Cassandra's Franklin Covey Monarch size weekly planner

Huge thanks to Cassandra for this guest post showing how she uses her Franklin Covey Monarch size week on two pages planner!


Hello,
My name is Cassandra and I live in the U.S.A with 4 teenagers, a husband, and Noah’s ark. This year I have combined my day planner, homeschool planner, and Flylady control journal into one. I have been struggling for the last 1 ½ years with seeing my week from 2PPD FC set up that I had been using for 18 years. We made a move and I only go to town on Wednesdays. Items were falling through the crack because I wasn’t getting the whole idea of six more days to be completely ready for. After four months I have finally found a solution to this time of my life. I moved to a Monarch (8 ½” x 11”) Franklin Covey weekly page. I had been using a Classic 2PPD (5.5’ x 8.5”) before, with a homeschool planner book and my Flylady Journal. I hate having to constantly go from one to the other and back again. Insane.  My solution:

A week on two pages, vertical columns and task lists at the bottom. (I love the vertical columns because I have a long drive to town and I forget to plan that into my time and end up shorting myself. Or over planning my Wednesdays, thinking I can get it all done.) The time is from 6 AM-8 PM with empty slots above and below so you can write weird times like my family operates. My husband can leave anytime between 2 AM-7 AM, my first child 4 or 5 AM and my second child works nights so he leaves at 9 PM. (somewhere there should be a disclaimer that says “Do Not Attempt This In Your Own Home”).

Now I write once for the whole week. The weekly pages are not back to back, this is where I fall in love with this planner. On the back of your M-W weekly is the Weekly Tasks sheet which has a ¼” column for you to mark it completed, forwarded, deleted, delegated, or in process. Then there is a ½” column to prioritize ABC and 123. (I know it was brought up what the symbol meant for delegating tasks was on here, you simply write the persons initial, circle it if they are working on it, and then a check mark over them if they have completed it. It gets a little messy looking, but I use it when I delegate to kids/hubby. Comes in very handy when I ask who was supposed to clean the toilet and everyone shrugs and says not me.)

Instead I draw a grid of 1/4” squares, labeling the days across the top.  I have my morning, afternoon and evening Flylady routines on the left side, my two younger kids’ school subjects on the top right and then my weekly items in the bottom right. School items get a checkmark when done or a lesson number if pertinent. Daily Routines and Weeklies just need a checkmark stating it was done this day/week.

This week I also wrote “Goals this week:” at the top, since this is the page I am on 99% of the time, hoping to keep 2-3 items right there where I will see them and hammer them out each week.

 

The notes page after the weekly page:  I simply use to record events/information that may be important to look back on. Quickly jot the date down and a snippet of information or journal entry. Quotes I put at the bottom so I can quickly scan back and read them anytime.

The first page of the planner states which design you have picked and then you have a place to list your personal information in case someone finds your book.

Followed by a page of yearly calendars.

Two page monthly calendars with wonderful laminated tabs that will last all year without getting tore up. I spaced these through the year.

Monthly pages have a note section which I use to remember something coming up that month that does not have a set date. I made a Girl Scout cookie order, putting the child’s name, the number/kind of cookies bought and a total. She does not know when they will be here, just that it will be March. The other item comes from a food mail order. You order two months in advance and I always forget what I ordered, how much, which month, etc. so I started noting that here as well.  There is no set date for it to arrive and now I can quickly see if I have already ordered that item or how much money I need to have on hand that month to pay her when it arrives.

The front of the monthly has the wonderful index. After the month is over I read through my entries and then list the date and a brief description of anything that may need to be quickly found again.

The back of the monthly has a Master Task list with two columns, personal and business. Since I am a stay-at-home mom that homeschools and volunteers I try to separate my personal things on the left and all other things on the right.

At the end there are one month per page calendars for 2014 and then a single page for 2015 with each month and 7 lines for each of them. Very handy and I already have info entered there as well.

One more thing—the shopping list. It is in there, how I make it is another topic. It keeps me on budget and it stays in the binder, otherwise I would lose it! My kids are all big enough now so I just prop my binder in the shopping cart seat and away I go.

No, I do not have a problem carrying this with me. I have a big purse, Mary Poppins bag to be exact, many a person has marveled at all the things I can keep pulling out of there.

It’s your life, your planner; make it work for you--not you working for it!

Cassandra

Thanks again Cassandra for showing us your amazing FC system!