3 Ways to Use Your Planner in Your Bible Time

This post was originally published as Bible Study Made Simple podcast episode 26, 3 Ways to Use Your Planner in Your Bible Time. You can listen here.

I am a planner, and my husband is adamantly not. A few years ago, we went on a cross-country trip. We flew into Phoenix Arizona, rented a car, and drove to LA, up the coast to San Francisco, and then into Seattle where we flew back home. It was an amazing trip! 

Now, my husband’s approach to the trip was to fly by the seat of our pants and to casually come across things in each city. But my approach was to carefully map out every single thing I wanted to see, where we should eat, and what our hourly itinerary should be. 

Because Rhett is not a planner though and gets stressed out by my hour-by-hour plans, I decided to take a different approach for this trip. Instead of telling him each of my detailed plans, I just casually mentioned each of the things that I had carefully planned out so that it seemed spur of the moment. How we casually ended up at the perfect vantage point for pictures with the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Red Wood Forrest ended up seeming like an accident, but it was actually careful planning. 

When it comes to our time in God’s Word, often we think it is going to be an accident. We think I will accidentally have an hour of free time to crack open our Bible and journal sometime this afternoon. I will casually start waking up earlier and that is when I will study. But that’s not the case at all! We have to plan and then execute the plan. 

In today’s episode, we will talk about 3 specific ways that we can use planners to help us to have a game plan for our Bible study time. 

My name is Eva Kubasiak, and this is Bible Study Made Simple. Around here, we know that our goal for Bible study is not checking off boxes, but instead, our goal is an intimate connection with our God who created us and wants a relationship with each of us! 

The first way that we can use our planners is to specifically write down each day when and what we are planning to study in the Bible. When is a good time for you to study? What chapter and book of the Bible will you study? Answering both of those questions before it actually comes time to study is so helpful! It lowers the barrier to entry so that your Bible study time goes smoother. 

Does it always have to look exactly like you planned? No! In fact, just this morning I only did about half of what I usually do in my Bible study time. But that’s okay. For tomorrow, I already know exactly where to start because I had a plan in place. 

The goal is to let the plan guide you, not rule you. 

I will usually only write one day of my plan down at a time. I don’t want to fill out an entire month, and then miss two days and feel behind all month. But if I fill it in and don’t get to it that day, no worries. I just write the same thing down for the next day! 

If you have a Bible reading plan that you are following, make it a habit to write down what the next day’s reading will be on your planner. If you are studying through a book of the Bible, write the next passage down. It helps to have a starting point, so you aren’t spending too much time thinking about it the next day when you actually get time to study. 

The next way to use your planner is to write down any specific prayer requests in your planner on the day you need to pray for them. Earlier this week a friend of mine told me about a big meeting that she had on Tuesday at 4. So what did I do? I put a time block on my calendar on Tuesday at 4. So right as the meeting was about to start, I got a notification on my phone, and was able to be praying for her in the middle of the meeting. 

I used to think this was cheating, or that I wasn’t really thinking of the prayer requests naturally, so it didn’t count. But before I started doing this, I can’t tell you how many opportunities I missed to pray for people in the moment. It’s not cheating to use our resources to draw our minds towards prayer! 

For my daily Bible study plans, I write those in my paper calendar, but for the timed specific prayer requests, I put those in Google calendar so I get a notification on my phone. 

Okay, so way number 1 is to write specifically when and what we will study. Way number 2 is to put down time-specific prayer requests. The third way to use your planner is to keep it with you while you study and write down any distracting thoughts that come up. 

When I am studying my Bible, it seems like the day’s to do list just won’t stop running through my brain. That load of laundry needs to be moved to the dryer. What am I going to make for dinner? Are there any work meetings I am forgetting about? 

What I have found though, is that writing those things down lets me temporarily forget about them so I can come back to them when I am not in my Bible study time. So I keep either my planner or just a sticky note with me while I study so that I can write these things down. 

These are the main 3 ways that I use my planner in my Bible study time. But I also have one last little bonus tip. In the back of my planner, I keep a running list of the books of the Bible that I want to study. That way, when I finish a book, I am not wondering what book I should go to next, I am ready to go with another book on my list. 

Now you might be saying, that’s great and all Eva, but I am not a planner. That all sounds overwhelming and I don’t keep up with a planner. 

That's totally fine. Here are a few backdoor planning tricks for those of you that aren’t planners. 

• Print off a reading plan and stick it in your Bible. This way, you have the next day’s reading with you every time you have your Bible. 
• Put a post-it note on your mirror and pray for your family and friends while brushing your teeth. Rhett and I just got new electric toothbrushes that have timers in them for each quadrant of your mouth (it’s a little overkill if you ask me, but now I have exactly 2 minutes 2 times a day standing in front of my mirror that I could be praying. 
• And then put a little dot next to any books of the Bible that you might want to study next in the Table of Contents in your Bible. That way you know where you are wanting to go next. 

If you don't have a Bible reading plan currently, I have a 7 Day FREE Guide to starting a Bible reading habit. You can download that here.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Bible Study Made Simple! I would love to know if you are a planner or a fly by the seat of your pants person! Shoot me a message on Instagram and let me know. My Instagram handle is just my first and last name, plus, it is linked in the show notes below this episode. 

Until next week, remember our goal for Bible study is not checking off boxes, but instead, our goal is an intimate connection with our God who created us and wants a relationship with each of us!

Links Mentioned:

• Bible Reading Guide