Free Daily Planner Templates – Editable

Most people assume that planning and being prepared only applies to specific aspects of their lives, for instance, work or business meetings. However, making daily plans is advisable, leading to successful and productive habits that benefit every aspect of your life. Effective planning promotes balance and prioritization, eliminating hectic and unproductive days.

Planning involves charting your daily tasks using a timetable, a to-do list, or a template to manage your time and complete all your chores. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a student, or a business owner, daily planning is a way to avoid being overwhelmed, disorganized, distracted, and ineffective. 

The most effective tool for daily planning is a planner template. A daily planner template is a chart, book, or computer program with sections allowing users to plan for or track their daily tasks. This tool allows you to organize your daily tasks, prioritize urgent ones, and set reminders for due dates/deadlines. That means you are less likely to forget or be sidetracked by a task.

This article will help you learn more about daily planning, its benefits, and how to create a proper planner for your tasks. A guide will be provided to help you create a template in MS Word to help you break down your daily activities and hours effectively. In addition, you can choose to download free and customizable templates given below. It will help you save time and effort easily and make your planning simple yet accurate by including all the required components.

You need to use a daily planner if you wish to remain organized in your career, family, and social life, especially if you have a busy one.

A planner is all you need, and below are six reasons why it is beneficial to use it:

Enhances productivity

With a planner, you can easily focus on each task without distraction. This way, you remain focused and motivated to accomplish your task and tick it off your planner. You will be more productive at work and home without being distracted and overwhelmed. Moreover, you can seamlessly move from one task to another.

Manages stress levels and health

If you have organized your day, you are less likely to be stressed, anxious, or physically drained. This is because you can comfortably prioritize urgent tasks and meet deadlines without compromising your mental health and peace. In addition, it will allow you to schedule breaks throughout the day to allow you to pause and recharge.

Note: You can easily stay on track with things like exercises, diet, and regular doctor appointments, which will improve your health.

Maintains effective schedules

A planner will help you to maintain schedules since planning entails successfully managing your time. This tool lets you schedule the exact time for personal tasks, work duties, errands, appointments, events, and even much-needed holidays/vacations.

Increases creativity

If you have a proper breakdown of how you intend to accomplish all your daily tasks, it is easy to create room for new things. You can easily find time to increase your creativity by learning a new skill, participating in an activity, or engaging in a hobby. 

Note: If you are creating the planner yourself using MS Word or downloading a template given below, you can express your creativity by adding decorative items like stickers, pictures, or art.

Maintains reliable record

If you use a planner to organize your daily tasks, you will have a reliable record that you can refer to in the future. This way, you will stay motivated by looking at what you have been able to accomplish. Furthermore, you can use it to correct any mistakes you might have faced with your planning. It will also help to remind you to spare time for your family and friends. 

Helps manage time 

Finally, a daily planner helps manage time across all aspects of your life. You will start viewing time as an expensive resource and prioritize your activities effectively. Also, you can say ‘no’ to tasks you cannot complete or those that interfere with your planning.

Since using it benefits your life, it is advisable to use a template when making it. With such a document either created on MS Word or downloaded for free from our website, you can use it multiple times to create a detailed and suitable daily planner. Also, you will not only save time, but you will also make your planning easier.

Remember that using the same template means you will easily establish a working routine. You will spend hours accomplishing those daily tasks and being productive instead of repeatedly handling the planning process.

With this step-by-step guide, you can create a document that will help you organize your tasks, appointments, and goals in a logical and structured way. Apart from that, this template will remind you of all the components you should have and their placement in your planner.

The following guide will help you create a template for your daily planner in MS Word:

Step 1

Open a blank page on Microsoft Word and click File, then Save As to save your document in an accessible location.

Proceed to set the margins of the page by clicking Page Layout, then Margins, and then select Narrow. This is meant to maximize the page to increase the working space.

Step 2

Click Insert, select Table, and then Insert Table. Ensure that you set the default setting of your table to 5 columns and 33 rows. The idea is to have a large table that covers most of your page.

Select the entire table, then go to Layout under the Table Tools and change the height to 0.81 cm or 0.32 inches.

Step 3

The next step is to format the table to create different sections where you will include the elements that should be found in your daily planner. Start by moving the middle column to make it look like this.

Proceed to highlight the first two cells and merge them. Click Layout and then Merge Cells.

Before typing anything in the newly created cell, you should select the entire table and make changes to the position of the text.

Depending on your preference, you can change the font type and adjust the font size. Click Home and then Font to make these changes.

Step 4

Proceed to highlight the newly created cell and the two cells below it. Click on table Design, the Borders, and No Border to remove the borders around these selected cells. Once that is done, select those two cells below again and click on Top Border. Your table should look like this:

Following the same procedure, select the two top cells on the other side and merge them. Select the two cells below them and use the same procedure to remove the borders. Once this is done, replace the required bottom and top borders.

Step 5

To create a better distinction between the sections of your daily planner, select the small middle column and remove its borders. Then replace the required borders, that is, the left and the right border. Your document should look like this:

Pro tip: For the color schemes, include thicker border lines below each heading to make the sections distinct. These aspects will make your daily planner more appealing and professional. 

Step 6 

Using the merge cells option, the daily goal section should focus on things you tend to accomplish every other day but are likely to forget about them, such as calling a client. These tasks may reoccur or vary from day to day. 

Then, we must create a to-do list section on the left side of the template. Also, use the borders option to create space between the to-do list section and the new section you will create later. Like the daily goal section, you can check off a task once you have accomplished it. Your document should appear as shown below.

Pro-tip: A to-do list is a list of tasks you want to accomplish on that particular day, such as cleaning, meal prepping for the week, or even studying. Once you have accomplished a particular task, you should check it off the list.

Step 7 

For the next sections, follow the guidelines you used to create the daily goal section & to-do list and create them. You should record meetings, doctor appointments, nail/salon appointments, or other events in the schedule section.

Pro-tip: Ensure that you place this section below the to-do list and format it so you can record the exact time for the appointment.

The urgent section includes a list of tasks that must be handled before any other tasks.

For the gratitude section or daily inspiration (quotes), you should record one or more special aspects of the day you are grateful for, such as completing an assignment, launching a product, or even getting a new customer/client.

Finally, the notes section is where you can include anything you have learned or thought about. It is a space that promotes your creativity.

Pro-tip: You can maintain the same font type and size for all the headings or make them different. It all depends on your preference.

Step 8

The template is ready for printing and use. Check the printer settings to ensure everything is set to standard size before printing.

Note: If you find this extensive step-by-step process time-consuming and difficult, you can use free downloadable templates from our website for your ease. These pre-built templates will simplify setting up your daily planner while guaranteeing an accurate and complete document you can customize. 

Why are Printed Sheets Preferred over Digital Planners?  

Printed sheets are planners created using paper and pen, such as notebooks, a notepad, a diary, post-it notes, or loose paper. You can either stick them to a wall, somewhere accessible or bind them together to carry them around easily. On the other hand, digital planners are digital versions of printed sheets. A digital planner is an interactive PDF that, just like printed sheets, allows you to manage your goals and plan your daily tasks.

Digital planners have become increasingly popular in recent years. Since they are not paper-based, they are safe for the environment. They are also more effective in managing and arranging multiple responsibilities and tasks simultaneously. In addition, they enable you to attach documents, photos, and files. For recurring tasks, they make it easy for you to set up automatic reminders and notifications. They can be synced across multiple devices to access your planning and keep track of your tasks from any location.

Contrary to it, printed sheets offer more space for brainstorming. Using the printed planner, you can easily write down notes and cancel out silly ideas. This also allows you to be more creative with your style and format when planning for the day. In addition, printed sheets are more portable than digital planners, especially if you use gadgets like computers rather than smartphones and tablets. You can carry them anywhere and review your tasks, adding more notes if needed. This makes it easier for you to keep track of your schedules, events, and appointments.

With a digital planner, it means that you are using a device that may contain social media and other distractions. Instead of checking on your planning, you may be tempted by other distractions that come with them and fail to accomplish your tasks. Remember that printed sheets offer more privacy than the latter due to this aspect. If you use printed sheets, power failure, lack of internet connection, and technical difficulties will not affect your planning.

With that in mind, digital planners and printed sheets can be used to plan your day. However, printed sheets are usually preferred over digital planners for their portable convenience, creativity space, guaranteed privacy, reduced distractions, and the ability to add more notes or information whenever needed.

Time management is fundamental to life if you wish to accomplish all your tasks. To achieve this, you must plan your day to ensure you can manage your responsibilities. Planning and organizing make recalling and tackling your daily tasks easier. You can use a daily planner to organize your resources and time.

To achieve this structure, use the detailed guide provided in this article to create a template or download one for free from our website. The idea is to find an effective way to manage your time, increase productivity, complete all your responsibilities, and introduce balance into your life.