Diaries are much loved by Lyreco, we believe paper diaries can be a really essential tool for ultimate organisation and time management. Luckily there’s a wide range of diaries and planners for us to choose from every single year. There’s on-trend diaries, academic, a page a day, desk planners and compact year planners to name just a few! With all this choice and all the different ways you can use your diary, how can you make sure you are getting the most value out of your diary and planner?

We’ve put together some of our favourite tips to ensure you get the most from your diary and planner:

Fresh Paper

A New Year deserves fresh paper and there is nothing better, than a blank diary offering endless possibilities…  Finding the right diary for you can be difficult, make sure you find one you love! Find the right format, paper, style and colour. Make sure it’s the right one for you, so that you’ll definitely love and carry on using it throughout the year. We love The Collins Legacy Diary – A5 Day to a Page or the Collins Desk Mat Calendar is great for organisation at the desk.

Slow down to speed up

Spend a little time each week or even each day to organise and plan ahead with your diary.. Sitting down and planning your To Do’s and Upcoming Projects will give you time and space to figure out how you’re going to fit everything you need in! Planning will also help you split up your time and use it in the most efficient way possible, getting a sense of achievement and accomplishment knowing you have completed what you have set out to do. The Filofax Personal Organiser Refill – Page A Day is great to keep track of your tasks. Here are some tips on how to best use a diary for planning ahead:

• Most diaries have a month to view page, make good use of this! Outline all your deadlines and important dates on this page. It will be an effective way to glance back and know any upcoming dates which you need to be aware of.
• 3 is the magic number… At the top of each day list your ‘top 3’ goals or tasks you’d like to get done for the day ahead.
• Future Logging can be a great way to plan future goals and tasks which you know needs to be done but may not have an exact deadline attached. More ‘things you have to do next month’ not what you have to do right now.

Keep it interesting

Colour coding not only keeps your diary looking interesting, but it is also a great time management tool. Make sure you categorise different tasks with different colours. This will help you spot what needs doing from a quick glance in your diary! The traffic light technique has always been great to use, simply mark tasks as either red, amber or green. Red signifying urgent tasks, amber suggesting important but not necessary and green suggesting that you still have plenty of time to complete the task. Here are some other techniques you can use to keep your diary interesting:

1. Use stickers to not only brighten your day, but they’re a great tool to highlight deadlines & reminders.
2. Use as many mind maps and sketches, collages and images as you can! Making your diary more visual can not only be a very meditating process, increasing mindfulness, it can help clear your mind and increase creativity.

Make your diary and planner YOURS

Who says you have to stick to the rules? Use sticky notes, tabs, divide the page up in different sections or even fold pages in half to form page dividers, do what you want! Make your diary completely yours, this way you will definitely get the most out of it.

Follow our tips and we are positive you will hit 2020 from the ground running. When shopping for your new diary be sure to take advantage of our special offers:

Click here to view our full range of 2020 diaries and planners Or If you’re still making up your mind, check out our diaries and planners 2020 brochure.