planners

Planner Hack 1: Highlight Completed To-Do Items

When coaching one of my first clients, she used her HI-LITER in a way that completely astonished me: When going through her to-do list she highlighted completed items, which I felt was counterintuitive - I had never gotten into highlighting books, etc., but I expected her to mark those that needed to stand out, i.e., items that hadn't been checked off yet. However, I tried to be open (managing my shock) and found out that she highlights completed items to make the incompletes stand out. After looking at her list, I realized she was really onto something. So, I gave it a shot, and I'll never turn back.

I continued with this format for 31 two-page spreads, through December 31, 2006. Pocket Moleskines have 192 pages, so it's possible to do an entire year and have several pages left over for notes (one distinct advantage over a stock Moleskine Weekly planner).

In the remaining back section after December 31st, I separated sections with the sturdy 3M tabs for 5 next-action lists where I can capture tasks to be completed. The toughest decision was the allotment of pages for each action list before starting the next (I chose 6),though I can always move the tabs around if need be.