It’s strange how easy it can be to find discontent in your life. You might be looking at your neighbor’s green grass on the other side of the fence, or peering out from your cubicle at the walled office next to you. It can be tempting to compare yourself unfavorably to those around you, highlighting …
Continue reading “Using Your Planner as a Gratitude Journal”
Your planner is a great way to manage your daily tasks, but it’s much more than that. A planner is a tool to help strengthen your identity, sort out the values that matter most to you, create a personal mission statement, and to set and reach both short- and long-term goals. Managing simple daily tasks is …
As we celebrate Earth Day this week, take the time to think about your place on this planet we call home. With many different challenges to overcome, it can be tempting to think that your individual effort doesn’t mean much. While you can’t offset the emissions of an entire highway or replant a rain forest …
Filing taxes can be a real mess—literally. Before we’re done, most of us have rummaged through our medical bills, home improvement expenses, business costs, pay stubs, receipts, charitable donation slips, and anything else we can find that might help reduce our year-end tax bill, or possibly add to our return, if we’re getting one. Sorting …
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The year was 1726. A young man named Benjamin Franklin was returning from London to his home in Philadelphia, an 80-day voyage. During the journey, he contemplated the direction he wanted his life to take. He wrote down his values in a small black book he carried with him, listing thirteen virtues he wanted to …
Continue reading “FranklinPlanner’s Founders – How It All Began”
In Stephen R. Covey’s timeless book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he emphasizes the importance of renewal. His seventh habit, Sharpen the Saw, is all about renewal. It’s a vital element of a productive life. He begins with an analogy of a man who is working feverishly to cut down a tree. He’s …
Continue reading “The 4 Dimensions Of Renewal And How They Can Affect You”
We all want something in life. We want to become better people. We want to have nice possessions. We want to experience new things. The art of setting goals helps us get from where we are now to where life’s prizes wait. Like other art forms, however, achieving a goal takes effort, practice, technique, and …
Continue reading “5 Planner Locations for Tracking Goals from Start to Finish”
Have you ever had a racetrack day—a day where you spend a lot of time moving but don’t get anywhere? It’s so easy to putter busily through your day and even check things off your list, and still feel dissatisfied with how you spent your time. That dissatisfaction often comes because we have things we’d …
Most of the time, you use your planner for daily personal benefit. You’re not likely to open it up to a certain page and show off your schedule and notes to family or co-workers. But there are certain times in your life when the information you’ve written in your planner can provide vitally important data …
Continue reading “3 Things Worth Documenting in Your Planner”
We all have household chores, but they vary to some degree depending on our living space, our stage of life, and what we value most. For example: In the early stages of marriage a husband and wife can plan and schedule weekly cleaning days and crank through the apartment quite quickly—leaving plenty of time to …
Continue reading “Using Your Planner to Stay on Top of Your Chores”
Photographers and landscape painters have a term they call golden hour. It’s that time near sundown when the sun’s light is at the perfect angle to show striking contrast and definition in the things they’re shooting or painting. Because of the angle of the sun to the earth, and the amount of atmosphere the light …
Continue reading “Finding a Healthy Balance Between Life and Work”
Everyone experiences periods of life when life events make it harder to keep up with your plans. At times like these, you may feel like your daily planning sessions have become less effective, that you’re stuck in a planning rut. The key to getting back on track with your planning is to analyze what’s working …
Continue reading “5 Questions to Answer to Get You Out of Your Planning Rut”
Data is now a big business. From browsing history to Fitbit stats, we’re recording and analyzing more data than ever before, and using it to shape the future. As you continue into 2016, it’s time to mine your own data—the information contained in last year’s FranklinPlanner. Here are some helpful data categories you may find …
Those of us who use a planner understand that it’s important to take more control of our lives. As we plan, we find ways to fit the things we need to do into the time we have each day. But a planner doesn’t just help us schedule our present and our future; over time it …
Continue reading “3 Reasons Why It’s Worth Tracking Your Life”
Have you ever noticed that unhealthy habits are woven easily and naturally into the fabric of our lives? Getting out of shape takes no effort at all—it can happen in our sleep, while we’re sitting on the couch, or even while we’re working at our desks. But it seems to take an almost superhuman effort …
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It’s time to order a new planner for 2016. Being creatures of habit, most of the time we order what we’ve been using—but now and then it’s fun to change things up a bit. If you’re in the mood for something different this year, here are a few things to consider. Format Consider your needs …
December is a month to spend with family. Sometimes though, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important, reacting to holiday parties, school concerts, classroom treat days, and cultural expectations instead of planning a meaningful holiday season. Here are five tips to help you simplify your December and reclaim some quality time with your …
By Patty Gardner The holidays can be tricky for people who are already on a tight budget with their time, money and stress level. I know I already have more to do than I can possibly do and the holidays just about push me over the edge. But it doesn’t have to be that way. …
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The holidays are all about togetherness. When you host gatherings at your home, though, you become responsible for the holiday experience of your guests. The two keys to successful holiday hosting are clear communication and impeccable organization, and your FranklinPlanner can help you with both. Here are six tips for successful holiday hosting. 1. Plan …
With Thanksgiving just days away you’re likely taking mental notes of the things that are important to you—things that you can’t imagine living without—your spouse, your children, dear friends, your faith, a washing machine, dishwasher, microwave…your planner. You would include your planner on that list, wouldn’t you? After all, there are all sorts of reasons …
