have a sincere love and admiration for Steven Covey, for his wisdom and understanding that he made a point to share with the whole world. The Franklin planner is not just an organizer to me, it is a system designed to open myself up to constant “paradigm shifts” so that I can continue to improve myself and positively effect the people within my “circle of influence.”

I will never let it go and always glad for the opportunity to share what I have learned too.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Sincerely,

Angelena Soutar