2015 Planner Set-Up (and some history)

My planner adventure started a LONG, LONG time ago. When I was much younger, we received “agendas” for school and this was basically our bibles. We loved customizing our agendas, writing our assignments in colorful pens and stickers, writing each other notes in them, etc. Living in Japan, where it’s basically a hub for all things cute stationary, we all wanted the newest and hottest new stationary. So, that’s where it began. Fast forward to when I found Cathy’s blog, Inside the Crafter’s Studio and her post on her Filofax. I was hooked. February 2014 was when I purchaed my first Filofax (the original personal sized Filofax in Yellow), and it was love at first sight. I loved the buttery color, the feeling of a stiff, brand new leather planner, and all the beauty that came with it.

In October, I travelled to Australia for my best friend’s wedding. We went shopping and I stumbled upon the kikki.K store. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything in this store was. Seriously. I was drooling. I originally went in, wallet in my hand, ready to purchase the Leather Personal Planner in Lilac, as I had been eyeing it online before my trip to Australia. But, as fate usually does, the store we visited in Brisbane was all sold out. Needless to say, I was bummed but then this beauty caught my eye. The Large Lilac Leather Time Planner. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. I was worried the large size and the rubber band closure would throw me off, but boy am I so glad I got myself this little gift. As it is quite large, I don’t carry it around with me but I have a little notebook I carry with me to jot down notes or dates that I need to transfer when I get home.

The leather is soft, buttery (and perfect, seriously). The color is gorgeous and who can say no to gold accents? The rings are large enough to hold all my unnecessary crap, and oh boy oh boy I can’t even.

I use the Pilot brand Frixion pens to write in my planner, as they’re erasable, perfect for my bullet journaling (more on that later) and the colors are pretty cute (in my opinion).  I used to use washi tape (a la Cathy Vee) to plan but it just takes too much time for me.

My dashboard is made from a transparency I ordered off Studio Calico a while ago. My dividers are simply patterned paper cropped to size that I had in my stash.

In terms of decorating, I don’t really do much. I truly admire everyone on instagram and Pinterest, who can use such beautiful products to pretty-fy their planners, but I guess it’s just not for me. I just slap on some washi tape, some stickers (if I feel like it), and call it a day. My inserts are from Marcy Penner at Hello Forever. I use the 2015 Weekly Calendar in Grey, along with all her planner add-ons.

I took a class by Marcy Penner over at Studio Calico called Agenda, which talked about planners and gave you tips, tricks, handouts and information on how to make your planner work for you. I can’t tell you how helpful that class was; it really helped me to maximize the use of my planner.  Upon getting this bigger size planner, I decided it was time to add some sections into it, other than just my calendar. Here are the tabs I have:

• Home
  Meal Plan
  Online Purchases
• Work
  Meeting Notes
  Finances
  Notes
• Live
  Fitness
  Goals
• Create
  Blog Schedule
  Blog List
  Ideas

Of course, Marcy’s Add-Ons on her shop contain more sections but these are what work for me. I don’t really do any Project Life planning in my planner.

Some other goodies I keep stashed in my planner are post-it’s, stickers, and a tag, which I write down my key for my bullet journaling. This is what I use in the calendar sections of my planner to help me keep track of what’s going on each week. They’re pretty self explanatory, but if you want more information on bullet journaling, check out Ryder Carroll’s website about the original concept of Bullet Journals. That about sums it up! I hope this was helpful for those of you who are new to the planner world and of course, if you have any questions, let me know!