My 2017 Planner Setup
I love planner set up posts, they’re probably one of my favourites to read.
I’ve told myself I can have a binge on other people’s planner setup posts once I’ve written this!
I’ve not changed too much from last year in terms of the kinds of planners I’m primarily using. I’m still in personal Filofaxes. How I’m using these though, has changed slightly. If you want to take a look at my 2016 set up, take a look at the post here.
Main planner – Filofax Personal Burnt Orange
I have a pretty new planner to play with this year! Ed bought me this last year as an early Christmas present/anniversary/random gift as I’d been coveting it for ages. This is a beautiful, soft matt planner and the colour is stunning. I don’t change out my planner often so when I received this I knew it was my 2017 planner. It was well timed as my beloved Fuchsia Original is starting to show cracking down the spine.
Inside set up
In terms of how I’ve set my pockets up, I’ve gone simple once again.
I pondered for a while over what colour scheme to go for with this planner and settled on blue and yellows after seeing this cute paper pack from Azmari Digitals on Etsy. This is the first time I’ve bought a paper pack, printed it and laminated it to turn into dividers. It was pretty easy to do and the colours came out nice and vibrant.
To keep with the theme I just picked out a few post it notes from my stash for the pockets and I always need sticky notes on hand when planning! The top ones are from a pack I found in a random shop somewhere that I’ve managed to track down here. These are such lovely quality and I’m excited to have them match a planner for once! The bottom ones are good old super sticky Post Its. I have these littered around everywhere at home. The Pom Pom paperclips were a custom order from Wishowl on Etsy. I know I’ve said before I’m not a paperclip person, but I knew I needed some to pop in this pocket!
The post it note pad at the back is from the same pack as the ones at the front and is perfect for quick scribbled notes. I knew I wanted to put something different at the back as I don’t have any actual notes pages in this planner.
Planning pages – monthly
As I said I’ve done things slightly differently this year and firstly you’ll notice I have monthly dividers. That’s because this planner will literally contain my monthly and weekly planning pages only. No sections for shopping lists or anything like that. There’s elements like trackers and budget planning that I’ve moved out of it’s own separate section and into my monthly planning, to make it easier to flick to.
The inserts I’m using are once again from the always amazing Just So Stationery. Kirsty made me some custom month on two page inserts with a dot grid either side. The intention is to use the dot grid pages for my goal planning and tracking for the month. I like to make a note of any to do’s for the upcoming month. These can vary in size from replacing the head on my electric tooth brush, to shop related goals.
Rather than having two separate monthly trackers, one for cleaning and one for selfcare, I’ve merged them into one. I’ve also added in a few things that are important to me and my goals this year – time for weekly crafting (nothing related to the shop) and proper reading time.
I’ve never been big on monthly planning but I do miss having an overview of my plans for the month. We’ll see how using this turns out! I do often see people’s pretty monthly spreads so maybe I’ll get some inspiration from there!
Budget planning
From there it’s onto my usual budget planning pages. The page on the left is something I’ve taken out since taking the pictures.
For those that may not have seen my budget planning post I have quite a simple technique. I fill in my income for the month and leave spaces for my Etsy payments to be filled out. Then go through and add in all my direct debits for the month. I then have four areas that fluctuate each month I set myself a budget for them each month. These areas are Etsy (post office runs etc), Food, Petrol and Kibble (everything else). These are then assigned a colour and on the following pages I track every single spend in those four areas throughout the month.
This has been working well for me now for well over a year and I’ve seen a positive impact on my savings. Writing down everything I spend is a massive eye opener and helps me question and challenge myself.
Weekly planning
Once again, I’ve got Just So Stationery inserts but this year I’ve gone with Erin Condren style boxes.
These inserts are from the ‘Painterly’ collection and are just beautiful. A nice touch of colour that won’t get in the way of any colourful sticker spreads. As I’m a big list maker these just work for me so much better than horizontal inserts. The boxes fit full box stickers so I can cover them up with a pretty sticker if I have a quiet day, or fill them up with lists. The extra few lines at the top have been great for writing appointments, or these like ‘pay day’. The size of the ‘notes’ area means I can also make a proper weekly to do list. I don’t always have set days I need to do things, so this is handy.
Second planner – Filofax Personal Patent Nude
This is the same planner I was using last year, but it’s had a bit of a makeover. It’s also gained a bit more to it as I try to streamline my planning.
It looks so much prettier now! I’ve some stickers and post its tucked in the main pocket so I can leave the outer pockets clear for pretty cards. Even the back pocket just has more pretty cards.
I haven’t taken many pictures of this as its use is still evolving. It also has some info I’d rather not share.
This planner has taken all of the bits kicked out of my main planner from last year (goal setting, lists) alongside all the things that were in it last year already (birthdays, meal planning etc). I’ve also added in a section for the shop and blog. This isn’t to completely take away from my Bubblegum Pink A5 Kikki K but just to move the more day to day things into a more accessible planner that can sit nicely on my desk.
Sections
The ‘girl boss’ section is the shop and blog section. Here I intend on keeping my ‘stickers to design’ list and my blog editorial calendar. At the front of this section I also have my 2017 goals/New Years Resolutions. I will probably do a post on those at a later date when I work out how to track progress on them.
The ‘birthdays’ section hasn’t changed from before. A perpetual calendar/month on two pages insert from Kikki K houses all my birthdays and anniversary’s. Behind that are planning pages for presents I try and make idea lists for people throughout the year.
‘Finance’ has the other finance bits from last year’s main planner that didn’t make it in this year. This is mainly savings account logging. I’ll also be moving completed budget planning sheets into there at the end of each month so I can flick through and track how I’ve done over the year.
‘Meal plan’ once again is the same as least year – it’s a list of meals I like to make and the ingredients needed to cook it. I use this as a reference when I’m doing the weekly shop.
‘Personal’ houses people’s addresses mainly and any other bits of info I’ve classify as personal.
The final section is ‘my lists’ and basically has everything else such as shopping lists, packing lists and general notes at the back.
Health and fitness planner
Last year I started using a Happy Planner to track health and fitness goals. As I’ve just bought it and it matches the two Filofaxes size-wise, I’ve decided to move this planning into my Mini Happy Planner.
How I’m tracking health and fitness hasn’t really changed from the classic Happy Planner I was using, so if you want to see how using it check out the post here.
Phew. What a run through! If there’s anything you’d like to see in a bit more detail let me know in the comments below. Otherwise, I’ll just follow up posts as and when anything changes. If you’ve done a 2017 setup post please drop the link below!
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