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Planner Printable – Monthly Habit Tracker

One of my ongoing demons that I have always had to deal with is consistency in some tasks. Making consistent behaviors and habits is something that I have managed to make through most of my life in someways by the skin of my teeth – well maybe not that dramatic, but I generally do well under pressure and so procrastination works well for my type of personality where the time pressure focuses me. However, not avoiding the pressure comes from habits and predictability, and that is what this planner printable is intended to do.

This particular printable is a monthly habit tracker. The intent is to manage consistency and provide incrementable improvements over months. The main intent is to focus on a baseline habit with a bit of consistency, and then improve/balance over subsequent months.

To use this printable, name your tasks and your target (either per week or per month). Each of up to 31 days is included so you can mark off your task completion on a daily basis. At the end of the month, you can compare your target against your total. Your next month should ideally be modified by your relative success in delivering a particular frequency of the habit.

I find this structure useful because it will keep items that I need to do visible, and will allow me to see what different habits go well together, ideally simplifying the habits in to habit clusters.

Here is a PDF printable for A5 planners (or half Letter) – Monthly Habit Tracker.

Do you have any habit trackers that work for you, try this one out and provide suggestions on how this tracker can be improved.

Planner Printable – Full Year Calendar

As part of my new series of planner printables, I’m going through my set of custom planner pages that have worked for me, and some that haven’t worked too well. All these planners are designed to fit into either a half letter/statement/memo or an A5 planner. I personally use an A5 planner, and so these printables can be cut at the 5 1/2″ point.

This printable is a full year calendar, aligned for weekdays. This is designed to be inserted landscape in the planner, allowing easy lookup of where days in the calendar sit.

Here is a downloadable printable (Full Year Calendar) targetted for Letter only, please email for A5 size. Once print, you should be able to cut the page in half, add your hole punches and enjoy.

What printables are your favorites, any tweaks or changes you’d recommend to this one?

Moving to a Planner

Part of my 2016 ‘make myself better’ effort involved using a planner. There were a few reasons for an attempt to move back to pen and paper. It’s been over 18 months since I started with a Planner, and now is a time to share the pages I’ve created and the give an update on what works for me.

The first planner I purchased was a relatively cheap import from Amazon. Even though it was a relatively cheaply made planner, its leatherette feel was okay, and it has stood up to 18 months of regular use fairly well. For a pen for the planner, after playing with a few cheaper pens, I went for the (moderately) more expensive Cross Tech 3+. This is a nice two color (red/black) pen, with a mechanical pencil and a touch screen top. I’ve never had an issue with the pen and it holds really nicely.

For 2018, I’ve splurged on a Filofax Finsbury planner 81qldvqlmyl-_sl1500_ . This will allow me to split my day job from my personal/side projects into a different planner. I’ll still take both with me to work, but I’ll be able to pull out the appropriate one when needed. My first opinion on the Filofax Finsbury is that the pockets are nearly not as functional (pockets, etc) as my first cheap one. Since it is real leather, it will likely soften and become more convenient.

The form factor that I have a strong preference for is the A5 size. A5 (5.8 x 8.3 in) is almost the same size as Half Letter/Statement/Memo (5.5 x 8.5 in). So it allows me to use either formal A5 or generate cut a letter page in half. This has opened up a range of custom options that for generating pages. In coming posts, I’ll be highlighting those pages and making them available.

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