I’m not doing so well at the blogging thing so far this year. Surprise freelance work and socialising have taken up a big chunk of my free time, and to be honest I’m still in ‘winter mode’; once it gets dark I just want to slump in front of the TV.

But I’m trying to resist it and swapping that TV time out with board games, reading and deliberately relaxing things, like long baths. It’s all time well spent, but sadly not time spent on this blog.

Having said that, I’ve done all the ground work to get my offline diary and plans for the year up to date (so far), so here’s a quick look at what I do to prepare for the months ahead.

Picking a diary that works

I’ve had many diaries and planners over the years, and to be honest they’ve all had their positives and negatives. This year I picked one purely because I loved the front cover (isn’t the text stunning?), and it’s fairly basic but serves its purpose.

Picking a diary is hard though. The main thing to look for is that it needs to fit in with your life. A couple of years ago I had an Erin Condren planner which I loved but was too bulky and heavy to really carry around. You also need to think about the inside: do you like to keep things simple or do you need a lot of space for notes, lists, and stickers? Do you want lined paper? A ringbound spine?

Once all the important decisions have been made and I’ve picked my planner, I go on to the fun part…filling it all out.

Doing the groundwork

I keep a hell of a lot of stuff online. The vast bulk of my life is in ToDoist. However, I love having a physical diary so I can see important things at a glance. What you choose to write in your diary depends on how much time you have and how much you want to record; for example, I don’t list the books I’ve read or the food I eat because I do that online. I like to keep my physical diary simple and event-based.

At the start of a new year (and for every new season) I:

Make plans with people
I don’t tend to make diary plans with friends who live close by (unless they’re associated with a particular event), but this is the part where I try and arrange things with friends who live far away and/or who are also planners (this tends to be the women in my life, let’s be honest).

This gets ramped up more in the spring and summer months when days are longer and travel is easier, but I start planning some of these meetups at the start of the year.

Check ‘Stuff I Might Be Interested In’
This rather vague heading covers entertainment-based things that tend to be one-offs. So I check what’s on at the local theatres for the year, what local events and festivals are planned for when, craft workshops and baking classes, and what big things are happening in London along with the usual concerts I go to.

I’ve just kind of skimmed over this, but it’s by far the biggest task on the list. Not only does it require a lot of research, but it also means a lot of decision-making, travel planning, and ticket booking. This year I spent about ten hours just doing this part…and it only covers the next few months.

Note recurring meetups and industry events
This is a mix of fun and professional events, largely sourced from Lanyrd and Meetup.com. Most of the regular, local events I go to are held on the same day every month, which makes things a lot easier. Examples include technology talks, board gaming days, local craft markets and so on, along with details of ticket costs and times. If tickets can’t be booked yet or have a specific release date, this is noted under the correct release week.

Add in birthdays
You’d think I’d do this online since they’re recurring, but nope. I find I tend to remember to plan for birthdays better if I have them written down in context. This is still a work in progress as I’m not the best at giving presents and cards, but I’m making more of a concerted effort to get it 100% right this year. Or maybe 75% right.

Record reminders
This is the section that has some crossovers with ToDoist. Things that are super important get a double reminder, for example domain name expirations and the cats’ injections. There’s also less important stuff like release dates for things, expiring loyalty points and vouchers and so on.

Write in appointments
Window cleaner, gardener, gym visits, the vet…whatever it is, if it’s an appointment of some description, it goes in too. These are mostly just reminders rather than tasks, but it’s helpful to make a note of this stuff.

Add in holidays
…and everything vacation-related, such as travel bookings, balances due, finding someone to feed the cats, stuff to buy, emptying the fridge, etc.

Record past events
This isn’t something I do religiously, but I’ll sometimes add key events in after the fact, especially if they’re important or I think I might blog about them. For example, this year I made a note of 2015’s New Year’s Eve party to remind myself how I started the year. For the rest of the year, this tends to be impromptu events, landmarks, and last minute decisions that I haven’t planned in advance.

Using my diary

After all this is done, I do a quick review to see how the year is looking. If there’s anywhere that looks particularly blank right now, I use the space to pencil in more potential plans with friends. If there’s anything where I can be a bit more flexible on dates, for example if I want to see a play that runs for a few weeks and have a choice of nights, I’ll book those in later so I can space things apart and ensure events don’t clash.

This year I’ve decided to deliberately keep blocks of time free. While I love looking at a full diary, the reality is that it gets exhausting pretty quickly. Many of the events we go to are held in the evenings, and when you’ve had a full week at work with an evenng event most nights, it’s good to have some free time at the weekend to avoid total burnout. I’ve burned out so many times over the past few years, and it’s not happening this year! :)

Each Sunday night, I take a look at the week ahead to remind me what’s coming up (I also use the opportunity to remind Joe what’s going on, both for events that we’re going to together, and so he knows what I’m up to). Sunday nights are catch up nights, which means I take twenty minutes or so to look at (and update) the week ahead, look at my to do list and do a meal plan (more on that in a future post).

Do you keep a diary? How do you stay organised?