Look what I found for you.

A gorgeous 2012 calendar over at Creative Mamma. I seriously love it

Print out on card or paper, punch two holes on the top, hang by a ribbon on binder rings or through the punched holes just as is, if your ribbon is thin enough.

There are other calendar formats on that same page if this one doesn’t suit your style – it’s my favourite though because there’s enough space to write notes.

(if you’ve got a few minutes, go browse her archives – she has tons of free and gorgeous things. I’ve used her handmade circle stickers for months.)

And now… my contribution to setting up your year for success…

I set goals every month – no surprise there.

For 2012 I decided to make a cute goals page for every month. There are two forms on the one page – one page with all the goals listed (I’ve restricted them to 15 and I think even 15 is PLENTY) and another with the goals separated into categories.

This free download will be available to all the subscribers of my list as I’ll be sending them out in the last week of the month, for the month ahead.

Go here to sign up and get your January pages.

The idea is to print, write and stick it up somewhere. If you see it, you’re more likely to do it

What are your top 3 goals for 2012?

PS If you’re already on my list, you’ll get an email from me later today

I only bought my 2012 diary (planner) on 1 December!

I do believe this is the latest I’ve bought my diary in about 5 years.

It’s a combination of not getting to the shops with enough time to have a good old browse and just not seeing something that jumped out at me and said, “YES!”

While I liked the A5 size I had this year, I found half of it went unused because I just don’t have as many appointments as I did in years past.

Effectively I was only using the notes section and a tiny portion of the week-at-a-glance.

So for next year I’ve gone even smaller (A6) in a gorgeous teal Italian leather. I’m super-tactile so I already can’t stop touching it.

It’s still a week-at-a-glance format with notes paper on the right but it somehow feels less overwhelming to me.

It’s from Legami, by the way.

And whenever I write a post like this, all of you very helpful readers tell me I should use online tools.

People, I’m a paper gal – years ago I kept trying to be an electronic person (and I’d stop being effective because of trying to use various online tools that didn’t work for me). Now I’ve fully embraced that I need to organise my life on paper.

If this is speaking to someone out there, embrace your paper-loving self.

Have you bought your diary yet?

lists are boring

Do you harbour any other myths about lists?

Are you a list-maker?

Are your lists working for you?

I was on a course today and got out my bits and pieces to ready myself.

If you’re interested, I like to have a highlighter ready and a notepad with a pen.

I also keep a separate place in my notepad for action steps once I get back to the office.

Anyway, my colleague next to me observed all my preparations and asked me what the best organising tools are. He knows I coach people to be more productive so it wasn’t totally random

I gave him the short answer but I thought I’d write a blog about it since I get asked this question quite a bit.

So, the short answer is I don’t believe there are any tools that are the best.

The long answer is:

We are all different, our styles are different and therefore our needs are different.

Which means the tools we need will differ from the next person.

I also think we need to be purposeful about what we want to achieve before buying a single thing.

There’s a myth going around that the latest greatest gadgets will “magically” make you more organised and productive.

That is SOOOO not true.

All the gadgets, phones, etc. in the world will not create order and organisation if you don’t first decide what your organising goals are and how you best want to achieve them.

You also still have to actually use that tool.

There are people all over the world who buy beautiful planners each and every year in the hope that the planner will make them organised.

It will… IF they write their appointments, to-dos and priorities in there, actually look at them and then take action.

I still believe a good old notebook and pen can help organise 90% of the population.

Often people get so carried away with the tool that they forget the tool is there to help them become more productive.

If you’re playing around with the tool all the time, then you’re not being very productive, now are you?

Sometimes all we need is a tiny piece of paper where we write down the top 3 things we need to get done, and then do them.

That’s it.

So, do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to know what you think.

Here are all my favourite organising tools.

P.S. Don’t forget the giveaway.

There are two types of people in this world – those who like lists and those who don’t.

This post is for those who don’t like lists

lists are boring

A list is only as boring as your imagination! You can and should put some fun things on there too as well as tasks to do.

I recently started putting things like “finish James Patterson book” on my weekend lists because all I was doing was chores. I loved the change so much that I now regularly put fun things like “phone _____ for a lovely, long chat” and “paint fingernails” on my lists just to jazz them up

lists are a bind because they have tons of items on them

Well, that depends on the type of list. A master list and a checklist often do have tons of things on them but a daily to-do list really should have no more than about 6 items.

I’ve shared before how when I only have 6 items on my to-do list, I get through them all easily but when I try to be SuperWoman and add lots more, I get even less than 6 done! I showed a coaching client my diary once and she was amazed.

When you find the right list, your life will change

No, no, no! The list is only the tool.

I used to subscribe to tons of productivity sites and really, many of them were all about the perfect tool. A tool is exactly that – something to help you get something else done.

Many people are so intent on creating the perfect list or finding the perfect planner that they get into an analysis paralysis mentality.

Because when you’re obsessing about the perfect to-do list, you stop actually doing the things on the list, right?

The truth is it doesn’t matter what you use as long as you get it down somewhere – whether on a post-it note, in a gorgeous notebook or in your phone.

So how am I doing with my lists?

I still use a weekly list and take off up to 6 items (sometimes a lot less) to do in a day.

My new  favourite thing is doing a mind-map list for my weekly planning. I do a spoke for each area of my life – husband, babies, house, work, business, health and fitness, etc. And then, off each spoke, I make new mini-branches with things I have to do.

Do you have any other beliefs about list-making?

Do you make lists? What works well for you?

P.S. There are some lovely lists (standard ones and mind maps) waiting for you in the free Organising Success Pack

I am teaching myself to let go.

I recently read a fantastic book called Motherstyles (Janet Penley) and it correctly identified that for my Myers-Briggs personality style (ESTJ) one of my struggles is letting go.

The book talks specifically about parenting but I recognise it in so many areas of my life and this is something I feel that I need to do some self-coaching on.

But as with everything in life, I’m doing it in baby steps.

So first thing to let go of was an easy-ish one. My diary (planner).

I have a GORGEOUS deep red diary/ planner but I haven’t been using it regularly. The same thing happened last year – I thought it was the maternity leave/ baby thing but no. I forget to look in it half the time and then two weeks pass.

And what good is a diary if you don’t look at it?

No more.

So I let go.

• Even though it cost a bit of money.
• Even though I’d customised it perfectly.
• Even though it’s bee-yoo-ti-ful. Don’t you agree?

And so on.

I was thinking about WHY I’m not using the beautiful diary and I realised I really, really, REALLY love a week-at-a-glance diary – that’s how I plan my life and that’s what works best for me.

I had a spare week-at-a-glance diary I got on a sale so I hauled it out and I am so much happier.

I planned out the rest of the month and it’s been so EASY doing it like this!

Small steps, people.

Yes, I’m sad not using the other but I cheer myself up because I’m teaching myself to let go

What are you working on? Please tell me I’m not the only one with issues.

Resources: How to set and achieve your goals

Amanda from Michigan, USA writes I love all your posts but I especially enjoy the ones about your planners/notebooks and how you organize them.

I’m secretly very glad Amanda wanted to know about the planning aspect since it is one thing that really works very well in my life.

First and most importantly, I do weekly planning – of our household, my business, socially, etc.

I firmly believe that doing only daily planning will drive you nuts – it certainly did for me – because you really feel the pressure of the to-do list every. single. day.

I do my business planning on Fridays because that’s when my accountability partner and I chat. Household planning usually gets done before the grocery shop – these days that’s a Thursday – but when I go back to work (I’m still on maternity leave), it’ll also move to Fridays. And then, the social and personal stuff gets done on a Sunday late afternoon.

My tools

I use both a paper and an electronic (Outlook) planner. Outlook is mainly to remind me to pay bills and not miss appointments especially when I’ve had busy days where I haven’t even opened my paper diary.

We also have a ginormous calendar in our kitchen where we mark off any socials but also things like when we need to phone in the electricity meter reading, when the gardener is due (we only get him in twice a month), when I start a new bottle of vitamins for the babies, etc, etc.
Household

I get an immense sense of satisfaction when I can use up stuff in the freezer and pantry so I first have a look there before I do my menu plan for the week.

Usually after I see which basic items I have, I add to my grocery list. E.g. if I have chicken in the freezer and I want to make Apricot Chicken, I may have to add a can of apricots or a sachet of brown onion soup to the grocery list.

Then I do a quick check through the house to see if we have things like breakfast and lunch goodies, cleaning stuff, baby items like formula and nappies and personal items for D and me.

Business

Quickly, in a nutshell, because I’ve written a whole system on organising your business, I review goals and set some action steps every week.

Personal and social

On Sunday nights I check all the calendars and see what’s etched in stone (doctors’ visits, supper with friends, etc.) and what still has to be done but can be moved around (gym!) depending on how busy we are. Also we don’t like to be too busy in any one week, more so than ever now with the babies because sleep is our number 1 priority.

I then plan when I will work on which business tasks because I don’t like feeling stressed out with too much to do. You see, I’ve realised my limitations

I usually coach clients on Mondays so I’ll do a freezer meal (almost no kitchen time). Tuesdays I write my weekly newsletter so I won’t make any social plans. And so on.

My other notebook

I also carry around a notebook to jot down basically anything that strikes my fancy:

• things to blog
• talk to nanny about ________
• things to buy
• website changes
• birthday cards to write out
• etc

If there’s anything that needs to be transferred to the planner, I do so on a Sunday evening so that there’s actual allocated time to attend to it.
Next year’s planner

I’ve already seen the planner I want to get for next year – the only problem is it comes in two gorgeous colours – deep purple and deep red. Both delicious, yummy colours. Both are absolutely lovely to the touch (I’m a tactile person) and so, because I can’t choose, I haven’t bought mine yet.

Which colour do you think I should go for?

Have you bought your 2010 planner yet?

If you’re undecided, here’s a series of 5 posts I did to help you out (with pics)

Choose the perfect planner

P.S. I will write about the babies in another post – it takes military precision to organise those two