Hello everyone and welcome to the Planner – Stay Focused Blog Hop! Now I warn you this is a very photo heavy post! However, I’d definitely put myself in the ‘planner nerd’ category so I guess it’s one of those occasions where I will say ‘bear with me’ :D Firstly before you scroll down let me apologise about my handwriting, I so wish I had lovely handwriting! Secondly, I use my planner to plan, not to decorate per se. For me a planner is a tool and as such this post isn’t as ‘pretty’ as it could be but I’ve tried to keep it real and only excluded personal information etc. This is what I actually do and it helps me, maybe it will help you. So let’s get started! I’ve previously posted about my planner; I have the Midori Traveler’s Notebook and I love it!

I use the undated Free Diary with Weekly Notes for my planning and this is what a fresh page looks like.

There is a weekly plan on the left and a grid page on the right. The weekly plan has small tick marks so that the page can be used as two columns. I also add pencil ticks in a similar fashion to the right graph page so that I can use that in a two column format also. On a Sunday I sit down and plan for the coming week and I’ve been delighted to include some of the new Planner – Stay Focused line from Waffle Flower into that layout for the last couple of weeks. Here’s how it looks:

I did wonder, if the Midori would be big enough for me as I previously used an A5 planner, but setting it out this way and it really does all fit in neatly! Firstly I use the Calendar set to stamp out the months, then I write in the dates. I write in a different colour any birthdays for the week:

Next I use the ‘day’ and ‘night’ labels from the Planner Stay Focused set to show that the left column of the diary is for events and appointments from the morning and during the school day and that the right side is for after school activities etc.

Having split the right page into two columns I use the ‘blog’ and ‘personal’ labels from Planner Stay Focused to delineate my to do lists for each day. On both the left and right page I use one of the small box stamps which comes in a set of three, but I use just one to stamp out grey boxes for appointments and to dos. Then I use the little tick stamp to mark off when something has been done :D If I fail to achieve something on a set day I draw a horizontal arrow through the check box and write the item down for the following day. Below you can also see how I use the addition space at the top of the graph page to write a couple of to dos which don’t have to be done on a specific date or are more ‘ongoing’ projects. I also use the ‘blog’ label to stamp when I have a blog post to be published. I like to post 3.-4 times a week and try to plan when these will occur, however, the week you see in these photos was heavily weighted to blog posts at the end of the week and in fact I posted nine times during the week!

There are some add ons to the new stamp sets; I used the Planner Add-On Weather 1 to mark the forecast for Sunday’s weather when I was hoping to organise a day trip. I wouldn’t stamp the forecast out every day, but when an activity is weather dependant it’s handy to know what the weather might do :D

I use the speech bubble from Planner Stay Focused to highlight a couple of items within the week and I’ve also found it handy to stamp the memo boxes from the same set onto sticky notes and cut around them to adhere to the week. I’ve done this to highlight calls and emails I need to remember to do but which aren’t so time dependant.

So there you have it my planner set up! Simple, straight forward but it works for me :D In the words of Nina herself “…. hope that planning can become part of your life if it is not already. No matter how you organise your life, we hope you can find or make something that will work for you to makes things go even smoother.”

GIVEAWAY

Now the fun part for you! By leaving a comment on this blog you will become eligible to win the Grand Prize of all 5 of the new planner sets from Waffle Flower! The winner will be drawn from comments left on all the blogs in the hop and announced on the Waffle Flower blog on Friday, October 10. Not only that but I will draw a winner from comments left on this blog to win one of the new planner sets :D Please leave comments by 11.59 pm EST on Thursday 09 October.

As I’m the last stop on the hop it’s now time to hop on over to the

Waffle Flower Blog!

SUPPLIES

You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or wording to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support.

InLinkz.com

Planner – Midori Traveler’s Notebook; Diary Insert – 019 Free Diary with Weekly Notes; Stamps – Waffle Flower planner stay focused, calendar, planner add-on weather 1; Pens – Pilot frixion