Personal Planner Setup! February 2016

This year I've chosen to do a majority of my planning in a spiral bound planner (my Life Designer Planner). But I am still using my ring planners for storing information, and planning out certain projects. My Life Designer Planner is for day to day to-do's and daily planning.

If you saw my recent video on the planners I am currently using (here) you will know I said I would be using a personal planner for my 'out and about' planner, basically one which has duplicate information in.

But I've had a play around with it, and decided that I really want to compact my planning. So I thought I'd share that with you here, along with how I've got about decorating my planner!

First of all, before anything we need to take a moment to appreciate the charm combination I've got going on! You may have realised I own a lot of Kawaii Studios planner charms now, and I hadn't used this little guy for a while. It went perfectly with my raincloud charm which is available in my shop, Cloudy Cow.  I decided to attach them to the bottom ring in this planner, as it's not one that's going to be standing on a shelf. Instead it will be laying flat on my desk.

I've kept my pockets simple and practical. At the top I have a few business cards for both of my shops, luckily they are really cute, so they look pretty poking out the top of each pocket. 

I've then got a pocket of clips, there's a magnetic strawberry clip from Kikki-k, a white bow paperclip from Lady Bug On A Pug, and a polar bear paperclip from Sea Salt & Paper. In the bottom pocket I have from translucent highlighting tabs from Paperchase. Then in the large pocket I have some mini duck stickers, and some little doodle style stickers if I fancy any extra, but simple decoration on my pages.

This tab set actually came in a long booklet, but I cut it down to just the colours I wanted. I then attached some magnetic strips to the inside so I can put it in the pocket and it will stay put. If it didn't have these, it would still sit in the pocket fine, but it would flap about every time I opened or closed the planner. It does add a little bit of bulk to start with, but these tabs are brand new so once I've started using them it will all thin out and be less bulky.

My dashboard I made using some scrapbooking card, a postcard and some glitter tape. I simply cut down the postcard to size, stuck it on the scrapbooking card and then add some of the silver glitter tape to the top and bottom. The postcard is from Caroline South on Etsy, and the silver glitter tape is from Cloudy Cow.

I added a little text sticker saying 'live colorfully' (spelt the American way haha) and a heart sticker from the Carpe Diem stickers I got from Mrs Brimbles' shop.

At the top I have my little Totoro Magnetic Clip from Cloudy Cow just for decoration. He is too adorable to leave out!

I used one of the die cuts from a Carpe Diem pack (from Mrs Brimbles' shop) which said 'Happily Ever After' on it, and on the back a made a mini collage which has a photo of my boyfriend and our new home. It's just a little reminder to keep in my planner, to make sure I carry on pushing through the distance and stress because at the end of it all I we will have a whole adventure to begin together.

My monthly dividers were something I'd had my eye on for months. I'd seen people share photos in the UKPA Facebook group, and at the time I couldn't justify spending money on new dividers. I waited until the new year and by then I couldn't wait any longer, I just neeeeeeeded them.

So I bought them from Leafy Lane Designs on Etsy, and they are just so worth the money. The artwork is amazing, and they are great quality.

Each divider has a different image on which all change depend on the season. I won't share all the dividers on here, but you can see all of the images on the Etsy shop listing (here). The shop is UK based too, which is always nice! Before this I was using my up-cycled paper Webster's Pages monthly dividers, which were okay, they did the job, but I'm so glad I upgraded haha!

I decided to remove the weekly/daily diary section from this planner completely, and instead use these monthly tabs as an events & projects tracker. Since 2016 started I have been on the go non stop. I've had some amazing opportunities to work with companies I love, I've been invited to a blogger event already, and I'm also going to be attending at least two planner meet up's this year! Along with all of that I will be moving 300 miles away, and somehow I need to keep track of everything I've got going on, but in a practical and convenient way.

I decided to design myself some inserts, I did this by simply making a table in Pages, the same size as a personal sized page (you can do this in Word or any other writing software you have on your computer), and then making some smaller tables inside of this for whatever I needed to track.

So I have two pages per month so far, one page has a section for my YouTube & Blog, the other for Birthdays & events, and my shops. In these boxes I put in any important dates, events, things I'll be attending, things that I'm working with companies on, any work that needs to be done each month etc. Basically the most important things that are going on in my life right now, so it's easy to see what I've got going on at a glance.

In the current month I have a little project life card with a monthly calendar on. I laminated this and I'm using it to track my attempt (keyword there *attempt*) at no spend February. I'm using some little duck stickers to mark off each day that I didn't spend. Because I have laminated this card I can always peel the little stickers back off and reuse them if I want to. I have also added this little camera die cut for decoration (again from the Carpe diem pack), and I wrote a little reminder on the back of it too.. 

It's a silly little reminder, but the amount of times I've gone to photograph something and thought 'this isn't interesting, why should I bother' is crazy. Especially when I read through old journals or see old photos, I'm always looking for the things that would have been considered really mundane! Like what food is on the table in the background of a photo. Or when I was younger I wrote in a journal about my favourites shoes at the time. Those are the things that grab my curiosity, and those are the things that will make me chuckle in years to come.

Of course the big events are great to look back on too, but I need to remember that I should never dismiss the supposedly insignificant, just because I don't think it's very interesting right now.

One of the main additions which is there for cuteness reasons and of course practicality, is the Rabbit Planner Ruler (from Cloudy Cow). Because it pokes out the top it acts like a mini divider, so I have put it in the section of the planner that I will use the most. Right now it's in the middle of the February section.

The other two sections in this planner aren't really that fancy. They are just places to write list's and keep information I might need (for example online accounts I need to change my address on when I move, and quotes I've heard and wanted to jot down to remember etc.). As this is my 'out and about' planner, the one I'll be carrying everywhere I go, I don't need it to be jam packed and podgy. I just need it to hold information I might need when I don't have access to my main planner.

The planner I'm using is the discontinued Paint Splodges Personal Planner by Paperchase. I got this in the most recent Paperchase sale and I'm in loooove with it. Paperchase always come up with some absolutely beautiful designs. I also love the elastic closure, it's very different to any of my other planners.

So there you go, this is my current personal planner setup!! Hopefully you've enjoyed having a nosey into my planning system and how I'm going about using this planner.

I'm really starting to find my way with using my planners, I've always been someone who carries on trying until they find something that works. Now after nearly two years I feel like I'm finding my way with what works and what doesn't.

Of course it completely depends on where I'm at in life, what I'm doing and what responsibilities I've got! But for now, this is working for me very well.

Have a lovely day!

- Daisy X