Hey Guys,

I hope that you guys have had a great year so far.  I know it has been eventful.  Today, I wanted to share with you guys my planner setup for the new year. 

As you know (or maybe this is your first time, in that case welcome), mid-2020 I decided to create my own planner pages based on the Happy Planner dashboard layout.  I am a HUGE fan of the dashboard layout, but I was not a fan of the color blocks and some of the headers that come standard on the Happy Planner brand.  Even with the neutral versions that came out, I still was unhappy with the headers.  So…I made my own.  I had already created my budget pages and was very happy with that set and the pages that I created last year were working out well for me, this year’s pages needed to be tweaked to get formatting and font selection correct.  So far I have only printed out pages through the end of April.   The monthly page was either created in Canva or came from cardstock books that seemed to fit the theme of the month.

I feel I should explain how I use my dashboard pages.  I use the dashboard page primarily to plan and keep info for my personal/home life.  The task that I want to get done at some point during the week, notes about bills that I’ve paid or calls/emails that I’ve gotten info from, things like that.  On pay weeks, I use the budget sticker that I created.  I also use this page to get my decorating on.  I can have pages full of flowers or sayings.  The dated page is used to keep track of work tasks, appointments, birthdays, or anything where the date is important. 

For my budgeting section, I kept the previous format adding new bills to the list.   

The page that I used to keep track of due dates, amounts due and overall balance, and notes to remember for the month; I decided to create a page for it so that I wouldn’t have to tape a blank sheet of paper to the back of my calendar making for a bulky planner. 

I also decided to add a page to the back of budget header page that allows me to keep track of if I have paid specific bills each month – some household bills, large bills that I want to make sure I don’t miss the payment for. 

One of the final additions to my planner is a meal planning section. 

I tried to use a couple of downloadable pages that I found online, but I did not like any of them.  The page that I created isn’t super spectacular; I have the days of the week with the main ingredients needed to make the meal so that I can make sure that I have everything needed to make the meal. 

Additionally, I have a sidebar that I can write meals that I can chose in future planning.  I also let Babydoll look at the sidebar and chose meals when I haven’t been thinking of something the previous week. 

I got my perpetual and monthly calendars online.  Because I did not put tabs on the monthly calendars (that was a lot of work that did not come out well in the prototypes), I made tabs using laminated sheets that I inserted a month sticker inside. 

I finally learned how to make word stickers that are outlined and not in a box or oval.  I made these tabs for my daily and budget calendars.    

I still want to create a health page – something that I can use to track workouts, meals for the day, weight loss, etc. 

I haven’t figured out the layout for that.  If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.

That’s my planner for 2021.  Are you using a planner this year?  If so, what type/style are you using?

Until next time,