How to Be Productive with the Volt Planner

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2018 UPDATE

In 2018 I am excited to let you know that I created the perfect calendar to reach your goals! I loved the Volt Planner but a few things were missing to perfectly adapt to my routine.

Hello Peaceful Mind 2018 Planner will help you make a plan for your goals, create new habits, be more grateful and take care of yourself! 

Here’s how the planner works:

1. Define your focus and main goals for 2018
2. Create an action plan for your quarterly goals
3. Write a step by step checklist for your monthly goals
4. Organize your week by creating daily to-do lists

What you will find in the Productivity Planner:

• 2018 Theme
• 2018 Areas of focus
• 2018 Master plan
• 2018 Quarterly focus
• 2018 Bucket list
• 2018 New habits to create
• 2018 New skills to learn
• 2018 Places to see
• Quarterly pages:
  • Skills to learn
  • Trips to take
  • Habits to create
  • Self-care ideas
  • Action plan for 3 goals
• Monthly pages:
  • Monthly mantra
  • Monthly bucket list
  • Monthly focus
  • Monthly self-care ideas
  • Monthly calendar
  • To-do list for 3 goals with due dates and reward
• Weekly pages:
  • Monthly calendar
  • Habits tracker
  • Goals / Focus of the week checklist
  • Good things to celebrate / Grateful list
  • Notes for next week
  • Daily checklist

You can find pictures of the planner here!

For 2017, I have many personal and professional goals. So I need to be organized and focused on each goal, one at a time.

As you know, I love making lists. This is because, if I don’t write things down, ideas will constantly fly around in my head while having to remember everything at once, compromising my ability to focus.

Writing down all of my ideas, and especially my to-do list helps to reduce stress about everything else in life. 

I can focus on one specific task at a time without worrying about forgetting to send a form to the bank, making a doctor appointment, forgetting to respond to a message…

Do you feel the same way? Do you have the need to write your to-do list to avoid going crazy?

If you can relate to all of this, I know the perfect planner for you!

As mentioned in the post Make the best of 2017, top planners to bring success and happiness, I have used the Volt Planner since last year and absolutely love it.

This year I was lucky enough for Ink+Volt to send me a free copy of the Volt planner in exchange for this review.

How I heard about the Volt Planner:

My very good friend Marika from Dirtie Dog Photography found the Kickstarter campaign for the 2016 planner and thought it would be perfect for our weekly meetings.

We meet every Wednesday to talk about our businesses and strategies to reach our goals.

Every week, we make a list of things we have to do by the time we meet again.

So when she saw the Volt Planner and its weekly lists she realized it was perfect for us and, since both of our birthdays are in January, she thought it would be the perfect birthday present!

If you are trying to accomplish a very big goal, I think it’s important to have friends or people that can relate to your struggles and help you be accountable to make it happen!

No matter your goal, you can find like-minded people online or in your town.

What I like about the planner:

The first thing you will notice when you hold the Volt Planner in your hand is the quality of the paper and its soft cover.

The Volt Planner is not only good quality but was also smartly designed:

• Yearly planning:
  First, you will select a theme for 2017. Then, you will write your top goals for the year and on the next page, you will be able to track your big achievements during the year.
• Monthly planning:
  Each month starts with a double page calendar with a place to write down notes and focuses. Then, you will be able to write 10 big goals you have for the month and you can also select a monthly challenge and keep track of it to motivate you to finish it.
• Weekly planning:
  The first page is blank with a prompt to help you reach your goals and reflect on your life (you can also use this page for notes). Then, you will be able to mark down your top 10 priorities for the week. There is also room for you to reflect, celebrate and review which are all important if you want to reach your goals! The second part of the weekly planning is a weekly outlook with daily blocks for the morning, noon and nighttime.

How I stay productive with the Volt Planner:

Now let’s talk about the reason you are reading this article. I’m going to show you how I plan my week to stay productive!

But first, I just want to let you know that I use the Volt Planner for my personal life and my blog. I don’t use it for my full-time job.

So here is what I do:

1. I write down my biggest goals at the beginning of the month.
2. I think about what needs to be done to accomplish them and write down the specific tasks in the checklist of the week when I am planning to do it.
3. On Sunday I complete my weekly checklist with anything I need to do and schedule them on the weekly calendar on the next page
4. On Wednesday I add anything that comes up during the weekly entrepreneur meet up I created with my friend Marika
5. If there is something I didn’t have time to do I just write it down again for the following week.

And voilà!

I also started to do monthly challenges this year.

In January I’m doing a no spending challenge, which I haven’t been very good at … but in my defense, Veronica Roth published a new book and I turned 30 so I went on a crazy shopping spree the weekend of my birthday 😀

Where can you get the Volt planner:

You can order the Volt Planner on the Ink+Volt website here.

Further Reading

• Make the best of 2017, Top Planners to Bring Success and Happiness
• How To Be More Productive In 30 Days
• Find Out When You Need To Sleep
• The Best Tools To Improve Your Life And Be Happier
• 5 Free Extensions You Need To Relax At Work

Over to you

How do you plan your week to be productive? And what monthly challenges have you done or are planning to do?