Inside the planner...the front page.

I'm still getting used to carrying the planner (affectionately know as "Frankie") everywhere I go - but I can say with confidence it has made a difference in how I feel about the chaos I call my life.

When I open Frankie, on the left side I have several pockets, which is the reason I bought this particular Franklin Covey model...I need pockets. There's a strip with 4 credit card slots and one windowed slot, right now I'm using this area for my post-it flags, gift cards I've received, etc.

Behind the credit cards area is a pocket I'm using for things like my Bed Bath & Beyond coupons and my weekly dry-cleaning receipt (which has been awesome, no more digging through my bag looking for that dry-cleaning ticket - I know exactly where it is!)

Behind that is a zipped pocket where I keep a few extra bucks.

And behind that (I told you there are a LOT of pockets in this planner!) is where I keep notes and papers that I don't need front and center, but know I'll need within the next few days, and some extra post-its.

On the right, I've got a plastic binder pocket (did I mention I love pockets?) In here I have my everyday motivation checklist for getting things done and if there is something urgent that I have to remember - it goes here on a post-it.

On the next page, I bought these adorable magnetic clips with punctuation marks on them, I kept them on the plastic binder pocket so I know where they are when I need them.

On the right, I bought a few pieces of decorative card stock in different designs to cut down to make dividers. I decorated the side with washi tape which doubles as a nice reinforcement for the holes. This is my immediate note section, but on the front is my weekly to-do list. I always have my week color coded - each day has it's own color.

I put appointments on my calendar - my to-do's go right up front on my post-it notes so that when I open the planner - they are right there! This has proven to be very effective for me.

So far, all is well is plannerville and I'm happy with way it's working out for me. My only complaint about the binder I picked is the small ring size...it's been limiting on how much I can put in the planner and still feel the pages turn with relative ease. We'll see how it goes. :)

If you use a planner - what's your must have on those all-important first pages?