Housewife MacGyver: Organize Thyself with Planner Perfect {and a giveaway}

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I'd *love* to introduce you to Jenny, mom of seven and author of the Planner Perfect blog and the Planner Perfect planning system. You may have seen her over at Tatertots and Jello a bit ago (like I did) and I loved her so much that I asked her to come share more about organizing our lives and our time today. And she's generously offering one of you a free copy of her Planner Perfect e-book. Here's Jenny:

My name is Jenny Penton and I'm happy to be here on Just Lu!

I am a homeschooling, mama of seven children and I am from the blog, Planner Perfect. It's a blog dedicated to women and all things organized.

I am going to introduce to you, today, a new way at looking at planning your days. Instead of following our calendars with all of its appointments, or our sticky notes with all the things we must do, and/or task manager, planners, with all of its tasks with check marks for completion; what if we followed what our goals are for our lives, instead? You are meant for more than following just the tasks of your everyday life, and this is why we have a hard time staying organized!

 

The first part of my series in, The Law of Attraction, is being able to define what you want. Sounds easy, right? 

Not really.

Being moms, we can get so caught-up in our day-to-day, that we don't even know what we are doing for dinner, let alone all the things we want in life. This is where Planner Perfect, ladies are a ten steps ahead...you do define what you want, you are scripting your desires in your planner and you are going for it! Writing it down as your goals keep the goals visual in our minds, thus emitting frequencies that boomerang it back to us. Defining what you want, living it out and creating our own realities, is the Law of Attraction. And beware, it also works to limit us if our beliefs are limited.

Taken from the book, The Secret, 

"When you think about what you want, and you emit that frequency, you cause the energy of what you want to vibrate at that frequency and you bring it to you!

Okay, Planner Perfect, gals...get out a piece of paper and write down all your dreams, your wants, and your goals, down to a thin bod if your heart desires. Don't think with restrictions; write it all down as though all your dreams know no boundaries. In order to live life to the fullest, and in order to be all God created us to be, we need to tap into His blessings He has for us through our relationship with Him...all we have to do is ask.

But we do need to define what we want and live out our lives knowing it will come to fruition. God gives us the desires of our hearts and when we come to Him with our desires we are connecting with His spiritual energy. Some examples of living on purpose opposed to tasks is how we plan. Instead of lists, set goals for you and your family on some loose-leaf paper for the month of February. Have a header at the top that says *February Goals 2011* and start envisioning your month, what you want to do, see, lean, and shoot for. Have each goal, party, idea, dream, have its own header with bullet points beneath it for the details of that particular goal. An example might be that you really want to throw a Valentines party for your daughter and all her friends. Have the header be *Valentines Day Party!* and have a heart sticker adorn the top of your i in Valentines...make it fun! Your bullet points might be that you want to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, her guests should be listed, her outfit, the games, etc... this is an example on how you define what you want. 

Another example might be that you have always wanted to write a book...then write that down as your goal! As moms in particular, we get in mom mode, and everything else we might have dreamed of doing isn't even a consideration anymore. We can be amazing mothers with dreams that interweave within our mothering beautifully. We are meant to live life to the fullest and to dream. I have dreams for myself and set aside time to accomplish them and you, too, will find that it's invigorating to have goals. I am a homeschooling mom of seven, and if I can live by my set goals...you can, too! Do this kind of goal setting with each of your months.

Next is execution! The fun part...these are the days that make it happen. This is where you are aligning your days to make room for the goals. Taking a look at your calendar, skimming some stuff we don't need to do off the top, and speckling those fun dreams, goals, and plans within your days. Planner Perfect is a mindset...a mindset that doesn't rely on prescripted task sheets and/or chore charts; they can be a crutch, where you lose the ability to be a visionary. Instead, it is the mindset of authoring your own life and taking it by the reins. 

My daily pages in Planner Perfect are reinforced loose-leaf where you are writing your date at the top and your plan for the day. Not by time, because that is too rigid and can make you anxious. I like to go by day slots

• My date adorns the top as my header
• Following might be some journal time for me
• The breakfast I'd like to prepare
• What morning chores I needed to get done
• Here is where one detailed aspect of my goal will take place, making room each day for your goals is how you will begin to live on purpose. Speckling them throughout my weeks.
• Next might be what I have planned to do with my children
• And of course my dinner plans and what I plan to prepare

I even plan some things I'd like to get done in the evening. Don't forget to save some slots for some spontaneity, as it is always fun. 

This gives me a nice custom blueprint for my days. Created by me, author of my own life. If you're feeling doubtful without the crutch of time slots and prescripted prompting for tasks, don't be. Get into the habit of dreaming, and envisioning your life without it. Soon it will become second nature and you'll be soaring. This is living life to the fullest and the Planner Perfect, planner, harnesses this all beautifully.

Planner Perfect, friends, define what you want, script the desires of your heart, be a visionary for your life, and fall in love with all the possibilities there are. You are amazing...you are created in His image...don't sell yourself short.

Now go. Script your dreams...

Visit Planner Perfect for more on organizing your home, too, room-by-room

Tips on Getting Your Laundry Done

Cleaning and Organizing Your Linen Closet

Great meals and meal planning tips

 e-book giveaway! {giveaway now closed}

Planner Perfect's downloadable e-book will get you organized. I give tips from party planning, keeping your home clean, relationships, to utilizing you strengths and talents. Planner Perfect harnesses a life that lives to the fullest. Let Planner Perfect be a springboard for your aspirations and dreams.With over 40 beautiful pages, it is a complete guide that takes you step-by-step on how to become all God has designed you to be as well as complete instruction on how to create your very own Planner Perfect.

Learn how to become a master life planner with Planner Perfect’s downloadable e-book. Start today, to become all God created you to be and making your dreams a reality.

Here's how YOU can win:

• One entry:  Leave a comment here with YOUR #1 Organizing Tip!! 

• Another entry: Go over to Jenny's blog, Planner Perfect and follow it or leave a comment!!
• One last entry: Link up your organizing project (past, present, future, organized, wants-to-be-organized, should-be-organized -- anything goes!) or tips in the Organize Thyself linky party at the end of the post here. 

Be sure to leave an extra comment for each entry. The giveaway closes this Friday, February 18 at midnight (MST) and the winner will be announced here on Saturday, February 19.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Jenny! Be sure to go check out Jenny's fantastic organizing and life tips at Planner Perfect and then swing by her meal planning blog at Planner Perfect Meals -- she puts the caramely goodness of Rolos in brownies. Heaven!