How I Started Using This Simple Planning Thing
Okay so I was scrolling through Pinterest last Tuesday night, drinking cold coffee because I forgot it on my desk. Found this “Virgo Planning” idea – sounded fancy but it’s actually just writing stuff down daily, weekly, monthly. My life was chaos back then. Had three Post-it notes stuck to my laptop with dentist appointments overlapping project deadlines.
Grabbed a cheap notebook next morning. Not some Instagram-worthy bullet journal, just regular lined paper from my kid’s school supplies. Divided first page into three sections with a shaky pencil line:
- MONTHLY
- WEEKLY
- DAILY
The Messy First Attempt
Started scribbling in the monthly section first. Put “pay taxes” on the 15th – wrote it in red marker so it’d stare at me. Under weekly, I dumped garbage like “groceries every Saturday” and “call mom”. The daily part felt stupid simple. Woke up Thursday and wrote:
- Walk dog (didn’t happen)
- Reply to client email (took 3 hours)
- Cook actual dinner (ordered pizza)
Crossed off nothing that day. Felt like an idiot staring at empty checkboxes.
What Actually Stuck After Two Weeks
Changed tactics. Now every Sunday night I sit with this ugly notebook for 15 minutes:
- Monthly section gets one scary adult task – last week it was “schedule car inspection”
- Weekly gets three achievable things – “laundry”, “date night”, “buy dog food”
- Daily gets ONLY two must-dos – stopped listing 10 impossible things
The magic happened when I put the notebook right next to my coffee maker. Can’t ignore it while waiting for caffeine. Started physically crossing out tasks with a green highlighter – that satisfying scratch sound keeps me going.
Why This Dumb System Works For Me
Six weeks in now and I haven’t missed a dental appointment. Monthly section caught that podcast recording date I’d totally forgotten. It works because:
- No fancy apps needing updates
- Seeing everything in one place stops calendar panic attacks
- Writing “clean bathroom” weekly means it actually happens sometimes
The notebook looks like a toddler drew earthquake diagrams now. Stains from coffee rings, ink smudges from when my pen leaked. Wouldn’t trade this ghetto system for any productivity app.
