Planners and Bujos!

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Hello!

   In today's post I'm going to talk about an old hobby and a new hobby. I've been using a planner for two years now, all of them the medium Happy Planner. I've only been using a bullet journal since the beginning of 2018.

   I originally got into planners thanks to some Youtube videos and having the need to be organized. I'm naturally an extremely organized person, and I felt my personal and work life could only benefit from having a planner. I also love crafting, so I use my planner to get as creative as I can. 

ACOMAF sticker is from Redbubble, it can be found here.

  My method of decorating my planner is pretty low-cost compared to some. I don't buy kits from Etsy, just because I feel long term that it can be expensive and limiting as far as setting up layouts. I instead use washi tape, craft paper, and an array of stickers you can find at Michaels, Joann's, Hobby Lobby, or any other craft store. 

"The Night Court" spiral notebook with graph paper.

   I've carried some of those materials into my bullet journal as well. The journal I'm using this year I purchased from Redbubble. It is inspired by Sarah J. Maas's novel, A Court of Mist and Fury. If you'd like to purchase your own, I'll have it linked here. So far I really like the graph style of paper, however I think my next notebook I may go unlined.

   Although it may seem like over-kill to have a planner and a bullet journal, I use them for two different things. My planner is meant for well.... planning. Whats going on that week, month, etc. My BuJo I use for long term goals, ideas, and much more fluid plans.

  

  This is a general overview of the Month view. This is probably the part of the planner I use the most, but I do appreciate the week layout as well. I use a lot of stickers, sometimes I'll use washi on these pages.

  Weekly layouts is where I spent the most time being creative. Due to how busy I tend to get, I've started allocating at least 2 hours a month and I set up the weekly layouts at one time for each month. This means I have to carry my stickers with me, usually only to work. In the bottom left I usually constantly have a Hydration tracker for the week, they can be any array of stickers I happen to have. I try to track my steps on just my Mondays since during the week is when I get the least amount of physical activity and weight for Sundays because typically I'm better at remember to hop on the scale on weekends. The colorful paper is from different collections I pick up at any craft store, usually in a pack. I'll pick up washi tape at Michaels since they're constantly having coupons or on amazon. Occasionally I will grab some washi from Target dollar spot, however those rolls are the thinnest.

  My stickers are a huge variety, I've used the create 365 which are my favorite and the Recollections brand from Michaels. Since Michaels is constantly having sales on their Recollections brand, I'll usually grab these anytime I go to Michaels for other stuff. I also dig through the clearance section at Michaels as well because sometimes you'll find stickers like these for clearance. 

  

  I will also grab some general stickers and plug them into a month like these super adorable llama stickers I found at Walmart.

  As far as pens, I've used an array and I don't think you need specific pens it's all personal preference. These colored pens are the ones I typically keep with my planner in this planner insert pouch I picked up at Michaels. These ones are super fine point, however I would be careful since they do bleed through, especially thinner pages. I haven't had this problem as much in my planner with the thickness of the pages, and it does bleed through standard printer paper, but nearly as much as in my BuJo. To be fair, the redbubble notebook does have thin pages so just keep that in mind.

  I'll probably continue to do posts on my Bullet Journal and planner, but right now is just a standard post of how I set up my planner and what I use it for. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to help.

Thanks for reading!

Rachel