- Plan the week once, then use a day planner each morning.
- Keep lists you repeat, like shopping, cleaning and bills, as templates, so you never start from blank.
- Any note can become your own template, from its ⋯ menu.
Why a template helps
Often the tiring part of a week isn't the work itself. It's the small decisions: what's for dinner, which bill is due, what you meant to do on Thursday. A template answers “where do I write this?” before the question comes up, so you open a note and fill in the gaps.
Memlow has 40 templates in 10 groups, from meeting notes to a credit book. These ten cover an ordinary week at home. Each one becomes a normal note once you open it: rename the headings, delete what you don't need, add your own lines.
To start one, open Templates in Memlow and pick it, or follow the links below to see what's inside first.
Plan the week
1. Week planner
A heading for each day with a checklist under it, and space for notes at the end. The days start from your own first day of the week, so it suits a Saturday-to-Friday week as well as Monday to Sunday. Fill it in once, on Sunday evening or Monday morning, with the fixed things first: appointments, school runs, deadlines. Then add no more than two or three tasks a day. A light plan you keep beats a full one you give up on by Wednesday. Each day's heading folds, so you can tuck finished days out of the way. See the week planner.
2. Day planner
Titled with today's date, it opens with Top three priorities, then morning, afternoon and evening, and a place for notes. The three boxes are the point: if only those get done, the day went well. Make it the night before or first thing, pull the day's items from your week planner, and keep the rest of the page for whatever comes up. See the day planner.
Food and the house
3. Meal plan
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, with a To buy checklist at the bottom. Plan dinners first; that's usually where the daily “what shall we eat?” comes from. Repeat favourites on purpose, and plan one easy night for when the week runs late. As you plan, write missing ingredients straight into To buy. See the meal plan.
4. Shopping list
Already grouped by aisle: fruit and vegetables, dairy and eggs, bread and grains, and household. Grouping means one trip round the shop instead of doubling back. Turn on Move ticked items to the bottom (Settings → Notes on the web) so what's left is always at the top. To jump between it and your meal plan, type [[ in the meal plan and choose the shopping list: it becomes a link that opens it. See the shopping list.
5. Cleaning checklist
Jobs split into every day, every week and every month, from the dishes and counters to the fridge and the windows. It also tells you when to stop: once the daily list is ticked, the house is done for today. Edit it to fit your home, then put a weekly reminder on the note for the morning you usually clean. See the cleaning checklist.
Money
6. Bills to pay
A checklist of the usual bills: rent, electricity, water, gas, internet and mobile phone. Add or remove lines to match yours, and tick each one off once it's paid. Memlow can put a reminder on a single checklist item and repeat it every month, so give each bill a reminder a few days before it's due. See bills to pay.
7. Monthly budget
Income at the top, then fixed costs (rent, bills, transport), spending (food, shopping, other), savings and what's left over. Write the plan at the start of the month and the real figures at the end; the gap between the two is where the useful lessons are. If you'd rather Memlow did the adding up, type / on an empty line and insert a table: its totals row can sum a column for you. See the monthly budget.
Habits and looking back
8. Habit tracker
A dated checklist of small daily habits: eight glasses of water, 30 minutes of movement, ten pages of reading, bed by 11 and an hour without screens. Swap them for your own and keep the list short; three habits you tick beat seven you skip. Start a fresh one each morning so every day has its own note, and don't go back to fix yesterday's. See the habit tracker.
9. Daily journal
Mood, how you feel, what happened, three things you're grateful for and one thing you'll do tomorrow. Five minutes is plenty, and on a hard day one line under each heading is enough. A journal is the note most worth keeping to yourself, so lock it with a PIN: locked notes show only their title on cards and in search. See the daily journal.
10. Weekly reflection
Your best moment, what you learned, what drained you and what you'll focus on next week. It closes the loop on the week planner: ten minutes on Sunday, then carry the focus straight into next week's plan. Keep an eye on What drained me: if the same thing turns up three weeks running, it's worth changing. See the weekly reflection.
A simple rhythm for the week
- Sunday: the weekly reflection, then the week planner and the meal plan. Copy anything missing onto the shopping list.
- Each morning: a day planner with three priorities, and the habit tracker.
- Each evening: a few lines in the daily journal.
- Once a month: the budget, and the bills as their reminders come round.
Pin the notes you use every day, so they wait for you at the top of your notes.
Save your own note as a template
Once a note is shaped the way you like, with your own habits, your own aisles or your own weekly jobs, keep that version for next time:
- Open the note and its ⋯ menu.
- Choose Save as template and give it a name.
- On the web, turn on Today's date as the title if each new note should be titled with its day. It suits a habit tracker or a daily plan.
The text, colour and style are saved. Photos, voice recordings and reminders aren't included, and on the web ticked boxes are cleared, so each new note starts fresh. Your own templates have their own place in Templates, ready for next week.
