Digital Planning with OneNote

Over the past couple of years,  I have tried a few different paper planners of various sizes and layouts and I can't seem to find one that fits me over an entire year. And I have figured out why. My moods and my needs change throughout the year. I like the visual effects of a paper planner, but I didn't like lugging around a heavy planner with me.

So, being the techie that I am, I have started incorporating my Planner into Microsoft OneNote. Ta da!  Now my planner changes and grows with me and it's available on my phone, my laptop, my desktop or anywhere I might be where I can log in online. Events can be linked to pages with flyers about the events or to Facebook event listings and such. I can use my stylus to write or I can type in it, which is great because my handwriting is not going to win any flair awards.  I don't have to wait for stickers to come in the mail or try printing and cutting out ones I want to use. No need to have a cabinet full of half-used sticker sheets.

This particular layout was from The Happy Planner.  Most of the stickers came from a shop called Paper Candy Inc., but I couldn't find the info this year.

I can make daily, weekly and/or monthly layouts using Tables in OneNote. Tables can be kind of kluge to work with in this program, but I am learning how to manipulate it. Hey Microsoft!  Can you make Tables in OneNote work just like the ones in Word?  Please?!

Tags can be created to mirror the bullets and signifiers used in standard bullet journals and searching makes it easy to find them and any text I might be looking for.

This process and the idiosyncrasies has prompted me to work on my next training. Digital Planning and Bullet Journaling Using OneNote. It will be an overview of bullet journaling and creating calendar, to do lists, etc., but it will also be a a basic intro to OneNote and will cover many of the ins and outs of the program/app/online presence. It's a work-in-progress, but I'm wrapping it up so I can present it to my fellow City of Bryan staff in January.  If I want to finish something, I have to set a deadline...and put it in my planner, of course. 😊

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