Will you be recording your inventions there? Or ideas for a play, novel or poem you might one day write? Will you be capturing ideas for any project? Or do you just need a place to write down your to-do or shopping list? Some write down their thoughts or family information in a notebook, others take notes from work or events. Some people use a notebook as a repository for all sorts of ideas that pop into their heads.

Choose the notepad that suits you. There are many different types of notepads, so take the time to choose the one that suits you best and don’t be afraid to spend a little more money. After all, your immortal work may appear in this book! Here are some criteria for selection:

  • Size and portability. Notepads are most useful when they are always at hand. Choose one that is large enough to keep track of your notes and small enough to take with you everywhere you go. Where do you want to keep your notebook: in your pocket, wallet, bag, backpack?
  • Conditions for keeping records. Will you need to take notes while standing? Or on the way? Then you need to choose a notebook with a hard cover so that it is comfortable to hold in one hand while taking notes with the other. Should it be used in specific conditions: in the kitchen, in a factory, on the street, in a boat?
  • Target. A notebook with blank pages and a colorful floral cover may inspire you to journal, but it's unlikely to be appropriate for a business event. The spiral notebook can be completely unfolded, and the cover will not interfere with your notes. Do you need lined paper or Blank sheet, or maybe fields? Some notebooks even have musical items printed in advance.
  • Separators and markers. Do you need to divide your notebook areas into different categories, for example, Housework, Ideas, Reflections, To-Do List? Or is it better to use a free-form notebook, such as for keeping a diary? You can buy notebooks with ready-made dividers or divide them yourself with stickers, flags, bookmarks, and so on.
  • Legality. If your notebook will contain information that you might want to patent in the future, look for a padlocked notebook with numbered pages. Learn the rules for using a notepad for such purposes.
  • Take notes in a notepad. Develop your own method for getting value from your notebook. Use it in the way that is most convenient for you. There are many situations in which it is useful to take notes in a notepad:

    • When you receive a task.
    • When you are thinking about an invention or a new idea.
    • When they give you a compliment, give you a recommendation or good advice.
    • When you hear something funny or unusual.
    • When you want to remember something.
  • Organize your notes, at least minimally. Even if you think it doesn't matter, taking the time to categorize your entries will save you much more time and effort in the future that you would otherwise spend searching for the information you need.

    • Date each entry.
    • Number the pages.
    • If possible, include titles for your posts.
    • Record contextual information, such as who attended the meeting.
  • Keep it readable. Write legibly enough so that you can read what you have written. You should be able to read your handwriting. If you are making notes for public reading, make sure others can read it too.

  • Keep records regularly.

    • Write constantly and consistently. Write at approximately the same time every day, if possible. If you're a morning person, the early morning may be the most productive time to take notes because your brain is fresh and functioning at its most flexible, and the activity helps shape the day ahead. “Owls” are more suitable for record-keeping evening time; It's useful to take a little time before leaving work or school to mark the important points of the past day and outline plans for the next. Either way, writing daily will help make notebooking a habit.
    • Take notes during short breaks while you're standing in line or waiting for the next event, for example.
    • Write as soon as any thoughts come to you. Ideas come and go, and if you don't write them down, they might be forgotten. Remember the historian's approach: What is not written down did not happen.
    • Sometimes it’s useful to just pour it out on paper - write everything that comes to mind until you come to a “useful” thought. Your “outburst” may turn into something important!
  • A planner is a great tool for planning your schedule and daily tasks. You can also add a lot of useful things to your diary that will help you remember the main thing, be organized in all areas of your life, and most importantly, relieve your head. After all, in fact, there are a lot of things that we try to remember and keep in our heads, although it would be better to write them down and free up space in our memory 😉

    Below are 33 ideas for your diary that will help make it even more useful.

    Health and sports

    1. Drinking regime. We all know that we need to drink about 1.5-2 liters during the day clean water. And so as not to forget about water, there is such a daily tracker in the #So_easy_planner diary. It's simple: I drank a glass and painted it over. You will never forget that you need to drink water, because... it’s right before your eyes, and you won’t forget how much you’ve already drunk 😉
    2. Physical exercise. You can borrow daily or on some weekly schedule. All you have to do is write it down in the daily activities and habits box in your notebook. For example, note that I go to yoga on Mon, Wed and Fri. And also, for example, I run every day, we also write running here and celebrate it daily. Everything is before your eyes, pretending you forgot won’t work 😉
    3. Sports programs. If, for example, you are doing some kind of program, or doing a challenge, then you can also write them down on writing pages or simply print them out and paste them or attach them with a paper clip to your diary. By the way, a cool website with such programs and challenges is darebee.com. For example, do you want to learn how to hold a plank for 5 minutes in a month? Please!
    4. Nutrition programs or challenges. For example, you pass detox program? Do you want to cleanse your body of sugar? etc.

    Family and home


    Personal


    Business and technology


    Children

    1. Schedule of additional classes. We have two daughters. The eldest is engaged in cheerleading, drawing and English, the youngest is going to prepare for school and will soon also go to school. It happens that a grandmother calls and says: I’ll pick up my granddaughter after training, what time is she free? And I’m just in a stupor, I don’t remember right away. Of course, you can keep all these training schedules in your head, but why ;). You can just write it down.
    2. School timetable. If necessary, of course. For example, I don’t follow this 😉
    3. School bell schedule. But this is a necessary thing to understand when you can call your child if something happens, and when it is not necessary.
    4. Vacation schedule. It is usually said at the beginning school year and useful to write down to plan family time, rest, vacation.

    Finance

    1. Savings tracker. If you want to save up a certain amount for a large purchase or just for a vacation and want to see your progress visually, such a tracker will be very convenient.
    2. Credit tracker. Again, if you have loans and you want to visually see how much is left until full repayment.
    3. Bill payment dates. Of course, if it is necessary and important. For example, my meals in the garden are paid until the 20th of the current month, but for English and preparation for school you need to pay until the 1st. Etc.

    What interesting things do you keep track of or write down in your planner? Share with us in the comments below 😉

    Planning and maintaining a list of important things is a whole science. The now popular direction of time management studies various techniques that make it easier to draw up plans and control their implementation. Special techniques will make the process efficient and will also ensure the effectiveness of daily planning.

    Why do you need a diary:

    • Determination of priority tasks. By sketching out a to-do list, you can immediately visually evaluate the important ones and weed out the unnecessary ones. In addition, you can immediately calculate the approximate time to complete and the reality of the task.
    • Reminder for regularly recurring plans. A novice accountant must know the dates for submitting all reports, and planning for the current month should take into account weekends and non-working days, as well as a possible postponement.
    • Leave time for rest. Having estimated the approximate volume daily tasks Possible overtime or downtime can be eliminated. Your work schedule will be as optimized as possible, which will also allow you to devote time to family and relaxation.
    • Describe an algorithm for complex problems. It is known that any task, even one requiring maximum concentration, can be divided into several stages. This will not only allow you to complete the task successfully and quickly, but also not burn out professionally.
    • Motivation for actions improves. Even a quick glance at a list of completed tasks can be encouraging and boost self-esteem. In addition to routine tasks, highlight a page for personal achievements, where you record your successes, even if they seem insignificant to outsiders.
    • Efficiency increases. By highlighting and completing the most important tasks of the day, you will accomplish much more than without prompts. It is important to start working with the most complex and time-consuming projects in order to later switch to easier ones, and not vice versa. Professionals also recommend starting the day with the most unpleasant task (in the terminology of a time manager, a “frog”). After completing it, your mood will immediately improve, not only because everything went well, but even from the realization that the “frog” is over and everything is over.

    It is advisable to keep a notebook next to you at all times. If necessary, write down important contact information, sample documents, and links to websites here. By storing all the necessary information in one place, you won’t have to waste time looking for an accidentally lost piece of paper or bothering your colleagues.

    How to keep a diary correctly

    It is better to avoid clear rules and boundaries for recording important matters. It is more convenient for each person to adhere to own vision planning, even if we're talking about about a business diary. It is usually most productive to make plans for the month, but it is also practiced to keep records for a year or more. You can try to first fill out the list of urgent and regular plans for a week or two, and then expand and supplement your list.

    Important points for keeping a diary:

    • To maintain a list of important plans and tasks, use any recording method convenient for you. This could be a business organizer, an electronic notebook, or even a school notebook, the main thing is that the list is always at hand and updated regularly.
    • You need to regularly check your plans, cross out those already completed and add new ones. This will help free up your memory for really important information and not keep all the dates and events in your head. It has been proven that our brain (with the exception of outstanding examples: Caesar or Einstein) can be busy thinking about no more than four to seven problems at a time. For modern accountant This is completely unacceptable, because every day you have to perform many different tasks at the same time. That is why, transferring planned tasks to paper will help you focus on doing the work, rather than planning it.
    • Be sure to set a priority level. It is advisable to set one or two important tasks for each day (taking up a decent amount of time), as well as several additional ones. Keeping a diary will help you avoid time pressure at work, as well as correctly distribute time to complete tasks.
    • Without timely monitoring, keeping a diary becomes meaningless. It is advisable to check your progress daily, and in case of non-fulfillment, make notes about the reason and rescheduling. Gradually, this will develop one of the best habits - to follow through with everything.
    • Start planning for tomorrow today. It is best to make a to-do list for tomorrow in the evening, to which you can transfer all unfulfilled items.

    Special techniques allow you to evaluate your progress in the long term. This could be a list of plans for the month or even a year ahead, not only in the personal sphere, but also for professional activity.

    Examples of such plans:

    1. List of books to read.
    2. A course of lectures or seminars.
    3. Learn a foreign language.
    4. Visit certain places (cities, restaurants, museums).
    5. Visit distant relatives or friends.
    6. Improve your professional qualifications.

    Along with production tasks, you can also allocate time for personal achievements. A diary is your personal space in which you can mark all the dates that are important to you, plan a vacation and make notes on the birthdays of loved ones and friends. It's also a good idea to set aside space for general information, such as writing down your after-work to-do list, daily shopping, meetings, or trips.

    Keeping a diary helps develop self-discipline, as well as increase the effectiveness of your professional activities. It is very important for an accountant to keep reporting dates under control, as well as to correctly distribute work time. This will help you avoid emergency situations, as well as devote proper time to family and relaxation.

    Did the article help?

    Get another secret bonus and full access to the BukhExpert8 help system for 14 days free of charge

    Not everyone has thought about how to keep diaries, although this question This is often asked by people who make every minute count, namely business people. After all, in order to be successful you need to be able to manage your time wisely, without forgetting about your family and self-development. Even if you are creative personality, a diary will help you find a free window for art and relaxation. Well, athletes often live according to a schedule: sleep, meals, training - everything is strictly according to the schedule. So how to keep a diary correctly?

    “Only the transition from dreaming and planning to action proves the seriousness of your intentions. Don’t be one of those indecisive people who constantly comes up with different ideas but never implements any of them.”

    Sergei Yarushin

    It is important to know! Decreased vision leads to blindness!

    To correct and restore vision without surgery, our readers use ISRAELI OPTIVISION - the best remedy for your eyes for only 99 rubles!
    Having carefully reviewed it, we decided to offer it to your attention...

    A diary is a wonderful tool, maintaining which allows you to spend more efficiently. own time, eliminates the need to maintain a large number of information in your head, and can also turn into a real full-fledged hobby that you will enjoy doing every day.

    Types of diaries

    There are two main types of planners: dated and undated.

    A dated diary is designed to strictly structure your own time, and allows you to solve a large number of assigned tasks with a high degree of efficiency due to proper planning time and use of personal resources.

    Undated diaries are created for those who are not particularly involved in planning and do not like any strict frames and restrictions. The undated diary has no time items, which means you can use it as you please. This version is most often used by artistic people or teenagers. Both of these options can be really useful and fun additions to your activities.

    Choosing an organizer

    To properly maintain a diary, the first thing you should pay attention to is the sample appearance of your paper assistant. Of course, everyone has their own example of an ideal diary, as well as the idea of ​​how to keep it beautifully. The appearance of this little book should encourage you to pick it up more often and make some notes in order to ultimately develop the habit of an online diary.

    If you are all a fan of paper pages, or you enjoy scheduling your time without relying on templates and giving free rein to your creativity, then you should think about not only how to fill out the diary, but also how to design it.

    You should not choose a large diary, since compactness is an important factor. Sometimes you will have to take it with you in a backpack or bag, in which case big sizes They will only get in the way. Besides, you always want to leave a bulky thing at home, while a small notebook will always be an indispensable travel companion and keeper of your time and ideas.

    The diary should be made of good enough paper that will not fade or be too soft. Don't forget that this is your constant travel companion, and it should please the eye for at least a year.

    Of course, you can just buy a beautiful leather-bound diary, or even have it made to order, but if you create it yourself, it will certainly attract your attention more often. Of course, depending on your age and gender, your organizer may look completely different, but it will be your unique interpretation. Such diaries reflect inner world, its owner, revealing his best sides.

    Glider design

    An excellent way to dilute the seriousness of everyday life, and just lift yourself up once again mood - lay out notes with useful tips, or wishes. If your loved ones leave such notes, finding them every day will become a pleasant association with filling out the organizer.

    For girls, the very design of a diary can become exciting activity, a model of harmony and design talent. Moreover, what should be in every girl’s diary is a specially allocated time just for herself, because a girl, being among many things, should still remain feminine and unique.

    You can use beads, embroidery, decoupage for decoration title pages. With a little creativity, filling out such a diary in the future will be especially enjoyable. If a teenage girl has to keep a diary, then appearance may be a manifestation of youthful hobbies, careful selection of design and personal preferences.

    Of course, if it’s a boy who keeps a diary, or a busy man, the choice almost always falls towards minimalism. This design does not distract and is aimed purely at practical use.

    Adult women also often simply do not have time to decorate the organizer sentimentally. And here it doesn’t matter at all whether this is a business woman in front of you or an ordinary housewife. Women who essentially work from home have no more time than office workers. The organizer will help such ladies write down a list of groceries, household chores, and notify them when to pick up their child from school.

    By the way, the softly upholstered leather organizer ceases to be just a functional booklet and turns into a stylish and necessary accessory. Such a gift will be valuable for both men and women. And by providing it with a memorable signature, you will make the gift as close to your heart as possible.

    Electronic or paper diary?

    If you are a fan modern technologies, or have long preferred electronic notes to pen and paper, then how to use a diary can be perplexing. In fact, the solution is incredibly simple: many companies have long developed applications that will help you plan your day wisely. Moreover, such a diary does not need additional space; it easily fits in a phone, tablet, or laptop.

    Also advantages electronic version may include event reminders, easy file editing, and adding multimedia information. Using such a program, the options for what can be done in a diary expand significantly: from planning purchases to business plan strategy.

    How to fill out the diary?

    If we talk about the internal content of the diary, that is certain rules, how to fly your glider as efficiently as possible.

    The main rule for filling out a diary is to be honest with yourself. Of course, you can plan a huge number of things, but will it be useful if you don’t have time to complete even half of it?

    Trying to include as many points as possible, we are trying to optimize and fill the day important things and don't forget anything. But in the end, this leads to overload of the day, the inability to distinguish truly important things from routine.

    If you are honest with yourself, then even after writing a list of 20-30 things, after analyzing them you will be able to understand which are important and which are not. For example, if you are going to an important meeting, you will naturally drink coffee on the way, as this is part of your daily ritual. In this case, the automatic action does not need a reminder and simply clogs your horizons, preventing you from focusing on the most important things (for example, preparing for the meeting itself).

    How to prioritize?

    Always highlight the most important things. If you have just started maintaining a glider, you will automatically add something extra. In this case, spend extra time identifying tasks that, if not completed, will not affect the achievement of the final result. You must learn to understand what you need to focus on and what things you can sacrifice.

    “Remember that every minute spent planning saves ten minutes of your work.”

    Brian Tracy

    By the way, it takes some time to learn to understand what things are really important. To do this, think about urgent matters, matters that can be postponed, as well as their degree of importance for you personally. To use your diary correctly, place things in this order:

    • urgent and important matters (pay bills);
    • urgent unimportant matters (wash the dishes);
    • non-urgent important matters (write a chapter for a thesis);
    • non-urgent unimportant things (think, is it worth doing them at all?).

    By deleting a certain number of non-urgent and unimportant tasks, you will have free time, which you can use wisely. And also, having figured out what should be the most important in the diary, there will be no confusion in the arrangement of tasks.

    It is better to highlight the most significant matters and dates with a colored marker so as not to miss them. Ideally, to make using the diary as convenient as possible, it should be used for different types records are labeled differently. For example, for memorable dates you can use an orange marker, and for business meetings- green.

    To develop the habit of keeping a diary, you need to make sure to write every day. By postponing over and over again, you must understand that in this way you are postponing your dream, leaving it along with doing things for later.

    If there is no desire at all, or thoughts appear that you can postpone the recording until tomorrow, just remember your goal and that returning to your old life without planning will certainly not gain anything positive.

    In order not to lose particularly important information, set aside several pages (perhaps at the end of the diary) for entries that should always be at hand, or leave a bookmark in those places that are most often used.

    It is much better to set fewer goals for yourself and achieve them than to take on overwhelming work. Also, having completely completed all the tasks (even if there are few of them), you will receive greater moral satisfaction from completing the assigned tasks. Leaving even a small number of things to do, you will go to bed with a feeling of incompleteness, which, deposited in the subconscious, will slowly undermine your self-confidence.

    In order not to stretch out the completion of items throughout the day, set a time frame that you will not go beyond. It is better to do fewer things with greater efficiency, thereby managing your time correctly.

    You can make it a rule to cross out tasks that have already been completed. This will help you see the amount of work done, and in addition, it will give you pleasure from crossing out lines.

    Make planning things in your diary a healthy habit

    At the end of the day, make it a habit to review your work, even if it didn't work out. Having taken into account all the mistakes, the next time you fill out the diary, you will be able to better determine the use of time and set priorities.

    “The only obstacle to the implementation of our plans for tomorrow can be our doubts today.”

    Franklin Roosevelt

    When distributing plans, divide your diary into the first and second parts of the day. Try to do the most unpleasant and difficult work right away, without putting it off until later. In any case, having done some work, you will want to take a break and postpone actions that require maximum concentration.

    Be sure to give yourself a break, don’t forget a short break after busy hours. Only after regaining my strength, the following actions will be as effective as possible.

    Also, don’t forget to reward yourself with small nice things. For example, stopping by your favorite boutique on the way from a successfully held conference, or simply eating ice cream after getting an A+.

    “Planning without action is a dream. Action without planning is a nightmare.”

    Japanese proverb

    Of course, you can plan the whole week at once, but only highly organized people who have some experience in distributing tasks can do this. Ideally, you should fill out the diary in the evening, setting aside a certain time for this. By turning filling out your personal organizer into an enjoyable ritual, you will be happy to return to it again and again, thus creating a habit.

    If you started a diary to achieve a specific goal, break it down into days and talk about it every day, especially in the morning. This will improve your motivation and make your goals clearer, and the path to achieving them easier and more enjoyable.

    Let keeping a diary be a new hobby for you that will help you realize your life. And don't forget:

    “Dreams are plans realized on time.”

    Natalia Grace

    With coming mobile applications Humanity has a new dilemma: which diaries - paper or electronic - are more convenient for planning? The answer to this question is to each his own. So we decided to devote this material to different systems of reference.

    Bullet Journal

    This technique was created by American web designer Ryder Carroll. According to him, the system helped him build a successful career, and he worked with such successful brands as Adidas, IBM, Cisco and HP..
    Bullet Journal has a whole list of so-called “conventions” that you need to master. We will try to convey everything as simply as possible, without unnecessary terms.

    Step one. Number the pages.
    Step two. Create a table of contents. For example, the schedule for June starts on page 16, the list of films to watch starts on page 58, and a huge work project starts on page 45.
    Step three. Tell me, who doesn’t like keeping lists? Ryder Carroll suggests dedicating several pages to listing books to read, cities to visit, and global purchases.
    Step four. Let's start creating a schedule. On the left page, write down all the dates with days and weeks for the current month. Next to the date, write down only those events that are 100% likely to happen: birthdays, trips to the dentist, deadlines, and so on.
    Step five. On the right page, write down all your goals and objectives for the current month. And don't forget to put it in the table of contents!
    Step six. Write down the items for the day. At the same time, the use of all kinds of symbols (circles, squares, checkmarks, and so on) is encouraged.
    Step seven. After a month, move all unfulfilled items to a new schedule.

    GTD – Getting Things Done

    Another popular method of systematizing your life. Here, too, we cannot do without special terms. In my opinion, you will have to spend some time to use this system automatically. And its disadvantage is that you have to mark almost every step you take in your diary.
    So, first, let's decide on the markers.

    Open circle– a task to be completed.
    Circle with one stripe crossed out- a task that is currently being performed.
    Half filled circle- the task is half completed.
    Filled circle- mission accomplished.
    Circle with a cross– task cancelled.
    Filled circle with arrow– someone else is already performing the task; there is no need to monitor the process.
    Exclamation mark– the task must be completed first.
    Circle with a dot– you need to constantly remember this task.

    This is the whole essence of the technique. You write a To Do List, enter markers and clearly see what needs to be done, when and after what. For convenience, you can enter a number.

    1 – 3 – 5

    Many people have heard about this method of planning. It is suitable for those who are just beginning to comprehend the art of setting priorities.
    According to the famous Pareto efficiency rule, 20% of the effort accounts for 80% of the result, and vice versa. Therefore, you can spend a lot of time and get nothing at all. Method 1 – 3 – 5 is designed to deal with this. You evaluate the importance of the task in order to subsequently get the maximum return.
    The idea of ​​the method is that you plan 8 actions for every day. It also helps to get rid of the desire to do everything at once. The first goal is the most important. This includes the fact that nosebleeds need to be done.
    The next three are necessary actions, but they are inferior in importance to the first goal. If there are no problems with self-organization, then you will also complete them. The remaining five are small tasks that are not a priority.

    Method for numbers lovers

    Its emphasis is also on setting priorities. To begin, give each task a score from 0 to 2. They are ranked by importance. 2 – the primary task that must be completed today, 1 – the task is important, however, as a last resort, it can be completed later, 0 – everyday affairs and minor duties that need to be remembered.
    To do this, at the end of the day, rate the completed items on a five-point scale.