Customized Planning Calendar

Important Note:
Please be sure to save the template to your hard drive; then open the file from within Word before making your own changes.

How do you organize your work week? Are you a note-poster? A pile-maker? A pad-scribbler? Or are you one of the millions who track the details of their complicated lives on the pages of a pre-printed organizer. If you haven't found the ideal way to organize your time, you are not alone. Systems designed to organize millions of people in thousands of different fields of endeavor are, by necessity, "one size fits all."

The ideal solution, of course, is to invent your own system - a perfect project for a word processing program such as Word or WordPerfect. You use the same basic layout then add the categories and headings that match your specific way of working - you might even design a specialized form for your entire organization--one that everyone can use.

The example shows how one department of a university might customize the form to match the needs of its faculty. The hourly segments are converted to half hours and the cells expand as you add text. In fact, if you want to, your calendar can span as many pages as necessary - even on page per day.

The column at the left is used to jot down notes throughout the day and the space at the far right is used to tally billable time. In your case those columns might be used to list the activities for coming weeks, to organize your list of projects, or to document expenses and reimbursements. The pages can be filled in on the computer, by hand, or a little of both.

Making your own version is easy - simply substitute your customized headings for the headings already in place on the template. You can insert any number of hours divided in any number of ways-just click in the cell you want to add to, type the new number and press return. Plus, you can start your hours when you start your day, not the hour that most people start their day.

If there is a holiday or special event that falls on a particular day, customize you calendar to reflect it. If you're designing a calendar to be used by others, you might even add some artwork, an applicable quote, the names and phone numbers of everyone in the department, or some other idea that makes it uniquely yours.

Print your final version in the quantity you need on a pastel paper stock, three hole punch it, and insert the pages in a binder. If you want to save up-front production time, try printing out pages without the "week of" information and the dates and fill in the dates by hand as you go.

A custom calendar page is a great addition to a meeting, a conference, a planning session, or a retreat.

Life is complicated. It includes long term goals, short term projects, myriad responsibilities and a seemingly endless train of minute-by-minute details. The time spent on a calendar that matches your needs will pay you back many times over in the weeks to come.

Some heading ideas:

Action list Activities Addresses Appointments Calls Dates to remember Deadlines Description Diary Expenses Follow-up Goals Ideas Log Names

Name of organization Name of user Notes Personal Phone numbers Priorities Projects Prospects Referrals Reimbursements Reminders Tally To-do list Work record

All templates are compatible with the C5000 Series, C7000 Series and C9000 Series digital color printers from OKI^® Printing Solutions.

Template design by: Chuck Green, Logic Arts (804-266-7996, www.ideabook.com);
Headline font: Impact, Adobe Systems (800-68-ADOBE, www.adobe.com);
Stopwatch image: : from Businessville, Eyewire (1-800-661-9410, www.eyewire.com)