my new planning style

If you have been following this blog for a while or you know me in real life you probably know about my love of planning. I have written about my love of planning a few times before which you can check out here:

• Yes, Planning is my Hobby
• Plan with me – How I Organize my Week
• The Search for the Perfect Planner
• Setting Up My 2019 Planner
• Why I am Storing All My Old Planners

To sum up how I did my planners in the past it was done both weekly and monthly, though the weekly was much more important to me. I would use a combination of stickers from etsy stores and washi tape and spend a lot of time each week setting up my planner. This worked for a long time for me, especially when I was in school and I had daily tasks, lots of time at home, and assignments that I needed to keep track of. The weekly planner started not working out as well for me when I transitioned to a full time job however and I found that I was spending a lot of time setting it up and then barely spent any time filling it out or enjoying it.

I knew I needed a change so I started to keep an eye on things in August as planners began to make their way into stores. I saw so many planners that I really loved, but I knew that none of them would work out for me and what I was wanting. And then when I was browsing Homesense one day I stumbled on a collection of planners and something that has become my new planner.

This planner is only a monthly planner, with a selection of note pages at the end. I wasn’t sure about how I would feel in only planning my months, but I have found that it has worked out perfect for me. Only planning once a month is much more time effective, but I still get to be creative and have fun with my planning which is what I love to do.

Here is what the blank monthly pages look like. I forgot to take the picture before doing some blog planning in the sidebar so if you look closely you can see some hints of what is to come next month. I really like how simple it is, but the boxes are big enough that I can fit a lot into each day.

As I did before I always like to start off with Washi tape. With it being December I can pull out my Christmas washi tape which I am sad I can only use once a year.

This planner is interesting in that instead of splitting days at the end of the month, the put them back at the beginning of the month. It may take a bit to get used to, but I love that none of the boxes are smaller than others.

Next up comes decorating. As I am not using an actual sticker set this month as I have so many extra stickers hanging around I went through my whole collection and found some things that I could use to decorate. I love getting a bit creative with this and making it my own.

I then go in and add boxes for the things that I know are happening throughout the month. With it being December there are lots of Christmas events going on as well as I know that I plan for two blog posts a week and things like yoga classes. This is really the part that evolves throughout the month as events get added, things get cancelled and I figure out the month.

Other things I add throughout the month as I am planning include

• marking when I workout
• movie nights with Nigel
• special events
• and anything else I want to remember in the future

My planning style has definitely changed and evolved in the past few months, but at the moment I have definitely found planner peace.

What is your planning style if anything? Have you found that it has changes as your life has changed around it?