How to Use ONE Planner for Life AND Business

I talk about my love for and use of the Simplified Planner A LOT (like a lot a lot), so I frequently get asked questions about how I use it.

(I never mind answering because I LOVE talking about my favorite productivity tool and look for any opportunity to gush about it!! #sorrynotsorry 😍)

One question that I get quite often is:

How do you use just ONE planner (your Simplified Planner) for life AND business?

Which tells me 2 things…

People are surprised that you can use just ONE planner for everything.
People aren’t really sure how to use just ONE planner for everything.

If you’re one of those people, don’t fret!!

In this post, I’m sharing all of my best tips for using just one planner for life AND business WITHOUT losing track of your tasks (or your marbles) in the process!!

This includes the one thing that I think is KEY to using your planner for both successfully. #keepreading 🤓

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase using these links.)

FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHY USING ONE PLANNER IS WAY BETTER THAN JUGGLING MULTIPLE PLANNERS

Simply put? Juggling multiple planners is EXHAUSTING!!

One for work, one for home, one for meals, and one for fitness. 😵‍💫

It feels organized at first… until it doesn’t.

Before you know it, you’re spending more time MANAGING your planners than getting things done or LIVING your life. 🫠

When you use just ONE planner, everything lives in ONE place.

No more flipping between planners trying to remember which one you wrote something down in. No more double-booking yourself because your daughter’s soccer game was in one planner and your client call was in another. 🤯 No more sticky notes scattered across your desk because you didn’t know where else to put that reminder.

One planner = one system.

And that means…

Less stress >> no more worrying that you forgot something
More clarity >> you can see everything together at a glance
Better balance >> your business and personal priorities live side by side
More consistency >> one planner = one habit, which is MUCH easier to maintain

And the more consistent you are, the more productive you’ll feel!! 👏🏻

At the end of the day, the REAL WIN here isn’t just better organization—it’s PEACE OF MIND!! Because when everything important is in ONE planner, you can finally stop juggling and start doing!!

Now, read on for my BEST tips for using just ONE planner for life AND business!! ⤵️

TIP #1: SCHEDULE EVERYTHING (BUSINESS & PERSONAL TASKS)

I don’t care who you are (old, young, single, married, mom) or what you do (business owner, 9-5er, side-hustler, mompreneur juggler), I need you to REALLY HEAR what I say next because it’s going to make all the difference…

✨ You CAN get everything done, but NOT all at the same time. ✨

Want to know my secret for getting it all done? I 👏🏻 SCHEDULE 👏🏻 EVERYTHING!!

I’m not kidding when I say I’m a happier human being AND a better business owner because I schedule EVERYTHING!! And here’s why:

I plan and schedule ALL THE THINGS so I know I will have TIME for everything (and won’t FORGET anything)!!

Overwhelming my day, my time, and myself is NOT an option anymore (because it only leads to stress and burnout—and I’ve been there, done that, got the pink t-shirt souvenir to remind myself that I don’t EVER want to go back to that).

So I plan my week on Sunday and my day the night before. I schedule time for my morning and evening routines, my meals, my workouts, when I check email and social media, when I have client meetings, when I clean, when I do laundry, when I write blog posts or sales page copy, when I work, rest, and even play!!

And guess what?! Scheduling all of these things into my days and weeks means they actually GET DONE *without* feeling stressed or overwhelmed!!

Does everything always go perfectly according to plan? Of course not!! Because life happens!! Things (good and bad) happen!! That’s why there are erasers on pencils and white-out for those of us who refuse to use pencil!! (Just me?! 😜)

Pro Tip: Just because I schedule everything doesn’t mean that I schedule every minute of every day. I leave plenty of white space so I can give myself grace for whatever comes my way. I often refer to this as White Space Grace!!

TIP #2: DON’T PUT MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN FIT ON THE PAGE

Generally, I follow the Top 3 Rule, because science says that 3 main tasks a day are all we can realistically handle.

I figure out what my 3 main tasks (or must-do to-dos) are ahead of time and then schedule them into the hour-by-hour schedule on the daily page. I add to-dos related to those 3 main tasks and other mini (or miscellaneous) to-dos (like call in prescription refill and email so-and-so) onto the to-do side of the page.

👉🏻 If you run out of lines, you’re probably trying to pack too much into your day. Assign those tasks to another day!!

TIP #3: DO NOT PASS GO UNTIL YOU COLOR CODE

If you do nothing else, you MUST color-code your tasks. Business tasks one color, personal tasks another color. That way, you can quickly and easily tell them apart at a glance.

How you color-code tasks in your planner is completely up to you!! It doesn’t matter if you use different color pens, highlighters, or stickers, but pick and stick with one way. And make sure you stay consistent so you don’t get confused!!

I like to use the color-coding dot stickers because they stand out, but don’t mess with the tasks and to-dos I’ve written down. I like to write all of my tasks with black pen, check off the ones I complete with pink pen, and use the color-coding dot stickers as follows:

Fuchsia Pink for business meetings and appointments
Medium Pink for my morning routine
Light Pink for business education and self-development
Yellow for tasks related to content creation
Green for client work, meetings, and related tasks
Light Blue for tasks related to The Systems Shop and product creation
Medium Blue for my evening routine
Teal for exercise and other self-care activities
Navy for personal events and appointments

In my opinion, color-coding your tasks is KEY to using one planner for life and business WITHOUT losing track of your tasks (or your marbles) in the process!!

Pro Tip: Color coding can get overwhelming and out of hand pretty fast, so I recommend keeping things super simple!! Pick ONE WAY of color coding and that’s it (i.e., don’t color code by family member AND type of event). Too many rules or systems is complicated, and if using your planner becomes complicated, you won’t follow through.

⭐️ I highly recommend making a color-coding key and keeping it in the front pocket of your planner, along with your stickers for easy access!!

TIP #4: ORGANIZE & PRIORITIZE ALL OF YOUR TASKS

There are SO MANY ways to do this, but this is how I do it!!

In the Daily Simplified Planner, there’s a space for to-dos running right alongside an hourly schedule that’s PERFECT for time blocking and keeping track of meetings and appointments.

I use the hour-by-hour schedule to time block my entire day and then keep track of related, mini, or miscellaneous to-dos on the to-do side of the page. (I use the color-coding dot stickers for one-hour time blocks and the happy stripe flag stickers for two-hour time blocks.)

And because everything is color-coded, I know at a glance what I’m working on next and how long I’ve got to work on that task!!

⭐️ You can also use the flag stickers to indicate your top 3 tasks for the day.

And if you want to see a little more separation between your life and business tasks on the to-do side of the page, you can write your LIFE tasks from the top of the to-do section and your BUSINESS tasks from the bottom of the to-do section (or vice versa). Just make sure you leave ONE LINE in between completely blank as your line of demarcation!!

I also highly recommend putting those tasks in order of priority (i.e., most important at the top, least important at the bottom).

Bonus Tip: Don’t forget the Top 3 Rule!! You can either have a combined Top 3 of business AND personal tasks or have a separate Top 3 (one for work/business and one for personal).

TIP #5: HAVE A WEEKLY PLANNING MEETING (WITH YOURSELF)

One of the best things you can do when using ONE planner for life AND business is to set aside time each week for a quick planning meeting with yourself.

During this meeting (I like to do mine on Sunday mornings with coffee), you’ll sit down with your digital calendar and Simplified Planner to sync 👏🏻 them 👏🏻 up!!

In other words…

If you have a doctor’s appointment on Monday at 9am, write it in your planner.
If the dog has a bath on Friday at 2pm, write it in your planner.
If the kids have early release from school on Wednesday, write it in your planner.
If you’re meeting friends for dinner on Saturday, write it in your planner.

…and so on and so forth.

This should really only take you 10-15 minutes, but it’s one of the most important planner habits you can build. Why? Because it gives you a clear picture of the week ahead, so you’re not blindsided by an appointment you forgot about or scrambling last-minute to finish a project before the deadline.

Pro Tip: Don’t overcomplicate it. Your weekly planning meeting isn’t about planning every detail of every day—it’s simply about laying out the big picture so you can go into the week feeling calm, confident, and prepared. Daily planning still happens the night before, but your weekly meeting ensures *nothing important* slips through the cracks.

👉🏻 Cheesy as it may be, think of this weekly planning meeting as your chance to “marry” your life and business schedules so they can live happily ever after in just ONE planner!!

And while you can make almost any planner work for you if you commit to it, you already know where my heart lies…

Which is why you’ll find me setting about a dozen alarms for 10am EDT on Simplified Planner Launch Day in the fall. (That’s when the Calendar Year Editions get released and I’m a Calendar Year Daily Girl forever and ever and always… AMEN!! 😉)

Not sure if the Simplified Planner is right for you? Check out this detailed FAQ!!

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