Hey everyone!

Today I’m going to be sharing with you my planner journey. I love looking at other people’s planners and wanted to give you all an inside look into mine.

I’ve gone through quite a few planners this year. It’s my first year in college so I was just trying to find what works best for me.

These the three planners I’ve used. I started with one from Target, then bought a Daytimer Flavia at Office Depot, and then a Moleskine from Barnes and Noble.

THE TARGET PLANNER

I got this planner from Target at the beginning of the school year, in July I think. It was unique because it’s actually bound on the short end. Even though I really didn’t like the pattern of the cover the inside had a great place for list making and I decided I’d give it a go.

The monthly view had the month on one side and a list for do, call, and buy on the right hand side. I liked this but struggled at first with what I wanted to do with the list side. Each month is tabbed on the side.

This was the weekly view that came right after the monthly. I loved that it gave me a list form so that I could make a to do list if I wanted, or just things that were happening or due that day. I loved that I could decorate if I wanted and tape things in as I was just starting to experiment with wash tape at this point.

This planner didn’t really satisfy me, though. It wasn’t very pretty and I’d been watching a ton of planner videos on youtube and wanted more of a Filofax style planner so I could really make my planner my own. (I was drooling or the Filo fleuro patent original)

THE DAYTIMER

(FILOFAX STYLE)

So one day when I was browsing Office Depot, which I frequently do, I was looking at planners. I found the Franklin Covey/DayTimer section and decided I wanted to buy one and so I started flipping through them and eventually settled on the A4 size Flavia.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the inserts it came with but made do with them for a little bit because I didn’t want to spend money on the generic inserts that I didn’t like much either. The monthly view that came with it did stay the whole time I used this binder.

 

The inserts were much too floral for me so I covered them up with washi tape and stickers where I could. I loved using this monthly view for writing and easily being able to see when my assignments were due, especially when I started using day on a page printables and didn’t have a weekly view to look ahead on.

These beautiful day on a page inserts I first saw in a video from My Planner. I went on Etsy and ordered them from RogueCrusade . I absolutely loved them and kind of followed the way My Planner used them. It gave me a place to track my water,and was very minimalistic but had a place for everything. I made a to do list for everyday and on the bottom wrote things that were coming up the next day or later.

 

Printing out cute designs really helped to make my binder a little prettier at this point.

I just searched free printable and got some ideas from my pinterest planner board that I’d built up.

I put some sticky notes on the flyleaf that came with it to create my dashboard. The dividers you see are just Avery brand and you kind find them at Target or any office supply store.

This binder was great and I loved it! But something just wasn’t right. I’d been seeing a lot of things about bullet journals around so I went and checked out the website with the original video and looked them up on Pinterest. I fell in love and went and got a moleskine from Barnes and Noble.

THE MOLESKINE

The Index on the first page is set up just like the original creator suggested but I left the page behind it blank.

I stuck a sticky note there just for quick things I didn’t have time to flip to a specific page for and then created a year at a glance. I simply drew this in by hand using a ruler and circled the birthdays throughout the year in pink so I could see when one was coming up. It ended up looking exactly how I was wanting it to.

I then created the month at a glance as suggested in the original video and a monthly goal sheet. Having the monthly view to keep track of tasks is nice, although I do miss the little squares. I think I might draw my own for next month. I’ve also started decorating these two pages more and making them more my style.

I then have the pages after that for my days where I just make a list of things to do and that are happening that day. For this I generally just follow the rules from the original bullet journal post.

Some days are prettier than others, it depends on how much time I have to plan out my day either the night before or in the morning.

In between these pages, whenever I want really, I’ll put in a list or notes or whatever else I need to put in there and it’s still easy to find because of the index. I love my bullet journal, it really works for me. I would like to use the system in a Filofax just so I could take pages out and arrange them and carry around extra things in sections to make it a little more organized and be able to personalize it more.

As for the Flavia, it was just a little too big to carry around. I plan on turning it into a blogging binder today actually and keeping it on my desk.

That’s all for my planner journey! I know it was a long post but I really wanted to share with you all of the types of planners I’ve used since I feel they fall into the big three types people use. Now you know how I used them and what did and didn’t work for me in each. Hopefully it helps you find your planner peace.

Leave a comment below and tell me which type of planner you use and why you love it!

Be on the look out for another post soon!

Love,

Emily

*All opinions are my own. I wasn’t sponsored by any company, I just want to show you guys where I got my ideas from and places you can go to get the things I loved most.