Today I wanted to share my weekly planning tools with you. Planning is quite a unique and personal thing and I think everyone needs different things to feel organsied. I have certain favourites which are always close by and they make my weekly planning more enjoyable. The list starts off with my planner. As I have mentioned in the past it's similar to a Filofax and I found it at Typo. I really enjoy using it as it's pretty and holds everything together. I have also tucked a Moleskine notebook in the back, so I take the planner to meetings / consulting sessions and check dates / make notes. Each Monday I decorate the pages for the week ahead. I keep it simple and use washi tape and a few sticky notes or stickers to add detail. What you will see in the photo above is my 'dashboard' (Filofax lingo) which houses a few notes for marking pages or to add memos.
Here are all the items that I use during my weekly planning:
Washi Tape: I use this to add colour and fun to my planner pages. It also reinforces the pages so that they don't tear over the punched holes.
Sticky Notes: These are useful for quick notes or for a bit of decoration. There are so many really pretty ones (for example) - although the selection is still quite limited in SA. (CNA often has cute ones in sets.)
Frixion Pens: These are the best pens ever - I bought them at CNA, but Waltons also stock them. They are fantastic because I can erase any errors or move tasks around. I use the pink for work related tasks and the purple for personal notes like grocery shopping, yoga etc.
Ruler: My lines have to be straight and I use it to cross out tasks as I go through the day.
Highlighter: This yellow one is from Muji and it works well because the ink isn't too runny. That might sound silly, but I am prone to smudging highlighter down the page. I highlight my most urgent tasks so that I can tackle them first.
One Hole Punch: Once I have washi taped the planner pages I repunch the holes. This handy tool comes from Waltons and works for crafting too. I decorate all my pages and then punch them in one go to save time (and sanity).
Scissors: Quite simply to cut tape with. I find that it's the ugliest scissors that work best, so although I photographed this pretty pair, I actually use a big pair with rather ugly blue handles. It cuts smoothly and if you are like me you will understand the right scissors make all the difference (weird I know).
Pouch / Washi / Stickers: I re-purposed this pouch from some make-up brushes I bought. It holds a washi tape sampler from a penpal, a few stickers and some extra notes. It fits neatly into the front of my planner. The sampler has come in handy before as I had a gift to package, but was far from home. The stickers mark recurring dates in my month at a glance pages and the notes are just for extra to do's.
Paper Clip: This humble, minty paper clip holds pages together when I punch them. Simple, but it makes life easier.
Stick It Glue: This little device is amazing! You pull / roll it along a page or piece of paper and it adds small sticky, double sided dots onto the sheet. Perfect for sticking down notes. It's secure, but notes can be moved if you only use a few dots. I found this at CNA and they sell refills too, both are fairly inexpensive and start at about R39 (if I'm not mistaken). I highly recommend this for crafts or planning.
There are a few other elements to my planning, but I thought I would save that for another post. I hope you enjoyed this - please let me know what some of your essentials or recommendations are...