Simplified Planner
Prior to this year, I have been using “The Happy Planner” (2018 and 2019). I have used it for many, many years. However, I started following Emily Ley about two years ago. I became really intrigued with her planners and how pretty they were and their size. Earlier this year, she offered her teacher planners for only $10 so I bought one to use starting in March until July. I really fell in love with the quality of this planner and ended up deciding to purchase one during the launch back in April.
I bought the daily pink pinstripe planner. It came in such a cute sturdy box. The planner itself was a bit smaller than I expected, but I think that will work perfectly for fitting in my purse. The paper was a bit thinner than the paper in the teacher planner, but I don’t foresee that being a real issue. I also bought quite a few accessories. I bought the Happy Floral notebook, Happy Floral bookmark, pink and blue stretchy bands, and the tall weekly notepad. I also bought a different planner for meal planning that I will share later this week.
So I have a pack of Pilot G2 gel pens in a variety of colors (see the first picture below). My intention was to use that this year. But this year is full of so much uncertainty, I am afraid of writing in pen. So first I ordered some erasable colored penciled. I wrote with those and even made a color coding chart using them. But honestly, I didn’t love them. I read about the Pilot FriXion Erasable pens from the Simplified Sisterhood Facebook group. So I bought those. And so far I love them. And they erase quite well. I also made a new color code chart (you can see below).
Following Emily Ley’s advice, I made a perpetual calendar. I used her free printable first, but it was too big, and it didn’t have enough space at the same time. So I made my own, printed it, and laminated it.
Next I followed all of the prep work in the beginning of the planner. I won’t go into all the details of it, but you can see what I did below. For the new routines, I used my erasable pen because I am really not sure how this school year will go for Melody. So I wanted to be able to change up the daily routines as I see fit during the year.
I also completed the yearly bucket list, and I will likely add to it as the year progresses. I don’t love that the “check” box is on the right though.
Right now I am doing just one month at a time. I did go ahead and enter the items from my perpetual calendar in all of the months, but things such as school, Dr. appointments, dance, bills, I plan to write down on a monthly basis. I will likely do this the last weekend of each month until things seem to be back to whatever our new normal is. I decided to use the notes section for key things I want to accomplish this month.
Below you can find my first daily entries. I am sure this will adjust some as my days continue and become more structured when Melody is back to school.
