Organize Your Planner

It’s January 7th and I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks.  While my blogging break was nice and very relaxing, and the extra time with my family was absolutely wonderful, I’m excited to be back and to get into a routine again.  I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year’s and whatever else your family celebrates during the holiday season.  Ours was wonderful and relaxing and I loved every single minute of it!

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There is just something that I always love about a brand new year.

It’s a chance to start anew; a time to reorganize all that clutter you’ve tucked and shoved away over the holidays as guests came over for appetizers or dinners or drinks.

It’s also a time to start a brand new planner!  I know in this day and age, lots of people have ditched their paper/pen planners for their iPhones, but this girl cannot and will not give up her planner.  Ever.

This will be my second year using the absolute BEST planner on the market, the Erin Condren Life Planner.  {No, this is not a sponsored post.  I truly, honestly, absolutely LOVE this planner and pretty much every single product that Erin Condren has to offer}.  To keep it even more organized than I did last year, I’m taking advantage of the cute, colorful stickers that come with each life planner and also adding some fun washi tape to create a “code” for important events that occur each week.

Now, to organize your own planner, you definitely do not need to have the exact brand that I do {but I do HIGHLY recommend it if you’re interested in the BEST of the best}.  You’ll just need a planner that you like, washi tape, an area to make a key for what washi tape goes with what events, and a little bit of time each week to get organized!

One of the things I adore about the Life Planner is that you can personalize the cover.  And I’m not just talking about adding your name or business to the front.  You can actually add photos too.  I chose to go with a teal and white chevron pattern this year, but next year, I think I might go with the photo option.

I chose several washi tape patterns that I wanted to use throughout the year and grabbed the sticker pages from the back of the planner to make a key on white cardstock.

Once I had the cardstock cut to the size I needed, I used my corner rounding punch to give it a more polished look.

Next I thought about the things I’d most likely be writing down in my planner on a weekly basis.  This particular planner has both weekly and monthly calendars, but I tend to write more on the weekly pages than the monthly pages for some reason.  I divided my “events” into two categories: blog and life.  So obviously if you don’t have a blog, then you can pretty much ignore those suggestions.

I generally used the stickers that came with the planner for blog related events including campaign companies that I could possibly have a sponsored post with that week, events that occur on the blog such as giveaways, guest posts, or round ups, and also a sticker for contributor posts.  For the life events, I used some of my favorite washi tapes and have a separate one for church, MOPS, family, kids, and bills.

As the year goes on, if I see a need to add more, I’ve got plenty of washi tape to use!

Another important part of staying organized while using your planner is to actually set aside a few minutes each day to write in it and get yourself prepped for the day.  You could do this in the morning with your cup of coffee or at night as a way to mentally prepare for the next day ahead.  I look forward to opening mine daily!

How do you stay organized?  Any tips you’d like to share with me?!  I’d love to hear them!

Happy New Year and happy organizing everyone!