Planner Set Up | Jan 2022

Happy 2022, friends! This time of the year is always so popular to reflect over the past year, set new goals & of course, refresh our planners!

I have a video below all about how my planner is set up for January 2022, but I also wanted to showcase a few photos & write this post for anyone who prefers to read about it. So, let’s get into it!

For those of you who have seen my planner flips & content, you already know I am a super functional planner. While I enjoy some elements of deco, I basically get use out of everything in my planner for functional, productive purposes. So it won’t be too much of a surprise that I don’t change too much up. BUT, there have been changes made to my planner, nonetheless, since my last flip.

I am still using my gorgeous VanDerSpek A6 Undyed Janet Leather 25mm Ring Planner. She has patina’d (if that’s a word haha) so beautifully over the past year & has gorgeous markings that add to all her character & charm. I do not baby my planner & I love all the markings. I also want to mention for any of you who might ask that I do do not spray any kind of protective on my planner either. This is her all natural!

Let’s start with sections! I used to have my planner sections then in the back I had an A6 Stalogy tucked in there. I LOVED that system & used my Stalogy as my “currently” section with notes & to do lists. Since then I have removed my Stalogy from the back & added my “currently” section back into the sections. I did this specifically to lighten my planner up a bit. I carry it everywhere & sometimes an extremely chonky planner can weigh down your bag!

The sections I currently have in my planner, main & sub sections, are as follows: inbox, currently, agenda, projects, plan with bee, shop, content, finances, reference, home, spoke to, work & notes. Within each of these are multiple different items that fall into those categories. This system has been working for my for so so long, I don’t change that too much.

While most of my sections are pretty self explainable, I want to go a little more in detail on a few of them. Some that are my favorites & that have really helped my planning system over the years!

My spoke to log section is a newer section to my planning system! I LOVE this section. For years, I would scribble down notes when I would speak to someone on the phone about something important through my planner & when I needed to reference that information, I would need to search through papers & papers to find it. So, in 2021 when I opened my Etsy shop, there were so many functional planner inserts I created & these spoke to logs were one of them. I cannot tell you how much easier it is to have an entire section just for these spoke to logs that I can easily reference when I need to. I categorize them as well: Plan With Bee relate, work related & personal ones. This has been a huge help in my planning system & in so many others!

Behind my inbox section, there is my currently section. These sections have been apart of my planning system for many years, and for good reason! My inbox is a massive brain dump. To be honest, I text myself often in a way to inbox myself. However, during the day when my planner is out, I leave my inbox section open so I can brain dump anything I need to.

My currently section is also an oldie but a goodie. This holds everything, well, current. From dailies, weeklies, to do lists, projects, events & so on, this is where I keep everything relevant to the current time. This allows me to focus on what needs to be prioritized right now. I can file the inserts back into the appropriate sections once finished, if it is for the future or when I am simply not working on it. but for those high level tasks, to do lists & projects, I love to keep them tucked in my currently section.

Speaking of projects, another favorite section of mine is my projects section. Here I keep a running list of all the projects I am working on or would like to in the future. I absolutely love using Perfectionism Prints projects inserts. They work perfect for my planning system. One tip I always share when it comes to my project planning is that I number my projects in the left column. Then, whenever I move a task onto my to do list from my projects list or if I have additional inserts with information on it for that particular project, I can see the number so I know which project on my list to coordinate with. I have tons of projects listed out, so this has always helped me stay organized.

I, of course, have all the basics in my planner such as a monthly calendar. This helps me to see an overview of important appointments, events & more. I will say though, my planner is more so filled up with reference style inserts & logs for things in addition to the basics.

I have any reference style inserts in my planner. For an example I wanted to share this one with you, my task reminders. This has been in all my planners through the years & has been updated over time. This is something I made for myself that just has a list for daily task reminders, weekly, monthly, seasonal & yearly. While I do not necessarily need to see my daily task reminders, this has come in handy for me over the years to check in on a quarterly or yearly basis. It helps so I do not forget to do certain things that aren’t done as often. I highly recommend creating something like this for yourself if you think it would be helpful. You can also create triggers lists, perpetual calendars, holidays lists, guides & so many more. I have many inserts that I use to reference when needed.

While there is a lot more to my planner (check out my video above for more details), I want to mention this last thing you’ll find through my planner so much! STICKY NOTES! I love sticky notes so much & I actually print my own all the time. (Check out my tutorial how to print on sticky notes). I sell many printable sticky note templates in my Etsy shop & even have some freebies on my freebies page! I love to utilize the small space of a sticky note for functional use. Not everything needs a full insert to log or track things. So I love to layer in sticky notes through my planner all the time!

I hope you all enjoyed a look inside my planner! Hopefully some of my tips & tricks will help out your planning systems as well! Be sure to tag me on Instagram @_planwithbee_ & YouTube so I can check out your planners if you are trying any of these methods out!

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Thank you everyone! Happy 2022!