Disclaimer:
This post was written by me. I am not a doctor or health professional, never went to medical school (shock, gasp – enter sound affects here!) and cannot be held liable for the information written here.
This post is meant to provide information that helps you understand more about planners and how they can benefit you.
It is not intended to provide expert or medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a professional. See my disclaimer page for more information. But now, for the fun and informational part of the post.
You are probably familiar with many of the primary benefits to using a daily planner, like being organized in your personal and professional life, never missing an important event, and having a place to write down your to-do lists and other important lists. And who doesn’t love a good list, and that accomplished feeling of being able to check off the last part of your list, and maybe head for that bottle of Stella Rosa. If you haven’t tried Stella Rosa, it’s a good sweet wine, especially for the price! And, just a hint, if you haven’t bought your sister or best friend a Christmas present, check out these cute personalized wine glasses. If you are getting her a personalized one, better order now!!
However, it can also be really useful for your health, including mental and physical health.
As you probably know,
A daily planner is a little bit of everything. Think about putting your entire life into one daily planner, including your calendar, schedules, to-do lists, personal information, and more. This is what it is going to be for you.
To summarize, a planner becomes the following:
Your Calendar
Your Personal Assistant
Your Detailed Schedule
Your Task and To-Do List
Your Motivation
Your Inspiration
.. and so much more!
You may have a general idea of what a planner is, but you probably haven’t though much beyond using the calendar.
Why Use a Planner Instead of Your Phone?
This is a very common question when the topic of using a daily planner comes up. Most planners, even when you print digital planner pages, are going to use pen and paper. This may seem a little old-fashioned to you, but there is still some amazing power to writing things down.
When you use your phone, there are a lot of drawbacks. You can only use it when charged, there is limited space for writing appointments and schedules, and it is a lot harder to be more detailed and specific.
There is something amazing about having a nice, big, and detailed planner for everything from your upcoming events, to to-do lists for each day of the week. Of course, having it all in one place, knowing you don’t have to have this app and that app, and then getting distracted by all of the social media apps, YouTube, and everything else on your phone. Then someone calls, and your out of your me time, lunch time, or the few minutes that you had to write everything down that you just had going on in your head.
A planner is a great place to empty your mind. A few posts back I had written about how a planner could help you sleep better, worry less because you were able to empty out your head of all those racing thoughts, or at least make a plan to.
With new year’s right around the corner, there is no better time to go ahead and start journaling for your better mental health. Here’s a wonderful bright and cheery happy planner here! I can’t wait until mine come in, and yes, I bought more than one. I’m going to be doing an unboxing and setting up my planner video the moment it does.
So, PopMom, that’s all great and wonderful, but just how can a planner change my life?
This is a much more complex answer than just organizing your life, but that is a good place to start. Think of the daily planner as your calendar, schedule, to-do list, tasks list, goals list, and everything else.
Each part of your life that you need to remember, organize, and focus on is all going to go in that planner. The more detailed you are in what you include in your daily planner, the more effective it will become.
The benefits of using a daily planner are extensive, but here is a good summary of some of the most important ones.
You Become a Healthier Person
Health is about more than just not getting ill and managing your weight, though you can definitely improve your diet and fitness with the help of a planner. You should think of this as your complete health and wellness, including physical health and wellbeing, mental, and emotional health.
Using a daily planner helps with all of this and more. You can truly become the healthiest version of yourself in the following ways:
Manage your weight and diet
Track fitness and physical activity
Log doctor and dentist appointments
Track anxiety or stress symptoms
Make to-do lists for self-improvement
There are so many ways you can improve your health just by using your planner, along the many other benefits you get in the process.
As usual, I have a Track your Worry away workbook that you can find in my free printables hub!
Track Your Fitness Goals
Fitness and physical activity is important for everyone, not just people trying to lose weight or bulk up. No matter who you are, it is important to fit some exercise into your lifestyle. The planner is a great tool for this, as you can schedule workouts in the calendar section of the planner, then have pages for tracking workouts, and listing your individual fitness goals.
Keep Track of Weight and Measurements
For those who are trying to lose weight or just maintain their current weight, a planner is a good tool for keeping track of your weight and measurements. There are of course digital apps that do this, but sometimes you want everything in one place, and to enter the weight or measurements on a date on your calendar. Don’t underestimate the power of putting pen to paper when tracking or setting goals.
It Improves Your Productivity
This is one of the benefits people like to talk about the most when they are talking about benefits of using a planner. It really helps to increase your productivity because you take this large amount of tasks, goals, and responsibilities, and schedule out every single thing.
Not only do you add things to your calendar, but you know what tasks need to be done every day of the week to make your goals happen. Soon, you will be a focused and productive person who is wasting less time procrastinating, and spending more time getting stuff done. This might be just the encouragement you need to get to the next level in your personal and professional life. You can also plan your meals, and your grocery shopping to!
Plan Meals and Diet
Another big part of health and wellness has to do with what you put into your body. Your diet isn’t just about weight loss, but about physical and mental health. You might have specific goals like reducing sugar and caffeine, or maybe you want to try to get to your 5 servings of fruit and veggies goal for each day. Many areas of the planner offer you the option to track what you eat, set nutrition goals, and even do some meal planning.
Use it for Mental Health
Health isn’t just about your physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. Planners offer so many mental health benefits, from reducing stress to helping with anxiety. You are becoming more organized and don’t have your mind full of things to do, but no idea when and how to do them. Everything is scheduled and planned out, and you can have more time for a little self-care.
You Can Relieve Stress
Aside from other areas of your health, stress belongs in its own category. Stress affects nearly every facet of your life, from your physical and mental wellbeing, to your productivity, concentration, patience, mood, and just about everything else.
Losing your hair? It might be from stress.
Have mood swings? Stress.
Lack of desire to spend time with family? Guess what – probably stress.
Start a Healthy Daily Routine
Using your planner itself can also be good for your health when you add it to your daily routine. Check in each day, write down the day’s to-do lists, check on tasks for your next goal. Really use it to its full advantage, and you will be amazed by how much better you feel.
Get this wonderful workbook in my printables hub!
Who doesn’t likie freebies? Sign up below, check your email, get your passsword and go to my printables hub here! The link will also be in your email! Lot’s of fun stuff coming in the future! Thank you for being here!
If you have any helpful hints or journaling ideas, either leave them below, or feel free to email me at the [email protected]