Tag: planner setup

Continuing on from Parts 1 and 2, I’m working through the set up for my uni section.

Since I decided to look at going back to university study last year, then applying and be accepted this year, I’ve been squirreling away all the possible ideas I could add to my uni section. What will I need? What do I want to keep with me all the time? What don’t I need? Will I be keeping course notes in my planner? If not how will I be keeping notes and where?

What do I need and what do I need to keep in my planner?

• Course overview, including important dates, and contact details
• Unit details, dates and contacts
• Study timetable
• Assignment due dates
• Assignment results – I’m not sure on this one as yet

What don’t I need?

I have watched so many videos on YouTube and they add budget trackers, self care trackers, monthly and weekly spreads. I already have these so no point doubling up.

Will I be keeping course notes in my planner? If not how will I be keeping notes and where?

Nope. I’m going to be making a digital notebook in Goodnotes for all my uni course notes. Trying to work out what I want before the year starts. When I make it, I will no doubt link it up and offer it for others to use.

If you’re looking at getting back into study or just interested in digital note taking and student planners, I’ve created a YouTube playlist which you can view here. If you’ve got a favourite video you think would be a great addition, drop me a link in the comments so I can check it out.

Onto the planning and set up,

and as a bonus, my February planning and set up

One more section to go and that’s my everyday planner set up for the year.
Until next time.

Continuing on from my previous post Planner Set up for 2025, I thought I’d share how I’m setting up each of my planners for the year. Starting with my A5 Everyday planner.

It’s going in my Planners Anonymous A5 Chapters Melody again and will have the following sections

• Yearly
• Monthly/Weekly
• Uni
• Misc

The yearly section will contain

• a mini calendar for the year with week numbers
• a Year at a Glance for birthdays, anniversaries, term dates and other important dates
• a Year in Pixels
• Health Log
• Moon phases, sabbat dates, numerology & tarot for 2025
• weather tracking (which I didn’t film as I added it afterwards)
• Declutter 365 list

Monthly/Weekly section will be my monthly calendar followed by the weeklies for that month

The uni section I’m not 100% on yet but anything related to my uni course will go in here.

Finally my Misc section (in no particular order)

• future me problems
• Cleaning routines
• What can I do in 15 minutes (aka quick wins)
• When did I last?
• TBR list
• 2025 bookshelf
• Movies to watch/watched
• Shows to watch/watched
• Podcasts to check out
• Present ideas (for when the kids show me something they want)

In this video you’ll see me set up my Yearly section

and here’s my January set-up video.

I’ll be back later with information about what I’m putting in my Uni section and my Misc section.

(Going back through the drafts folder and I realised I never finished my 2024 set up post but it’s up now and you can go check it out here.)

For the past few years I’ve made no real plans for what I wanted in my planner apart from the basics – a year in pixels, monthly and weekly spreads and a few other bits and pieces.
I do think I’ve found my planner piece in a ring bound planner and just printing dot grid paper so I can create my weekly spreads to my heart’s content. I prefer being able to design my own spreads and not being stuck using a pre-printed inserts. That said for certain things – like Christmas – I do like a good pre-done insert. Lights Planner Action Christmas inserts, I’m looking at you *heart eyes*

I’ve been following Jess at JashiiCorrin (& part of her Patreon then YouTube subscription) for a while and recently binge watching all of her new year planner set up videos – which you can find here. One of the things she does is a WANT analysis of her past year’s planner. What is a WANT analysis? Its looking at the following areas and brainstorming. WINS (things you enjoy & work well), AVERSIONS (what didn’t work or you didn’t enjoy), NEEDS (what is necessary for the year ahead) and TRY(new or old things you want to try out). It’s also explained in the video I’ve linked below.

After lots of thinking and brainstorming, here’s my list

WINS (worked well, liked, keep doing)

• Ring planner with printed dot grid pages
• Pre-designed month spread on 2 pages from Lovely Planner
• Yearly collections book. Something new I started last year.

AVERSIONS (didn’t work, didn’t like, stop doing, change)

• Trying to do too much in a month. I’m ditching a bunch of extra pages I had at the end of each month that I’d fill in at the start of the month but would drop off as the month went on.
• Not making planner time. And then when I do feeling overwhelmed when I need to create the layout then fill it in.

NEEDS (plans, events, challenges, pain points)

• Monthly spreads
• Weekly spreads

TRY (have a go, test run, curious about)

• Planner Day once a month to set up the upcoming month’s layouts. Just setting up the layouts to make my weekly planner time easier. See point two in Aversions
• R&D binder
• Long Term Collection journal
• Media Journal in my A5

I also looked at some other questions Jess has in her resource library (which you can check out for yourself by signing up at https://mail.jashii.com/resources?utm_medium=product_shelf)

My current planning system

What journals, planners and apps did I use in your planning system this year?

• A5 ring bound planner with a mix of dot grid inserts and planner printables
• Artful Agenda digital planner app on my phone and laptop
• A5 bound book for yearly collections
• A5 bound book for long term collections

What is the status of each of my planner system elements? (i.e. are you keeping them as part of your system, retiring them, or setting up new versions of them)

• A5 ring bound planner – keep but with a few changes
• Artful Agenda digital planner app on my phone and laptop – keeping as this is super useful when I’m out and about or at my laptop
• A5 bound book for yearly collections – loving this, so keeping but making it more accessible so I update it more & adding reminders to actually do updates

How easy was it to keep up with my planning system this year? What made it this easy / difficult to keep up with?

As I pointed out under aversions I struggled with motivation to set up my weekly spreads each week. Sometimes I just wasn’t in the mood, other times I was just busy.

My next planning system

What journals, planners and apps are you going to use in your new planning system?

Journal / planner / app	Purpose
Everyday planner (A5 Planners Anon ring bound)	My everyday, go-to planner. Yearly, monthly/Weekly, Media journal, Uni stuff.
Artful Agenda (on phone and laptop)	For noting appointments when out & about so I don’t double book myself
Yearly Collection (bound book planner)	Housing my yearly collections – yearly goals, 25 in 2025, Then & Again, Monthly favourites, Goober Readathon and my Year in review
Long term collections	For all the long term collection I want to keep. Things that will last more than 6 months.
Mental Health journal	Not 100% sure what I’ll put in here as yet.

If you want to see this all in action – Jess has a video for you – How I Planned My 2025 Bullet Journal Setup 💜

Planned to make a new YouTube series of my planning each month but November & December didn’t go as planned.

November ended up a little pre-done as I had the idea to record stuff half way through the month and I’d already done my planning and created the pages.

Then the stickers I wanted to use didn’t arrive in time so I set up the weeks and then just ended up decorating them with stuff I already had. I ended up just taking a bunch of photos of the complete pages and made them into a video.

So here’s the video – no voice over, just the video and some tunes.

What I used:

• Bullet journal spread planner from JashiiCorrin
• Planner –  Planners Anonymous Chapter: New Dawn A5 Melody planner cover & rings
• Paper for inserts – J. Burrows Premium 160gsm A4 Digital Copy Paper
• Christmas inserts – Lights Planner Action (link to each insert)
• Washi tape (November) – PET from Temu
• Washi & Stickers (December) are Planners Anonymous -Heartfelt Home, Christmas at Home and Deck the Halls
  Other stickers are from Luscious Labels
  Other bits and pieces from my scrapbook stash