2016 Planner Review/2017 Planner Setup

Welcome to the first Planner Girls Collective (formerly Confessions of a Plannerholic) post of 2017. This week’s post is all about reviewing our planners for 2016 (what worked, what didn’t) as well as looking forward to 2017.

At the beginning of last year I was happily planning away in my square moleskine notebook, which I was using as a bullet journal. This worked really well for me until around August when the school holidays found me completely losing my planning mojo and to be honest, despite several different bullet journal setups , I never really found it again.

What I did find though while reviewing my options was the world of Traveller’s Notebooks/Fauxdori’s and became a little obsessed (I now own 5 in various materials, sizes etc) and have decided that this will be the way forward for me in 2017.

I love the flexibility of the Travellers Notebooks as you can add and remove the inserts to suit your needs at any given time.

My set up is still a bit of a work in progress but here’s what I’m using at the minute. I have decided to stick with bullet journalling and am currently using my new Uglydori from the fabulous Michelle Mills (and Trevor) over at UglyBugPlans.

Inside I have 3 large squared moleskine cahier notebooks which make up my bullet journal – one is for my overall monthly/weekly/daily planning, one contains short term collections (next 12 months goals/projects) and one for longer term collections (projects/goals likely to take longer than 12 months) . I know this isn’t the conventional way to bullet journal, but one of the things that deterred me previously was having to transfer collections every time I finished a notebook.

I also have a week on one page with notes from Travelers Times which I think will be used as an on the go blog planner (although I’m still playing with this setup).

In addition to my Uglydori I am also using a 5-year memory book, my Attitude of Gratitude Daily Journal and my Weekly Reflections Journal, all of which were Christmas gifts from my family (they know me so well!)

I will be trialling this set up throughout January and will let you know how I get on and what changes, if any, have been made.

I’m still working on what other planners/notebooks I will be using but I’m pretty sure there will be some additional of memory keeping in there as well as some creative notebooks, all will be revealed when I’ve made my mind up!

Don’t forget to check out the other awesome ladies and their blogs/vlogs via links below and see what changes they have made from last year’s set ups.

• Emma-Louise Smith at The Stationery Geekette
• Kelly Vizma at A Beautiful Plan 
• Michelle Mills at UglyBugPlans
• Louise Parkinson at The Vintage Planner
• Rebecca Slaughter at Rebecca Project Life
• Zoe Gut at zzz0eee
• Suzanne Tench at PlannerMontanah
• Gemma Bray at An Ocean Glimmer
• Kerry May at Kerry May Makes
• Alyson Duncan at A Life Lived in Words
• Stephanie Kaye at A Ska Loving Geek
• Rebecca Rice-Roberts at Becster.com
• Neringute Abbas at The Royal Planner Blog
• Hannah Smith at Plan With Hannah

Make sure you don’t miss any instalments from the Planner Girls Collective by joining our Facebook Group

Debbie x

Autumn Planner Set-Up – Confessions of a Plannerholic

Welcome to my second post of the Confessions of a Plannerholic series. This week we are sharing with you our autumnal planner setup which for me is currently in transition, and therefore not very seasonal with regard to decoration etc, as I have decided to move away from my trusty bullet journal after nearly 2 years and into a ring bound planner using using DIYFish inserts.

Last week I had the hair-brained idea to ditch my bullet journal and purchased a trial of the v2.2 do2p inserts from DIYFish on Etsy which I had previously used before I started my bullet journal, and was originally planning to use them from the beginning of October. However patience is not one of my strong suits when it comes to planners and last night I decided to try and adapt the inserts so I could start using them from the beginning of this week. I had seen a post on Facebook suggesting printing out December’s inserts as the day/dates correspond to September and that’s pretty much what I did with a couple of tweaks here and there to save paper and some stickers and washi tape to cover any reference to December.

I have got to say that I really love these inserts as there is so much space to write and plan and it’s open to personal interpretation as to what you use it for (although some people have mentioned that there can be too much space). That said I’m not completely sure how I’m going to use my pages this time around as I’m hoping to incorporate some of the aspect of bullet journaling into my set up as well as my GTD lists once I finally get my system up and running, therefore at the minute it will be a work in progress but I’m hoping that over the next two weeks I may have perfected it enough to be productive for the rest of the year. I’ve got some ideas in the pipeline for the spaces but until I actually start using my new set up I’m not sure what will work and what won’t as there have been some changes since the last set of inserts I used.

One thing I have already decided is that I need more stickers. I have an Etsy basket full of stickers and I have also decided to attempt some of my own as I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for from UK suppliers  although I’m not looking forward to cutting them out.

My Zone Cleaning Stickers – a work in progress

I Love Autumn stickers from A Beautiful Plan

My only complaint at the minute is that I’m not overly happy with is my choice of binder (I’m currently lusting after an ochre or purple Malden) but lack of funds means I’m having to make do with whatever I have to hand so I have re-purposed my home binder until the planner fairies bring me something better.

I will post an update in a couple of weeks to let you know how I’m getting on with my new set up and also to go over the inserts in a little more detail once I’ve fully moved in but in the meantime here are a few photos showing my current setup.

I’m must admit I’m really looking forward to using my new setup and incorporating some decoration into my pages again as I didn’t use stickers very much in my bullet journal.

Don’t forget this is a collaborative post so please check out the other awesome ladies and their blogs/vlogs via links below

• Emma-Louise Smith at The Stationery Geekette
• Kelly Vizma at A Beautiful Plan 
• Michelle Mills at UglyBugDoes
• Louise Parkinson at Best Laid Plans
• Jo Wight at Pennygate Crafts
• Sally Bartlett at SallyAnnMade
• Hannah Smith at Plan With Hannah
• Hannah Saadat Jones at Pineapple and Button
• Stephanie Kaye at A Ska Loving Geek

Make sure you don’t miss any instalments from Confessions of a Plannerholic by joining our Facebook Group

Debbie x