I have always loved planning, my friends call me the event planner:)
I plan everything from meals to parties and everything in between. I had looked into getting an Erin Condren Life Planner for the past 5 years, but could never justify the price, didn't know if I would really use it(I was crazy) so I settled for the planners you find at Walmart, target, and Office Depot! I was never truly satisfied with any of the planners but I made do. Last year I ordered a planner kit from etsy, so cute but I never used it, too small. June comes and I looked up Erin Condren again and I took the plunge and ordered my life planner, I anxiously awaited my planner to arrive. While I waited for my planner to arrive I joined a couple of Facebook groups and started following planners on Instagram, I had so much fun looking at all the gorgeous planners out there I began making lists and shopping(keep in mind my planner had not even arrived) I went crazy and bought a ton of stickers, stamps, accessories, washi tape!
Most planners will tell you the same thing, that it is easy to go overboard on accessories for your planner and you really don't need all of it.
My advice for new planners is
1. Figure out what purpose your planner will serve(student, work, small business, home, personal, financial, fitness/health, memory journal, or maybe a combination)
2. Do you want to decorate your planner? If so do you want to only decorate with icons(functional) or do you want to fill every square with stickers and stamps
3. The first couple of weeks you have your planner I wouldn't decorate at all, use this time to figure out how you will use your planner(it has taken me 2 months to figure out how I want my planner to look)
4. Try to not go crazy on ETSY and craft stores before your planner arrives-- easier said than done, but I did go overboard and now that my planner is here and I am using it half of the stuff I bought I am not using
Essentials you will need
A. Washi tape of varying widths and patterns
B. Good quality pens(you don't need every pen, but you want something that you enjoy writing with and one that won't bleed through--trial and error, some pens that haven't bled through for others did on my planner and vice versa)
C. A few stickers or stamps (I personally like functional stamps from tiny stamps big plans, atelier. Dreams, decorative stamps from lawn fawn, Avery Elle, your next stamp, close to my heart, prima, sweet stamp shop, studio L2E, sticker packs from Darice(you can find at craft stores and some grocery stores)) ETSY has a wide variety of stickers but until you get the hang of it you may want to hold off on ETSY, for your wallets sake 😃
D. A good pair of scissors
E. Glue stick/tape runner
F. Post it notes to do all of your pre-planning
As you begin planning you will find certain things work for you and certain things don't, it's okay'
I would suggest to follow planners in instagram you can find them with the hashtag planner community a lot of inspiration comes from the planning community😀
