When I hear the confessions of many people, I often see that many of the problems they are having spiritually are the result of them not balancing their priorities very well, and as a result, they spend their time in ways that are not focused on what is really important, and so I often suggest that they need to look into using a good planner. The best one that I know of is the Franklin Covey planner.
I had developed a system of keeping track of things that needed to be done while in college, but I only discovered the Franklin Covey planner when I was a supervisor, working for the Texas Department of Human Services (which is now the Texas Department of Health and Human Services). I had to spend a day in training in which the system was explained, and I got my first planner for free in that training. I came away from that training, not very impressed by it. I thought it was "a bunch of crap" and a waste of time. However, since I had a free planner out of the deal, I thought I would give it a try, and soon discovered that it was amazingly helpful... both in terms of keeping on top of my job as a supervisor, but also, in terms of keeping focused on my spiritual and family life. I then bought a CD set that covered the same ground as the training that I was initially unimpressed with, and listened to it repeatedly, first weekly, and then ever few months, for about a year. Once I had the system down, I found it indispensable, and began telling others about it. To my surprise, I found many people were already using it. I thought, "Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?"
Unfortunately, the Franklin Covey website doesn't have a "Here's what you need to get started" page that would make it easy for someone who wants to get started to figure out what to get, but here is what I would recommend. For everything listed, make sure you select the "Classic" size:
Original Two Page Per Day Ring-bound Planner (pay attention to the start dates of the calendar, before you order, you can select a start date at the beginning of any of the four quarters in a year).
Storage Binder (if the binder you carry, you keep the previous month (for reference), the current month, and the next month, to facilitate planning in the near future, but the storage binders are for archiving past months, and storing future months you are not ready to use yet).
Simulated Leather Zipper Binder (There are a lot of good options, but this is what I would recommend).
Metal Hole Punch (this is crucial for being able to add things to your planner).
Clear Zipper Pouch (you can put things like band aids and postage stamps in this).
One big advantage to the classic size planner is that each page is exactly one half of a standard letter size page, which makes adding things to your planner easy. One thing I do is take the Church wall calendar, fold them in half, punch holes, and then I stick each month behind the Franklin Covey monthly tabs. This makes your planner, and Orthodox Planner as well.
For how to use the planner, I would recommend the same CD set I used, but there may be better options out there that I am not familiar with:
Focus : Achieving Your Highest Priorities
The Franklin Covey system was produced by people who are not Orthodox, but it is a great tool. It has you identify what is important to you, and what roles you fill in life, and then to prioritize things accordingly. You could be an atheist who wants to get rich, and use this tool for that. But if you are an Orthodox Christian, your priorities should reflect that, and this system can help you to be more focused on what is truly important.
There is a completely electronic version of the planner. I personally prefer to use the paper planner for various reasons. In the training, they speak of the Core Four things you need to be organized: 1. Tasks, 2. Scheduling, 3. Notes, and 4. Contacts. For scheduling, I primarily use Google Calendar, and for contacts, I primarily use Google Contacts, but for Tasks and Notes, I have found nothing that works as well as the paper versions.
In the Tasks section, I put things like morning prayer, evening prayer, pre-communion prayer, my morning walks, Bible reading, various other reading, and then plug in anything else that I need to get done. Anything I didn't get to on one day, gets moved to another day... however things like morning prayers are either done on a day or not, and you keep yourself accountable by either being able to check it off, or to "X" it out, because you failed to do it.
There are also extra tabs that can be used to organize various things. For example, I keep all of my passwords in my planner (written in a code only I know). When I worked for the State of Texas, I used to have instructions on how to do anything that was complicated enough to warrant it. I kept the floor plan of my office, and the office directory in my planner. Essentially, any important information I might need to access, I keep in my planner, and so I don't have to hunt for that information.
No two people use Franklin Covey planners the same way. You can watch countless videos from different people showing how they use it, to get good ideas. For examples, see: Franklin 2022 Preliminary Setup/Flip-Through and 2020 Franklin Planner Setup and Flip Through.
See also: Stump the Priest: Time Management
