Decorating my planner pages

I’ll preface this post by saying that I love my planner. Despite all of the technology available to me, I still prefer to use pen and paper to plan my week and record my days. Of course, for a while I tried to use my phone and my email calendar but I found that I often fell out of the habit of using them. Then I realised that it was because there was nothing special about them, nothing to make me notice them or want to use them. I got over my embarrassment at not being tech-savvy and instead embraced washi tape, scented pens, stickers and cute paperclips. Each weekend I look forward to spending 5 minutes decorating my planner for the week ahead. And if that sounds childish… maybe it is. But it makes me happy and keeps me organised!

That confession aside, I thought I’d share with you how I organise my planner for the week ahead. My planner is a Filofax Metropol in the ‘personal’ size and, as I have previously mentioned- I love it! The Metropol is a bit of an oddball in the Filofax world because it is made of PU rather than leather but since mine is sharing handbag space with juicebottles and hairbrushes, that is a good thing!

Things I use: Washi tape, pens, single-hole punch, scissors, stickers, paperclips.

I remove all the little loose bits and open up the week ahead. There may already be some things marked that I have known about for a while. I choose my washi tape and where I am going to put it. For this layout I am going to put the washi down the centre (see pics at the bottom of this post for other layouts).

Once the washi tape is on, I use the holepunch to punch the holes. If you’re worried about the punched washi tape sticking, you can dust it with chalk first. However, I have rarely had a problem with the washi sticking and in fact I sometimes punch stickers out of the washitape (see pic at bottom of page)

Repeat with the other page.

Then I add in my appointments for each day. Unlike some Filofax enthusiasts, I don’t have a colour-code for different categories of appointments but I like to try and keep the colours co-ordinated at this point (although later on I’ll add things in with whatever colour pen I have on hand). I’ll also add in our menu plan if I know what we’re having.

When I have something that needs to be done that week but not on a specific day, I write it on a stickynote so it can move from day to day.

Then I add my stickers/decorations and put all the loose bits back in (bookmark/ruler and cleaning checklist). Now I have another little confession- I took the above pictures ahead of time so the days are not quite as 'full' as they might be. 

And below are some of the other ways I use the washi tape- in the first picture I have used the washi tape at the top and bottom of the pages and in the second picture I have used the washi tape at the bottom and then punched washi stickers to place at the top. 

Laura xx

P.S- do you think I like argyle much? ;o)