Uniquely Present Your Presents: A Franklin Covey Planner For The Graduate

 As the seasons of a student's life change, so do responsibilities and focus.  The transition from high school to college, and from college to career, signal a need to become more organized.  Whereas the high school student has Mom and Dad to help with time management, the college student experiences a surge of freedom that can be distracting, in some cases derailing a promising university experience.  The commitment of a career can be a shocker to the graduate who is used to having gaps between classes, days off in the middle of the week, and a much less regimented schedule.  A Franklin Covey Planner is an excellent tool for the graduate, the perfect present for assisting in time management.

As a high school senior, I received my first planner from an aunt, as a graduation gift.  She included an assortment of filler pages, as well as a book of stamps.  The planner was durable and useful, not only through my college years, but also on into my career as a teacher.  A Franklin Covey planner is a gift that will provide your graduate with a durable resource.

Sending your graduate off to college is daunting, and a Franklin Covey Planner offers a great way to send some reminders and encouraging thoughts. Prior to wrapping and presenting your gift, take the time to place some personal notes in significant spots on the calendar. Pencil in birthdays and anniversaries of family members. Tuck a sheet of postage stamps into a pocket. Add a couple of gift card for favorite restaurants located in the town of the university. Write a favorite Bible verse or quote in a strategic spot. Remind your young adult of your love and concern.

Many people have moved their time management to computers and smartphones, as these provide many valid advantages in planning and scheduling.  However, a hands on, written record of one's schedule provides a record for future reference.  Take time to help your freshman college student with some basic tips, before sending him off to school.  For example, help your student learn to make note of not only appointments, classes, and assignments coming up, but also to note things that have taken place.  Encourage your student to make notations of payments made, including transaction amounts and confirmation numbers. In a day fraught with identity theft and electronic fraud, it is increasingly important to keep track of what financial transactions one has made, and doing so in a "hard copy" venue gives the individual a reference in case of electronic malfunction.  I have encountered situations in which I had a fraudulent transaction take place, and it was of essence to be able to reconstruct my activities in the time frame in which it occurred. 

In a day of automatic payments and trial periods for various services, deadlines are increasingly important to monitor, as cancellation dates are a priority for avoiding further billing.  Many tempting free trials are accompanied by fine print, emphasizing a "Cancel Before" date, and I have experienced the frustration of missing such dates and having to fight tooth and nail for a refund.  Assist your young adult through serious discussion about online and electronic finance, and help them with a plan for keeping track in their Franklin Covey Planner.

Help your student with basics of recording short notes and details of things that have occurred at meetings and interviews.  Those notes are great memory refreshers down the road.  Further, in post-university life, the written record of the Franklin Covey planner can serve as documentation for meetings and appointments, as well as for tax-deductible travel or meals related to one's job, mileage records, and more. 

For the visual and hands on learners, an in-hand planner is a useful way to evaluate and see the record of events to come, as well as those past.  Computers are certainly visual, as are smartphones, but there is something about combining modalities that makes it easier to file information in the memory.  As a visual learner, I often find myself having to shut my eyes to place information, remembering where it was written, how it was noted.  Thumbing back through pages seems to complement my mental storage of the information.  The computer, while extremely useful in storing and organizing information, does not work at all well in terms of planning and scheduling.  The Franklin Covey planner, far from obsolete, is a great organizational tool for  hands on and visual individuals

While Franklin Covey is a leading name in time management products, it is nice to know that there are some alternatives.  Whether finance or style are of concern, it is possible to find a planner in every budget, and to find just the right style for your graduate.