Good morning! After all the feedback on our best 2016 planners post, I fiiiinally decided to get one of my own. (Actually, I also got a tiny pocket planner for recording hours worked on the go, since I work from out of my house so much—this Paper Source one is so perfect and I’m so jealous of whoever gets it for 50% off.) I have a tendency to get really into my planner and then forget it half way through the year, but last year I finally figured out how to make them work with me.
Take a look at all your options. When you do have a planner, it’s easy to just use it for super basic plans and to-do lists. But most of them have some sort of note sections, time slots, and different calendar views for you to utilize. I don’t normally write much in the monthly section (I actually sometimes tear the calendar out and hang it on my wall so I don’t forget), but I decided to fill it out in this UPstudio planner, because there’s so much room. I have huge handwriting so that’s a big help.
Use your own extras. I have washi tape and cute stickers from Thatch & Thistle for when I need to have something more prominent, and I recently bought these colored pencils from Paper Source (I seriously can’t walk out of that store without making a purchase) to help me stay organized. They even come with a cute tiny sharpener (pics below!). It’s of course not completely necessary to have all the cute extras but I like the creative experience that comes along with planning and I see no reason not to run with it.
With that said, another way to make the most of your planner is to prioritize and not get too carried away. We both sometimes write mega to do lists and then spend way more time with them than actually crossing things off (oops). So now that I have the big stuff filled out on the monthly calendar, like meetings and appointments and one-off tasks I would otherwise forget, I turn to the weekly section for my day to day.
Some people are better filling out things by time (I’ve talked about time blocking on my blog and how it doesn’t always work for me), but I usually skip the schedule and try to prioritize 1-3 top things in the little daily boxes. If you are freelancing or have an hourly position that you need to keep track of, I also suggest using half of this area to record hours and the major things you did. It’s an important record when creating invoices or having to share what you’ve completed.
(The cute extra leads!)
Create bookmarks. One of the uses for the tape for me is to create little tabs for pages I need to refer to. If you’re fully utilizing your planner, you probably write meeting notes, tasks, ideas, goals, and other important info down in random spots. Even though this planner has tabs for each month, I added a few extras in the spots where I wrote down goals I want to refer to.
Have you guys found the perfect planner yet? I found that having two–this one for my desk and the pocket one for on the go–is helping me stay organized. For some reason, I’m way better on paper. I know there are a ton of apps that do all this, but I just can’t do digital!
Pencils: Paper Source / Planner: c/o UPstudio / Washi Tapes & Metallic Pens: Stampington & Co. / Stickers: Thatch & Thistle
Aisling says
I absolutely loved this post! (Plus your photography is stunning, so bright and airy!) I really need to pick up some cute stickers so I can decorate my planner x
Aisling | Aislings beauty bytes
Angela says
Thanks so much for your comment Aisling! When I took these I really wasn’t sure if they came out well, so I’m glad to hear you found them inspiring!