The ‘up’ page of the two-week planner
This page shows the two weeks in relation to your life.
The bottom line has a place for your ‘roles’ – you know, that ‘seven roles’ thing that came out as part of Microsoft software several years ago? You know, it was related to that “Seven Roles of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. You identify your roles in life – seven is a good number – and set goals for each role. See: http://attitudeadjustment.tripod.com/Books/7-Habits.htm .
Listing your roles reminds you what you are doing with your life, helps you set goals, and maintains and develops your character. My roles are: Personal – Inside which reminds me to take care of my mental health; Mother – Biz which reminds me I am a valuable manager of my children’s lives; Business Manager which reminds me I am taking care of money matters; Property Manager which reminds me I am keeping a well-maintained house for us to live in; Mother – Personal which reminds me I am important as a person to my children; Personal – Outside which reminds me I am important to my friends and other family; and Humano-Gaian which reminds me that all physical life depends on Gaia, The Earth.
Above the Role Line to the left is a place for you to write what you have recently accomplished – ‘Past’; what you are focussing on right now – ‘Present’; and what you will be focussing on in the near future – ‘Future’.
The two-weeks covered in the ‘down’ page (featured in the part 1 blog) are placed somewhere in the two months featured on this page.
Take a pen and circle the two weeks you are currently in. What is nice about this is that you can see how one month flows into another.
Above the second month are two lines for you to outline your THEMES for this time period. Themes are goals with character.
To the right is a vertical representation of the months you are currently experiencing – also laid out in a manner that shows you the flow of time.
You can jot down highlights and important events on the two months or the six months.
At the top centre are the words “Soul, Spirit, Mind, Emotions, Body” to remind you of the five aspects of life that contribute to your well-being and that of your family. You may have different life aspects, of course.
By combining your seven roles, the five aspects of life, and the three time frames of past/ present/future you can develop and clarify your goals; and this two-week planner can help you incorporate them into your whole time on earth. The visual connections displayed in this planner, a day, a week, two weeks, two months, and six months, help me connect what I need / want / am doing right now to what I have accomplished, where I’m “at”, where I’m going, and with whom. The visual layout and the physical existence of a binder act as symbols to my brain which help me connect the things I am doing to ‘me’.
Personally, a digital calendar didn’t work for me. I needed something concrete, just as I need my books to be physical books with spatial orientation of events in the story. I don’t think it is good to compartmentalize to the point of having every minute accounted for or layed out for you by you or anyone else. I know that is how ‘productivity’ works, but it doesn’t work that way for me.
I wish you well.
PS. When digital things come into my house, such as emails with dates, I jot the dates on a piece of paper, take it to my three calendars (fridge magnet, two-week planner, 12 month) and write them on each as needed. If I worked, I would probably use the digital calendars provided at work but they would all end up in a hard copy day planner. I would also probably have a day planner for ‘during’ the day at work and my two-week planner at home.
PPS. The Mr. Covey way of looking at things involving “urgent, not urgent, important, and not important” is probably great for people who are really really busy but I find it less stressful to keep those labels intuitively in my consideration.
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