Planner Decorating for Beginners: Do it the Right Way

If you are not intentionally decorating your planner, you are doing it wrong. Planner decorating has become very popular during the last years, and its popularity keeps increasing over time.

But with so many beautiful stickers, washi tapes, and printables available, you have to be intentional when decorating your planner. After all, you want your planner to be cute, organized, and functional.

Here are the topics that I will cover:

Choose the right planner for you
The best layout for planner decorating
Why would you decorate the planner?
Be intentional with the decoration
The materials needed to decorate your planner
Get $10 off your purchase of your new planner (discount for you!)
Where to get pretty printables for planners
Planner Ideas: How to decorate your planner
It’s time to decorate your planner (+5 ideas)
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Choose the right planner for you: InkWell Press Planner

First, you need a good a planner that works for you.

I am a firm believer of planners because they are like your personal assistant that keeps everything from falling apart. I have tried many planners in the past with different sizes, layout, and styles. They were okay, but I have never been happier than with my current planner.

I chose the InkWell Press planner because it is more than a planner. It not only keeps your to-do lists, but it also helps you create your monthly goal, plan, and focus, in addition of tracking your habits, planning your week, and having plenty of space for notes. On top of that, you have access to helpful videos, free downloads, and podcast episodes that I absolutely enjoy and learn a ton.

Now, let’s talk about the ideal layout.

The best layout for planner decorating

No layer is better than another when it comes to planner decorating. You can create gorgeous pages with either one. What is important is to focus on a layout that works for you first. Then, decorate based on that layout.

Most of the planners that I used had a horizontal layout. But this time, I purposely chose the classic edition because of its vertical layout, since it matched better with my personality. And I am so glad I changed!

This vertical planner layout is:

easier to look at and picture your whole week at once
better to see repetitive tasks throughout the week
more organized, and as a result: better to plan and schedule additional tasks or activities

Another thing that I love about my planner, is the great amount of blank space on the weekly pages. All that space helps me to easily track different areas of my life on a regular basis. It also makes planner decorating easier since the planner can be customized in a way where I can be even more productive.

Quick Tip: if the vertical layout is sold out at the InkWell store, then try this store instead.

Why would you decorate the planner?

In my case, the purpose of decorating the planner is to be more productive, take a break, and regain energy.

Planner decorating gives me the opportunity to customize the planner in a way that works even better for me. I can create specific areas for different types of tasks. Having a plan, knowing what to do, and being organized, increases the productivity level.

Not sure if it’s just me, but planner decorating relaxes me. It could be the creativity part involved or the fact that I rarely take a break, but that’s something I enjoy doing. When I see the end results.

Getting my weeks all decorated and customized helps me regain energy. Because when I open the planner every Monday it is like tricking my brain to a fresh start with the new decoration.

One additional tip before moving on to the next section. It might get too overwhelming to decorate your planner every week. It’s better to set aside some time when you can decorate several weeks or even months at a time.

If you need to add an event to a week that has not been decorated yet, just add a post-it note to that week with all the information about the event. That way, you won’t forget to add it to your schedule later.

Be intentional with the decoration

You probably bought your planner to stay on top of things, increase productivity, or be more organized.

But, why decorate your planner?

It’s okay to make your planner look pretty and to make it your own. But, don’t forget to keep your planner functional. There are so many beautiful stickers for planners out there, that it wouldn’t be hard to find yourself adding extra stickers to the pages.

The classic InkWell Press planner is already great in the way it comes. Each day gives enough space to create a long to-do list for all the tasks to complete. It also has three boxes at the bottom which are perfect for key information such as the daily top three goals, daily meal planning, and a bills reminder.

The problem is that I needed more than that and it had to be organized in a different way. That’s why you must be intentional when decorating your planner.

First, think of what you want to achieve with your planner. In my case, I decorate my planner not only to make it prettier but to make myself more productive too. Then, identify what you want to track on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Don’t worry, I will give you some ideas in a moment.

The materials needed to decorate your planner

You don’t really need to spend a lot of money or use too many materials to make your planner look cute. I pretty much use the same type of materials every time I decorate the planner.

Here is the list of materials I used:

Plastic stencil or you can get over 1200 patterns here
Mint washi tapes and salmon washi tape {most of the time, I use thin washi tapes}
Glue sticks – I use the purple glue stick but there’s one for crafts
Black pen
Colored Pencils
Glue runner

Those are also the most common materials used for planner decorating.

Where to get pretty printables for planners

The beauty of planner decorating is that it gives you different options.

My top resources are:

Value pack stickers – Even though I am using an InkWell planner, I normally use the Happy planner value pack stickers, especially the mom life and the productivity stickers. There are different value packs to choose from including stickers for fitness, faith, menu, and even checklists. There are so many value packs available that I don’t blame you if you can’t decide which one to choose. But if it helps, there’s a value pack with basic stickers to get you started.
Free Printables – By conducting a quick search on Pinterest, you will be able to find a lot of planner stickers that are gorgeous and free, which is exactly what I did for this blog post. To get the same printable that I used, head over Free Pretty Things for You to download it. There, you have the choice to download the printable created for the Erin Condren (EC) planner or for the Happy Planner. This time, I used the one for the Happy Planner because their rectangles are bigger and this time, I wanted to cover most of the boxes at the bottom of my planner.

How to print those printables for planners at home:

Sticker Paper – You can print your printables on a sticker paper. In this case, you just have to cut the shapes and tape them to the planner.
Cardstock paper – This is the method I use. After printing it on cardstock paper, cut the desired shapes, and glue them to your planner using a glue stick or glue runner. Some people also use the Xyron sticker maker even though, I haven’t used it myself.
Printer – You don’t need a specific printer. I use an inkjet printer and adjust its print quality settings to normal or best.

Planner Ideas: How to decorate your planner

The InkWell Press planner is already pretty and neat but we can still make it prettier, and more functional.

So, let’s go over each planner section…

Planner decorating makes it easy to create sections that tackle different areas of your life:

Daily Appointments – That’s where the magic happens. Most of my activities occur between 7 am to 5 pm. But, whenever I have something outside those hours, I adjust the schedule for that day. I prefer to modify only a few days per year, rather than “permanently” adding those hours to the schedule and having them empty 80% of the time. Writing the schedule doesn’t take too long but if you still want a faster way, I am pretty sure there’s a sticker for that! 😊
To-do Lists – A space to write home-related tasks such as laundry, cleaning, buy groceries, make a doctor appointment, buy a birthday gift, or get something for the kids.
Business Tasks – Here is where all the business related tasks go. Tasks such as writing a new blog post, scheduling on social media, or even creating new products for the shop.
Weekly Goals – Those important goals that I need to complete that week. I normally use it as is.
Notes Column – It’s the space for any note that I need to keep handy.
Weekly Gratitude – A way to not forget the wonderful things that happened during that week.
Notes for next week – Any activity, event, or appointment that comes up and needs to be added for the following week.
Saturday and Sunday appointments – InkWell provides you with the same amount of space for each day of the week. Since that’s too much space for my weekend activities, I prefer to combine both days in one column and use the extra column as a Notes column.

Using planner decorating in the right way, let’s you be more organized and productive.

Daily top three goals section

The top three goals are those that must be completed each day without excuse.

This planner has already created several sections for you including the three boxes at the bottom. Even though I gave you the idea of using them for your top three goals, meal planning, and bill reminders, you can also use them for all kind of combinations such as home, meal, and fitness or home, kids, and church.

Other useful ideas are evening events, kid’s activities, after-school activities, family events, date nights, movie nights, or self-development. The best part is that you can add tiny stickers to each area to quickly identify them.

The planning ideas are endless!

It’s time to decorate your planner

You are now officially ready to jump into planner decorating with a better idea (or ideas) on how to decorate your planner, in an easy but functional way. Have more ideas? Share them with us in the comments section.

Before you go…

5 planner decoration printable ideas to help you get started:

Bundle #1 – includes a full year of weekly view stickers
Bundle #2 – an editable twelve-month bundle of half-box checklists
Bundle #3 – twelve colorful sheets of stickers
Bundle #4 – plan your days with these weather icon stickers
Bundle #5 – 70+ sheets full of stickers for many occasions

Have fun! 😀