Andrea Dekker

131 Comments

My Daily Routine + Free Printables!

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure here.

It’s no secret that I absolutely LOVE my weekly planner!


I carry it with me everywhere I go and reference it at least 27 times each day — seriously, I do.

And even though my daily planner is super helpful for remembering and tracking my weekly, monthly, and other long-term appointments and activities; I was still struggling to find the perfect “planner” for my busy, BUSY daily activities.

I like small planners, but small planners mean I don’t have enough room to write everything I do on a daily basis…so I resorted to lots of lists and sticky notes shoved inside my planner.

It worked, but I knew I could come up with something better!

I started looking around the web to see what I could buy or find for free, but I really didn’t come up with anything that I absolutely loved. There are a lot of other great daily planner worksheet and printables out there, but they never seemed to fit my life.

So I created my own!

I sat down and figured out exactly what I needed and wanted in a daily worksheet, and THIS is what I came up with…

— I also created a blank worksheet that you can download for free, so keep reading! —

Here’s a little explanation for each category in my worksheet.

Top 5 List:

Sometimes I have really productive days, other times I hardly get anything accomplished — can you relate?

However, even on my “bad days” I still make a good effort to complete my Top 5 List — or the MOST important things for the day. If my Top 5 List is checked off, I’ve done what needed to be done and the rest can wait until tomorrow!

Meal Plan:

I put the meal plan right next to the Top 5 List because I want to start thinking about any food I need to cook, bake, or defrost right when I wake up. This saves me a lot of stress around 5:00 pm!

Exercise and Water:

I don’t know about you, but I am REALLY bad at making time to exercise every day, and I never drink enough water. So I put these 2 items on my daily worksheet because I’m much more likely to do something if I need to “cross it off my list”. Seriously, this really works!

Other Boxes:

The left column below is pretty self explanatory — I think!  I wanted a place to write all my other daily to-do’s, appointments, things I need to buy, and notes — so I created a good-size box for each category. And the appointments box even has a place for the time!

Daily Routine:

The right column below is my personal daily routine. I obviously don’t do everything on this list every day; but on days when I’m working from home all day, I try to check every box! {I’m really competitive so it’s a great motivational tool for me!}

Double Planner:

I also created a Double Planner so I can print 2 sheets on the same page {I also print them double sided} and put it inside my purse or inside my monthly planner.

This simple document has helped me be more productive, more efficient, and better manage my time each day.  Plus, it’s always rewarding to look back and see everything I’ve accomplished in one day!

I almost love it MORE than my weekly planner… almost!

.

Print your own FREE Daily Worksheet:

My Daily Planner — SINGLE This is the worksheet I use every day. The daily routine column is already filled in.

My Daily Planner — DOUBLE This is a double version of the worksheet I use every day {see picture above}

Blank Daily Planner — SINGLE This is the same as my worksheet but the “daily routine” column is BLANK.

Blank Daily Planner — DOUBLE This is a double version of my worksheet with BLANK “daily routine” columns..

UPDATE {as of 8/14/2012}

You can now download a customizable version of my daily planner here! 

Reader Interactions

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Comments

  1. Lisa says

    I like your site and this planner but you have a small typo. It should be “errands” not “arrends.” Hopefully it’s an easy fix…

    Reply

  2. Natalie says

    Thank you SO Much for this ‘to do list’! This set up is perfect for me & just what I have been looking for. I look forward to browsing through the rest of your site.

    Reply

  3. Dolly Dahl says

    I love using my Filofax but I ran into the same problem you had. So much clutter. I love these worksheets. Thank you so much for sharing!!

    xoxo
    Dolly

    Reply

  4. Andrea says

    I really hope it helps me too, since I’m great at procrastinating.
    Thanks for taking your time to create such a useful tool!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      trista, I just tried all 4 links and they opened right away… so I’m guessing you don’t have a PDF reader installed on your computer. You can download Adobe Reader for free here, but that’s the only thing I can think of. I know lots of others continue to successfully download these printables so it must be something with your computer. Sorry!

      Reply

  9. Amy @ Tiny Blessings says

    Found this through a Pinterest pin and LOVE it– thank you so much for sharing! I have messed around with making my own daily sheets but spent waaaaayyyy too much time, and still didn’t like it. Yours is great– in fact, I just printed one to test out today! 🙂

    Reply

  10. susan says

    This is great! Thank you for sharing. I’d like to offer an eco tip. Collect your used office paper and print this format on the blank side before it hits the recycle bin. This is the basis for our 100% post post consumer notebooks at papergeist.com. (We make a planner too!) We print on all discarded paper, but in the finished product, it’s not noticeable. For something like this, brand new paper is certainly not necessary. Thanks again!

    Reply

  11. Sarah Jane says

    Hi! A friend of mine suggested I check this out. We are both full-time professional photographers and own our own studios and life is just never the same for us on a daily basis with sessions, consultations, sales appointments daily plus keeping track of marketing, accounting and all the ‘to dos’ of running a business.

    I am super excited to start using this but right off the bat I was wondering if you had a version that wasn’t a pdf. I love the daily routine section and would love to customize this to fit my daily routine. Just curious. 🙂 Thanks!! I’m excited to explore your blog even more now that I have been pointed in your direction.

    Reply

  14. Teri says

    why haven’t you ever published these? I would love to purchase this in planner form so I can keep it with me all the time! Thanks for the down load they will work for now!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Well Teri, if I ever do publish them, I’ll let you know. But for now, I figure people might just want something for free!!

      Thanks for the compliments, and enjoy the freebies 🙂

      Reply

  15. Kacee says

    Love the double planner. A great mix of flylady and zen habits plus room to write. Love it!
    K

    Reply

  16. Angi F says

    Thank so much I really appreciate you sharing your planner. I live by planners and love them.

    Reply

  17. Karen C says

    OMG, I love this planner. Thank you sooo much. I have downloaded about 1,000, seriously … Although yours is by far the best and the one I love the most. So here is a HUGE , THANK YOU. from your biggest fan… =)

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      I actually just use them as loose-leaf pages — almost like a note pad. I use one almost every day — but yes, you could easily insert them into a notebook too.

      Reply

  19. Ta Ta says

    I am a recovering hoarder. I have been making baby steps towards getting organized ( sounds like a curse word, LOL). This is a fantastic great start, thank you so much!!

    Reply

  21. jennifer says

    are you kidding me?!? This is fantastic 🙂 thank you…can’t wait to fill it out and get started.

    Reply

  22. Heather Mullin says

    Thank you so much for the printable planner sheet. You have no idea how much this is going to help me. I have to use a planner for putting appointments and photo shoots and all that in but I never write what I am need to do today. This is going to help me so much! Thank you again!

    Heather

    Reply

  23. Vivian says

    Thank you so much. I was hoping you might find a solution. Checking the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” made it easy to know when you did!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      thanks for the link Carrie. I don’t know how she got her printable to be customizable though — I was hoping to do that for mine but I couldn’t figure it out!

      Reply

      • Sophia says

        You will need professional Adobe Acrobat to make each section that you would like to be customizable to be a FORM field. Not hard, but the free PDF tools usually can’t do that.

        Reply

  25. Kristia@Family Balance Sheet says

    Thanks for the printable. I have seen something similar on other sites, but I like how you addded your daily routine. What software did you use to create the daily worksheet? I would like to make one specifically for my use.

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Thanks Kristia,
      I actually just used an Excel Spreadsheet…so you could totally create your own if you want! {I’m obsessed with Excel!}

      Reply

  26. Danielle says

    Thanks for the post. I love this blog…I don’t get to check it as much as I would like to (I know all about crazy busy days). I just discovered Planner Pad as my planner. I got one for the start of this year. It was a bit more than I have ever paid but it is AMAZING. It is the most personalized I have ever been able to be with a planner. I do like these pages though…Thanks!

    Reply

  27. J says

    Just to let you know — you misspelled something here. The word is “errands” not “arrends”
    Just thought you might want to know that since it’s a printable/download on your site.

    Reply

  28. Vivian says

    I love your blank printable! How can I type in my own daily routine on the blank daily planner? As it is now, I have to hand write in my routine after I print it. Thanks so much!!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Thanks Vivian!

      Unfortunately, there is not a way to type in your own information unless you have a PDF editing program {and those are kind of expensive!} However, you could simply write in your daily routine and make photo copies. That’s the best advice I have for now!

      Reply

  30. Kristen @ JoyfullyThriving says

    What a great resource, Andrea! I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what I need to stay on top of everything and this might be exactly it. You are a talented creator…and thanks for sharing what you created!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Thanks Kristen! This daily worksheet has REALLY helped me to be more productive over the last couple of months, so I hope others will benefit from it too!

      Reply

  31. Eos Mom says

    Once again you are so super awesome for sharing this info and printable! I am really working on time-management right now and trying to learn from those who have a handle on things. So helpful, thank you!!!

    Reply

  32. Niki says

    Thanks so much for the printable. I homeschool my two children, so our life is more about routines than scheduled times:) I’m not creative enough to create my own, so I’ll just mooch off of you!

    Reply

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