How to use symbols in your planner

 

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

  

Hello, my friends, I hope you're doing well. Have you ever felt like when you write down something that you just can't write fast enough because your brain works faster than you write? In this video, I'm going to talk about common symbols that people use in their planner, which enable them to write and take down information faster. Using planner symbols is kind of like a shorthand or a quick way to categorize information in your planner. 

Now all of the symbols that I'm about to show you have to do with your task and showing the status of your tasks. 

So, symbol number one is a simple arrow. And an arrow indicates that the task has been forwarded to the next day next week or a future date. So, to show you an example of this, suppose there's a task on your task list that you want to move to a later date. So, if I want to move this first task, I can draw an arrow like this. And this arrow means that a task has been forwarded to a later date. So, after putting the arrow there, I will choose the date that I want to move this task to. I briefly vote on the task on a future date. And I can take the date that is voted on and indicate beside the arrow, so I'll know what date that was moved to this was moved to May 15. So, I'll simply put a date over here to decide may 15. And that's how you use the forward arrow. 

The second symbol I want to show you is one that I feel is very commonly used. And that is a checkmark. A checkmark indicates that a task has been completed, and there's nothing more to do or follow up on. So, if a task is completed, you can simply put a checkmark like so to indicate that the task has been completed. 

Now I'm going to give you a couple of my personal ideas. Some people like to draw a line through their tasks to indicate that it has been done. I personally don't like to draw a line through things because I think that it looks sloppy. But if that's what you prefer to do, there's certainly nothing wrong with it as your planner. I think a checkmark looks much neater and more presentable. And plus, you can always go back and read what you wrote. Whereas if you scratch through something, it may be harder to see what you previously completed.

I happen to be using Franklin planner pages, and it is a day on one page. So, this is a whole day. And this is a whole day. There's a section for a prioritized daily task list. There's an appointment schedule here. And then here is a section for notes. 

Now with this format, there is a column where you can prioritize your tasks. So sometimes I use this column to prioritize the ABC, and numbers. And sometimes I don't, what I like to do is when I'm not using this column, I actually like to put my symbols in this column right next to the task, it feels like the symbols are too far away when I have them over here. So, a lot of times, if you follow me, you'll see that I write in the task symbols right next to the item in this column, although that column really wasn't intended for that. 

So, symbols number three, I want to talk about is using an x and an x can indicate that a task has been deleted. So that means the task no longer needs to be completed, and it becomes obsolete. The fourth symbol I would like to talk about is a dot and a dot indicates that a task is in progress. So let's say you're going through your list of things to do. And you're kind of waiting on somebody to get back to you about something. So, you could indicate so with a dot, and that just serves as kind of a placeholder so that when you're scanning your list of to-does, you know, you can kind of skip over that task because you're waiting on something. So, a dot means that the task is making progress until completion is underway. And once the task is completed, you can simply turn that dot into a checkmark to indicate it's been completed. If you happen to use these types of planner inserts. A lot of the symbols that I'm talking about are listed right here. But there is a symbol I want to talk about that's not listed here. 

So, the next symbol I want to talk about is an asterix and the Asterix looks like that is kind of like a star. And sometimes you have a task on your list that you need to give more thought to, you don't know what to do, you don't know if it should be move forward, you don't know if it needs to be done now. So, an asterix can serve as a reminder to come back to this task and deal with it is not in progress, like you would use for the dot because if it was in progress, it will actually be in the process of getting done. But I asked you. It means you honestly don't know what to do with that task yet. And you need to give more thought to it. 

So, the next symbol I want to talk about is the delegated symbol. So, if you delegate a task to someone else, so maybe you're a manager, or maybe you delegated something to your children to do you have nothing to do on this task, but somebody else does. So, what you can do is complete it for you so you can put a checkmark there and then beside the checkmark indicate the initials of the person that you delegated it to. So, it will look like that. So I have put the initial C.B next to it to indicate the person that I delegated this task to. 

A lot of times when you're a manager or supervisor and you delegate things to other people, you need to follow up with the person So you delegate it to make sure it was completed. In that case, you can write the task and on the date you want to follow up with the other person, put the person's initials next to the task. So, I've made a note to follow up with the person to make sure that they've completed this on this date. So, I can put this date over here to decide. I put it here, but you can really put it anywhere. The main thing is, you know that you're going to follow up with that person on this date.  

Another couple of things that I find helpful just when I take notes in general, and I think I've probably learned this in college, but a lot of times when I listen and I'm taking notes, let's say I'm on the phone with the doctor, and a doctor is telling me things first, I really strive to listen for understanding and then once I have understanding of the main point the person is trying to make then I jot down a note. A lot of times when I jot down notes, I do some type of headings, so I know what it's about. So, let's say these are doctor's notes, I'd like to use a hyphen to indicate each main point that the person has made. So, for example, the main point the doctor could have been trying to make is to take medication with food on your stomach. 

Notice here whenever I use the word with I always a W and a slash, but I always use a W to write faster and I know in my brain W means what I'm just personally always also comfortable but using hyphens to less something but some of you may use dots to take notes is whatever you're comfortable with when you use symbols and when you use abbreviations is good because it helps prevent hand fatigue. 

The older I get, the more I realize I have to take care of my hands. I do a lot of typing at work and unfortunately in the work world carpal tunnel is becoming more and more common. So, when you are writing or typing you want to make sure you take care of your hands. For example, at work I use this glove this is just a glove that I bought online, but it helps with wrist support. When I am writing I try to use a comfortable pen. I love this pen it has a cushiony grip and pens tend to head against my finger right here and irritate that knuckle right there.

I love this pen so much that I decided to sell it in my online stores at Tonya plans.com I had this pin and white and it's like a pearlized white here and I liked that it has a clip because a lot of times I like to put my pen and my pen holder like that instead of worrying about fussing but putting it in here I mean it will fit especially with the elastic here on the back but it's just much easier I feel to put my pen up like this. So, I really enjoy that it has a clip like this. 

This is how the black pen looks. So, depending on the color of your planner, you might want to coordinate the pen with your planner. I tend to do a lot of journaling with this pen because what I'm just writing is just so comfortable. So again, it's for sale in my store at tonyaplans.com and these are about $6 I hope you found these tips helpful. 

Do you have any tips for writing quickly in your planner? I would love to hear about it. I love talking to you guys about planners. Feel free to leave a comment. I respond to all comments please don't forget to like this video. 

This is Tonya helping you feel more organized, so this can be your best year yet.