2021 UPDATE: Alas, all good things must come to an end and the free download period for this planner has now ended. Your feedback was AMAZING and were so happy to hear how the 2020 planner improved your productivity. The new and improved OneNote Planner Template for Professionals has been updated for 2021-2022 and is available for purchase from our store.
If you’re after a free OneNote template you can still grab the Daily Wins Template and OneNote Calendar Template available for a limited time!
A Daily Planning Habit
‘I’m not sure how you do it all!’
A colleague said to me over coffee recently.
He was wondering how I managed to smash my professional development goals for past year, while staying on top of project deadlines and leaving on time almost every day.
My answer was simple.
‘By taking small steps every day.’
Yep, it really is that easy. The habit of taking small continuous steps towards a goal will allow you to achieve big things.
Every morning I sit down at my desk with a cup of coffee. I open up my planner and write out my 5 most important tasks for the day. These are the tasks that will get me closer to my long term goals and important work deadlines.
Then, I focus on those tasks. I move on to ‘everything else’ only when I have them completed.
The tool that I use for this morning ritual (and much more!) is my OneNote Career Planner.
OneNote Planner Template for Professionals
The Better Grind’s OneNote Planner Template for Professionals is the daily planner that I have developed, trialed and tested over the past three years of my professional career.
It’s the tool that I use to write out daily priorities, to manage my weekly tasks list and to keep track of my long term career goals. The planner is designed to:
- Be simple, sleek and professional,
- Keep long term goals and values front of mind,
- Promote effectiveness and productivity,
- Reduce stress,
- Help get you out of the office on time!
I think the world would be a better place if we could all get our work done more effectively and get out of the office at 5pm on the dot to enjoy the evening with our friends and families!
How Do I Download The Template?
To purchase the 2021 OneNote Planner for Professionals click here.
What’s In THE OneNote Planner Template?
The template includes the following sections:
- Goal Tracker
- Dated Weekly Planner
- Rainy Day Task Tracker
- Feedback Tracker
The current planner includes dated weekly pages from Jan 2020 through Dec 2020.
How TO USE THE OneNote PLANNER TEMPLATE FOR PROFESSIONALS to Be EFFECTIVE In YOUR CAREER
This is how I personally use the OneNote Planner for Professionals to be effective in my career. The template is fully customisable, so you can tweak to your hearts content!
The Goal Tracker
The Goal Tracker is a space to keep track of professional development goals for the year.
I keep a summary of the goals from previous performance review here and refer to them regularly.
There’s a space to note down achievements and progress each month.
When the time for a performance review comes around, this section provides a month-by-month list of all the awesome things I achieved for my team and the business ready to share with the boss.
The Dated Weekly Planner
This is where so much of the magic happens! I have this open on my computer (almost) at all times!
Each morning, I open up the daily planner and write down my 5 most important tasks for the day. I also note down all of the other tasks that I would like to get done that day if possible.
Next, I’ll quickly categorise the tasks using the Eisenhower Productivity Matrix. This sounds fancy and confusing, but I promise it’s actually super simple! The template walks you through step-by-step how to use tags to categorise your tasks.
Then, I’ll sit down with my coffee and focus on the five priority tasks until they’re complete.
When these tasks are marked as complete, I’ve won the day! Success!
With the time I have remaining, I move on to the rest of the list. If I can’t get those finished, no sweat, I’ll re-evaluate my priorities when I’m fresh the next day.
Rainy Day Task Tracker
Here I collect the my ‘rainy day’ tasks.
These are important tasks which will add value to my team, the business or my professional development. They’re generally not urgent and need a longer period of focused time to complete.
When that quiet period comes around I refer back to this list for plenty of valuable tasks to work on until the next deadline comes along.
Feedback Tracker
When it comes to professional development, feedback is worth it’s weight in gold!
Whenever I receive informal feedback from a boss or colleague, I note it down here for future reference. At the end of the month and year I’ll look over the feedback I received and look for common themes.
How To Install The FREE ONENOTE PLANNER Template
Follow these simple instructions to download and install the OneNote Planner Template for Professionals:
- If you don’t have a Microsoft account already sign up here.
- Check the link to download the planner in your emails;
- Download the ‘2021 Modern Template Shop Weekly Career Planner’.
- The download is compressed, un-zip the file, so you have a regular folder.
- In any modern web browser, visit OneNote Notebook Importer.
- Login with your Microsoft account and click ‘Import’.
- Select the ‘2021 Modern Template Shop Weekly Career Planner’ folder extracted in Step 4.
- When the upload is completed visit OneDrive and login with your Microsoft account.
- Click ‘Documents’.
- Select ‘2021 Modern Template Shop Weekly Career Planner’.
You’ve installed the Free OneNote Planner for Professionals!
You can start editing the notebook straight away online. I recommend you click ‘open in app’ to open the notebook in OneNote for Desktop.
How to Download OneNote for Desktop
I really recommend using the template in the desktop version of OneNote. The desktop version runs faster and is generally nicer to use than the online interface:
- You can download the software for free here.
- Visit OneDrive and login with your Microsoft account.
- Click ‘Documents’.
- Select the ‘2021 Modern Template Shop Weekly Career Planner’.
- Click ‘Open in App’.
The planner will now open in OneNote Desktop.
DID YOU TRY THE TEMPLATE?
Did you try out the OneNote Planner Template for Professionals? What are your favourite office productivity tools? I’d love to hear from you, leave a comment below!
Maria @ Handful of Thoughts says
This is a great idea Michelle, have everything consolidated and handy in one spot. I usually have post it’s everywhere or everything in my head, writing everything down in one spot would be extremely helpful.
Michelle says
Thanks so much Maria! I’m impressed you can keep everything in your head! I have always had a habit of accidentally throwing out pieces of paper with important notes written on them so using a digital planner is a life-saver for me in that respect.
Vito says
Thanks for the tips and the template.
I’m looking forward to testing it out and reporting back 🙂
Vito.
Michelle says
Vito,
Thanks so much for reading, enjoy the template!
Camila Cardoso de Souza says
Hello Michelle
How are you doing? I’m having some difficulties to register the website and have access to free resources library to download the planner. I can’t find the register link to create the password.
Would you help me?
Congratulations for your work. It’s seems awesome. I’d really like to test it!
Camila, xoxo.
Michelle says
Hi Camila,
Enter your email address into the form on this post. You’ll receive an email with the password to our free resources library. Were you able to get access to the planner?
kosipi9750@mailmyrss.com says
Hey, great stuff.
Ceca says
Hello! I have a problem with importing notebook on OneDrive. I have unzipped the folder, and then I try to import the notebook, but it just imports Recycle bin folder, like it doesn’t recognize other files. I have enough space on OneDrive and on my compter. Do you know how I can solve the problem? Kind regards
Michelle says
Hi Ceca,
Are you using the OneNote importer? https://www.onenote.com/notebooks/exportimport?toImport=true&auth=1&fromAR=1
Ceca says
Thank you for your answer. I have changed the browser as you wrote me, and it helped! (firefox didn’t work, but chrome did)
Thank you for the planners! I really like them!
CheRaj says
Hi Michelle,
I liked this planner and would like to try that to see if it works for me. But when i try to download the template from the free resources, i get a prompt to enter the password. Can you please help me or if possible share the template via email?
I would appreciate your help as I really want to tryout this planner to improve my productivity
Kind Regards,
CheRaj
CheRaj says
Hi Michelle,
I’m able to register and now i’ve got the pasword in the email. Sorry as the emails were going to my spam folder. I have whitelisted the emails now.
Kind Regards,
CheRaj
Michelle says
Hi CheRaj,
Thank so much for reading! I’d love to hear how you like the planner.
liz says
I am having trouble importing the planner to onenote. Kindly assist. Using Safari.
Michelle says
Hi Liz, we’ve noticed issues with safari, I recommend using chrome or Firefox to import the planner.
franzi says
Hi!
I love the idea of one note templates! I signed up 3 days ago but still haven’t received an email (also checked my spam folder). could you tell me how long it usually takes? or was there a mistake?
best regards from germany,
franzi
Michelle says
Thanks so much Franzi!
You should receive an email straight away, if it hasn’t come through you can try entering your email address again?
Kelly says
I love the planner!! Any chance your working on a planner for 2021?
Michelle says
Thank you so much Kelly!
I do have a planner in the works for 2021. 🙂
Hilary says
I tried the template but it says it was created using a older version of One Note and doesn’t let me.
Michelle says
Hi Hilary, thanks for letting me know! I’m sorry the template didn’t work, which version of OneNote are you using?
Sarfraz Ahmed says
Thanks so much Michelle, for such a great planner, I really liked the way you have organized it, simply superb.
Michelle says
Thank you so much for the comment – I’m glad you like the planner!
Amanda Wyatt says
I just found this and feel like I’ve missed out for the first 3/4th of the year! I love how well this is laid out, the ability to easily prioritize, and how functional it allows me to be in virtual meetings while still being fully present. I’ve shared this with my leadership team and am looking forward to your 2021 release!
Michelle says
Hi Amanda,
Thank you so much for your comment. I wanted to let you know that the 2021 version of planner is now available in our sister store on Etsy.
As a big thank you for being a reader you can get 50% off with the code THEBETTERGRIND.
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ModernTemplateShop/tools/listings/970836701
Bronwen says
Hi Michelle,
Will you be doing a 2021 release of Weekly Career Planner? I’ve been loving the 2020 one!!
Thanks
Michelle says
Hi Bronwen,
Thank you so much for your comment. I wanted to let you know that the 2021 version of planner is now available in our sister store on Etsy.
As a big thank you for being a reader you can get 50% off with the code THEBETTERGRIND.
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ModernTemplateShop/tools/listings/970836701
MinHong says
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the wonderful planner. I’m looking forward to your 2021 release too!
Michelle says
Hi MinHong,
Thank you so much for your comment. I wanted to let you know that the 2021 version of planner is now available in our sister store on Etsy.
As a big thank you for being a reader you can get 50% off with the code THEBETTERGRIND.
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ModernTemplateShop/tools/listings/970836701
Jacob Miller says
Hello Michelle,
Just found your planner system and would like to try myself. looking forward to the 2021 version.
Jacob
Michelle says
Hi Jacob,
Thank you so much for your comment. I wanted to let you know that the 2021 version of planner is now available in our sister store on Etsy.
As a big thank you for being a reader you can get 50% off with the code THEBETTERGRIND.
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ModernTemplateShop/tools/listings/970836701