I am a die hard Post-it note fan. When I was a classroom teacher, my desk was covered with sticky notes. Those notes were an extension of my brain. More than ever, now with eight kids, I need all the brain extensions I can get. Oddly enough, as much of a sticky note lover as as I am, it has not been until recently that I’ve used them for strategic planning purposes. I want to share with you some ideas for easy planning using Post-it notes.
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Why use Post-it notes in your planning?
Post-it notes are just so forgiving. Because of their stick and re-stick nature, they enable you to change your mind and have more flexibility in your plans.
Do you need to use the Post-it note brand, or can you use other sticky notes?
I have tried other brands, but find that the Post-it note 3M brand is by far the best quality. There are other types of sticky notes that I get from the Dollar store, but they are more of the plastic kind. You can see what they look like when I discuss planning for teachers. Other than those, I say there’s nothing like the real thing.
The multi-color packs are great because you can use different colors for different subjects. Or, you can just use different colors to liven up your planning pages.
You can also get packs with different sizes. I love the lined pads as you can write a lot of information on them.
With those questions out of the way, let’s get on with the easy planning!
Easy planning using Post-it notes for meals
On their website, Post-It demonstrates how to quickly meal plan using sticky notes. The site includes a free weekly calendar to print out. In addition, there is a short video showing how to use it. The calendar has spaces for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Monday through Friday (not sure what happens on the weekend). To use the calendar, you would write down what you want for each meal on sticky notes and then place them in the correct spot on your calendar.
If you want to get a little more fancy, Shelley at Let’s Live and Learn offers all the printables you will need to make her meal planning binder: a binder cover, meal categories, recipe cards, a weekly menu board, and a family favorites printable. The system is simple, you write the names of meals on sticky notes and put them on the corresponding meal category page (ex: “sticky chicken” would go on the “chicken” meal page). When it’s time to plan the week’s meals, you choose seven of your meals and place those notes on the weekly menu board. It’s a great set-up and her pages are visually appealing.
The above picture was my attempt to use the meal planning system I found on Simple and Seasonal. This plan was a modified version of Homemade by Carmona’s plan (you will find the free printables on her site). It is very similar to Shelley’s plan in that you write down the names of meals, categorize them, and then move them onto a weekly meal planning sheet. I liked the system, but resorted to my current meal planning system which is very unsophisticated (I pretty much just write my meals of the week on a monthly calendar). If I’m a smart person, I’ll move back to this system.
Easy planning using Post-it notes for teachers
At the risk of sounding like 3M is sponsoring this post (which I wish it was), I noted that the Post-it note website has a treasure trove of ideas for educators. True, this isn’t as much about planning, but it’s still very useful information. I like the ideas for using Post-its for venn diagrams or bar graphs.
Did you know that you can print on Post-it notes? On Teachers Pay Teachers you can find some free templates for printing Post-its in your classroom (or homeschool)
Sweet for Kindergarten has a really cute “to do” list for teachers. Her chart has spots labeled, “To do to copy, to prep, and to plan.” You can print a color version or a black and white version.
Rencharee offers a free post-it note template on which you can design your own sticky notes. The printable comes with details on how to print your design on the sticky notes. In addition to a blank template, she also includes a name template and a template of various rubrics.
Not just for the classroom, My Sister’s Suitcase has free motivational quotes you can print out on sticky notes. The quotes are: “You got this,” “Let it Go,” “Tomorrow is a brand new day,” “I can do hard things,” “Keep moving forward,” and “Work hard and be nice to people.” The fonts and designs are very cute.
How I use Post-it notes for homeschool planning
Okay, go ahead and judge my chunky binder. It needs a serious purge, but we are getting to the end of the school year. The picture is of my homeschooling planning binder. I use Post-its to separate subjects for each of my kids. You can see how I set up my binder in my “Make a Super Simple Lesson Planner” post.
Below you’ll see the sticky flags that I like to buy from the dollar store. I use them to help my keep my place when I’m correcting my kids’ work. This is a page from one of my son’s daily reading comprehension book (I’ll link it at the end of the post if you’re interested in the curriculum, it’s fantastic). I use the flags to point to which day he is on, so at a glance I see the answers.
Easy planning using Post-it notes for chores
Tater Tots and Jello shows how to make a cool looking chore chart out of free printables and post-it notes. Hers is pretty fancy as she includes printed Post-it notes and a chart for each family member. The chart is huge and takes up the inside of her pantry door.
If you’re interested in a slightly simpler plan, Carrie Elle has a few different versions of her printable chore chart. She laminated hers and posts it on her refrigerator so everyone in the family knows what “jobs” they have.
Easy planning using Post-it notes for “to dos”
Organized 31 has a super cute daily to do list that you can print directly onto post-it notes. They are colorful and have boxes to check off when you have accomplished your task. You can also prioritize by numbering your tasks in the order you want to accomplish them .
Free printables online has a pretty basic weekly “to do” chart. It has five boxes in which you can place your sticky notes of tasks that need to get done. The first box says “weekly to do list.”
I have a confession to make. This whole post was born out of my desire to share a free printable that I designed for myself. Being a picky person, I needed a list that I could use either for one subject or for multiple subjects. I also needed a place to jot down any items for which I needed to follow-up. Since I couldn’t find one, I made my own. You can find it in my free resource library.
How do you use Post-it notes? Are you a junkie like me? If you have any new ideas of how to use Post-it notes for planning, I’d love to hear them!
Here is the Reading Comprehension program we use:
