The Prepared Parent's Planner

This Instructable is to help you working parents out there balance your busy lives with the responsibilities you have to your children and the many events that seem to pop up from week to week. After going through this Instructable, our hope is that you will be able to organize your next two weeks with a planner that allows you to remember every event and worry less about missing important events that may pop up last minute.

Step 1: Gather Materials.

A store-bought planner or our downloadable two-week planner template.

A list of upcoming events or a stack of saved papers for upcoming events you need to remember.

Colored pens, markers, or pencils.

Step 2: Obtain a Planner.

Print out the two-week planner template provided, or you can buy your own if you prefer. Feel free to print out as many templates as you need. For this Instructable, we will focus on making a planner for the next two weeks, but these steps can be repeated over and over until planning becomes a productive habit.

Step 3: Gather Information for the Dates You Want to Plan For.

Collect all fliers and papers with dates you need to remember.

Write down any other events or important dates from memory.

Sort all events by week.

If additional events come up during the week, just add them to the calendar.

Our two-week template includes a “Reminders” section. Use this section to list any activities you would like to focus on that don’t necessarily have a date they need to be done by. This could include making a note to yourself to exercise more or to finally start researching that trip to Barcelona. You can also use this section to jot down any ideas, plans, or reminders to remember for upcoming weeks.

If you are using our template and haven’t printed out more than one sheet, keep any future dates that are past two weeks in a pile where you can revisit them for next time.

Step 4: Fill Your Planner in While Color Coding With Pencils, Pens, or Markers.

Start filling in your planner with different colored writing utensils to distinguish the different types of activities you need to remember. Some examples of different categories include: Personal; Errands; Work; School; Events of your children or significant others.

Step 5: Personalize (optional).

Get creative and add borders, designs, or anything else you would like to include to make it personal. Emphasize specific activities with extra symbols if you would like or highlight the most important events.

Step 6: Find Somewhere to Put It.

Put the calendar in a place where you won’t miss it. Some great places include on a desk you work on or pinned up on a door or refrigerator.