There are always planner tips for beginners. I’m always wanted to talk about the wonders of bullet journaling. I know that it’s not for everyone. Some people just like a planner that’s already all laid out for them and that’s okay. While having all your spreads set up from the start definitely makes things easier. But there are still some tips and tricks worth knowing that will make organizing your planner so much more efficient and effective. I’m going to show you them in this article.
1. Planner Tips for beginners: The power of the color pens.
Alright let’s go the first trick that I want to show you is super simple. Use colored pens when you’re working in your planner. You should assign your events and tasks categories and give each category a color. For me blue represents personal events, green is for school, orange is for extracurricular activities and red is for due dates and Bills. Once you figure out what colors you want to use for each event and task, you can just fill out your calendar using your colors.
For after-school activities you might have event or student meeting and for due dates you might have a French essay. Just write it all down making sure that you stick to your color code. So due dates can kind of fall into two categories. Because it’s a due date which I like to write new red because it really like pops. But it’s also for school because it’s a school assignment so to discern that a due date is for school. I like to write it in red and then draw a green box around it then you know that it’s a due date for school.
2. Use of sticky notes
This planner tip is very important and very creative. You know when you and your friends are talking about the possibility of going to see Black Panther on Friday but you’re not sure about it. You might want to go next weekend. It’s a little unclear, well the way to put a hold on that date without putting a permanent mark on your calendar, that you might have to like scribble out later is to use a post-it note. Simply take a post-it stick it on the date that your event might fall on and write down the event on top.
3. Try to use of washi tape
My third hack is one of my all-time favorite planner tips for beginners . It’s to use washi tape. I use washi tape to indicate when an event goes on for more than one day. For example, if I’m planning a four-day vacation to Hawaii with my family. All I have to do is take a long strip of washi tape and stick it down on the dates that I’ll be away on vacation at Hawaii. Then write down where you’ll be in big letters over the washi tape. And you won’t have to worry about not knowing when it starts and when it ends. The washi tape will do that for you.
4. Use little bit of digital form
Another trick that I find useful in my everyday life is my calendar app. When you’re running around and you’re on the go you don’t always have your planner on you or the tools to write down your tasks and events in the kind of way that you want to. So one way to ensure that you don’t forget about an event you agreed to go to is to mark it down in your calendar app of choice.
Let’s say that my friend told me in the car that I have a dentist appointment on the 5th but I’m in the car and I don’t have my agenda on me so I just took up my phone and wrote down when the dentist appointment is. Then every night I take a look at my phone to make sure that I don’t have any events there that I don’t have in my planner. If I do, I write it down in my planner.
5. Remember to remove sticky notes
Remember how we use that post-it to mark down that I might have talent-show call-backs, well when you find out that you made the call-backs, all you have to do is rip off that post-it and write it down permanently on your calendar. What’s so great about marking down your events in this way in your monthly overview is that once you do get to a particular week in your dailies, it’s so easy to look at your calendar and really know the spread of your tasks and events and what categories they fall under. And how long they’re gonna take and how serious they are to attend. It’s just also easy to see at a glance up until this point.
6. Planner tips for beginner – Use of stickers
Another planner tip for beginners is to use of stickers. For an example, let’s say I’ve been working in a start planner which has a ton of amazing features already built right into it, but I want to move into a simpler planner. If you’re in something a little more bare-bones, if you’re working in a super plain planner and you’re not very good at making your own check boxes or drawing and being super creative then a great hack for you is to print out super cute stickers.
All you have to do is buy some sticker printer paper. I got mine at Staples and then print out. After I printed out my stickers all I had to do was cut it peel it and stick it in my planner wherever I wanted it. I use the stickers to split my dailies and then use different colors on each day.
We have ton of free printable, feel free to check them out.
7. Always use to-do list
Another best planner tips for beginners is to use of to do list. I wrote my to-do list on the right. When you’re done with each task you have a cute little checkbox to check off. But if super cute printable checkbox stickers are not your thing you can keep it simple and just write down your tasks in a regular dashed list. And in that case, you can use highlighters to mark off your tasks when you’re done with them.
One thing that make sure your planner should have a place to kind of write down your running list of tasks but don’t really have a due date or a specific time attached to it. Just something you want to get done during the week. A great way to solve that problem and keep those tasks in your peripheral all week is to get a post-it notes and write them down on post-it note.
8. Planner tip: Have a folder on planner
My last hack addresses a huge issue that people run into when they realize they don’t have a folder in their planner. And that is to make your own folder. The way to do this is to get some simple construction paper and fold it in half. Once you fold it in half take the top right corner and fold it down diagonally then cut off the top right corner using the fold as your guide. Then all you do is tape the right and bottom edges together. Voila!!! you have a homemade folder but the question is how do you put it into your journal.
Have no fear a hole-punch is here using your planners binding as a guide take a pen and make a mark where you’ll need to punch holes in the side of your folder. Then punch out where you marked. Once you’re done punching your holes cut slits into each one of your punched holes. Once you’re done you’ll be able to use the slits to insert your folder in between your binding you can use your folder for a ton of different things.
I’m gonna put my cute little printable stickers inside of it and then if you want you can decorate your folder and make it look phone and cute.
That’s it. I hope this article makes planning out your life even more effective are there any planner hacks that you use that I didn’t mention in this article definitely drop them in the comments below because I want to read them all.