What Will I Learn?

This course will teach you how to use your new Franklin Planner. More importantly, it will teach you our time-tested process of assessing goals, making time for things you care about, and keeping track of your daily must-dos.

Planning is about far more than managing your schedule; it's about creating the life you want to lead. Ideally your planner will become your center—the hub from which all your activities flow. As you schedule your daily tasks and appointments, be sure to include time for the people in your life and the big achievements you want to reach.

As we go through this course, you'll see references to parts of the planner. Let's define them now so you know what's what.

"Hey, my planner doesn't have a designated spot for some of these."

It's true that some of our planners don't have designated locations for each of these four elements, that's because people plan differently. Not everyone likes all that structure. Some people want to use the space on their page for other things. Don't worry, the process we will teach you can be applied to any Franklin Planner. Whatever your planner looks like, the principles still apply. You simply put your tasks, notes, appointments, or contacts wherever they work best for you.

Building A Strong Foundation

Benjamin Franklin is famous for saying,

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

But what, exactly, is time, and what can we do to keep from squandering it?

In this course, you'll learn:

• The basic elements of time.
• How to understand what you can and cannot control.
• How to determine what's Important, what's Urgent, and where you waste time.
• And why it all matters to you.

Understanding Time

To understand time management you first need to understand time. We'll start with a few facts:

• Time has no agenda.
• Time is a currency that you must spend every day. No matter how hard you may try, you will spend all of it every day.
• You cannot save time and use it later.
• You have exactly the same amount of time as anyone else—all of it.
• Time waits for no one—the earth keeps spinning regardless of what we do.
• Time Management is a misnomer. You can't manage time. The secret is learning to manage you.

Life Isn't About Managing Time. Life Is About Managing Events.

How do you measure time? If you measure time in days, hours, minutes, and seconds, you aren't looking at time in the most effective way. Hours, minutes, and seconds are manmade units of measure.

According to Webster's Dictionary, time is a continuum in which events succeed one another from past, through present, to future.

That means that the basic element of time is an event. You mark various time periods by the events that took place—grade school, high school, sport, dance, or drama competitions, military service, college, your first job, and so forth.

In order to make the most of your time, you'll want to focus on the events that matter most to you. The key to managing time is controlling events! The key to controlling events is understanding which events are within your control.

The Control Continuum

This simple graphic is meant to demonstrate the level of control you have in any situation.

• There are many situations that you control completely: When you go to bed or wake up, what you'll wear to work, how you'll react when things don't go as planned.
• There are other situations that you can't control at all: What others think or say about you, the decisions of other people (including your own children at times), the weather, or traffic on the freeway.
• Between those two extremes, you'll have varying degrees of influence.

The Control Continuum

Here are some facts about control:

Fact: Where we have no control we MUST adapt. Example: If you get stuck in traffic on the way to the airport, you have no other option but to adapt. You can't control other people—not their choices, their experiences, nor their challenges.

Fact: Where we have total control, we have freedom to choose. There are several areas in your life where you have total control. You choose what you wear, what you say to others, how you react in a given situation. You can choose how and when you will eat, exercise, or study. You can choose what your goals will be and when you will work toward them.

Fact: There are several areas in life where your level of control varies between no control and total control. These are areas where you can influence an outcome to one degree or another, but your power has limits.

Fact: There are events we can control, but we believe we can't. When the need or desire has been great enough, people have been known to take control of events they otherwise wouldn't have thought they could. More common examples might include relocating your family for a better work environment.

Fact: There are events we can't control, but we believe we can. These situations almost always include other people. We usually can't change someone else's opinion. We can't control what others say about us. We can't help an addict get clean until they're ready. When these people are close to us, we often wonder what more we can do, but the answer is usually love, compassion, and patience.

Prioritizing Events—Why We Prioritize

Prioritizing is identifying the appropriate value and order of events. Prioritizing your tasks is essential to your peace of mind. Without priorities you can wear yourself out trying to accomplish everything. In the process, you'll likely accomplish nothing at all, but you'll run around a lot.

The Runaround Dilemma

Because we don't know what is really important to us, everything seems important.

Because everything seems important, we have to do everything.

Other people, unfortunately, see us doing everything, so they expect us to do everything.

Doing everything keeps us so busy, we don't have time to think about what is really important to us.

Understanding Your Priorities

With so many things coming at you each day, how do you decide where to place your focus? Clearly, some things are more urgent than others, and some things are more important than others. Important and urgent aren't necessarily the same thing.

The Time Matrix helps clarify what's most important and most urgent in your daily life. Each activity you work toward falls into one of the four quadrants of the Time Matrix.

Download this graphic and keep it in your computer

The Time Matrix

The Time Matrix divides your daily activities by urgency and importance. These are the two measurement standards we use when thinking about events. How urgent is it? How important is it? Let's discuss the different quadrants so you can decide how you'll handle each of the various combinations of events. Is it urgent and important? Is it important and not urgent? Is it neither urgent nor important?

The Time Matrix is a powerful tool to help you assess where and how you spend your time. As you come to understand the Time Matrix, you'll be able to plan your time much more effectively.

The Time Matrix—Quadrant One

Quadrant One of the Time Matrix is filled with events that are both urgent and important. These are things that must be done now. This is the quadrant of crisis, pressing problems, and deadline-driven projects. Completing these tasks feels great because these activities are important to you. However, if you spend too much of your time chasing urgent tasks, you'll burn out.

We'll talk about Quadrant Two in a moment, but first, we'll discuss Quadrants Three and Four.

The Time Matrix—Quadrant Three

Quadrant Three of the Time Matrix is filled with events that are urgent but not important. These sorts of activities include interruptions, phone calls, text messages, other people's emergencies, and even some popular time-specific events.

Have you ever had a day when you fell into bed exhausted from all you did, but couldn't think of anything you did that was meaningful to you? That's a pretty good indication that you spent much of your time in Quadrant Three.

The Time Matrix—Quadrant Four

Quadrant Four of the Time Matrix is filled with events that are neither urgent nor important. These activities include trivial pursuits, busy work, some email, social media binges, etc. Many Quadrant Four activities are good. It's important to rest, relax, and refresh, but these activities tend to devour time, often pulling you into the activity at the expense of other more important pursuits. We can all relate.

Spending too much time on Quadrant Four activities forces us right back into Quadrant One. Because we've spent so much time on trivial matters, the things that are truly important to us have been pushed aside until they're urgent.

The Time Matrix—Quadrant Two

Quadrant Two is the sweet spot of the Time Matrix. Focusing on Quadrant Two activities is the key to success. These are the events that are important but not urgent. These are the things that matter most to you but are sometimes overlooked because they aren't urgent, like planning, preparation, and even recreation. If you make time each day to work on important tasks before they ever become urgent, you will be able to give them your best effort. You become the architect of your own life instead of the actor in someone else's story.

The key is to focus on important tasks before they become urgent. Urgent tasks control us and demand that we act. They place us in the position of servant. They act upon us with time-specific consequences. In this state, we aren't able to give the tasks our best effort. So focusing on Quadrant Two is the key to success. Quadrant Two activities support your values and goals.

We'll talk about Values and Goals in the next section. But now it's time for a simple quiz.

Foundation Quiz

What Will You Learn?

In this section you'll learn how to improve your productivity to ensure you are working on the things that matter most to you. Here are the topics we'll discuss:

• How to build your productivity pyramid.
• Why each part of the pyramid matters
• How to identify and prioritize your values
• Incorporating your roles into your plans
• Setting Effective Goals
• Weekly Planning
• Daily Planning
• Managing Your Tasks

Download The Productivity Pyramid and keep it in your planner for future reference.

Productivity Pyramid

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow founders believed strongly in something they called the pursuit of happiness. They understood a profound truth: If you work toward the goals you believe will make you happy, you'll find satisfaction in the pursuit. If that's true, then how do you ensure that you're pursuing your version of happiness?

The Productivity Pyramid is a visual representation of the four key actions that will keep you in active pursuit of the things that matter most to you. We chose a pyramid shape because it's the strongest structure that can be built. The base is the largest portion of any pyramid and it supports everything else.

This same analogy holds true when it comes to your productivity. If you want a life of accomplishment you must base your efforts on a foundation of powerful values. Your values will create the structural base for all of your goals.

Building Your Base

The base of the Productivity Pyramid is comprised of your governing values. The people, things, and beliefs that you value most must be the foundation on which you build your dreams. If you set goals based on your values, you'll find the motivation to pursue them—so how do you define your highest priorities?

"When your daily activities are in concert with your highest priorities, you have a credible claim to inner peace."

—Hyrum W. Smith

Governing Values

The key to living a focused, meaningful life is to ensure that your daily actions are in concert with the things you value most. This three-step process will help you determine what matters most to you.

1. Identify What You Value
2. Define The Values
3. Prioritize Your Values

Identify Values

STEP 1

Benjamin Franklin had a list of 13 virtues that he hoped to perfect throughout his lifetime. He focused on one of these virtues each week and found profound success. Thirteen divides evenly into 52. In the course of a year, Franklin was able to devote four weeks to each value. We've discovered that if you understand what your core values are and build your goals upon those values, you'll find the success you're looking for.

Download Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues >

What are the things that you value most? What are your highest priorities? What areas do you want to devote your time to? Here is a list to help you start the thought process.

Values Exercise

Take some time and write your list of values in your planner or journal. Be sure to include them all. We can wait. If you are struggling to come up with broad values, consider the people, places, ideas, and desires that matter to you, then ask why those things matter. For example: if you love being outdoors in nature, ask what it is about that experience that you love most. Perhaps your value is Balance, Health, or Adventure. Write it as an affirmation, as if you have already accomplished it.

Defining Values

Step 2

Now that you have your list written, write one or more simple definitions below (for or with) each item to clarify what that value means to you. We call this a clarifying statement. This may take some time, so be patient. Example, if one of your values is career—I am successful in my work, your clarifying statements could be:

Prioritizing Values

Step 3

It takes time and introspection to develop a governing values list, but this is the key to success. That list represents your highest priorities. It touches on the roles you play as spouse, sibling, parent, child, employee, and friend. It includes your talents, skills, and interests. You may even feel a little overwhelmed by it all, and that's OK. The secret is to determine which of all those things mean the most to you.

Prioritizing Values—The I-Beam Test

Steel I-beams are used in construction to hold large amounts of weight. They're flat on the top and bottom with a vertical structure in the middle, so if you look at them from the end they look like a large capital letter I.

Now imagine that you're standing on the edge of a cliff with a shallow river two hundred feet below you. A large I-beam is spanning the gulf from the cliff you're standing on to the cliff on the other side of the river 140-feet away. Would you walk across that I-beam for ten dollars? Probably not.

The value that is directing your actions in this case is Safety. In this instance your Safety is worth more to you than Money.

Prioritizing Values—The I-Beam Test

But what if your toddler, who is still far too young to comprehend the danger of the cliff, were crawling around on the other side? What then? Chances are, you'd find a way to get there.

The value that is directing your actions in this case is Love For Your Child. In this instance your Safety is less valuable to you than your Love For Your Child.

With that object lesson in mind, go through the list in your planner and place a mark next to anything you'd be willing to cross the I-beam for. Those things are your top priorities.

"Your governing values should be important enough to you that you will invest your time, resources, and energy in making them a fundamental part of your life."

—Hyrum W. Smith

Identifying Roles

We all assume several roles in our day-to-day lives—spouse, sibling, parent, child, employee, artist, athlete, and friend. The purpose of this exercise is to look at all the roles you assume, and to get a little more concrete about which roles are really important in your life. Consider whom you interact with and how you'd like them to perceive you in your role. This can make a profound difference in how you manage your time. It pays to look at your choices based upon whom they will affect and how they will affect your other roles.

"Sometimes, in our frantic desire to do a lot of things, we forget to think about who we are as human beings. Focusing on your roles is the difference between acting solely as a human doing or as a human being. We forget about being better."

—Stephen R. Covey

Identifying Roles

Here are some examples of roles. Take a few minutes to list your roles in your planner. You will refer to this list in your weekly planning sessions.

Set Goals

What is a goal?

Goal (noun): The object to which effort or ambition is directed; the destination of a journey

What do you envision for your future? Consider this. Someday when I have time, I'm going to:

Let us remind you that there is no someday on the calendar. Goals never happen someday. They happen over time through various actions that take place on actual days. And remember also, that there is no day in your future when you'll have more time than you have today. The secret to having time for your goals is to plan time for them.

Effective Goal Planning

The secret to reaching your goals is to plan them effectively. Goals are effectively planned when they are:

• In line with your values—Base your goals on the things that matter most to you.
• Have a time deadline—Set specific dates when each step of your goal will be completed and hold yourself to that schedule.
• Clearly and specifically defined—Make sure your goals are specific and detailed so you can clearly note when you've reached each step.
• Owned—You need to truly want what you're working toward to make the goal your own. It often helps to share your goal with others so they can support your efforts.
• Realistic—Be sure that your goals are achievable within a reasonable amount of time. If you set a broad, long-term goal, be sure to break it down into small short-term steps that you can realistically reach.

Setting Goals

In order to set goals that truly matter to you and are actually attainable, consider the following:

1. Which of my personal governing values is this goal tied to? (In other words: Why am I setting this goal—Why does it matter? If you never lose track of why you are working toward your goal, you will remain motivated to complete it.)

Practice Exercise

Use this free downloadable form to practice filling out a Goal Planning Form

Weekly Planning

Weekly planning is simply setting some time aside each week to assess your goals, your commitments, and your schedule. The beauty of weekly planning is that it allows you not only to identify the events that matter most, but also to determine when you'll act on them during the week. This allows the less important tasks to fall into place around the more important ones. Weekly planning lets you select and schedule your big rocks (or most important events) up front, before the week gets too hectic.

Tips For Effective Weekly Planning

To get the most out of your weekly planning, we suggest the following:

• Schedule a day for weekly planning. This is usually a weekend day when it's quiet before the workweek begins.
• Weekly Planning will usually take about 30 minutes, so plan accordingly.
• Plan in the same place each week—some place quiet and inviting.
• Make weekly planning a habit.

Weekly Planning Overview

A quick glance at the image below might feel a little overwhelming, but weekly planning is simple. And the tools below actually make it easier. Plus, they help ensure that you stay on course and don't miss something important. Here are the basic tools we suggest for effective weekly planning:

1. Your list of values. Remember the exercise we did earlier where we asked you to list your values and determine what matters most to you? That list should be the bedrock of all your plans. Keep that list where you can refer to it often.
2. Last Week's Plans. Look over the prior week and plan to wrap up any loose ends.
3. Master Task List. This list is found near your monthly calendar pages. This is where you list the non-time-specific tasks you'd like to accomplish during the month. And don't forget your monthly calendar tabs for any time-specific events.
4. Compass Card. This is found in your Starter Pack. This sometimes comes with your planner, or you can purchase it separately. You may also choose to simply list the roles you're focusing on each week in your weekly planner.
5. Daily Task List. If you have a daily planner, your Prioritized Daily Task List is on the left column of the left page. If you have a weekly planner, you will list your daily tasks on the appropriate day in your weekly spread.

Steps to Maximize Your Weekly Planning

STEP 1

Review what matters most. Look over your list of values, roles, and long-range goals. Are you still heading in the right direction? Are you scheduling time for your most important goals?

Steps to Maximize Your Weekly Planning

STEP 2

Evaluate last week. Did you fall off course? If so, determine where and when. Are there important tasks from last week that were not completed? If so, schedule those tasks first and early in the week, whenever possible.

Steps to Maximize Your Weekly Planning

STEP 3

Check the Master Task List for the month. Add tasks from previously planned long-range goals or activities to this week's schedule, as appropriate.

Complete Your Weekly Compass® Card

STEP 4

Check your Monthly Calendar Tab for any prescheduled appointments before completing your weekly compass. What other tasks, related to your roles and goals, do you need to schedule this week to stay on course?

The Weekly Compass® Card helps you focus on specific roles and relationships each week, so you can help them take shape. Let us show you how it works.

The first section of the Weekly Compass® Card deals with the role of self. It's the role many of us neglect the most.

• To be most effective in each of your roles, you need to sharpen your saw. The Weekly Compass® Card allows you to set physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual goals that will strengthen you so you can perform in your other roles.

Complete Your Weekly Compass® Card

STEP 4

The remainder of the card is focused on the roles you play in relation to others.

• From your planner, review all the roles you play in your life—mother, father, spouse, son, daughter, employee, designer, neighbor, friend, artist, reader.
• Pick no more than 7 to focus on during the week, and write them in the areas provided on the card.
• What do you want to do to improve in each role this week? This task becomes your "Big Rock" for that role.
• List your "Big Rock" task on your Weekly Compass® Card for each role. These items will be the tasks that matter most during the week.

Since your Weekly Compass® Card fits perfectly in your Pouch Pagefinder, you'll have the list in front of you each day of the week, and you'll only need to write it once. Use this free downloadable form to practice filling out a Weekly Compass® Card

Schedule Your Big Rocks

STEP 5

This is the transition between weekly and daily planning. Now that you've determined the Big Rocks that you wish to focus on during the week, look through your upcoming week and plug these activities into your Prioritized Daily Task List on your daily planning pages.

Why do we schedule these tasks first? If you aren't familiar with the term "Big Rocks," a quick overview follows.

Big Rocks—Time Is Limited

STEP 5

You can only do so much in a day—much like you can only fit so many rocks in a jar. If we relate the activities we do each day to rocks, some rocks would be far more important than others. Those are the big rocks, and the activities that are less important are little rocks. Time wasters would be sand.

Big Rocks—Don't Crowd Your Jar

STEP 5

If you want to fit all this stuff into your day, you need to do it in the correct order. If you fill your jar with sand and pebbles before you begin adding your big rocks, you won't be able to fit them all into your day.

Big Rocks—First Things First

STEP 5

But, if you place the big rocks into your jar first, followed by the smaller rocks, pebbles, and sand, you'll be surprised at how much you can fit. And best of all, your most important tasks for each role will be addressed first each day.

Watch this 4 minute FranklinCovey video of Stephen R. Covey demonstrating the Big Rocks concept.

Daily Planning

Daily planning takes only a few minutes each day, but it will save you a lot of time throughout the day. It's also a great stress reducer because planning allows you to assess upcoming events and prepare for them. Daily planning is where your big ambitions meet with action.

Tools For Effective Daily Planning

Some people plan in the morning, others plan in the evening. Whenever you choose to do it, make sure you're consistent with the time. The following tools will help make your daily planning simple and efficient:

1. Yesterday's Daily Spread. Make sure you wrap up any unfinished business—important tasks, rescheduled appointments, etc.
2. Monthly Calendar. Check for time-specific events.
3. Today's Prioritized Daily Task List. Add appropriate tasks for today based on the time available to you.
4. Prioritize Your Tasks. This is done by determining the value and order of the items on your task list. Add value (A, B, C) in the column to the left of each task.
5. Order Your Tasks. Once you've determined the value of each item on your list, number each of your 'A' tasks according to the order that they need to be addressed (1, 2, 3). Do the same with your 'B' and 'C' tasks.

If you've been doing your weekly planning, you may already have some things planned for your day. Now is the time to make them happen with this simple routine.

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 1

Review yesterday. What did you accomplish, and what will you need to carry forward?

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 2

Check appointments. Appointments are time-specific events. Look at your monthly calendar tabs to see if anything needs to be scheduled in your daily appointments column.

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 3

List tasks. Consider the time you have remaining outside of your time-specific events and determine what tasks you can include in your day. Be realistic with your tasks, there is only so much time. Write these tasks as you think of them, and don't worry about the order.

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 4
IS EVERY TASK OF EQUAL VALUE?

To make the most of the time we have, we need to determine which of our tasks are the most important and have the discipline to complete those tasks first. Our most valuable tasks are based on our governing values. Tasks related to your family, your employment, and your health would be examples of vital tasks.

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 4

Assign a value to each task. A = Vital, or high value. These must be completed today. B = Important, or medium value. These should be completed today. C = Optional or low value. These could be completed today. Remember vital does NOT equal urgent.

Steps For Effective Daily Planning

STEP 5

Order each task. Go through each of your A tasks and assign a number 1, 2, 3, based on which you need to work on first. Do the same with your B and C tasks. Start working on A-1 and go from there.

Tracking Symbols Explained

It's a lot of fun to cross things off a to-do list. Science has shown that our brains actually produce dopamine whenever we cross a completed item off a list. The trouble with crossing through a task is that you can no longer read what you accomplished. Using these other marks will still give you the rush of accomplishment and allow you to see what you have done with your tasks at a glance. And the best part is that you don't have to finish the task to mark your list! Let's learn about the symbols we use:

When you start a task, place a dot beside it to let you know that the task is in process.

When you complete the task, place a check mark beside it.

If you are unable to complete a task, or if you need to postpone a task for any reason, schedule the task in your planner on the day you plan to complete the task. After that, place an arrow beside the task on your current list. Beside the arrow, add the date indicating when you've scheduled to work on it again.

If you delete a task place an X beside the task. That way you'll know the task was not done, but is no longer needed.

If you delegate a task to someone else place a circle beside the task with the initial of the person beside it. This will remind you to follow up with the individual later to check their progress. When the other person completes the task, place a check inside the circle.

Practice Exercise

Use this free downloadable form to practice filling out a Prioritized Daily Task List

Once you've written tasks for your day, go through the list and prioritize them (A, B, C, and 1, 2, 3). Now look over your list and assume the day is over and your task list has been marked for tracking. Mark your list with the appropriate marks for the following situations:

Watch this short video to see how we fill out our Prioritized Daily Task List.

The Productivity Pyramid Quiz

The Franklin Planner System

In this section you will learn about the various components of the Franklin Planner System including:

• The Core Four components of a planning system—Tasks, Appointments, Notes, and Contacts (T.A.N.C.).
• Planner basics and planner elements.
• The importance of prioritizing and tracking.
• How to store information in your planner.
• How to retrieve information from your planner.
• How to incorporate these methods into any of our planner designs.

What Makes An Effective Planning System?

In order for your planning system to work best, it must be integrated, mobile, and personalized.

• Integrated: Ideally, you want to be able to schedule events any time, anywhere, so everything you need should be in one system. We like to use the acronym T.A.N.C. To be most effective, your planner should have a place for your Tasks, Appointments, Notes, and Contacts all in one system.
• Mobile: It should be easy to take with you and use on the go.
• Personalized: The elements of your planning system should fit your personality and planning style.

Three Keys to Using the Franklin Planner

In order to be most effective with the plans you make, we suggest these three keys to planning.

1. Use only one personal management system. Your system can include your planner, computer, and phone, but the simpler you make it the better.
2. Keep it with you. If your planner is always with you, you can plan or change plans at any time.
3. Eliminate floating paper. Whenever possible, incorporate information directly into your planner. Loose papers and sticky notes get lost too easily, and they're difficult to refer to later.

Planner Basics—Tasks and Appointments

What's the difference between tasks and appointments?

Practice Exercise

Determine which are tasks and which are appointments:

Download this free list and sharpen your skills.

Answers

Monthly Calendar And Master Task List

Planning Ahead

We recommend that you carry three months worth of daily planning pages in your planner binder—the current month, prior month, and next month. We also recommend that you carry all of your Monthly Calendar Tabs and Master Task Lists.

This makes it easy to plan ahead even if you don't have daily planning pages in your binder for the day of the event. If you make an appointment in the future, write that time-specific event on the monthly calendar. If you make plans to work on a time-flexible goal in the future, list that task on the Master Task List for the given month.

Planning with Monthly Calendar Tabs and Master Task List

During your weekly and daily planning, refer to your Monthly Calendar Tabs to find any appointments you have scheduled and write them in your Appointments column. As you're determining which tasks and goals you want to work toward, look over your Master Task List to be sure you remember all you had planned to do. Write the appropriate tasks in your Prioritized Daily Task List.

Franklin Planner Basics Quiz

Capture and Retrieve

A planner is more than a to-do list. Your planner should be a place to prioritize your goals and tasks, track your progress, capture information, and retrieve that information easily. Once you've mastered these four basic concepts, you'll be able to use your planner very efficiently.

Capture—How and Where to Store Information for Later Use

It's always valuable to write down information, regardless of where you may capture it. The true value, however, comes with the ability to retrieve it in ten seconds or less.

Store all the information you need to have at your fingertips inside your planner. If you have other information that you don't need from day to day, store it in your filing cabinet or on your computer.

Once we've shown you where to capture information, we'll show you a simple, foolproof method of retrieving it.

Where to Capture Information

There are two major locations within the Franklin Planner designed specifically to capture information.

1. The Daily Notes page.
2. The tabbed section at the back of your planner.

The Notes page is similar to any other notebook or sticky note, but it's easier to find because you always have it with you.

What Goes Where—Notes Page

• Use your Notes page for non-categorized or miscellaneous information. This is also where you'd place single entry items.
• When you're capturing information from a call or meeting, number the entry in parentheses: (1), (2), (3), etc. This will make it easy to refer to the information later.

What Goes Where—Tabbed Section

• The tabbed section of the planner is where you capture information that is categorized or has multiple entries. This may be things like project notes, minutes from regular team meetings, coaching rosters, team information, or business expenses. Some of our planners come with a tabbed section in the back for further organizing. If your preferred planner does not include a tabbed section, you'll find it in the Starter Pack (sold separately).
• Your tabbed section is also a great place to store detailed documents, large amounts of client information, favorite restaurants, your reading list, and even spreadsheets.
• Information Records can be stored alphabetically in the tabbed section of your planner. They're a great tool for keeping track of client visits, long-term projects, and notes from reoccurring meetings. They are designed with room for individual contact information and plenty of space to record the date of each interaction, important notes, and dates for follow-up.

Retrieve—How to Quickly Access the Information You've Gathered

Recording information is only useful if you can find it later. You should be able to find any important information you've recorded in your planner in ten seconds or less. To make retrieval easier, ask yourself these three questions:

What do I need?
When do I need it?
Where can I find it?

What Do I Need?

Let's say you're in a business meeting on April 3, and you are planning a company event. Let's assume that during this meeting you are asked to secure a catering service. You would note that and place a number beside it in parentheses (1). Now let's assume that someone in the meeting remembered working with a caterer that they really loved, and they gave you the number. You'd note that information as well.

When Do I Need It?

During the meeting, you decided to hold the company event on August 9, so you would move ahead to your Monthly Calendar Tab for August 9 and write Company Event (4/3-1). You've already written the information for the caterer along with several other notes about the event. There's no reason to write it again. Your parentheses will take you directly to your notes—April 3, note one.

You'll want to secure the caterer early, so you would turn to your next daily page, April 4, and write contact caterer (4/3-1) in your Prioritized Daily Task List.

Where Can I Find It?

We recommend that you only carry three months worth of daily pages in your binder at a time, so you won't have the daily page for August 9 with you in April. That's not a problem because you carry your monthly tabs, task lists, and indexes in your planner at all times.

As you plan each week, one of the first things you'll do is check your Monthly Calendar Tabs for any scheduled activities. In early August, you'll check your monthly calendar and see Company Event (4/3-1). Because you scheduled with the caterer the next day and made notes then, it may also have (4/4-2) beside it. Simply refer back to April 3 and 4 for all the information you need.

Retrieving Information Using the Monthly Index

Your planner also has a Monthly Index Page. It's like a table of contents for each month. This is where you record important information from the month that you are likely to need in the future.

Although it appears at the beginning of each month, you actually fill it out throughout the month as you go along. For example: After your meeting in April, you would turn to your April Monthly Index Page and write August 9 Company Event (4/3-1).

Later on if someone asks you about the upcoming event, you may not remember exactly when you had the meeting, but you can quickly scan through your Monthly Index Pages and find what you're looking for.

Retrieving Information Using the Information Record

If you had been asked to do more than secure the caterer for your company event, you would have wanted a place to keep all of your information regarding the event in one place. That's where the Information Record comes in handy.

How the Information Record Works

In the tabbed section at the back of your planner you may find an Information Record, or you can order them on our website. This two-sided form allows you to refine your information retrieval system with ample space for notes regarding clients, meetings, events, and projects. This is the ideal way to take detailed notes and capture vital data such as contact names, addresses, numbers, dates and action steps.

Information Record—Tracking and Retrieving

Benefits of the Retrieval Process

Follow-up is simple with the parentheses method. You can use it to reference any information anywhere in your planner.

• It's easy to feel frustrated searching for loose or floating papers with important information scrawled on them.
• The retrieval method eliminates loose paper and gets rid of the frustration associated with searching for it.
• The retrieval method in parentheses eliminates the need for double entries. You should only have to write it once.

Capture And Retrieve Quiz

Planner How-Tos and Definitions

It's easy to confuse some of the terms we use when we talk about planning, so we've created this final section to briefly discuss the basics. We'll cover the following to help you sort it all out:

• We'll define each of our planner components.
• Show you how we recommend you set up your planner.
• Offer some basic definitions to terms specific to Franklin Planner.
• And provide downloadable forms and pages for practice.

Key Elements of a Planning System

Planner Pages

Your Franklin Planner pages are where the magic happens. This is where you dream into the future and turn those dreams into goals, plans, and time specific action items. There are several planner designs and formats to choose from, so you'll want to consider carefully what best fits your style.

See Planners

Binder or Cover

Your binder or cover protects your planner pages from the elements. If you have a ring-bound planner, you need a binder to keep your pages contained. Your binder also brings essential order into your day by providing space for your pens, cards, documents, and other necessities.

Wire-bound planners come assembled and ready for use, so they don't require a binder. However a cover adds beauty, style, and protection by providing the same organizational features you'd find in a binder.

See Binders and Covers

Key Elements of a Planning System

Storage Case

Although some people might call this a binder, we call it a storage case. This is where you store any planner pages you aren't currently carrying in your binder. We recommend that you carry all of your monthly calendar tabs and three months worth of daily pages with you at all times. You would store the rest of your pages in here. Keep your storage case where you plan each day, so you can look back at notes you've taken, and plan ahead when necessary. Keep your case neatly contained in this sleek sleeve.

See Cases and Sleeves

Key Elements of a Planning System

Accessories

One key element of the ideal planning system is that it should be personal. We carry all sorts of accessories to help you personalize your plans and show off your style. We offer designer pagefinders, magnetic bookmarks, stickers, notebooks, clips, page flags, divider tabs, high quality pens, and much more.

See Accessories

Planner Variations

We have several planners to appeal to your style. Each one of us plans differently, so we offer planners that vary in design and layout. Some are filled with structure—designed with specific spaces for each element of planning we mention in this training. Others are far simpler in their design.

The planner we referenced in this training is our Original Planner. The Original Planner has all of the features mentioned in this training. Some of our planners have fewer elements. Some have minimal design. Regardless of the design, once you understand the concepts and philosophy behind why and how we plan. You can incorporate all of the elements we teach into any of our planners in a manner that suits you.

How to Setup Your Planner

When you first receive your planner, you may wonder what to do with it all. We have a few suggestions to make it easy. Watch the short video below for a quick overview of how to set up your new Franklin Planner.

Here are some basic tips:

• Place all of your monthly tabs in your binder.
• Keep three months worth of daily planner pages in your binder—prior month, current month, and next month.
• Open your starter pack, if you have one, and place those tabs in the back of your planner. Place your Pagefinder in your planner to mark the current day.
• If you have a Pouch Pagefinder, place it in your planner and slip a Weekly Compass® Card inside it.
• Add your pen to the pen loop.
• Add any cards you want to carry with you.
• Slip small necessities into the pockets.
• Add additional forms and inserts such as Goal Planning Forms, Pocket Dividers, a Plastic Zipper pouch, and photo holders.
• If you wish, you can add stickers, magnetic clips, notebooks, and other accessories to personalize your plans.

Planner Components

Monthly Calendar Tabs

Note any upcoming time-sensitive events on your monthly calendar as soon as you learn of them. Later, during weekly and daily planning, you can refer to your monthly calendar to be sure to schedule these events into your day.

Planner Components

Master Task List

This list appears at the beginning of each month and acts as a place to plan your non-time-specific activities (we call them tasks). This is where you would list things such as getting a haircut, updating your resume, or cleaning the garage. Later, during weekly and daily planning, you can refer to your Master Task List to be sure you schedule these tasks into your day.

Planner Components

Monthly Index

The Monthly Index is also found near your Monthly Calendar Tabs at the beginning of each month. This acts as a table of contents for your month. As significant events occur, you would note them in your index. The Monthly Index is especially useful for retrieving information. When you take notes that you know you're going to need to refer to later, place a number beside your notes, then reference it on your Monthly Index—August Company Event Notes (4/3-1). In this example, the parenthetical clues let you know that you wrote those notes on April 3rd, and you numbered those notes as number one.

Planner Components

Planning Pages

This is where you write your weekly and daily appointments, tasks, notes, and more.

Planner Components

Daily Planner

Franklin Planners with two pages for each day of the year are called Daily Planners. Typically our daily planners include space for Tasks, Appointments, Notes, and a Daily Tracker on each two-page spread.

Planner Components

One-Page-Per-Day Planner

Some of our daily planners are one-page-per-day planners. If they have one page for each day of the year, we note that in the description.

Planner Components

Weekly Planner

If you don't need to devote one or two pages to each day, a weekly planner may be just the thing for you. Weekly planners let you see your whole week on a single spread with room for tasks, appointments, and notes.

Planner Components

Six-Month Planning Notebook

This planning notebook is sold as two separate six-month wire-bound books with minimal formatting so you can plan your own way.

Planner Components

Pagefinder

Pagefinders not only make it easy to mark your page and turn to the current day, they're also an ideal way to divide your planner into sections for notes, finances, meal planning, and anything else you'd like to focus on.

Customizing Your Planner

One key element of the ideal planning system is that it should be personal. You'll find a variety of planners to choose from in varying designs, colors, and layouts. They range from ultra formatted, with pre-designed spaces for everything we've shown you in this training, to bare basics, giving you freedom to design your planner your own way every day.

We also offer all sorts of accessories to help you personalize your plans and show off your style. We offer designer Pagefinders, magnetic bookmarks, stickers, notebooks, clips, page flags, divider tabs, high quality pens, colored pencils, and much more.

Glossary

Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues: When Benjamin Franklin was 20 years old, he established a plan for his life. This plan began with an introspective list of 12 virtues—values and attributes that mattered most to him. He determined he would devote his life to improving upon these virtues one week at a time.

Glossary

Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues (continued): Franklin took his list to a respected Quaker friend of his and expressed his intentions of improving is life. His Quaker friend said, "If you're serious, you need to add a thirteenth virtue, Humility, because you don't have any." So he did.

Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

After that, he lived his life in 13-week cycles—focusing on strengthening one virtue each week. (As it turns out, thirteen divides perfectly into 52.) We know what his determined actions brought about. Benjamin Franklin became one of the most accomplished, successful, and influential people in world history.

Near the end of his life Franklin commented in his autobiography that he felt like he had achieved a oneness with all 12 of his virtues but felt he had failed at humility. He joked that accomplishing the other 12 made it hard to be humble. (Then again, what truly humble man would profess to have mastered humility?)

It is likely, however, that Franklin did struggle with humility. This virtue was suggested to him from an outside source, and not from within himself. It's always harder to work enthusiastically toward someone else's goals. Even if our brains tell us these goals are worthy and good, we still may not be committed to them in our hearts.

Glossary

Big Rocks: You can only do so much in a day—much like you can only fit so many rocks in a jar. If we relate the activities we do each day to rocks, some rocks would be far more important than others. Those are the big rocks, and the activities that are less important are little rocks. Time wasters would be sand. Your big rocks are High-priority tasks, activities, and events that are supported by your governing values. These are the tasks you schedule first each time you plan, and you'll work to ensure all other lesser tasks take a back seat to them.

Clarifying Statement: A brief, personal affirmation used to further explain a governing value. This helps define what the value means to you and how you demonstrate that value in your daily life.

Control Continuum: A simple graphic meant to demonstrate the level of control you have in a given situation. Where you have total control you have the freedom to choose. Where you have no control, you must adapt. Between those two extremes, you have varying levels of influence, depending on the situation.

Goal: The object to which effort or ambition is directed; the destination of a journey. A goal is any task, founded in your governing values, which can be broken into smaller steps with deadlines for their completion. To be effective, goals must be realistic, in line with your values, have a time deadline, be clearly and specifically defined, and be fully owned—you have to mean it.

Governing Values: The ideas, beliefs, people, activities, talents, and interests that matter most to you, and upon which you should base your goals and daily activities.

Glossary

Prioritized Daily Task List: Whether this exists as a feature in your planner or not, this is the list of tasks you make each day based on your governing values, the demands of the day, and the amount of time you have available to you. Once your list is made, you prioritize your tasks by value A, B, C, and order 1, 2, 3.

Productivity Pyramid: A visual representation of the four key actions that will keep you in active pursuit of the things that matter most to you. Determining your governing values, setting goals, weekly planning, and daily planning.

Roles: According to Dictionary.com, roles are the functions assumed or parts played by a person or people in a particular situation. On a more personal level, consider the various positions you hold based on your relationships with self, family, community, employment, etc., and how you interact with others while acting in those positions.

Glossary

Sharpen The Saw: In Stephen R. Covey's bestselling book, The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, he tells a story of a man who spends his day working to cut down a large tree. When we see him, he is exhausted from his labor but his tree is still standing. When asked if he has sharpened his saw, the man stammers, "I don't have time to sharpen my saw, I'm too busy sawing!" Sharpening the saw is essential.

We define sharpening the saw as working to improve the role of self. It's the role many of us neglect the most, but to be truly effective in any of your roles, you need to be up to the task. There are four aspects of self that should be addressed regularly: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Focusing consistent effort toward each of these four aspects of self will give you the strength you need for your other roles.

Task vs. Appointments: Appointments are time-specific events that you schedule into your day such as lunch meetings, doctor visits, and your children's after school events. Tasks are time-flexible activities you plan to complete in the time you have between appointments. One is not more important than the other. Appointments are time-specific, and tasks are time-flexible.

Time: According to Webster's Dictionary, time is a continuum in which events succeed one another from past, through present, to future. That means that the basic element of time is an event.

Glossary

Time Matrix: A visual representation of the activities you perform each day sorted into four quadrants by urgency and importance. Quadrant One contains activities that are both urgent and important. Quadrant Two contains activities that are important but not yet urgent. Quadrant Three is filled with activities that are urgent, but not important, and Quadrant Four are your activities that are neither urgent nor important.

Urgency: Time-driven pressure to perform a task.

Importance: Value-driven desire to perform a task.

Downloadables

Click on the links below to download each item. They are all formatted to fit in your Classic size planner.

Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues

Goal Planning Form

Prioritized Daily Task List

Productivity Pyramid

Tasks vs. Appointments

Time Matrix

Weekly Compass® Card

Exercises

Click on the links below to download forms for each exercise.

Exercise One: Clarifying My Governing Values Revisit the Training

Notes Page

Exercise Two: Goal Planning Form Revisit the Training

Goal Planning Form

Exercise Three: Filling Out A Weekly Compass® Card Revisit the Training

Weekly Compass® Card

Exercise Four: Your Prioritized Daily Task List Revisit the Training

Daily Planning Page

Exercise Five: Tasks vs. Appointments Revisit the Training

Lined Page

Exercise Six: Parentheses Method Revisit the Training

Master Task List
Daily Planning Page
Monthly Calendar Tab

Certification

Congratulations! You've finished your training. Click here to print your certification and hang it in your office or on your fridge. Of course, we hope you've taken more from this course than a simple certificate. Here's to a life of increased purpose and meaning!

Thank you for taking the Franklin Planner Training Course

Your next challenge is to make it stick! It takes at least 21 days to form a habit, so we encourage you to be diligent and implement the things you've learned in this training for the next three weeks. Take special note of what changes in your life as you put the most important things first each day. At the end of three weeks please drop us a note on our social media pages and tell us about the goals you've set and the progress you've made toward them.

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