Agenda: Organization and How-To

Hey y'all! 

I hope y'all are having a wonderful weekend, thank you for sharing part of your weekend with me because I know each and every one of you are busy...so let's get right into this!

I normally never post consistently over the weekend, but I've had my school supply post ready as a draft for about a week now, so when Saturday rolled around & I didn't have a scheduled post like I do Wednesday-Friday, I knew it was the perfect time to share it with you!

Even if you aren't in school, I really think that both of these posts could be very informative for you since they do deal with office supplies which is something that everyone deals with on a daily basis, we all have to make to-do lists & keep up with things!

First of all, let me just say that I did not realize how useful a planner would be until I transferred from my community college to a four-year university. Having one single place that I can refer back to when someone asks me to make plans or when someone asks me for a due date, it's just so simple and easy now with a planner. 

This specific planner was the 2013-2014 Vera Bradley Student Agenda in the pattern Lilli Bell. 

I loved the bright color of this agenda & while I would've preferred a Lilly Pulitzer, this one was a gift and so of course I used it. One thing that I disliked was the fact that it was a two-year planner. I really like a fresh planner for each year because, and this sounds awful, but I sort of get bored looking at the same one because it's something that I see every single day. 

Overall, I felt that this planner has held up really well so far. It has monthly & weekly spreads, which I did like. I tend to use a paper clip to clip the current week & the month together so I can look at the entire month as well as the things I'm doing that particular week in farther detail. 

I also enjoyed the spiral binding, I felt like it has held the planner together very well & the elastic band keeps all the pages together so nothing gets lost or falls out. 

This view of my planner simply shows not only the colorful patterns that are throughout the planner, but also the notes sections that are scattered throughout the planner. It seems that every semester I have used a notes section to write out my entire class schedule, including the teacher's name & the classroom number and the building the class it's in. Writing in the times for the class also helps me out for the first few weeks of each semester & I haven't gotten lost yet!

In my Back-To-School Necessities post I mentioned that I color code inside my planner, this is the monthly view pictured above for the month of September. I use the color pink for my Black America class, navy blue for the Auburn games, and light blue for my Foundations of Education (except for the exception of the wedding I put in there, but I hadn't decided my color coding system when I wrote that in, whoops!)

I would prefer a larger monthly view, which is exactly why when this planner ends in December I will probably be upgrading to the Erin Condren Life Planner or the Lilly Pulitzer Jumbo planner, just for more space & also because the Vera Bradley Student Agendas, the new versions, have been getting awful reviews!

This is a weekly view, you can just see more of the color coding (with the exception of Rodeo that is coming up, once again I wrote that in before I had my color coding worked out!)

The color coding works really well for me, I can always tell when I have online discussions due & for which class with only a glance. 

The above photo is just another example of a monthly view, this time of November. I have all of the football games written down, all of my assignments that I have been assigned thus far, but most importantly I want you to look at the bottom of the month. 

I have Thanksgiving Break the last week of the month & I have used Washi Tape (which I mentioned in my Necessities blog) to block out that week so that I know the dates by just a glance. I should've used a marker instead of a pen because the writing wasn't as dark as I wanted it to be, but you understand the point. 

If I had a larger planner I would use Washi Tape for so many more things, but with these small daily blocks it's harder to fit it in.

I hope y'all enjoyed a little review of how I use my agenda and the things that I do and don't like about it. 

I think that a good agenda that works well for you is what's important, whether it's Vera, Lilly, Erin, or even Wal-Mart. It doesn't matter where it comes from as long as you are happy with the system!

If you have any questions, feel free to post them below or email me at KMSSatJSU@Gmail.com & I'd be happy to help!

Until next time. . .

xoxo