The Y's and wherefores of proper planning

I've heard a few people mention using YWriter and I have been meaning to download it for a while now. Today I finally got around to doing it and so I have spent the last 30 mins getting to grips with it. If anyone has any hints/tips for making the most of it I would be truly grateful if you can share them with me. It looks like it will be useful in organising my novel and for slotting things in here and there. I have just started setting up my character bios/goals/pics etc. I had previously started this in excel but it didn't really have the desired effect I wanted. Now I will have everything under one roof.

Aside from my novel I haven't done any other writing. I am thinking of setting up another blog though. It is writing related but more to do with mind,body and spirit - something I am also very passionate about but don't really get time to indulge in. I'll keep you posted on that as I haven't thought it through enough to start yet and I certainly wouldn't want to spend less time here because of it.