MY FAVORITE PLANNER & HOW I PLAN WITH IT

MY PLANNER

In honor of school starting back up, I thought I would share with you guys the planner that I use. I like to mark social events, birthdays, art deadlines, and blog posts.

This planner is made by a brand called Erin Condren and it is called the Monthly Deluxe planner. They make both monthly and weekly planners. What I love about these planners specifically is that the covers are super customizable. You can have them print your name and the year or anything you like on the cover. You can also customize the coil color, the number of notes pages (will show you below), and the color/pattern on the cover.

This is my 2017 planner. Like I said, it is the Deluxe Monthly planner in neutral with a black coil and added notes pages.

A LOOK INSIDE

When you first open the planner you will see this page. You can use it for anything you want. I prefer to use it for tracking birthdays and other significant dates. I haven’t marked them in this planner yet but that is what I did in my previous ones.

Each month has a Notes Page before it, as you can see below. I love to jot down goals, shopping lists, ideas, and significant events for the month. I also love the little quote that each month has.

Then you will see the monthly spread on the next page. If you buy the neutral color scheme then your planner will look like this. If you choose the colorful color scheme, then your top banner will be a different color each month instead of black and white.

The next set of pages is pretty unique. One side has a little section for each week of the month and the other side has a bunch of horizontal lines for notes. I like to use the left side for meal planning and grocery shopping lists and the right side for ideas/inspiration.

The back of the planner comes with 25 (I think . . . ) blank lined pages. You have the option to add more for about five dollars. They are really handy for blog post ideas, recipes, addresses, reading lists, etc.

The back has a pocketed page and comes with a ruler. Don’t be like me and lose yours after one week of owning the thing. It was a nice ruler and it clipped into the coil! Sigh.

WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE

The front and back covers are both removable so you can switch them out seasonally or if you just get bored with it. Mine typically has the flower cover on it but this is my October/Fall cover that I purchased off of Etsy. I will link the shop and some others at the end of the post.

That is what the planner looks like. Now, for my favorite part . . .

I’m not sure who started this craze but for a few years, girls have been making custom stickers for the Erin Condren planners. I’m pretty sure the company started it by selling little custom-sized flags and labels. It really caught on and now TONS of Etsy shops make and sell all kinds of custom stickers. You can find a sticker to mark just about anything. Some stickers are more functional; they are used to mark trash days, bill due dates, birthdays, etc. Others are purely decorative. Think of it as a planner/scrapbook hybrid. Some girls even paste those little polaroid pictures in theirs.

Here is a picture of August in my planner. I used a little kit of stickers specifically for the monthly pages. It included a top banner and some functional and decorative stickers.

It seems a little excessive at first but trust me, it is addictive! Using fun stickers just makes it really fun to sit down and lay out all of your plans for the month. It will totally bring out he little kid in you too. Having this system has helped me stay on track too!

Here are some of the stickers I use to track when orders are coming, Target lists, shopping trips, vacations, vet appointments, etc.

Here is a sheet that I made for a Style Collective meet up we had last month. I drew the art for some of them myself. I have a Silhouette machine that cuts stickers and trust me, it just aids in the addiction.

That’s about it! That is my planner and “system” of planning. It makes planning a little more fun and is so much fun to go back and look at later on. Honestly, I was sold at the custom covers.

If you are interested in buying one of these planners, you can get them at some Staples stores or from the Erin Condren website. Here is a code for $10 off of your first order. I will also link all of the shops where I got the stickers and covers from below.