Today’s twenty-first century individuals are completely overloaded when it comes to the responsibilities and desires of everyday life. It can be extremely difficult to balance necessary errands and leisure time. If you don’t have a type A personality with excellent time management skills, you can easily find yourself overwhelmed with tasks that needed to be done yesterday. Or you may even find yourself at the opposite extreme of the spectrum where you procrastinate for days on end (this is usually where I find myself). Something that has reduced my stress and helped me get organized over the years is something I created my senior year of high school, called the Life Binder. This three-part series will give you a sneak peek at my Life Binder and some tips for starting your own!

My Life Binder is organized in six different parts that are separated by different tabs.

1. This Week

The first part of the binder is “This Week” which you can find a weekly/daily planner that is organized by the hour. Reminder: This Life Binder is made to fit your lifestyle! I personally need to plan my days hour by hour so that I do not over-book myself.

Tips:

• You can find weekly, daily, or hourly planner templates easily on Pinterest of simply searching on Google images.
• Color coding and highlighting more important events will make them stand out so you are less likely to forget about them.
• Leave yourself 30 minutes of wiggle room so that you aren’t rushing between places. You never know what life may throw at you, and it’s better to be early than late!
• Print out multiple sheets to have on hand for the weeks to come, and once a week is finished, rip it out to keep your binder from being cluttered with unnecessary material.

Here you can also find where I plan my meals for the week.

I find that planning out my meals for the week allows me to properly plan how much time will be spent in preparation as well as reducing how much food I waste.

Tips:

• Leftovers are BOMB for saving time. If you initially prepare meals in bulk you can save some for later in the week
• You can reuse certain items from past meals to recreate new dishes! For example, if you decide you want pasta with red sauce for dinner one night make extra pasta and keep it for pasta salad or a casserole.
• Think ahead and pre-bag snacks and breakfast meals that you can make in 1-2 steps. Reminder: If you want fast recipe ideas, tricks, and tips, be sure to check out part two of this Life Binder Series!

2. Monthly Calendar

The second part of my Life Binder is the monthly calendar where I highlight events know are set in place way in advanced such as weddings, birthdays, trips/vacations, or concerts.

Tips:

• If your Life Binder includes a weekly/daily planning section, be sure to copy any advanced events onto that day so that you don’t overlap activities