Jan 4, 2017

My Planning System for 2017

Hey there!

Happy New Year! I hope you had an awesome time with family and friends or a fantastically quiet time snuggled in bed letting the TV watch you. I kind of did the latter. The kiddo and I snuggled on the sofa and she left me know when it was time to watch the ball drop. We had our sparkling beverage, toasted and then we hugged and I went to bed!

So what did I do Sunday? Well, first I slept in like a champ! Then I began putting my planner together for 2017.

I've had a lot of planners over the years. I began recording things on calendars when I was in high school (you know, just 10 or so years ago, wink, wink). I would add my appointments and my friends and families birthdays to my calendar. I'd decorate important days and write down all of my expenses (apparently you have to keep track of the prices of Mars bars and Mountain Dew). Except for the treats and the price of my planners, not much has changed.

I have tried all kinds of yearly planning systems. My most recent was the Erin Condren planner. I liked it. I paid about $65 for an 18 month planner and a few goodies. It worked well but it wasn't easy to carry because it was kind of bulky. I also couldn't change the aesthetic as much as I like to do. Hey, I'm a DIYer! And, it's really is kind of expensive.

The year before that, I had a Sugar Paper planner from Target. It was 12 bucks, easy to use, fit in my purse and I could see my month at a glance easily. Again, it wasn't very changeable. What you see is what you get...for the entire year.

And in all the years before that there have been Franklin Covey planners, Day Runner Planners, DIY composition book planners...you get the point. My planners have been around the block. With all of that knowledge, I decided that this year, I'd go back to my DIY roots.

With a DIY planner, I'm not married to anything forever. I can love a daily planner for 2 months and then change to a weekly planner for 4 months and then go to monthly for the rest of the year. I can do whatever I want to!

The idea popped into my head when I was perusing the thrift store and I found this really cute plum Day Runner planner for $1.93. YES!!! I know. It's the perfect size for what I'm planning this year. No, I can't fit a full year of weekly planner pages but I can put a few months inside, just what I need to carry. Seriously, what else do you need. Well, I digress.

So what else am I putting in this planner? Lots of random things. Because it's a DIY planner, I picked up random items for the DIY planner.

I have a bunch of "to-do" note pads. You can pop these on a blank page or make them the full page. No, these aren't all of my notepads. I have all of my note pads in a folder system and these are the ones that I haven't put into the folder system yet. You know that all the stores have waaaay too many note pads to say no to!

My favorite planner pages for this year are the ones from Linas Planners on Etsy. Aren't they nice?! I found Lina's Planners on Instagram and fell in love with the simplicity of her pages. I can add decorations to them if I want to but I can keep it simple if I can't be bothered. These pages scream functional!

I also peruse the internet and find other planner pages. I don't do too much, just enough to be cute. This planner is going to be my on the go planner so I don't want it too full. I just want to be able to decorate my pages each week.

And of course I add cute pens, washi tape, stickers, planner stamps, etc. The planner community is full of fun things to add to your planner. This year I will go minimal (well, kind of). I don't plan to go overboard but I do plan to bling it up every now and then.