A Practical Planning System Inspired by Diane’s Story

If you’re someone who has spent years helping others - whether you’re an educator, social worker, caregiver, or the steady heart of your family - but struggle to stay on top of your own plans, you may see yourself in Diane. Many women who spend their lives supporting everyone else find it hard to create a planning system that truly supports them.

If you’re a natural list maker — the type who organizes your world by writing everything down — and you have a dozen scattered notebooks floating around your home, you’ll definitely connect with Diane’s story. List makers often have great ideas, but without a clear system, follow-through becomes overwhelming.

Maybe you’re a wife, a mom of many, or a woman entering a brand-new chapter of life. Perhaps you’re even preparing a big project, like publishing a book (just like Diane!). And while you love pretty, decorated planners, you know it’s time for practical planning solutions that help you stay organized, reduce overwhelm, and keep everything in one place.

Diane came to us looking for a planner system that could organize her categorized lists, creative ideas, writing scripts, meeting notes, and weekly schedule. After learning more about her lifestyle and her planning pain points, we designed a simple-but-powerful Laurel Denise planning system to support her daily life and her upcoming book launch.

Diane’s Recommended Planner System

Planner:
• The Nancy, Monday start, Large

Accessories:
• 4-Column Inserts
• Banner Stickers
• Elastic Pen Pouch
• Erasable Pens
• Large Accessories Pouch

How We Set Up Diane’s Planning System

1. The Nancy Planner (Large)

The Nancy gives Diane enough space to:

- Brain dump ideas into categorized lists
- Capture meeting notes and key takeaways
- Track daily and weekly tasks
- See deadlines and due dates all in one place

This layout helps her manage both work and family life without feeling scattered.

2. 4-Column Inserts for Categorized Lists

Diane will use the 4-column inserts for all her lists and brain drops.

A simple trick: fold the insert in half so it peeks out behind the weekly pages. This keeps her most important lists visible — eliminating that “out of sight, out of mind” feeling that often leads to forgetfulness.

3. A Post-Meeting “Simple Life System”

Like many of us, Diane takes great meeting notes… but then doesn’t do anything with them. We recommended a 10-minute post-meeting routine to transfer:

- Deadlines and dates
- Meeting summaries (filed under the category the meeting belongs to)
- Action items (placed on the correct day or categorized list)

All of this prevents forgotten tasks and reduces mental clutter.

4. A Weekly Sunday Reset

Sundays are now her quiet reset ritual - a time to reflect on the previous week:

• What worked well?
  
• What didn’t?
  
• What needs adjusting?
  

After reflecting, she’ll plan the upcoming week. Since she loves decorating, she can add banner stickers to her completed week as a creative reward.

5. Keeping Everything Together

Her old system scattered notebooks and ideas all over her home (we’ve ALL been there).

We suggested:

• A Large Accessories Pouch to store stickers, notebooks, and even her planner.
• 
  
• An Elastic Pen Pouch to keep her favorite pens close.
  

A simple change that dramatically improves consistency in planning.

Homework for Diane

How- To Move Into the Planner System:

1. Transfer all deadlines, due dates, and appointments from her desk calendar into her new planner
   
   
2. Rewrite her categorized brain dump lists on the 4-Column Insert
   
   
3. Choose items from those lists and place them on specific days or weeks
   
   
4. Use erasable pens to avoid perfection anxiety
   
   
5. Keep it simple at the start — maybe one banner sticker on the monthly page and that’s it
   

After the First Week of Planning:

1. Sit down with a warm cup of tea each Sunday
   
   
2. Reflect on the week
   
   
3. Decorate the previous week with stickers while reviewing
   
   
4. Continue using the meeting notes system
   
   
5. Keep all notes in one large notebook stored with her planner