Why Your Planning Tools Aren’t Helping You Get More Done

You have the planner, the app, the fancy calendar… so why do you still feel overwhelmed? Here’s the truth: tools alone won’t get you organized—you need a system.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why planners and productivity apps don’t actually solve the problem of feeling overbooked and behind. I’ll walk you through the key differences between a tool and a system, how to tell if you’re missing a real planning system, and what every system needs to help you stay in control of your time.

In This Episode, We’ll Explore:

• The difference between planning tools and a true planning system
• Signs that your tools aren’t actually helping you stay organized
• Why you keep starting over (and how to stop the cycle)
• The five key pieces every planning system needs to work

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Thanks for tuning in!
Megan 🩷🐝

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Having a planning tool is like maybe getting a fancy new planner or the latest productivity app or even a stack of post it notes. But having a planning system, well, that's what actually gets things done. In this episode, I'm going to be breaking down the difference between tools and systems so you can stop spinning your wheels and start making progress.

[00:00:25] Today, we're going to be talking about tools versus systems. But before we dive in, I want to make sure you understand in this episode, I'm not going to be breaking down how to implement tools and systems or how to decide what tool to use. If you would like more information on that, I recommend that you go check out episode 201.

[00:00:45] In that episode, I shared a step by step process of how to determine. If you need to bring a new tool into your kind of suite of tools that you're using to stay organized.

[00:00:56] All right, friends, it is a fact tools without a system may help you get organized, but they're not going to help you stay organized. And they certainly aren't going to help you maintain control over your time and calendar. first let's talk about quickly, just the difference between a tool and a system.

[00:01:15] tools, when we think about Planning and organizing can range from like software, right? So for example, we use ClickUp here at the Pink Bee to run our business. It could be a physical or a digital planner, a Google calendar. When we think about organization, right? It could be a file cabinet or the fancy new organizational bins that you got suckered into getting at, you know, the container store or elsewhere.

[00:01:38] It could even be the whiteboard in your kitchen. Those are tools. But systems are the activities that we do on a regular cadence. with our tools. Now I need to emphasize the regular cadence part. All right. And I'm going to kind of dive into this just a little bit. you may relate to this.

[00:02:01] Let's say, for example, You went to the container store, you got all these great new bins for your closet. You got matching hangers. You downloaded this PDF that was showing you how to get your closet looking like one of those gorgeous Pinterest worthy closets. All right. And so you got the tools, you have all the physical supplies for it.

[00:02:21] Maybe you've got that one time process that's telling you pull everything out of your closet, you know, go through it all. Then as you're putting it back in, it's telling you how to put everything back into your closet. So you had the tools to get it organized. However, if you don't have a system that you're using on the daily to maintain that closet, well, chances are it's going to be six months later.

[00:02:50] and your closet is back to looking kind of like a disaster. And you're thinking, how did this happen? Like I had it looking so good, right? So that's, that's one sign that maybe you've got tools and you've even got the right inclination, but you're missing the system. Okay. So let's talk through some other signs here that maybe you've got tools, but you're missing the system.

[00:03:14] This one came up on one of our calls with the top. Top program students are like, okay, we got this great app for my family and I to make sure that we are putting into it anything that we need bought at the grocery store. Right? So if anyone finds out, Oh, we're out of my favorite nuts or whatever, they'd go add it to the grocery app.

[00:03:30] So the intent was that over the course of, you know, every day, the grocery list would kind of make itself so that then whoever went to the store had the list right there. And she said, well, it's not working. So I said, well, is, has everyone sat down and have you agreed upon the system that you will use to get the stuff into the grocery app?

[00:03:49] And I was kind of silenced. I said, okay, so you've got the tool, you picked out the app, but you haven't identified what is the system for everyone to be using it, right? typically when we're missing these systems, what happens is we're constantly starting over, right? We're constantly stuck in this, okay, this weekend.

[00:04:10] I'm going to get this, you know, this particular closet or this stack of paperwork or this whatever organized, but then if you don't have the system to maintain it, you will constantly be starting over. Now I want to dig in a little bit more here when it comes to planning and as it relates to everything competing for our time, right?

[00:04:33] What are some signs? That maybe the problem isn't that you don't know how to plan. The problem is you haven't been taught a system, right? So here are some signs that maybe you're heading in the right direction. You've identified tools, but you're missing the underlying system. So first and foremost, we see it all the time is what I call the planner graveyard, right?

[00:04:56] Maybe you, a friend told you about this amazing planner. It's this great life planner. It's going to get you totally organized and you're like, great. And you buy the planner and you start flipping through it and you're completely overwhelmed because there's so much information that this planner is asking you to put in it.

[00:05:09] And you're like, how am I supposed to find the time? All right. The problem isn't you. The problem is you thought a planner, a tool was going to get you organized. You need to know what is your system for using this thing. And it might not even be the right planner that lines well with the system that you would like to use.

[00:05:28] Now, another thing that I see happening a lot. Is people buy or invest in a piece of software to get their lists organized, right? I know you're out there and chances are you probably have multiple pieces of software. So maybe you've gone and checked out Trello. That's one I talk about quite a bit. Maybe you've got a new project management app like ClickUp.

[00:05:49] We use ClickUp here, right? Or maybe it's. Todoist or whatever the app is that you're using. Cause you're like, I'm going to get my lists organized. And so you sit down and you load them all in there, but then you don't have a system in place for how you're checking it, how you're updating it, how you're reprioritizing it and how it feeds into what you're actually getting done every day.

[00:06:10] Right? That's great. You've got all that information centralized, but if you're not maintaining it and it then is not being fed into how you're structuring your time. Well, it's just, it's almost like the, the tool in your garage that's gathering dust because you don't know how to use it. Right. Another tool that I love that, that we use here at our house is the skylight calendar, but I have a system of how this gets.

[00:06:38] Updated every single weekend so that it has the right information for our family for the upcoming week, right? If I just had a skylight calendar and said, great, it's on and I've integrated with my Google calendar, it would not be serving our family any, any, any good at all. Now, another final sign that maybe yet you've got the tools, but not the systems is if you are always feeling overbooked.

[00:07:07] Overscheduled or you're realizing you got double booked and now you're having to cancel something, right? That's a sign that you don't have a system in place That that gives you one place to make sure that you're not getting overbooked Overscheduled etc. So what does a planning system? Actually look like right because it's kind of hard to think about what a planning system Might be, and this is fundamentally exactly how we approach teaching planning inside of the top program and next level planning.

[00:07:41] All right. At its heart, here is what a planning system is going to look like. You need to have five things in place. First, you need to have a central place where all of your planning inputs live. Now, what is a planning input? It is simply this. All of the things competing for your time, all right?

[00:08:04] Really, that's what is ultimately going into your plan. What is everything competing for your time? Appointments, task lists, right? Things that would live on a traditional to do list. The things you want to do. The things you've been putting on the back burner, right? But you need to have one place so that when you're sitting down to create your plan, everything competing for your time is there.

[00:08:27] You're not going to three different notebooks and the journal over here and the app over there and then calling this person over here and then logging into this system over there, right? It's overwhelming. So that's number one, is your inputs are in one place and they're being updated regularly, right?

[00:08:45] It can't be a one and done. Because there's constantly going to be new things coming in and competing for your time. this central repository, right, it needs to be updated regularly. number two to what a planning system looks like. You know quickly what is most important. Meaning, when you are looking at everything competing for your time, and you're working on creating that plan, your system needs to easily show you what is the most important.

[00:09:17] Right. You do not want to waste an hour every single time you're making your plan for the week, trying to figure out what is important. So there needs to be a prioritization aspect in this system. the third thing that you really need to have in place to have a solid planning system is that you need to be able to find information.

[00:09:37] Quickly. I know that sounds kind of vague, but let me explain here a little bit. I never tell people how to organize their information. Very passionate about that. And anyone who's trying to force you in an organizational system, I would be very cautious about that because organization is very Personal.

[00:09:59] Our brains all work very differently in how we organize things, right? And I know I've used this example before but let's say I just handed you a huge bowl of spare buttons, right? And I said, organize this. Now, one person might organize it by color, right? And they'd start creating different piles for different colors of buttons.

[00:10:21] Someone else might choose to organize it by size. big, medium, small. Someone else might organize it by, is it one of the buttons that has four holes that you need to sew or two holes, Someone else could organize it by the material of the button, wood buttons versus plastic buttons versus metal.

[00:10:38] You get what I'm after. There's no wrong way to do it. So when I say that step three is being able to find your information quickly, it means you need to have an organizational system. For everything competing for your time that works for you and my litmus test of does it work for you when someone will you know They'll ask me like hey Megan So I'm using Trello and I'm using labels this way.

[00:11:03] Is that okay? My answer or my response back is always can you find what you're looking for easily? And if they say yes, then I say it sounds like a great system for you. But if they say, no, not really, then that's a sign that, you know what? You haven't nailed the right organization, you know, strategy for yourself yet.

[00:11:24] So now let's move on to number four of what a planning system would look like. And it is this. You have a repeatable, step by step process that you use on the regular, meaning weekly and monthly, that prevent you from getting overbooked and overscheduled. along with being able to accommodate change. Now that's a big one, but it's all in the same core principles here, meaning you've got a process in place.

[00:11:58] Part of your full planning planning system here is, you know, exactly how every week and every month to organize your calendar. In a way that prevents you from getting overbooked and overscheduled, but also accommodates and can handle the amount of change you have in your life, right? If you, maybe you have step one, like maybe all your inputs are centralized.

[00:12:25] Maybe you know exactly what's most important. Maybe you can find your information quickly, but if at the end of every single week, You've got a bunch of stuff that didn't get done and you're exhausted and you're rewriting half of last week's into the next week's. That means you're missing step four, right?

[00:12:40] If you're being overbooked, you're missing step four. Now the final step which here for knowing what a planning system actually looks like when it's in action is that you completely. The ultimate goal is to get rid of, but I'll just say we way minimize any of that last minute living or forgotten activities.

[00:13:04] I would love to say it completely gets rid of any last minute stuff, but guys, that's unreasonable, right? Life happens. Sometimes things are assigned. At the last minute you know, your boss could come in and say, I need this tomorrow. You may have a kid at school who gets assigned a project that suddenly derails things that you were going to do.

[00:13:24] Right? So we can't say that we're going to completely get rid of last minute stuff because there's unexpected things that, that happen. But when you have a planning system in place, that's really, really working well for you, it's going to way minimize that. And things are not going to fall through the cracks.

[00:13:41] You're not going to be going, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. Okay. So again, having a tool, having the world's greatest planner or using the best calendaring app out there is not going to help you get control of your time and calendar if you don't have an actual planning system behind it.

[00:14:02] just quick recap of what those five things are. Your inputs are centralized and updated regularly. Everything is prioritized. You can quickly see what is most important. You can find what you're looking for quickly, right? It's organized in a way that works for you. You have repeatable step by steps that you're using every week and every month to prevent you from getting overbooked.

[00:14:27] and it accommodates change. And then last, you are minimizing that last minute living and forgotten activities. I want to highlight that last one again, even if you've got the first four, right, you've got this planning process, but everything is happening at the last minute. You're getting stuff done, but it's.

[00:14:47] Always done right at the last minute. Oh friend, you've got room for improvement in your planning system as well. So I hope you take some time this week to kind of take inventory of what tools you have that support your desire to be, you know, more in control of your time, your calendar, and even more organized.

[00:15:06] And then ask yourself, with those tools, do you have an underlying system that is really allowing those tools to do what they do best? Best. All right, friends. Happy planning.