Setting up a new planner: 70 Tasks to add

New year = new planner to set up! Things have a way of sneaking up on you throughout the year if you don’t plan them. The start of a new year is the perfect time to add recurring tasks and often-forgotten tasks to your new planner.

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Recurring Tasks to add to your planner:

Health

1. Dentist appointments
2. Eye check up – optomestrist
3. Prescription refills
4. Date you need to throw out makeup (I put a label with the date on the tube so I know when I opened it)
5. Reminders to clean your makeup brushes
6. Marathon’s or any other events you’re training for
7. Me time
8. Visit the vet
9. Dog flea treatment

Home & Life

1. Update life insurance
2. Check investments (property, shares etc.)
3. Update retirement plan / strategy
4. Vacations
5. People to contact
6. Put up holiday decorations
7. Reminder to send out Christmas cards
8. Book in a car service
9. Family events e.g. anniversaries & birthdays
10. Home projects

Cleaning

1. Clean A/C filters
2. Spring clean e.g. basement, attic etc.
3. Cleaning things that are often forgotten such as ovens, microwave, cupboard fronts, running a clean cycle on your dishwasher
4. Clean gutters
5. Clean out pantry and throw out expired food
6. Go through your closet and donate clothes to charity
7. Switch closet over to winter / summer
8. Clean windows
9. Test smoke detectors batteries / change
10. Reminder to flip your mattress

I like to use sticky notes for tasks that may change:

Related: 10 ways to plan using sticky notes

Work

1. Recurring meetings
2. Events
3. Public holidays
4. Performance review
5. Talk to your boss about salary
6. Leave days

Washi tape can be used in the monthly calendar for vacations and events that occur over multiple days:

Related: Best pens for writing on washi tape 

Monthly Reminders / Tasks

1. Check budget
2. Family night
3. Meal planning

Weekly Reminders / Tasks

1. Meal planning
2. Cleaning
3. Bin day
4. Laundry
5. Backup computer
6. Pay bills

Daily Reminders / Tasks

1. Take medication
2. Exercise
3. Ate fruit
4. Ate vegetables
5. Water intake tracker
6. Practice something e.g. a new language
7. Water plants
8. Read / bible study

Related: 100 things to put in your habit tracker of your planner or bullet journal (plus free printable habit tracker)

Related:  Week 42: Using the Focus Journal Daily Planner 

Money

1. Phone bill
2. Water bill
3. Power bill
4. Internet bill
5. Cable bill
6. Car insurance
7. Home & contents insurance
8. Life insurance
9. Paydays
10. Mortgage repayments
11. Car loan repayments
12. Rent payments

Children

1. Sporting events
2. After school commitments
3. Exams
4. Assignment due dates
5. Friend’s birthday parties
6. Swimming carnivals & sports days
7. Theatre
8. Award’s days
9. Excursions / field trips
10. School fees due
11. Go through closets and donate clothes that don’t fit anymore

Tools for adding recurring tasks to your planner:

Rather than re-writing the same tasks over and over again in your planner, use some of these tools to speed up the process.

• Planner stickers! (tutorial in this post)
• Washi tape for things that run over multiple consecutive days (such as vacations and events)
• Colored dot stickers for menstrual tracking in the dates at a glance calendar pages (that are usually at the start of a planner)
• Use stickers printed onto removable label paper
• Symbols instead of writing out entire words e.g. writing a dollar sign in different colors for different bills that are due, payday etc
• Highlighter or pen for color coding and flagging things where you’re short on writing space (and then using a sticky note with a code written on it)

Yearly calendars such as this one from the Lorna Leigh Lane Planner are great for using symbols and colored dot stickers or highlighters to color code as they don’t provide much writing space

(Related: how to color code bill paying in your planner (7 different ways) 

More planning posts:

• Weekly Planners That Start on Sunday (Planner Roundup) 
• 5 Ways to use sticky notes for school or college
• How to make lined note paper DIY planner insert refills in Photoshop (quick and easy step by step tutorial) 
• Minimalist Planner Decorating: Title Ideas for your Bullet Journal 
• 10 Quick planner hacks you need to try (planning tips & inspiration)

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