Planner Hacks

For my high school graduation Justin bought me a Palm Pilot. Yes I am dating myself. This was a time where I had a Nokia black and white screen phone and I barely texted. Camera phones weren't an option much less apps and productivity tools. I immediately became addicted to the amazing capabilities of electronic schedule maintenance. As I grew more mature and phone technology developed, I moved up to a Blackberry and eventually to the world of iPhones (PRAISE!). I love my electronic calendar and the ease in which it communicates with my work computer, email, Justin's calendar, etc. but I found myself a bit dizzy trying to plan out long term projects without actually SEEING it in front of me. I broke down and purchased an Erin Condren planner. I am hooked! I still maintain both an electronic calendar as well as my planner but sometimes when I'm overwhelmed with all of the business that is my life, taking it old school and writing things out in my planner immediately calms me.

Here are a few hacks I have learned from others as well as through personal experience in the past few months.

Washi tape was a new thing to me. It's semi-removable tape similar to masking tape that is used for a variety of purposes. I bought some very cute decorative washi tape and covered the edges of my planner pages. This helps distinguish the months and makes the pages a little more durable as I flip through the months. My sister Suzi taught me this trick!

My favorite thrift store in Tifton has started getting giant bins of clearance Target Dollar Spot items. While I was there digging through the bins one day I found these self-adhesive clear pockets. They're for labeling bins but they also work perfectly to hold small papers, business cards, and appointment reminders in my planner rather than sticking them in there randomly. 

The final trick I figured I would do was to print stickers for recurring events so I didn't have to write them out. I printed cute icons onto full size label sheets and just cut them out with scissors. If I was on top of my game I would have used Scan and Cut on my mama's Silhouette cutter but I was impatient to fill out my planner. I use this method for Justin's work schedule every third day, weekly recurring conference calls, pay days, and even things I would forget about like the exterminator coming, changing my air filter at the house, and even for self-care and maintenance things like giving blood, car washes, changing out my contacts, etc.