Project Life - Using the Weekly Planner

Hello!

I wanted to share a quick post on how I actually use my weekly planners.  I am a very visual person, so I know that seeing the planner in action might be more helpful than just talking about how I use it!  I also wanted to mention that using the weekly planner is not something I spend a TON of time on.  It is a quick visual for me that usually takes me about 15 minutes to put together - so worth the time when I know that Baby A will be ready to distract me with his cuteness at any second and I will forget everything I had planned out if I don't write it down.

Here is an example of one week using the planner.  I have a MAC, and use iPhoto to sort through my pictures.  When I save my pictures, iPhoto automatically groups them by 'date taken'.  I don't know why, I don't know how, I just accept it and love it!  haha.  So when I sit down to plan my week for Project Life, I open up the files that hold pictures for that week.  This way I can see everything at one time.  

Once I can see all of the pictures for that week, I write down everything that happened each day on the left side of the planner (blue pen).  I also note here if I have memorabilia for those days, and include events that might be in my weekly calendar,  but don't necessarily have a picture for (husband works a call shift, doctors appointments, etc). 

After I have written down all of the events/pictures/etc for the week, I begin to fill in the weekly spread at the bottom of the left page, as well as any additional inserts.  For this week I happen to have some extra pictures to include from my son's fall portraits, and decided to use Design G as my insert as it has a great variety for different picture sizes.  To do this I just write a word or two that will help me remember which picture I want to include in each spot.  I do not get in to any major journalling or anything, all I want is a quick reminder.

As I mentioned in my last post, it isn't often that I actually sit to plan a week, send out pictures for printing, pick up the pictures, AND sit down to put the layout together all in one day.  So once I actually have the time to sit down and put my layout together I can quickly refer back to my weekly planner and know exactly where I wanted to put each picture, journalling card, or piece of memorabilia.  SO HELPFUL FOR A BUSY MOMMA!!!

Here is what my completed pages look like for these weeks.

My weekly organizers are available below for free download.

Single Page Organizer - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6LWtxBTUUeVdHJlQldlRUlCVFU

Two Page Organizer - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6LWtxBTUUeVeTlaTWFNMlk5Y1k
I hope this was helpful to some of you!  Please let me know if you have any other questions!!  Thanks so much for visiting, and happy Project Lifeing!! :)

Lisa