My Entire Planning System

Being a homeschool mom comes with a LOT to keep track of.  Then added in any kind of job or business and it's even more mental load to carry around.  As someone who is running a few businesses from home, homeschooling, and still doing all the mom and wife tasks, I need a good planning system that helps me remember everything and organizes all of my commitments and tasks in a simple to use way.

Enter may planning system.  I have planned many different ways throughout the years and used many different planners, notebooks, journals, and calendars.  My current 2025 system is a mixture of items and systems that I've used throughout the years and loved, all put together in one system.

I'm breaking this down for inspirational purposes only.  Your life is not mine.  My kids are not your kids.  My businesses and jobs are not yours.  And your brain is not my brain.  What works for one person may not work for another.  So, please, don't go out and try to replicate this exactly because you will likely end up spending money that will be a waste and having nothing to show for it.  Instead, I am sharing this in hopes that it will spark some ideas you can implement, but recreating someone else's entire planning system is overwhelming and likely to fail.  So please, start slowly and use this post as inspiration!

If you know me in real life, chances are you've seen my carrying this planner.  I recently had our fourth baby and had this sitting in the hospital room next to me.  During labor, the doctor came in to check on me and said "Woah!  That's a big notebook!"  And I shared that it's my planner.  She said "THAT'S your PLANNER?!?"  Yep, that's my planner.  It's thick.  It is filled with my chicken scratch.  But it gets the job done and is my lifeline.  I would not be mentally stable if I didn't have a way to write everything down because I would then have to carry it all inside my head and that stresses me out beyond belief!

For my everyday planning, I use a Plum Paper 7x9 Monthly Daily planner.  I fell in love with Plum Paper planners a couple years ago and have used them ever since.  You can customize the layout, colors, and heading titles for each section which is a game-changer for me!  I used to make my own planner pages for my Filofax but now that I can customize the headings and layouts, I can create a planner that works for my life specifically.

In the "Daily Gratitude" section, I honestly usually leave this blank.  I should write three things I'm grateful for but I often forget, so I will likely change that next time I order a new planner.  The "Today's Schedule" section is where I write things like appointments, extracurricular activities, play dates, co-op, etc.  Basically anything that is tied to a certain time goes there so it stands out to me.  I don't have tons of these most days so I really appreciate that the section has no pre-written times so I can add my own in and highlight them so they stand out to me. 

I use the "Morning" section to write down tasks I will do during my morning time (usually done at 4am), what we are doing for homeschool (just a list of things like family, independent, geo, art, etc. - not tons of detail) and then any other tasks I need to do that morning like meal plan, change sheets, vacuum, etc.

The "Quiet Time" section is the biggest because this is when I do the most work-related tasks.  I write down everything I will be doing from about 12:30-3 that day, including work tasks, motherhood tasks, home tasks, and then what content I am posting that day.

The shaded area under that I have left blank purposely.  Sometimes I will write notes about something happening that day.  Sometimes I will make a packing list for the day if we are going somewhere.  It's a flex space that I use for whatever I need it for that day (or leave blank).

Lastly, the "Evening" section is where I write down any evening tasks like giving the little kids a bath, meeting up with friends, deep cleaning something, etc.

I usually plan for an entire week on Wednesdays or Thursdays.  I will go to the monthly spread and transfer all the time-specific items to each daily page.  I also keep a sticky note with random things I need to do soon so I don't forget and will add those to certain days and time blocks as well. Then I go in and write out our homeschool schedule, day-specific tasks (like meal planning I do on Wednesdays, for example), and then fill in anything else I need to remember for each day.  I have planned weekly like this for many years and it just works for me!

I am the person who has a million lists scattered everywhere throughout the house that I need to remember.  I write to process my thoughts and to organize my ideas.  To make this easier for me to refer back to and add to easily, I created a notebook this year.  I've done different iterations of this over the year, but this is fuss-free and simple which is usually what works best for me.  I use a dot grid spiral notebook for this and just printed a journal cover off of Canva, cut it down, and taped it to the front page for a cover.  Nothing fancy!

Inside, I added my goals, divided into three categories.  I used to love bullet journaling until it became too time-consuming for me, so this is a great alternative.  I can get artsy in it if I want to and track everything, but if I want it to be simple and easy I can do that too. I just added a strip of cute washi tape to make it a little prettier.  Now I can track all of my goals which I check both daily and weekly during my morning time and planning time.

I'm excited to look back on this at the end of the year!  Because it's not in a fancy journal, I'm okay with doing quick layouts and I'm also okay if it's not perfect.  This also means I'll actually use it because I'm not afraid of messing it up!

My other notebook is for my business.  I also end up writing out tons of lists and notes when working on new resources, coming up with content ideas, etc., so having a place to dump all of those ideas in an organized way I can refer back to is key for me.  I plan to create a new notebook every year as I take up a lot of pages when planning resources.  I added simple tabs to label the sections so I could easily find them.

I have both of these notebooks and my everyday planner in the kitchen most of the day where I can easily check them or jot something down, and then during my quiet time work time, I bring them to either my desk or the dining room table to use.

Lastly, I brought back this system I used and loved a couple years ago.  I didn't have an office for a year and a half, but now that I do again, I bought a large desk calendar and hung it on the wall above my desk.  I use small sticky notes, color-coded by type, to plan out all my content for the month.  I plan my IG reels, carousels, and stories, my blog posts, my podcast episodes, and my email newsletters this way.  This makes it SUPER easy to plan for a whole month at one time because I can easily move things around and it also makes it so easy to look up and know what I'm posting on a given day because it's all organized and color-coded.  I love this system!

So, there you have it!   That is my entire planning system for my homeschool, motherhood, and my business.  I also have a meal planning system and chore system I'll likely share later, but these are the things I use every day that keep my life running relatively smoothly!