The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner

Have you ever gotten to the end of your day and looked back wondering what all you accomplished? Do you have so many daily things you need to complete each day but don't know where to start or how to prioritize? Then you might want to check out The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner from The 7 Minute Life. I recently had the chance to review this planner.

What is it?

The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner isn't just a run-of-the-miller planner but a personal training tool to help you get focused and accomplish daily goals as well as long term goals. Author Allyson Lewis shared that research shows the average attention span of an adult is just 7 minutes. Her mission for the 7 Minute Life Daily Planner is to show us how to prioritize, organize and simplify by taking just 7 minutes to set goals. Throughout the book there are places to record daily & long term goals, daily contacts, meeting plans, calendar at a glance, etc.

How it works

In the beginning of the book, she walks the reader through various exercises:

• prioritizing our top 10 values (what is most important to us)
• helps us discover our purpose (& having us write it out)
• establishing 90 day goals
• writing out our highest value activities (where our time is best spent)

This 271 page planner is spiral bound and meant to be used for 90 days. Once you get through the beginning portion of the book that teaches you how to use it, you are then ready to put it to work. For each day, you have a 2 spread page where you can keep track of appointments, 5 tasks to complete before 11am, daily contacts, list unfinished tasks, voice mails and even a space to track how much water you drank as well as what you ate.

How I used it

Prior to reading the beginning of the planner, the author suggests watching this video to help you fully understand how this planner works which is what I did. I admit it was a little daunting when I first dove into the planner and I took several days reading over what she shared and completing the various activities. I don't make time for myself very often so it was tough to spend time doing some self reflection. I had to first highlight things that are a priority to me such as friendships, faith, compassion, honesty, travel, taking risk, making a difference were a few I chose.

From there, I had to write out my purpose in life, jot down mental clutter (for me, it's those things I am always remembering that I need to do or all the ideas I have swarming around in my head), set 90 day personal and financial goals as well as life goals. There are a lot of things to complete before actually using the daily planner section. After completing most of those pages, it does make sense why you have to do that. It helps you clearly define what your priorities are in life as well as where you want to end up so you can establish smaller, daily goals to reach your long term goals.

It finally came time to implement what I was learning by using the daily progress reports. I knew going into it I would use this planner for Monday-Friday taking weekends off. Each evening, I sat down and jotted down the 5 tasks I wanted to complete before 11am for the following day. I found I was more productive and would complete my goals if I knew upon waking up what exactly needed completed. Sometimes I listed small things like doing morning dishes or devotions, or I listed larger things like reorganize the nursery. This was my most favorite and useful part of this planner! I also wrote down any appointments I had for the following day.

This planner would be very useful for a working parent as it contains sections that include both home & work goals and tasks. Because of this, there were a few sections on the daily progress reports I repurposed. Under the voicemail section, I wrote down emails I needed to return. Under the thank you notes section, I jotted down prayer requests from others. In the daily contact section, I wrote down blog & social media goals and ideas.

While I typically keep track of my life electronically, there is something satisfying by seeing your tasks in writing. It was a good feeling being able to check mark it off and answering the question at the bottom of the page "did I do what I said I would do today?"

Overall, I truly appreciate what the author of The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner teaches her readers. I needed a way to try and regain focus of my life goals and this planner has been helping me make the most of my time. I love all the different checklists that are included as well! Check out this planner for yourself as I have only just scratched the surface in conveying all that is included! Also, if you are a homeschooler, check out this post she wrote on 7 steps to homeschool schedule sanity.

This planner is intended for adults and can be purchased for $24.95.

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