I think the toughest organizing challenge many of us face is organizing our TIME. I know when I don’t plan ahead, I end up wasting time wondering what to do next. This
Or even worse, I get sucked into Facebook or Pinterest for WAY too long. While I don’t want to be a slave to my calendar, I’ve found some techniques like time blocking that really do work.
I’m a pencil and paper girl when it comes to planning, so when I found out my friend Abby had created a whole ebook of organizing printables, I was pretty excited. Since I know so many of you share my serious organizing obsession, I asked Abby if she’d want to pop over and share some tips with us.
She said yes AND is providing a new FREE printable here today! I’m 99.98707% certain you are going to LOVE this!
I’m thinking I need to order this cute pink binder and polka dot pocket dividers from Amazon to hold these and keep me organized.
Hi there, sweet readers of Polished Habitat! I’m Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog, and I am so delighted that Melissa invited me over to hang out with you all today!
On my blog you will find posts about home decor, craft projects, DIYs, and one of my very favorite things… organizing! {Melissa and I have that in common!}
I am particularly passionate about organizing my time. We’re all busy. We all have a lot on our plates. We all could use a little more time. And while I can’t give you a few extra hours in your day, I have found that planning my time really helps me to use it more wisely and accomplish more.
Over the years, I have created several different printables to help me organize my time because I think printables can help me order my information in a way that make sense. {And they’re pretty… that helps too! 🙂 }
In the past, I used one printable to plan my week and then a separate printable to plan out each day. I decided to kind of merge those two ideas together and came up with a brand new two-page planning printable that will help me keep my weeks and my days organized!
Organize Your Week with a FREE Printable
{Click here to download your FREE organizing printable!}
When using this printable, I start by writing down all of the set appointments I have on my schedule– my kids’ swimming lessons and school schedule, meetings, family get togethers, etc. I also jot down a few goals for the week because I think goals are hugely important!!
Before each day, then, I go in and plan out my day using time blocking. If you’ve never used the time blocking method before, it basically means that you assign all of the tasks you want to accomplish throughout the day to a specific time slot to help you stay on task. While this seems like it would feel restricting, I actually feel like it gives me a lot of freedom. If I’m working on a project, for example, and remember an email I have to respond to, I don’t feel like I need to leave my project because I know I have time scheduled to answer email later. Time blocking allows me to focus on the task at hand rather than jumping from thing to thing to thing because I’m afraid I’m going to forget something.
Planning my time really helps me check more things off my list at the end of the day, and I waste much less time because I have an organized list of what I need to do next.
Maybe someday I’ll be less busy or magically find more time (doubt it!), but until then, this method is really helping me make the most of my days and weeks!
Because I love pretty printables SO much, I recently put together a collection of organizational printables that includes over 70 printable pages!
Simplify: 25+ Printables to Help You Organize Your Life includes additional planning and time management printables as well as printables for cleaning and organizing, finance and budgeting, food and meal planning, kids, pets, and more!
All of the printables match the formatting of the freebie I shared today, so it’s a full, comprehensive set. While I don’t use all of these printables at the same time (that might get a little overwhelming!), each of them has helped me stay organized during one phase of my life or another.
It’s so much easier to keep track of everything with pretty printables!
Thank you so much to Melissa for having me today and thank YOU for reading! I’d love to have you over for a visit to Just a Girl and Her Blog— hope to see you there!
Jenni says
These are adorable and I love the layout! Thanks for sharing, I can’t wait to try them out!
Abby @ Just a Girl and Her Blog says
Thank you so much for having me, Melissa!
~Abby =)
Melissa George says
Thanks for creating such a perfect weekly planner printable AND for sharing it here!
Erin @ the-organized-life says
That printable is adorable! I am going to print it off and use it for sure!!! I find myself doing just what you described… starting one thing, remembering something else I have to do, so I run to do that, and pretty soon I’ve forgotten to do the things I really needed to get done. I think this idea may be super helpful. Thanks for stopping over to A Prudent Life and sharing Abby!
Anouki says
I don’t think you understand how long I’ve been looking for a printable week planner like this! Thank you so much, it is so hard to find something that is cute and functional at the same time.
Melissa George says
So glad you love it!!! Abby did an amazing job designing these pages – I totally agree that it’s the perfect blend of cute and functional.
Emily Davis says
Love this. Thank you.
Emily
stephelis says
I always struggle with time management and now with a newborn i know that this printables will help me for sure.
Pesi says
Thank you so much for this! I’m definitely going to try this out and see how I go. I suck at anything to do with PRIORITIZING so I’m excited to try this!
I, like you, get sucked in to Pinterest and Facebook and all sorts and my brain become too scattered that I don’t know where to start! So this is the post that I needed to read and will keep you posted 🙂
Have a lovely day 🙂
Pesi
Shaz says
I love your printables and wonder if you will consider making them in a Personal planner size as well to share. Not sure how to reduce these ones but love the layout! I am new to the world of planning and stumbled across your work through another website. Thanks for your generosity! 🙂
Melissa George says
HI Shaz, Abby actually recently launched a half page version of her printable planner over on her blog – find her at justagirlandherblog.com! Thanks!
Heather says
I love these printables! I’m going to get good use out of these 🙂
Tori Carle says
Hi! Any chance you could design some with more masculine colors? My husband wants to time block and we are having a ridiculously hard time finding time block calendars that don’t have flowers, adorable colors, and other feminine designs. He’s a police officer and you know the other guy would give him a hard time if he used that!
Melissa George says
That’s a great idea Tori – the printables were designed by Abby from justagirlandherblog.com so you might suggest that to her! If you find one without the girly details, just girly colors, you might try printing it in black and white for him to try.
HJ Temple says
I love the look of the weekly planner printables & would like to see more…but, unfortunately, your link to the other printables is taking me to a page with nothing more than a picture of you. Can you send me a link to your other printables? I have tried the link on Abby’s page as well, with no luck. Thanks for your help!
Melissa George says
Hi HJ, to get to Abby’s free printable library, you can go to https://justagirlandherblog.com and then click on the green button at the very top that says “I want in”. Her paid Simplify printable book is undergoing some updates right now and not currently available. That’s why you got her pretty picture instead. 🙂 I also have a couple available here: https://www.polishedhabitat.com/?s=printable Hope that helps!
Alyssa Clevenger says
Thank you for this cute printable! I’ve been calendar blocking for a couple weeks, and cant wait to use this print out instead of drawing it all by hand!