The Budget Planner
I love a good planner. I rely on a daily planner to help me complete the many tasks of my business. Self-employed and working at home, it is easy to get distracted by the many interruptions of an ordinary day. Phone calls, conversations, strategy sessions—even meals—are stops in the flow of tasks needing to be accomplished.
I’m back. As I was typing the last sentence, my dear husband interrupted me with a question, which led to a discussion. At that point I forgot about this blog, and offered to make breakfast. Now, 2 hours later, after breakfast and a phone call, I sat down to turn off my computer, and discovered the opening paragraph. Ironic, isn’t it, that it had completely slipped my mind.
Thankfully, though this happens almost daily, I have a planner where I note each task to be done, and check off each task as it is completed. It helps me with the “now, where was I?” question I usually ask upon my return.
I walked into an organizational tools store last month to look at planners for the new year. I had devised my own, but it was horrible. Living in a remote location makes you inventive, but sometimes those inventions are just sad. I had created a 5×7 form on Word, printed 50 pages, hole punching them 14 times, and then twisted some flexible wire through them to create my own custom made spiral planner. Sounds good, except the wire didn’t cooperate very well, and the loops were uneven and bent. Hence, the pages sometimes tore as I turned them. Well, you get the picture.
I was very excited to be in a large metropolitan area at Christmas and enter a store devoted to organizing my business. There were many planner sizes and formats and I was grateful when a store employee approached me to assist. I told her I needed 6 columns, a spiral binding, and the 5×7 size. She led me to the perfect planner. I would have bought it, too, in a minute, if I had had the cash. But, alas, it was over my budget. (This being a super shopper, bargains kind of blog, you know that I am working with a reduced budget in most instances, and, even striving for purchases under budget specs.) I left the store reluctantly.
Thirty minutes later I came up with the perfect idea. I stopped in at a dollar store and purchased an inexpensive spiral bound journal. Then I went home, picked up my trusty ruler and lined out columns. It may seem tedious, but it is definitely cheap, and most assuredly fell within my budget guidelines. The cover is a heavy laminated cardboard and the design is cheery. Now I’m in business.