How I Prep My Planner

I may have been a little late to the planner craze, but when I finally caught on, I was all in! Does anyone else feel like they’ve been waiting for this their whole lives? Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’ve never had a planner before. As a matter of fact, I’ve had way more than my fair share and far more than I’ve actually used.

I’m a girl who loves planning. Lists, notes, goal sheets- you name it, I’ve done it. (Well, everything except the follow through, but I’m working on that!) Some of my fondest school memories were shopping for supplies. I was excited about it all- the fresh notebooks, the brand new pens. But most of all, the planner. There was just something about those unmarred pages full of nothing but potential. Inevitably, the planner I’d been unable to live without in the beginning of the year was lucky to see the light of day by the second semester.

This is a pattern that would continue through most of my life. Buy a planner, fill it with every possible detail of my life, abandon said planner weeks later. But not this time!

Meet The Happy Planner by Mambi. I first saw this planner on, where else, Pinterest and it was love at first sight. The bright colors, the beautiful fonts, and the endless possibilities. (If all this thing did was give me a place to use my embarrassingly large amount of washi tape, I’d be thrilled.) The first chance I got, I ran to my local Michael’s Craft Store and bought it, along with inserts, stickers, stamps, folders, more washi tape… Who knew there were so many things for a planner?

At first, I had so much stuff I wasn’t sure where to start. How much should I decorate up front and how much should I do as I go? I wanted to use it for work, but my days are varied and meetings pop up at a moment’s notice. Did I really want to carry all those supplies with me so I had an appointment sticker should the need arise? And I loved all the examples I saw online of amazing planners, but I didn’t want to spend all my time decorating the planner and getting nothing done.

After some trial and error, I finally came up with a system that works well for me. It’s sorta a hybrid approach, if you will. At the end of each month, I prep the changes for the coming month. I choose a color scheme and a general theme for each month. For the month of April I went with pink, yellow, green, and blue (can you tell I’m dying for spring?). Since things are starting to bloom around here, I decided to put this set of stamps from Stamping’ Up to good use. I’ve had them forever and I love that they have new life in my planner.

Even though my job is more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, there are some things that are more structured. Since the last row of the week is meant for evening, I cover it with washi and use it to plan my blog. I’m fairly new to blogging and it’s been really important for me to develop good habits and a regular routine. I found the most adorable blog stamp set by Pink & Main and have been using it to plan posts, crafting sessions, and challenges. I sit down at the beginning of the week and jot down the things I need to do and it’s so nice not to have to rush at the last minute.

Prepping my planner is fabulous, but one of the best things is going back over the past month to add a few notes and photos!