I thought I would do something a little different. I recently got into planning, not the glam planning you see on YouTube, but just regular planning. So for this post, like the title says, is going to be a look inside my planner. The extent of my decorating comes in the form of washi tape. For my planner I use an M by Staples Arc or Discbound Notebook. What I love about the notebook is how easy it is to customize, how compact it is, and how perfect it is for what I need it for.
I have the Junior Arc Notebook with a really pretty floral print on the cover, and I also use the larger discs. The notebook came with notebook paper, and my gel pens do not bleed through. I love the notebook pages for drafting blog posts and writing down ideas.
I made my own cover page with card stock paper and washi tape.
I bought my blog planner pages from Jessica Marie Designs Etsy Shop The Preppy Greek. 
I printed the pages on card stock, however card stock is too heavy and bulky for the notebook. I recently bought 28lb paper from Staples that will work beautifully when I need to print more pages. Most likely my pages won’t stay like this, I will be moving the Weekly pages over to the left side of the notebook and the Blog Post pages to the right side.
Having a planner, not only helps me keep on a blogging schedule, but I noticed that I have been blogging more since I started planning out my blog posts.
Inside My Minds 
I always love having a look at other people’s blogging planner. I’ve had one for the last two years and have loved every minute of it. It’s such a great way to plan out my month and keep track of everything I need to do. I am not completely obsessed with washi tape.
I’m not either, I pretty much use it to reinforce the edges of my pages! What do you use for a planner? It amazes me the amount of money people spend on planners that are just going to get thrown in the trash.
I have the Happy Planner, which I got from Michael’s for 50% off because I don’t like the idea of spending an absurd amount on a planner. I believe it was around $15.
I’ve seen those!
This looks super helpful! *is jealous*
-Amy
Don’t be jealous!
This is fantastic! I have been away for awhile and I truly believe that planning ahead would keep a blog more enjoyable as you don’t have to stress about posting as much. Have you noticed a significant change as a result of planning ahead?
Yes I have! I’ve actually been blogging more since I plan ahead.
That’s awesome. I will be put together like you someday 😀 ❤
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That’s really cool! I have to start planning ahead more. I usually have an idea of what I’m going to post through the week, but I would like to be even more organized. I started a bullet journal, but I’ve not done more than a day to day schedule and monthly reminders. I have to learn more about how to do it.
I don’t understand the bullet journal, I have two reading journal though. Maybe I’ll do a post on my reading journals.
The bullet journals are actually fairly simple, they look complicated because people tend to be very artistic and creative about them, but they don’t have to be. The point of bullet journals is to have everything as summarized as possible and to avoid putting a lot of unnecessary things to it. So you have symbols that mean ‘to do’ or ‘appointment’ and you write everything in a sort of list manner. Also, the most important part about for me is the index and how it is organized. You write things as they come and then you put the page number on the index so you can find it easily. It makes you take full advantage of your paper. It’s a tad complicated to explain like this, sorry if that was confusing.
No, I’ve even been confused watching YouTube videos.
The important thing is that you have a way of planning that works for you. Thank you for sharing it 😉
Yes, exactly! Have you seen Glam Planning videos on YouTube? I could never do that, they don’t seem functional at all.
I had no idea what that was, I just checked it out and WOW that’s so over the top. It’s cool for anyone who has the time to do it and likes it that way, but it wouldn’t work for me at all. It would make me want to plan my planner, which makes no sense 😛
It does make sense to want to plan your planner.
Well, actually you’re right haha
What I meant is that it really takes a lot of time (and apparently stickers for some people) to stay organized. I wish I could be like that with planners, but I suck at it.
I can’t be like that with planners. I need functionality, which I found from the Arc System from M by Staples and my planner pages from Etsy.
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Cool planner. I especially like that it’s not “glam planning” which I find to be a waste of time and defeats the purpose of planning. Lol.
It really does, I need my planner to be functional. I couldn’t justify spending 75-80 dollars on a planner that is just gonna go in the recycle bin at the end of the year. I think my whole system was 20 dollars at the minimum.
Yup. Before I entered grad school last year I received the Simplified Planner as graduation gift (because I heard it was wonderful and worth it). Don’t get me wrong, the system is much more functional than a lot of the other ones out there. The issue was that it was cheaply made even though it was like 50 dollars prior to shipping and *gasp* wasn’t that great. So I tried to find another planner, this time returning to the cheaper ones. Finally, I have one from Michael’s that I’m sure will serve me well and didn’t almost bankrupt me! Hahaha. Beyond just the sheer waste that goes into spending a lot of money on planners, I am really confused about what these women even do. I seriously saw someone write watch youtube videos, shop on Etsy, decorate planner, ect. All with glitter and stickers everywhere to the point where writing had to be squeezed in. It was very odd for a 30+ yr. old.
I love having washi tape, it’s really good to reinforce the edges of my pages where I punch them. If you have an arc/disc bound planning system, etsy is really good for cute, inexpensive inserts to fit your planner needs.
This is such a great idea! I wing like 80% of my posts and I should definitely probably put more organisation and thought into it, haha. The blog planner designs are super cute too.
I used to wing my posts too, but then I would just get lazy and not post anything for a while. This really helps me stay on top of things and it makes me post more. I love the design on the pages too. There are so many blog planner pages on Etsy, that I had to look through to find the ones that would work best for what I need.
This looks so pretty and well put together. I just plan my blog schedule out of an excel sheet. I feel like I should try doing it on a notebook too.
I never thought of an excel sheet. But I love how I can bring the planner with me everywhere I go.
I kind of use my phone to jolt down notes and then put them into the excel sheet when I get home. But being able to bring the planner around is definitely the better option.
It really is, if I get an idea I can just take my planner out and put my idea on a certain day.