Spell work is typically seen as an active practice. Often, when we think of living a magical life, of creating a personal path, we focus on things like being mindful, staying in the moment, of turning our ordinary tasks into magical opportunities. We look for more ways to add magic to our life.
But sometimes this creates a big internal struggle. Maybe we are very busy, trying to juggle family life, work, and personal practices. Or perhaps we have personal issues that impact our ability to do things at the drop of a dime. Doing magic 'in the moment' may be the dream, but for many people it's not a reality.
And trying to balance the desire to do something with not having time in the present means we need to look for ways to do magic 'in the future'. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but if all I have is the intention or desire to do something 'when I have time,' (or 'when I have energy'), then it's a pretty safe bet that I'll never get around to it. It's so very easy to keep pushing things back, and to forget about things we had every intention of attending to later.
Now planning future spell work isn't a new thing. Magical timing has been around...well probably since magic has been around. Many spells and rituals are set at specific times, whether that is on a full moon, at midnight or in the hour of Mercury. Timing is often a part of spell planning, and while some people really embrace magical timing, others find it super restrictive. It can create an additional hurdle, if you are already struggling with doing magical things, to now have them restricted even more to when you can do them.
Most of the time, I don't worry much about magical timing. Or I work it backwards...instead of thinking "I want to do a money spell, when would be the idea time," for me it normally ends up being more like, "it's the new moon, what can I do that fits that energy," or "I want to banish something, but energetically it's a time of increase, so how can I frame my work so that I'm using that increase to push out what I don't want." It's a bit of a sideways approach, but hey it works for me.
I've really embraced planning in my regular, daily life. I'm definitely one of those people who just completely looses track of all time (and all the things I need to do in a day) if I don't have a list somewhere. I use lists and planners and trackers (and alarms on my phone) to help keep my daily life on track. But it always felt a bit...odd...to use these same methods for magical stuff.
Which is just silly! There is no reason to not embrace the tools we have to create the type of magic we want. And you can always start with something really functional and practical, and then turn it into something more magical after you have started working with it.
One of the most basic things I do for myself is plan my daily tasks. I write down the stuff I want to do that day, and then I can keep that list by me and keep checking back in and seeing what I need to do. Over the years, I've learned to add in self-care stuff, but I'm only recently adding in magical stuff. I always kind of felt like magical things would just happen...planning them ahead of time almost felt like I was taking the magic out of it.
But realistically, I'm just not going to remember stuff if I don't plan it out. Especially big stuff, like doing regular moon work or getting things ready for a Sabbat. When I start adding these things to my planner, it lets me keep track of the bigger cycles, and actually do the preparations (like setting up my altar or deciding how I want to honor a festival) or keep up with a changing cycle (remembering to do something for each phase of the moon).
One other thing I do my regular planner that I'm just now adding into my magical life is a way to keep tabs on future work and ideas. I have a page for each month in my planner, and while I mostly use it to log the stuff I want to do every month, I also jot myself notes when I come up with ideas. If I think of a story concept or RPG thing I want to remember...I write it down. And then, when I've got extra time or am feeling motivated to write and I want some inspiration, I flip through and look at my ideas lists.
I bought some little notebooks JUST to use as future magic logs. I can't always drop what I'm doing to do magic work, and some days I'm just not up to it. And with my return to regular moon work, I'm often wanting to do stuff, but sort of drawing a blank as to what specifically I want to do. Trying to do something magical every day...sometimes I need inspiration (I mean I can fall back onto the tried and true actions like burning some incense as an offering or doing a tarot spread....but those start to feel repetitive!).
Anyways, I got these little notebooks to have a dedicated place to write down spell work I want to do (but don't have time/energy to do in the moment that I thought of them). I got the idea from a comment someone made in one of my Discord groups, that they saw someone else keeping a 'book of problems', where they would list out stuff that is bothering you, so when you feel the need to do something, you have a list of stuff to work on. And someone else suggested a 'book of desires' to compliment it. I figure I can do one in the front of the notebook and one in the back!
What really speaks to me about this idea is that I can make notes of bigger issues I see that I might want to work on...stuff that doesn't just effect me. Kind of approaching the issues of the world as things I can work on, in my own way and in my own time. There is just so much going on in the world, so much that I feel could be improved upon. And my personal take is that magic isn't just for personal gain (or personal improvement), but if I can I should be doing what I can to help others.
Even though I've just started doing this sort of future magical planning, one thing I have found is that getting things planned for the future helps me feel more active when I'm just not able to do the spell work itself. If I'm having a bad day or am just super busy, but I can pen something in to do later, it helps me feel more active in my path, and less like I'm not able to do the work. It may seem like a little thing, but it feels much bigger!
However you choose to work your magic, having a method for planning out future spell work can be super handy. Not only does it let you get all your magical ducks in a row, but it can be a way to take a small (but meaningful) action when you aren't able to do more. It can be a way to stay organized and remain in the flow of magical timing and cycles (if doing things in the moment isn't quite working for you). So, if you are struggling to stay on top of things, try making some future plans and seeing what type of system works to help you maintain the practice you want to have...even when things are busy or you don't have the energy that you might like to have.
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