When I first started planning, I was captivated by the artistic and creative bullet journal spreads you see all over Instagram and Pinterest. Sometimes I still get a little creativity bug and spend hours drawing things out, but today I want to give you some tips on how to keep your planning simple.
Do you find yourself shying away from using your planner because it’s taking too much time or effort? Planning should be the right mix of productivity, tracking, journaling and reflection. Each of us has our own formula for the “right mix”, but one things is for sure — you shouldn’t feel like it’s a full time job or exhausting!
I use my BUJO each morning and some evenings. For the month of May, I’m trying to keep my layouts as simple as possible because I’m in a lupus flare and I just need something easy to work with. Here are some things I do to keep it simple.
1: Use templates
Don’t reinvent the wheel for every tracker or weekly layout. Try using the same style throughout your planner or throughout a single month. This not only makes setup a lot easier, but it helps with understanding patterns and easily referencing past events.
You can also download and print calendars, trackers or other layouts and then paste them into your planner or use page-sized sticker paper so you don’t need to draw everything out.
Here’s a printable flare symptom tracker I created, if you need a template for tracking self-care and symptoms.
2: Plan your colors and themes to prevent “creator’s block”
If you do like to get artistic with your planner, choose a theme before you get started each month. This can help keep your creativity flowing when facing a blank page. My May theme for this year incorporates purple butterflies. May is Lupus Awareness month and purple is the awareness color. The butterfly is often used as a sort of “mascot” for lupus.
I’ll pick 2-3 purple colors and one accent color to use throughout the month, along with a couple of simple butterfly doodles I can place on pages as time and energy allows. The key here is to not go overboard with a giant color palette or too many intricate drawings if you’re keeping it simple.
3: Cut your words in half
If you’re the only one reading your planner, you can easily cut your words in half, especially in your bulleted task or event lists. Examples:
- “Go to the pharmacy” becomes “pharm”
- “Madison has band practice at 2pm” becomes “2pm M Band”
- “Watch Game of Thrones at 7pm” becomes “7pm GOT”
- “Get oil changed in the morning” becomes “Oil AM”
This is also known as “rapid logging”. I know some planners who also use their own shorthand or codes throughout their planner, which cuts down on space and time!
4: Nail down some simple (and fast) headers you can use everywhere
One of the ways to spice up your planner and also keep it simple is to learn one or two fonts that you can easily draw when creating your headers. I like a faux-calligraphy or brush lettering font and a simple upper-case font for my headers. When I stick to just two styles, I can get things down on paper much faster and easier.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a fun blog post from bannersnack showing 50 lettering fonts.
5. Use Sticky Notes
Sticky notes are great to keep around the house when you aren’t sitting with your planner. I keep some in the kitchen, in my purse and next to my bed so I can jot down any tasks or thoughts that come up. This has helped me “brain dump” and then I can sort the notes and add everything the next time I sit down with my BUJO.
They’re also great for helping you layout any pages or spreads and I use them as place-holders when I’m planning out a new month.
6. Audit your layouts and collections every month
For a long time, I was just doing the same thing over and over each month, assuming I needed to duplicate everything to be productive. But what I didn’t realize was that some of my pages were actually causing me to dread using my planner. Sometimes we outgrow a specific layout or we have moved into a different season of our lives.
Perhaps you don’t want to find more Netflix shows to binge this month, or you have really nailed your 3-month mission to drink more water and now it’s a well-established habit you don’t need to track. Look back over the last month and only set up pages and sections that are truly serving you.
7. Make mistakes and embrace time gaps
A sure-fire way to stop using your planner is to never allow yourself to make mistakes or miss filling in your trackers or calendar spreads. You’re human and your planner is not being submitted to the Hall of Perfectionism! Let yourself cross things out, write the wrong date, get confused, say the wrong thing, ramble, use the wrong color, or spill tea on some pages.
Most importantly, when you’re really feeling terrible or going through something difficult, give yourself permission to neglect your planner so you can just get through the day! I’ve talked about why it’s perfectly okay to neglect your planner here, and it’s important to cut yourself some slack.
8. Go back to basics
I’ve saved this tip for last because it’s often suggested but can also be tough. It’s something people really don’t want to do if they’ve already been planning for some time and enjoy the creative styles they worked hard to learn.
BUT, if you’re finding that you’re making excuses to not use your planner like, “it takes too long to draw that out,” or “I’ll need to find some inspiration first”… it might feel great to just get back to basics.
If you’re using the Bullet Journal Method, I recommend heading back to Ryder Carroll’s site and reading through how to set up and use a bullet journal. Then, grab a single pen and put everything else away for a while. Use only one pen and just use the method as Ryder teaches it.
If you’re using a planner like Happy Planner, the same thing applies — put all of your pens and stickers away for a bit and just use a single pen and maybe one highlighter.
Now, you may find (like I did when I tried this) that the creative part of planning is actually a huge motivation for you and stripping that away is difficult. But, you’ll also find that the act of planning is much easier when you go back to basics and this can bring you back to a productive baseline for a little while. Give it a try if you’re feeling overwhelmed and just need to simplify.
What has helped you keep things more simple in your planner? Feel free to reach out to me at jess@pineconepapers.com and share your ideas!
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