Fresh Start: Planner Organization Ideas

After using many daily planners to help me organize my blog and personal life, I have found the Planner Pad system works far better for a few reasons. If you are thinking about purchasing a planner to get organized, read on. 

I may not have posted the past two weeks,  but I have been planning. Planning projects to share with you, planning time to get back into my physical morning workout schedule, planning to take time to connect with you, and to learn more about everything I am interested in. I don’t have any resolutions – just plans… plans of good things ahead.

With the harried, happy rush of the holidays behind us, the new year begins, fresh and open – the proverbial blank slate – I have my daily planner and am ready to go!

Three years ago I found out about a Planner Pad from a Philadelphia area bloggers group I belong to. I had used many types and styles of planners before and was never happy with any of them. That changed once I bought a Planner Pad.  I have been using one ever since!  That fact alone tells you just how much I love the system and sharing my planner organization ideas with you.  I have written about Planner Pad before – to learn more about the system, you can read my post, here or visit the Planner Pad site.

This year I decided to add my own style to my brand new Planner Pad.  Style-it-up just for me using the colors and designs that will help inspire me to action.

I love seeing how some people take the time to color code their planners and calendars. I don’t do that – too complicated for me, but I do love color and added it to my Planner Pad with scrapbook paper, markers, sticky tabs, and fun paper clips.

I love the visual-ness of a pen to paper planner. I like to see how the pieces of my life fit together.  Everything becomes clear  – nothing gets jumbled.  I can see my life and my work week at a glance – what I am working on, what is scheduled, along with the deadlines, too.

To also help keep me organized, I use the free phone app,  Any.Do. It is perfect for notes and lists I need when I am out and about.  I like the clean un-cluttered interface. It even reminds me each morning to take a look and access my day.  Using it along with my planner, I can keep myself and day pretty organized.

To decorate my planner in my own style, I gathered some colorful supplies and got to work.

I love Roman numeral clock faces and found this scrapbook paper at Michaels. I thought it was perfect to accent my planner. I laminated it with self-seal laminating sheets I bought at Walmart.  I used spray glue to attach the laminated clock paper to the inside of the front and back covers.

I added a Planner Pad accessory (self adhesive clear pockets) to the front and back covers right on top of the scrapbook paper. I separated a stack of Sticky Notes by color and attached them to the front cover right over the pocket using double stick tape to hold them into place.  I can still use the pocket to hold notes and misc. items.

Planner Pad sells monthly tabs that I added to first page of each month.

On the Notes and Goals pages in the back of the planner, I added my own Section tabs.

I made them using white card stock and the laminating sheets.  Simply write your sections on cardstock and cut out.  Wrap the laminating sheet around it, leaving extra lamination at the bottom so you can attach the tab to the edge of the paper.

To add color, I added Washi tape tabs. I attached the tape on the back of the paper and tabs I made and just folded the tape over on itself above the tab. I then cut the top edge to the height I needed.

I find that fine tipped pencils, pens and markers work best when you are trying to keep things neat and legible. I use PaperMate Precision mechanical pencils most of the time.  Since I can erase changes instead of cross them out. I also like how it makes my handwriting look.  My other favorites are Pentel RSVP pens and Le Pen markers.

I use the sticky tab dividers to mark magazines and books I am reading so I can easily find the pages that interested me again.  I sometimes even use them to mark a date in my planner, too.

You can find the sticky tab dividers on Amazon.

Now I am all set and ready to create some exciting new projects to post about. I also have my projects planned on my DIY Wall Calendar.  I will be painting a new rug on my mudroom floor, showing you a room I have never showed you before, stripping wallpaper, creating a home office for Ed in our older daughter’s empty room, more DIY chalk paint projects,  and so much more.