Using a Personal Planner to Organize Your Everyday!

There’s something about becoming a mother that sort of disrupts any skills you had being structured or organized. Well, that’s the case for me at least and some other moms I know.

There are mothers who are pros at continuing to stay on top of things and schedules like my super mom sister from And Then She Said. Especially since we just moved apartments and our life is changing in so many ways from the environment, facilities in our complex and most importantly my son starting pre-school this week.

For me, on the other hand, I found that over the last 5 years I became more and more disorganized as time went by and as my kids grew. I still find myself just going through my unplanned or sometimes even planned days not knowing what to do next or just winging it based on my kid’s moods. After having 2 children and starting this blog late last year I decided enough was enough.

I knew I needed something to keep my day grounded and so I came across the Happy Personal Planner in Costco and purchased it. It was colorful, had loads of pens and stickers and sayings and I was mesmerized.

It felt like this was what was going to change my life in 2017 so I quickly grabbed it! Come 2017, I procrastinated using it as it was just so intimidating. The washi tape, the way the days were structured on the daily planner and just how bulky the personal planner was in general.

Don’t get me wrong it’s GORGEOUS! And there are thousands out there who love it but I quickly came to realize it wasn’t for me. I started to research, I wanted something that would change everything for me, I looked at personal growth planners and mom planners. Many of which are pretty pricey starting at $50-$60. I really didn’t want to spend that much and come May 2017 I was still using my notebook to create my to-do lists.

My sister then again suggested the Personal Planner. She had actually told me about it in December last year but the way she described the “customization” put me off and I never looked into it. So I started looking into it and watching some Youtube Videos/Reviews and it looked super simple.

It might take a day to set up but that’s what I was going to have to do with my Happy Planner on a weekly basis! So this was really appealing considering most of the customization could be done prior to the diary being printed (especially for me!).

I quickly created my own planner and below I will show you how easy it was to set up and how I have used it so far.

Personal Planner Size & Cover

To Start, you will need to pick your preferred size and start a month. I picked the A5 size and its perfect to carry around and also fit into a pouch or smaller purse and into my Fawn Design diaper bag. You can see a video of how it fits in my bag here.

Next thing you will need is a nice cover page that you can design yourself (or on Canva) or buy off Etsy. I chose to purchase one on Etsy so I can keep it for continued use. I purchased mine from

Next thing you will need is a nice cover page that you can design yourself (or on Canva) or buy off Etsy. I chose to purchase one on Etsy so I can keep it for continued use. I purchased mine from Printable Beauty Art which is an Etsy shop based out of Greece!

Personal Planner Layout & Design

The Personal planner is so awesome you can pick the language you prefer! I chose English of Course.

Next is the writing space. The first thing to pick is a layout. You can choose from blank columns, blank rows with the weekdays having more space, blank rows with an equal distribution of rows across all days or lastly cubes for each day.

I chose the first option and picked it to be ruled across the whole page to organize my lines/size of my writing. It is a little small to write in if you have a thick pen so I would suggest using a thin pen tip and it works great.

You can also choose to have your lines striped with a choice of 5 colors. I quite liked this because it helped kind of separate each line rather than having each look the same.

Next, you can choose a ruler which I found can be really useful especially if you don’t have a ruled page. My favorite part of the writing space is the choice to have a “timetable” in each day column/row. I chose to have this so I can schedule my day more effectively.

I chose to have the timetable on half the column so that I can use the remaining blank part of the column to add random notes/lists. It works quite well for me as I don’t use the timetables regularly so I have the choice to use the blank lines.

Daily Details

Here you are able to customize your daily columns/rows with the weather, work, and workout info. I chose to have work in there so I can set a time for work since I am a work-from-home mother. It baffles me why anyone would need the weather in there, but who knows, maybe it helps plan days or people involved in weather type work?

For the other options, I picked this weeks dinners so I can meal plan and it’s super helpful when you need to create a grocery list. I also picked list of the week with 10 to items to add to the list. I am currently using this to add items to get for the new apartment that we just moved to. On the right page of the daily layout, I add “to do” and I can mark complete or not track my progress.

 

 

Personal Dates

This is one of my favorite features of the personal planner. This section allows you to enter any number of birthdays, anniversaries, special days, etc on the calendar.

This is what really really makes it personal to you. This is probably the only time-consuming part in the setting up of the personal planner but it’s worth it in the end.

Theme for Spread

This part allows you to pick a theme for your header and accordingly changes the colors of your lines dividing the days.

Lastly, we have 3 more customization options for 3 sections at the bottom of the page which is another one of my favorite features. For each, you can pick from things like to do list, meal planning, Preschool Scheduling, etc. I chose to have a meal planning section, list, and a to-do list.

All pages in the personal planner will have a tiny monthly preview in the right corner.

Back Pages

You are almost done now and you can customize your back pages too! Here you can pick from having a monthly overview before each month, yearly overviews at the back, a coloring book!!!, maps, Sudoku and a bunch of different options for writing pages.

Teachers can even pick their very own teach pages which shows the class list, test results, absences, telephone numbers and schedule of classes! I picked a Month Overview, 2018 Year Overview, some ruled pages and coloring pages which my kids have already started to draw on!

 

 

 

 

 

The last customization is to add your personal information to the back. I was inspired by And Then She Said and added a Dua’a (Prayer) along with my phone and email.

 

The personal planner takes about 3-4 weeks to print, and ship from Sweden so it’s always best to order ahead of the time you need to start using it. It normally comes with about 5-7 days prior to the month you choose.

The pens I have pictured were useful for this personal planner because you can erase anything you right. Yes, you can erase just like a pencil eraser! This was the coolest thing I found 🙂

 

The team from Personal Planner has been kind enough to offer 1 FREE Planner to our following! In order to enter please visit this link and follow the rules mentioned. 

 

Disclaimer: I received a free A5 Planner from Personal Planner in exchange for writing for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and not influenced by the developing company or affiliates in any way.