Something you may not know about me is that I am a list maker. I make lists for my lists. I never leave the house without one, I never start my day without one, I make one before bed and I stay up thinking about what I forgot to add to it. No notebook, journal or stack of paper is safe in my house because I have lists to make and days to plan and ideas to jot down.
The Best Blog Planner
This has been a less than productive year for me blogging wise and I'm hoping to do better in 2016. My days feel like I could have spent my time more wisely and I often feel scatter brained so I've been shopping for the world's best blog planner, which, in my eyes had to have been:
gorgeous- like really really gorgeous
big enough to write everything but small enough to fit in my purse
fully customizable
unique
affordable (no more than $30ish)
inspiring and colorful
able to be added to and tweaked because a lady's planner is very personal. No cookie cutter blog planner will suffice.
In addition to that, it also needed to be blogger friendly, which means keeping track of stats, sponsors, post ideas, an editorial calendar, social media posts and contain my branding/style guide info for reference and schedule out everything. Oh, and I needed to be able to keep track of Girl Scout meetings, appointments, coupons for date night and my daily housework. That's a lot for one planner/ Some people have planners for different aspects of their lives but no, I need an all in one sort of thing. I found it in The Happy Planner.
What's Inside
The Happy Planner is a disk bound 18 month tabbed planner. I love the disks with their cute heart shaped cut-outs and it makes the planner lay flat.
Each month tab has a different pretty design or inspiring quote. Every planner style is different so it helps to flip through them all and see what they look like inside. You can also see videos of the insides of every style on the Happy Planner website. My planner has the black cover with the gold heart but I really like the polka dots on the inside of the cover so I flipped it around. There's a monthly goals section with reminders and important reminders followed by a monthly calendar and then a weekly calendar.
The weekly calendar is really fantastic because its broken down by morning, afternoon and evening so it will fit my whole day weather I'm playing the housewife, the blogger, the Girl Scout leader or Etsy seller.
This planner has extra accessories that you can use to fancy it up like different covers, extra pages, slickers, flags, note lists for the margins, pocket folders- it goes on and on! I found some spectacular DIY Happy Planner tutorials on You Tube too so you can use dollar tree finds to fix it up for a fraction of the price. Check out the Happy Planner blog for free printables as well
Happy Planner on a Budget
I went to Target's dollar section last night and found some darling page flags, sticky notes, chalkboard clothespins and such all for $1 each.
They often have washi tape but they didn't have any at the moment. We went back to Michaels for washi tape and I found a ton on sale and on clearance and I used a 50% off coupon for my Happy Planner stickers. By the way, if you go to buy a Happy Planner too, bring a coupon! They're about $25 usually, I got mine for $12.50!
A peek inside this Happy Planner sticker set:
I've found that planners these days are more like scrapbooks than agendas, which I absolutely love. Many ladies keep small photos, notes of where they went and at the end of the year, they have a scrapbook saving all of those moments. The Happy Planner Blog has some beautiful layout ideas but I've found some inspiring new Instagram friends too, check them out:
@theresetgirl - she's opening a shop soon and has some adorable retro style planner accessories!
@meandmybigideas
@theplannersociety
@missplannerella
@momruncraft
@fiftyshadesofplanner
@cultivatingcasie
I hope you all don't mind my planner obsession, I will probably do a monthly dollar tree/target planner haul and show you the inside of my pretty pages! Are you obsessed with planners too?
That sounds wonderful! As a paper crafter, I'll be especially interested in seeing all of the lovely supplies you find for your planner as the year unfolds.
ReplyDeleteHappy list making!
♥ Jessica
Oh just what I've been looking for. I've made my own planner of sorts...but it's huge. It's a notebook filled with numbers, ideas, link lists, photo clippings from magazines, Post-Its. You name it! Something portable and stylish would be so much better. (Though I'd still likely keep a full-sized inspiration journal for my creative projects).
ReplyDelete~ Jackie @ Let's Go Thrifting
www.LetsGoThriftingBlog.com
Great planner!!
ReplyDeleteI just got a new planner for blogging, too! (And life in general. It all intertwines!) I love the idea of making it more scrapbook-y. That will make it a lot more fun!
ReplyDeleteI suffer from listomania too and love my good old Filofax planner. I've had a smartphone for a year now, but love to write things down on real paper and tick them off when done, or bought (if it is gift lists). Do follow up with your charming tips, dear. :)
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