Top Planning Supplies I Can’t Live Without
Hi there and welcome back to this week’s blog! I feel like I haven’t talked about planning tools or supplies (tools of the trade, so to speak), and these supplies are absolutely necessary in my everyday tool kit! Just like a carpenter can’t get to work without his tool box, I feel the same way about planning: if I don’t have these items, I’m lost!
The first and foremost most important thing is my planner. I’ve always had a planner, agenda, notebook or some sort of book to record appointments and dates. I feel like today, I plan more in-depth than I ever have before, but that’s because my business calls for a lot of planning ahead. I also have a household to run, full of three kids! There are many things to plan and manage and think ahead for, hence I carry my Franklin Planner with me all the time. It comes in handy when I need to reference something if I’m at the doctors, at a school meeting or even just talking to my family.
The next item is my whiteout. I am not a perfectionist. I make mistakes all the time and I don’t mind the look of whiteout in my planner, even if it shows up white against colored planner pages. I don’t love the liquid kind, I always stick to the tape formula. My personal favourite are the Bic Whiteout Mini Twist. They are small, portable, easy to carry, and they don’t have that weird twisting action that the larger ones do. I find with the regular sized ones, the tape always comes off the roll and then the whiteout is toast.
Another item is, of course, a pen. I’m a little particular withy pens. Not so much the barrels itself, but the type and color of ink. My planner cannot have colored ink, it needs to be black, and my favourite width of line is 0.7mm. I can also use the 0.5mm, but it’s still not good enough for me. I like black gel ink (cannot be ballpoint at all!) and it needs to dry really quickly. I also look for inks that do not smear when you go to highlight over top. (My current favourite are my Pentel Energel Aluminum Alloy Metal Pens, 0.7mm refills).
Speaking of highlighters, I really love the Zebra Mildliners. I like them because of their aesthetic appeal, yes, but I really enjoy that there are two different marker tips on one pen. There’s a blunt, highlighter tip and the other end is a pointier tip (not quite a fineliner, but you can use them to write a quick note, or color in a tracker). One of their appeals is the mild colors. Recently they have come out with some really pretty neutral colors which I have been loving lately.
Planner stickers are another thing I love. While yes, you can live without them, I find I love to decorate my otherwise minimal (functional) planner pages. Whether it’s simply dots to mark an appointment time, or a little icon telling me it’s time to pay the bills, it all helps me to remember when I need to do things and it makes my planning process fun.
Never underestimate the power of dividers. They help you find things…seriously. I have different finishes (clear, like glass and frosted) and I also use top tabs, side tabs and bottom tabs. The bottom tabs are a fairly new addition. Depending on the time of year, I like to switch up my tabs and life categories so I may not always use all three. At one point, I think I had twelve side tabs and that’s it.
Sticky notes are another necessity. They don’t seem to be too important, but if you lack note paper in your planner, a sticky note is just the thing. You can write a quick note or reminder to yourself for later. They can stick to pretty much anything, or you can use some Washi tape to adhere it as well. I use them for pre-planning sometimes, or writing out ideas of what I want to say in my videos. Cloth and Paper has a great selection of sticky notes!
There are many other things I use in my daily, weekly and monthly processes, but, like Washi tape, they are not absolutely necessary to my planning. I like to use other things to make my planner pretty and appealing, but we can discuss those in another blog!
I hope you enjoyed reading this one and we’ll see you soon!
Sandra
