2019 is just around the corner and that means I have been counting down the days until I can start my new planner. My old planner has been used for the past 18 months and it is getting a little out of control.
You can read about my full process of getting my 2019 planner (which happened back in summer) in this post here: The Search for the Perfect Planner

Now this planner has been sitting in my bedroom for the past 6 months, and I have been so excited to get started on it and here we are, next week is 2019.
Front of Planner
I first started by figuring out the notes pages at the beginning of the planner, which I knew I wanted to use for a few brainstorming and planning ideas for the year. I ended up creating 9 sections:
- blog ideas
- organization
- future home needs/wants
- 2019 goals
- bible reading
- 2019 bucket list
- reading plans
- wish list
- work out
At the end of the planner there is one extra note page that I have set up for 2020 plans.
Monthly Pages
Next up were the monthly overviews. I decided to use this sticker book as my main decorations for the monthly pages. It has lots of stickers for various holidays and seasons that work really well to make the pages decorated without going too far.

When I am planning my month I mainly use it for big events (trips, weddings, etc) as well as for planning my blog posts so I can divide up the topics that I rotate between. Then I bring in the decorative stickers in to make the spread look fun and seasonal.
I have included examples of the first 4 months for you to look at, but I have mostly completed the entire year (but I do need a few more of the stickers I use for blog posts as I have run out of appropriate colours.
Weekly Pages
Now for perhaps the most important part of the planner, the weekly pages that I will use every day. For my weekly spreads I buy sticker sets on etsy. Some of my favourite shops are:
I like quite a decorated planner, because that is what makes me happy and excited to use my planner every day. On the sidebar I like having a list of Nigel’s schedule (I don’t need mine because it never changes) as well as some weekly checklists that I like using for things such as working out.

On each day I need a checklist that I can use for my daily tasks as well as a box that I use to plan dinners. I also like using boxes to track the blog posts for the week as well as other functional stickers for events and plans during the week.

As this planner just has straight columns with no breaks like there was in my previous planner I feel like I have more room to move about and change up how each day is laid out which I really like which makes things look not quite as even.

Also what I didn’t notice until I was decorating this planner is that this planner’s week is from Sunday to Saturday and not Monday to Sunday like I had in previous planners which I don’t dislike but will take a bit to get used to.
Now the amount of stickers and decorations in my planner may be a lot for some people, but for me it works. My weekly decorating is one of my favourite parts of the week and I really love having everything laid out the way it is.
How do you plan? Do you decorate or are you more plain? Let me know in the comments!
3 thoughts on “setting up my 2019 planner”