Planners and organised people

[Plannerspannermanners]

Is anyone else a planner? I feel like there are frequently threads on here about people struggling to keep up with their busy lives, but does anyone else just shrug and think - make a spreadsheet?

I’ve always been like this, even as a child. I can remember dates and times and have a photographic memory. I picture the days of the week and the months of the year on a continuous rolling wave (in my mind) and can always place when something needs to be done or will need to be booked in by. I don’t get stressed by being busy because I’ve always planned for whatever events are coming up. This is not a stealth boast by any means - it actually causes problems and the older (and more menopausal) I’ve got, the less I can cope with others, even DH, not being ‘switched on’ or needing reminding about what’s coming up and when. I know that this is my problem as I’m probably the abnormal one but it doesn’t stop it infuriating me!

Anyhoo - interested to know if there is anyone else out there who’s similar 😀

How do you physically organise it all though? I'm organised with diaries but struggle with prioritising tasks at work... typically most of the thoughts etc come to me whilst I'm driving so hard to do much with. And merging work, managing staff, family (5kids, 4schools), exercise, meal planning etc it's difficult to find something to fit it all in. So his do you actually physically organise it all that allows you to deal with it 'on the go' so to speak

@princesssparklepants - do you resent doing all the planning? I used to like it but I’ve noticed that it annoys me more and more now. I like the act of planning, and organising for myself/my own peace of mind, but I’m becoming annoyed with the expectations from DH, family, colleagues etc. that it will always be me to plan and organize as I always have done. I had Covid last year and was bedbound for a week. Everything went to pot!

Can anyone give practical tips with regards to financial planning, what does that actually mean, how does one go from putting numbers on a spreadsheet (excel? An app?) to retiring X years later? I get that you have X coming in (subject to change) and Y going out (again, subject to change) but how does it all work, how do you categorise and allocate money in an ever changing world?

I use a paper diary for everything so am organised in that sense so I know MOT is due on a certain date, school holidays are from this date to that etc. But can't get head round financial planning as such.

Financial planning - I start with a spreadsheet of ins/outs. I know we have X left over each month and allocate this to pots/funds, eg Xmas, holidays, house repairs, big bills like house insurance etc. That way, we’re never caught short when a bill comes in. Ditto children’s activities. I work out roughly how much is needed each year, including holiday camps, and save per month accordingly. I also work out mortgage overpayments and make it very visible, so eg if we pay off X each month until the end of our term, we’ll have Y equity etc. Seeing it in black and white is a huge incentive! Once the term is up, we plan to save for university fees/recalibrate slightly. Will likely still be able to manage overpayments as the outstanding mortgage amount will have been reduced so significantly.

Caveat - all of this worked much better pre the cost of living crisis. I am not a financial guru, just tend to apply logic and prioritize paying down the mortgage. Whilst we save for necessities, we don’t have savings as such as any spare goes into the mortgage. Other people would do things differently, I’m sure!

I am definitely a planner. I get anxious when I don't know what to expect and if I didn't plan ahead and write things down I wouldn't have a hope in hell of remembering what I am meant to be doing. I like to have things to look forward to as well... so for instance I will start planning for a holiday, a birthday or Christmas way waaaay in advance because it enables me to enjoy it beforehand as well as at the time. It also means that I am usually able to deal with the unexpected because I know what resources I have (time, money, food etc.) already so I know what I can do with them.

I am the same as @BernieWinters, I am very organised with diaries, to do lists, etc. on a month by month basis the financial stuff is organised too.

I'd be grateful for tips and processes used for longer term financial planning please. Do you just use excel or are there other tools / apps that can help? How do you organise this?

Planning is a skill I have learned. I schedule unscheduled time otherwise it gets filled up. I also learned to prioritise, I used to always take the chance of seeing other people, now I actually turn it down sometimes.

If I want to make it happen, I will. Same with other people.

Nothing better than a list with everything crossed off that you can Chuck on the fire as you put your feet up with a glass of vino

Even more so if the crossings off are vertical and you can join them up meaning you have crossed off everything on your list. A bit like the Seinfeld strategy for writing jokes

jamesclear.com/stop-procrastinating-seinfeld-strategy

Interesting thread! I have to admit I would find some of what you describe very stressful though! I am organized but not a planner.... inset days and dentist appointments never take me by suprise or get missed, but I don't know where we will be holidaying this summer let alone in 2024. To me spreadsheets and project management is a work thing, and having to do that at home would be very stressful. I worked with a woman who meal planned for the month and couldn't accommodate kids friends staying for tea on a random Tuesday as it hadn't been planned for!

I admire planners to an extent but I don't think I could do it. Mind, you all would look at my cobwebby house and overflowing laundry and be very glad you're not me!! We're all different. This thread is interesting

I used to be the parent that could reel off the dates for non school uniform, school trips, birthday parties etc. Then basically I got some news and my brain stopped working, because I was so stressed. Everything went to shit for quite a while.
It got better over lock down (cos there wasn't much to think about) but not brilliant.

But this week I have done loads, I have filled my phone diary with dates, MOT, insurance renewal, days off work. I have a paper finance planner (that I made and I love) my house is tidier than it has been for years. I feel really good.

Sometimes. I used to do a lot of the wife work and finally managed to get DH to see how stressed I was and he took on some things like shopping and cooking.... but with shopping he still needed input from me!

I can just get on with things that need doing but DH just doesn't always see the things! I have just accepted that we have different standards.

Finances, we have both been involved in during our 15 years together. Sometimes he is "incharge" or it and sometimes I am. It's all give and take.

I am pretty good at organising school/work and dates/calendars on a day to day basis. The things that let me down are the mid to longer term planning such as home renovations, retirement goals, holidays. The holidays is an issue as we have caring responsibilities for parents which make it hard to plan longer term. Financially up until recently DH did all the short term planning purely for cash flow - we didn't have much ability to save. This has changed now due to some job changes and we are trying to plan ahead for us and the DC. A bit of a minefield.I would love any tips or sharing what others do

When budgeting use your phone calculator it will become your friend it’s a godsend when working out figures. I do it all the time and recheck as well then saving pots have names Christmas stays the same March 11 etc as each project is done a new name can be given. Bills have their own pot and never name changed online banking is also a godsend too check figures before doing anything saves embarrassment and for keeping 0n track with savings.

@BernieWinters
Our spreadsheets are this:

1. A cash book style list of transactions. The rows are the transactions each month. The columns are analysed according to how you live, but usually Income, then Mortgage, Food, Car, Standing Orders, Personal cash (dh and me separate)Holidays. Make the headings suit your life. Check it off to bank account at least each fortnight so you don't get overwhelmed.

Make totals each month and transfer to spreadsheet 2

1. The rows are the same analysed headings from your cashbook. The columns are the 12 months. With an overall total at the end of the year for each row. Below each month, your bank balance brought forward, add income, take away expenses, gives you a new balance for the next month.

Fill in future months (maybe in a different colour) with your estimates, that's your budget for the year. See how closely you keep to the budget. But don't use it as a stick to beat yourself with.

Finally

1. At the end of the year, put the total spend for each category on a new spreadsheet. Eg totals for 2022. Make a row for 2023 ( where these totals equal your budget on spreadsheet 2 (link the cells so it updates).

Have the opening and closing bank balance for the year as the final column for each year. Does it show spare cash? Then pay off debts/ mortgage. Or invest it somewhere, depending on circumstances.

Then make a row for 2024, guessing what might happen that year. The more years build up, the more you know your own spending patterns. It won't be perfect, it doesn't matter. It's a start. Then make another few years rows.

There are probably apps that do all this beautifully 😊but we're old school, and because dh and I work the same way, either of us can keep on top of it.

Our budget meetings in December are legendary! 😁😁

Any tips for coping with doing things with people who aren't organised and who can't recognise that you need to be?!

I used to do a voluntary thing and wanted to help out as DD got a lot from it, but there was often last minute requests to do an activity or bring something. I work FT and find dealing with children particularly stressful so needed days to plan suitable activity for different age groups and buy any resources in plus do the prep eg cutting out. It wasn't last minute in the sense of someone being very ill on the day, it was a day or two before it would become clear no one was available and could Riding do it... I suggested a rota and offered to go on it every six weeks, plus buying in a structured activity resource thing with ideas for each age group but that didn't fit with the leaders' way of doing things.

I even had a chat with one leader who suggested I 'go with the flow' instead of planning everything in my life! After the time when I agreed to do something, organised getting the resources around being on holiday, arrived early the day after holiday ready to set up and discovered they'd changed their minds and decided to do something totally different, I realised they didn't value my time at all and walked out!

Same situation here. My DS always regards a deadline as a target and will always delay doing something (Uni assignment, online job application assessment, etc) until the last possible moment, then gets stressed when it takes longer than planned or something else crops up. It's the way he's hard wired. He's certainly had to pull a few all nighters to meet deadlines.

I'm the opposite, I do something as soon as I can, even if the deadline is days (or weeks away). I don't want the stress of having to remember something, or worry about something else cropping up, or stress of finding that something is missing which means I can't do it, but could have done it had I had more time! So my default is to do it at the first possible opportunity.

I suppose I've helped cause it in him as I was always one step ahead in his formative years, i.e. nagging him to pack his school rucksack, nagging him to do his homework, etc., so he got used to "things happening" on time because I made it happen. Now he's in control of his own destiny, he's absolutely terrible!

I'm organised - paper calendar for DH, online calendar for me, plan family trips in advance, son's school meetings, plan food shopping, long term savings goals, all that kind of thing.

DH was impressed when I used project management skills to plan/schedule all activities involved in dismantling an old shed and erecting a new one, including arranging delivery not too early/late, contingency in case the base needed replacing, etc.

But to be honest, it's my job at work 😁 so the techniques just overflow into other areas of my life. And yes, it's incredibly annoying that school cannot organise events more than a few days ahead - I can need up to four weeks' notice for work depending on the date/time!

I love a bit of planning! I would far rather invest a few hours in planning than have to keep giving mental energy on something several times over as it crops up. I think the key is thinking about things early enough, so I have loads of prompts in my calendar, eg buy winter coats in Feb sales, book Christmas stuff in September
And I never open a message from school without my diary next to me!

This. I just have more things to do then I have time to do. I moved to a new country when my kids were very young. Work, kids, starting a new life, trying to make new friends, take up new hobbies/ interests etc, just means I am constantly overwhelmed.

Me too. I love planning! Lists, notebooks, etc

I'm not naturally an organised person. I was usually late up until my mid 20s when I figured out I need to set 5 alarms to wake me up, keep me on target and leave the house on time. I also have an obscene amount of To Do lists and at least 1 reminder that pops up on my phone daily (ie which DC has PE that day/who has a GP appointment tomorrow). Family and colleagues will say I'm organised but I feel like a fraud because I work very hard at it and don't actually enjoy the process as much as other people do. I've become more organised in the last few years because I have no back up plan now that I'm a lone parent and live 2 hours away from family.

I've copied and pasted a lot of the previous posts to help me, so thank you all!

I'm organised and a planner, but not on the scale you lot are! It comes naturally to me but I'm quite relaxed about it all. I just action things straight away, make a list and just do it. But I don't panic if things change, I just deal with it. I find other peoples disorganised state irritating if it affects me.

I keep track of everything including DH rota on my Google calendar.

For work I use my outlook calendar for meetings and I use a paper planner for deadlines and to do lists.

This is going to sound dumb but so you check your planner’s daily or monthly? Also how are you booking 2024 holidays. The sites Im looking at have no availability yet.

I check sort of check the month ahead, get an overview. I always look at next week during the previous week so anything that needs doing, preparing for us under control. I then check first thing every morning, remind kids or take action. It’s all about looking forward and anticipating.

For events that need prep - Xmas day! - I would have added tasks in on days building up to the event. For example around 12 weeks before I had a note ‘book online shop slot’, 2 days before I had precook dauphinois. So everything big that goes in gets broken down and timings to ensure success get added.

For holidays 2024 is in the planning. Where and when has been linked to the kids school program. I set up a spreadsheet with exams and mocks and then looked at sensible timing. I then decide when and the where. I then start the brain washing for everyone else (so they agree!) and I start researching and build the trip. I can’t book, but the minute dates are out, I’m on it. It’s more important to me to get what I want, so early is important. That said our 2024 ski trip is now out and I’ll be booking with a group in the next week. I sounded people out at the end of last year.

It’s all about looking forward.

We’re lucky that work is stable and we can commit to these things early, so I appreciate that’s an advantage.