Planner Tips

September 8, 2021

Time-Blocking: Your Framework for Productivity

One of the most essential features in our Monthly booklets is the time-blocking section on the day spread.

When researching how to increase productivity — especially when needing to balance multiple roles in one day — there was one practical skill that came up again and again: time-blocking.

It’s highly recommended by productivity experts, and after using it in our own lives, we get why. When you make space to get realistic about your time availability, set up habits and rhythms, thoughtfully organize your tasks, apply prioritization and batching methods, and pad everything with ample margin—your productivity will increase.

With our Monthly booklet, the time-blocking feature on the day spread is completely customizable to your unique schedule. You can write in each hour to reflect your ideal rise and sleep schedule, or focus on only your working hours.

Think through your body’s energy, productivity, and rest rhythms (and for mamas, the rhythms of your kiddos). Then line out your tasks accordingly. Do you have the most creative energy first thing in the morning? Slot your most creative and important work during that time. Are you working during the day and making progress on your side hustle in the evening? Focus your time-blocking on those evening hours, writing in the key project you plan to tackle in the to-do column. Do you capitalize on your kiddos’ nap time to get work done? Slot that as your predictable working hours.

New to time-blocking?

A great way to develop this habit is to start by writing what you did do at the end of each day. Do not pass over this tip, it may seem simple, but it is a powerful tool for tracking the rhythms you already operate in. The truth is, you can’t wipe your current rhythms away and start over with a brand new schedule you think would be awesome. We are creatures of habit, and it simply won’t work. You have to begin to make change by first evaluating what you currently do, and then incrementally adjust the things that need adjusting. This will also help you see what is currently working well in the way you go about your day, and continue those life-giving habits you already have. By writing down what you did, you will be able to:

gauge what is realistic for you to accomplish in this season
spot the areas where you could use some discipline (we all have them!)
note the days or hours you tend to run errands, plan appointments or take care of home tasks
chart out the natural rhythms you (& your family) already operate in (meals, naps, school, work, etc.)

A few days (or even weeks) of this, and you will have loads of insight you can then use as you start to plan days before they happen. The practice of writing down what you did is a trick you can pull out again and again whenever you hit a season of transition (new job, new baby, new home, etc.). When things feel a little off, just take a few days to evaluate your rhythms and see what insights you can gain about what is working and what needs changed.

If you’ve never made a habit of time-blocking, start today! Flexibility is always required, but you’ll be amazed at how much time-blocking will enhance productivity. It’s the gift that just keeps giving.

Want to keep it fun? Highlighters, colored pencils, or even washi tape can be great ways to visually track the different sections of your day.

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The Evergreen Planner system is comprised of three unique pieces: the Cover, the Annual and the Monthly. Here at Evergreen we believe in self-compassionate planning and want to inspire women to craft a lifestyle that both fuels their dreams and serves their daily rhythms. Learn more about our system here!

September 1, 2021

Using Prompts Effectively: Self Care, Movement, Seasonal Goals & My Why

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

Last week, we looked at the first four prompts located on the day spread of our Monthly booklet. If you missed that post, it’s worth a read, but here’s a quick recap of the “why” behind these prompts:

We built these prompts around the best habit practices productivity gurus regularly write about, and we’ve seen huge benefits from using these prompts daily. When something feels off in our planning rhythm, it’s often because we’ve let the habit of using these prompts slide. Using these prompts again and again and again and again each day will build initially small, but long-lasting habits around creating targets and goals, reflecting on your days, and pivoting where needed.

Today we’re going to look at the final four: Self Care, Movement, Seasonal Goals & My Why.

A quick reminder before we jump in…

If seeing all of the prompts overwhelms you, start with 1-3, commit to practicing them regularly, and see what happens (you can even cover the others with washi tape while you get into a good mental groove with the ones you’ve chosen). We made this planner for you, so use it in the way that best fits the season you are in today.

Self Care

Such a simple phrase, and yet we have attached so much meaning to it. Sometimes, we feel guilty for taking the time do something so… positive. Other times, we make self-care too complicated, or we obsess over it. Self care doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s simply embracing the job you have to take care of yourself, so you’re in a place to serve vibrantly. If you find yourself staring at the “self care” space wondering what to put down, take a deep breath, push away the cultural expectations you’ve attached to that phrase, and write down what you need. When you cultivate abundance within, it overflows into your world without effort.

Movement

Unlike any other time in history, the majority of us in first-world countries can live our entire lives sitting on a couch. We can run an entire business empire while lounging in bed. We can order all our groceries without even getting up from our desk, and then pick them up without getting out of the driver’s seat (or have them delivered straight to our door). But movement is key to keeping us grounded in the real physical world. Exercise pumps fresh oxygen to our brains, detoxes the body, lowers stress levels, and can help balance hormones. It can re-energize us in a way no podcast or motivational video can. Movement doesn’t have to mean running 10 miles every day. It can be as simple as having a dance party with the kiddos or strolling through the neighborhood after dinner, but can also be used to track seasons of intense physical training. Do you—but make sure you’re incorporating movement into your daily rhythm!

Seasonal Goals

Have you ever spent days, caught up in the fervor of resolutions and possibility, pondering all your goals for the new year…only to get to May and realize you’ve made little to no progress on any of them? We’ve all been there. The reality is this: unless those big, life-changing goals are in front of you every single day to inform your decisions, you’ll never have the space to follow through. We included a “seasonal goals” prompt every day in our Monthly, so you can get serious about what it’ll take to make your dream a reality.

By daily envisioning a life-giving future, you’re providing for your mind an anchor for you to focus your creative efforts and problem-solving energies. You’re giving yourself a target at which to aim when you set up your schedule and develop your boundaries. You’re leveraging your God-given gift of imagination in order to do something that only you can do to cultivate abundance in a space that only you can fill. You’re taking your most noble hopes out of the realm of daydreams and formulating a plan of action.

My Why

Connected to your “seasonal goals” is the prompt that asks you to put into words your motivational “why.” The value of this question cannot be overstated. If you don’t know the “why” behind your alarm is going off at 5:30am, you’ll push snooze. If you don’t know the “why” behind the budget sacrifices you’re making to chase that side hustle, you’ll spend money haphazardly. Stating your “why” each day is going to fuel you on the days you make massive progress and help kick you back into action on the days you’d rather binge Netflix.

Your “why” is an opportunity to consider your core calling, and make sure everything you’ve planned for the day is aligned with that. There have been countless times when we’ve decluttered our brains onto our day spread, and by the time we get to our “why,” we can see our priorities with such clarity that we adjust our plans then and there, pivoting immediately into a stronger day. The quality and effectiveness of the activities that fill up your day is directly linked to the strength of your “why.” As you lean into purpose, you’ll find your resolve growing stronger.

The daily rhythm of planning with each of these prompts is a domino-habit that can serve to keep your goals and intentions in front of you so they can sink into you, and begin to influence your decisions. Get your thoughts organized so that you can build a working memory around the things that matter most to you in life. This kind of quiet work builds a foundation for the will power it takes to make those many small but vital choices you have to make, hour-by-hour, that train your time and your focus toward your priorities.

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August 25, 2021

Using Prompts Effectively: Targets, Gratitude, Lessons & Victories

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

You know at your core that developing strong habits can change your life. It’s a beautiful vision. But actually re-crafting your lifestyle around your most life-giving priorities takes more effort than just knowing it’s a good idea. We created our planner to deeply and consistently support you in this work.

We invested years of research into the development of a network of powerful prompts that have been proven to result in more intuitive and confident choices, a more effective approach to productivity, and a stronger growth mindset. We distilled them down to the essentials so that they could fit seamlessly into a healthy morning (or evening) rhythm. And we personally field-tested them for years. We have been reaping so many benefits from having organized minds and putting our personal growth cues on autopilot, and we are thrilled to get this game-changing system into the your hands.

Our planner has eight effective prompts, and in this post we are going to look at the first four: Targets, Gratitude, Lessons & Victories.

A quick tip before we jump in…

We truly believe that learning to leverage each one of these prompts on the day spread will significantly increase the results of your productive efforts. But it’s also critical to keep everything in the context of the season you are in. If seeing all of the prompts overwhelms you, start with 1-3, commit to practicing them regularly, and see what happens (you can even cover the others with washi tape while you get into a good mental groove with the ones you’ve chosen). We made this planner for you, so use it in the way that best fits the season you are in today.

Targets

If you could only choose 1-3 things to get done today that will move the needle forward on your most essential goals and responsibilities, what would they be? This is the question you should ask yourself when your pen hovers over the “targets” prompt. They can be as simple as “fold all the laundry” and as amazing as “go live with the new website.”

Keep in mind: this is NOT your traditional todo list (you have one of those to the right of your time-blocker). Your top “targets” section isn’t the space to write down the things you think you should do or the things you hope to get to. These are your critical goals, the ones you are committing to getting done. We all have days where we have to pivot what we planned because providence comes knocking. But beginning with realistic daily targets will make this practice wildly more effective.

Gratitude

Gratitude has become a buzz word in recent years, but it’s not without cause. Recognizing the relationships and resources God has graciously given us is a key practice in helping the mind to become considerate instead of simply reactionary. It’s a moment to pause, breathe deeply, and take in the realities of your situation. It’s an opportunity to relish the goodness of life, write words of appreciation, and to see a higher purpose in the sorrows. This isn’t forced optimism or fake positivity; this is training your brain to see God’s abundance and lean into hope.

Lessons

We all have challenging days. We all have weeks that went nothing like we thought they would. But more importantly, we all have a choice about how we’ll process those experiences. Will we sigh and vainly wish life would get easier? Or will we take the time to actually reflect on the choices we made? When we’re considering the lessons of a tough season, we should evaluate all of the things that are actually within our control. Are we by default making choices that drain ourselves of energy and sink us deeper into survival mode? Do we have sound boundaries for our schedules, our relationships, our words, our emotions? Unless we get still and seek wisdom, we’ll react our lives away. Noting lessons—big or small—empowers us to adapt our plans to our lived reality, admit where we need to grow, and make changes. This cycle of experience, reflection, learning, and growth, is what will push you to get beyond survival mode and actually accomplish those heart goals you dream about.

Victories

This is one practice we can’t help but get on a soap box about every time it’s mentioned. If you never stop to acknowledge your successes, you’re WIRING your brain to think that all of your effort is futile. We’re blowing the whistle on this in all of our lives. We’ve gotta STOP IGNORING PROGRESS.

Take the time to micro-journal even a handful of victories – big or small – you’ve accomplished lately (waking up on time, hitting 1,000 subscribers, completing that work or school project, sweet one-on-one time with a child).

It’s so easy to let progress slip away in the shuffle of daily to-do’s. But by neglecting celebration, rest, and enjoying the fruits of your labor, you’re turning away the comfort God provides through His abundant blessings. You’re acting like the fate of the world rests on the intensity of your hustle—and that is a recipe for burnout. Celebrating your victories might just be the key to revitalizing your motivational energy.

Take time to think about each of the four prompts above and consider how using them might help you reflect, adjust your habits, and work towards more intentional living. As we said at the start, we’ve seen huge benefits from using these prompts daily. When something feels off in our planning rhythm, it’s often because we’ve let the habit of using these prompts slide. If you’re in a tough season and trying to work towards better rhythms, begin by using these prompts and see where it takes you.

Using these prompts again and again and again and again each day will build initially small, but long-lasting habits around creating targets and goals, reflecting on your days, and pivoting where needed.

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August 18, 2021

Why We LOVE Blank Space & How To Utilize It

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Planner Tips

Have you ever gotten lost down the rabbit hole of artistic journaling layouts? We have always adored how customizable a blank notebook is, and a quick Pinterest search will show you the myriads of ways you can make it your own.

But for us, that level of creativity isn’t always feasible. Art supply caddy or not, we have thoughts to organize and things to do! As much as we’d love to spend our time drawing and creating unique daily layouts, we needed something that met us when we woke up each morning and was immediately useable. So we built in some structure, but kept what we loved: that blank bullet space that can be used in solely practical ways (hello scratch notes I hope no one ever sees) or that can that become the canvas for your latest masterpiece.

It flexes to fit your unique style in so. many. ways.

Your daily spread bullet space becomes home to:

meeting/phone call notes
breaking down a task into actionable steps
that book recommendation your friend just mentioned
key takeaways from a podcast
brainstorming a project
mind-mapping through complex layers of thought
dumping ideas that you can come back to sort later

The blank bullet space on our week spread is great for:

your running to-do list
displaying week goals
nailing down a meal plan
inspiring yourself with lyrics, scripture, or a quote

Have you noticed the blank bullet page at the beginning of your Monthly? Our friend Holly (one of our first beta users) came up with a revolutionary way to utilize this space as you retire a booklet:

Go through the booklet and note pages you’ll want to reference later (such as the notes from a doctor’s visit, the recipe your sister shared with you, or those critical business ideas).
List these out index-style on the first page of your monthly, noting the topics & page numbers.
Transfer any notes you immediately need to your new Monthly (or to a section of your Annual, if you’ll need them all year)
When done, use a checkmark on your new index page to let you know this booklet has been sorted.
Slip it out of the Cover & store.

It is now easy to pull out and reference in the future thanks to this quick cataloging process.

The three pages at the end of the Monthly are great for:

journaling through the progress made on monthly goals
working up goals for the upcoming month
tracking monthly expenses
month-long habit trackers
vision boards
any brainstorming session that takes several pages

We love each of the above uses, and have utilized each of them at different points. But there are also plenty of days the blank space stays blank. Having blank space in your planner isn’t negative, and doesn’t mean there is a lack of planning. Blank space reminds your brain that you have space to process, that your life isn’t filled to the max, but full of the things you have chosen based on our goals & values.

So if you find a lot of the blank bullet space remains blank, don’t fret. When nothing comes to mind, leave it blank and remember you’re giving your mind the gift of space to process and focus, then fill only when you find the need to.

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