Planner Girl: August Update

As you may have already surmised from a few previous posts and hints, I’m a planner junkie. An unapologetic planner addict.  Have been for as long as I can remember.  When I was growing up my favorite part of back-to-school was the school supply shopping – all those pretty stationary supplies on the shelves! (be still my heart!)

When I started working full-time, I graduated to a “professional” planner – a Franklin Covey brand.  Loved writing down my daily schedule, my to-do list, tracking meetings and notes, etc.

In the past year or so I’ve been enjoying the plethora of planning supplies available on the market. I’ve tried several different planners – from ring bound, coil bound, even designing my own pages a couple of times.

I thought I’d share with you the latest iteration of what I’m using on a daily basis – a personal size ring bound planner.

My binder is a DayTimer that I bought used from another planner junkie. I love the buttery softness of the leather. It’s just the perfect size for portability – fits into my tote when I’m on the go.

Here’s the inside – I made a cute cover page and laminated it to protect the other papers inside. The back of the page has some post-its stuck to it to have handy if I need them on the go.

The little quote/photo is my motto. I love it – and it’s perfect for the work-from-home gal.  And the Abominable Snowman! LOVE!

In the little zipper pouch I’ve got some of my favorite stickers (monsters!) and some extra post-its, paper clips, etc.  Handy to have when I’m on the go.

The inserts I’m currently using are from Cocoa Daisy – I love the colorful pages. I just started using them a few weeks ago so I’m still getting used to the layout, but so far they’re working pretty well.

There are weekly pages and daily to-do pages. I’m only using the weekly pages right now. I didn’t feel like I needed the daily ones. I’m using the back of the prior week for my weekly task list and I cross off completed items with my blue highlighter. I love that technique as it makes the remaining tasks really pop off the page.

These inserts have a monthly theme. August’s theme was macaroons. Cute and colorful. Very perky for the dog days of summer.

For the weekly overview page, I write down any big weekly events and also my menu plan. Since it rests alongside my task list it gives me a quick view of what’s coming and what I need to be aware of as I’m making plans.

Once you turn the page, you open up to the weekly spread:

I’m using a combination of stickers, post-its and stamps.  The stamps are for recurring things like my vitamins/medicine, etc. and I’m using post-its to make the timed events stand out.

Here’s another week – this week – and I added my weekly menu plan and blog post planning to the To-Do page. (those To-Do flags I made)

And this is this week’s spread:

Some of the other items you see here (like my “Plan” clip and heart clip and the 3×4 card) are from the Planner Society monthly kit.  The August colors of the Cocoa Daisy kit matched almost perfectly with the August colors of the Planner Society kit.

Most of my stamps are from Studiol2e stamp sets.

The monthly view pages are a free download from the Cocoa Daisy website… Too cute.

I’m not really big on decorating – which is part of why I like these pages. They’re inherently cute without me having to put a lot of stuff on the page. I can use my stamps and stickers to highlight important items – and not get distracted by a lot of other decoration on the page.

So, that’s what I’m using THIS month! (ha!) Who knows what next month will bring? I’ve got the Cocoa Daisy September pages as well, and right now I’m planning to use those. But we will see… we will see…

 

(If you decide to try out the Cocoa Daisy inserts, would you let them know I referred you? You can use my email: lois.houston1@gmail.com THANKS!)