This post has an affiliated link to ToDoist – this is a referral link that gives you 2 months free of the ProPlan (and if you do sign up I get 2 months free)

I love my bullet journal and it’s a big part of how I organise my work week. I also use digital tools to stay on top of things – my Outlook calendar and the ToDoist app are my two digital planning tools.

I’ve been journalling since 2016 and it took me a while to find the right layout – I have now been using my weekly spread for a year or so. I love that the week is one page and each day has a dedicated column with a row of times. Yes, I know Outlook can do that too but the main reason for me to have a paper based journal is the time I take to sit down and draw the weekly layout, fill in the week and use this time to reflect.

Bullet Journal: I love this format so much and it has evolved over time, as I changed jobs, I it used it differently and tried different styles. If you want to find out more about my bullet journal journey, read my post about my 2021 journal and follow the links to previous posts.

Outlook calendar: Outlook and Office 365 are my default work set up and I rely on this to remind me of meetings, easy access to meeting links etc. I use it more as a passive tool where other people can invite me and I only have reoccurring items in there to protect certain days or parts of days for specific tasks, e.g. Tuesday is my research day and this is a standing item in my calendar. We also two half days that should stay meeting free – and I marked those in my calendar too.

ToDoist App: I think I found this app last summer when I was looking for an App to help me plan longer term and combine work with other projects to have a better overview. And now that there is an option to have a board view and I have figured out how to use labels this has been brilliant. I use the app for some aspirational planning and the reminders are handy for reoccurring tasks like Watering the plants. The long-term planning and project set up with subtasks and reminders is great as well. The ToDoist blog is very handy and I recommend to start with the overview guide. There is a free version and a subscription version available.

Focusmate: I’ve know about this for a while and recommended it to others all the time. I have now started using it and what a life changes this has been. How often I can use Focusmate depends on my work schedule but I really enjoy planning around the 50min time slots and then moving to another task or get back to my unstructured day. While working from home I found a focusmate session first thing in the morning and just after linch great ways to help me get started and structure my day. You get three 50min sessions free per week – if you want unlimited sessions the subscription is around £3.50 per month.

Find out more in the video about how I combine these tools to help me plan my work week and let me know what tools you use. Are you digital, fully paper based or do you use a combination?