Completely organize the new year with this planner

Okay, I'm going to share something very personal. Something I don't necessarily feel ashamed of, but people often find it quite strange that I actually see this activity as a hobby. Because one of my hobbies is planning. It sounds super boring, but I just really enjoy taking a moment on Sunday to calmly review my schedule for the upcoming week. For a program like ‘All you need is Love’, planning is quite important: which flights land when, are all loved ones in the Netherlands on time for Christmas? What is the route that the Christmas bus will take through the Netherlands? When do the singers and bands need to be at the various locations for their performances, and what needs to be arranged in advance on a technical level? And of course, scheduling the important meetings with Schiphol to ensure that we can realize very special things again, like Davina Michele's performance last year, on the runway that was temporarily closed just for us. It's just a mini part of what needs to be arranged and planned, and of course, I also want to reserve time to write my articles for Amayzine.

This is the big secret to gaining overview and a realistic schedule

As I said: Sunday is really a day to sit down and enjoy. My ‘workflow’ in terms of planning is quite old-fashioned. I always put new appointments in my phone, but on Sunday it only becomes ‘official’, and it goes into my old-fashioned, tangible, paper planner. This year I chose the planner from Structuurjunkie, and the reason for that is probably very recognizable for people like me, who prefer to be too busy rather than too calm.

Sometimes you schedule all your appointments nicely, but you forget that you actually have to go there too

The nice thing about this planner is that you have the space to block travel time as well. In agendas I used before, it was just a white box where I scribbled all appointments separately, but with Structuurjunkie, one day is a column including times, so you immediately see if what you have planned for that day is feasible. Because if you have a meeting at Schiphol at 14:00 that lasts at least an hour, but you need to be at school by 16:00 for a 10-minute conversation, it will likely be a bit tight including travel time. It just becomes a lot clearer, and you get the chance to move your Thursday appointments if you see that it won't work out that way. Also nice for the real planning dummies: when you purchase the planner, you get a free online planning course with it. Then you at least know for sure that you are using the planner optimally.