Planner

Why I Don't Decorate My Planner Pages Extensively

1:01 PM

Planners. They're the most gorgeous things ever. Of course, a planner is supposed to organize your life, but there are moments that you just can't help yourself and buy loads of them. For those people, myself included, a planner can be a fashion accessory.

Like any Planner Addict, I'm always on the look out for the cutest planners and cruising through Instagram and Facebook for gorgeous photos of decorated planner pages. I also have a penchant for stationery and office supplies. So, whenever I'm in the San Francisco/Bay Area visiting family, I'm always in search for a cute post-it note or tags.

As far as decorating my diary pages with all those cute tabs and stickers, I generally find it too time consuming. No doubt you have seen photos of personal size planners stuffed with pictures, cute paper clips, keychains, and such. My planner, whether is the personal size of A5 size Filofax Original remains clutter free and here are a few reasons why I keep my planner clean and tidy.

Reason One:
I'm a post-graduate student earning my degree in Humanities and History. I use my planner as a tool to keep my life organized. I've got so much information to sift through that decorating my pages with loads of stickers and washi tape would end up burying all the important dates and information.

I have decorated my planner pages extensively in the past, but after missing a couple of due dates, I've decided to do my pretty planning in a different planner.

Reason Two:
While decorating your planner pages and adding some paperclips to the front flap of your planner can be fun and beautifies it, those extra things you put in your planner does create a lot of unnecessary bulk. Having an uneven surface to write on is one of my pet peeves, so I began to avoid decorating my planner.

Reason Three:
Decorating takes too much time.

When I was decorating my planner, I found that I was using up a lot of time trying to figure out what theme and pulling out my washi tapes, stamps, stickers, and such. Decorating it also takes quite a bit of time.

At the end of the week, I block out fifteen minutes to plan out the next. Having to pick a theme, take out the appropriate supplies such as washi tape, stickers, stamps, etc and the actual decorating takes more than fifteen minutes.

I do decorate in my A5 Filofax and the extent of my decorating is using some planner stamps from the Sweet Stamp Shop, Studio L2E, and Simply Kelly. If I wanted to see something cute in my week, I use one of the larger stamps during the weekend where my days are partially empty. As the day ends, that's when I'll add a random sticker on the day, but not on the current or future days of the week.


So there you have it. If I decorate my planner pages, I keep the decorating to a bare minimum.

I do have an extra planner (which was given to me at Christmas) that I decorate and call it Memory Keeping. I take my week, plug it into this planner and decorate to my hearts content with washi tape, photographs, stickers, and stamps to my hearts content without losing important information as the week I'm decorating had already passed.

Fashion

What's In My Bag or my Planner Supplies Kit

4:38 PM

Naturally, I thought I'd do a What's in My Bag post since another trimester is beginning in my adventures as a post-graduate student. But after checking my Longchamp Le Pliage tote and finding that my Kipling 100 Pens case and the Carpe Diem organiser is taking up all the room (and this bag doesn't even include my Macbook Pro at all!), I decided to do a What's in My Pen Case post instead. As you can see, I've got three books, iPad Mini, Carpe Diem Planner, research printouts, and my trust Kipling pen case.


I've always loved Kipling Bags and this love dates all the way back to the 90s. I love the fact that it's light and water resistant. I've been caught in a downpour once and the contents of my Kipling bag was dry. When I got the case, I'm completely in love with the pattern and the colours. It's bright and fun. Of course, it holds as many items I want it to hold. And yes, it's stuffed with things I need for revisions, research, and of course planning. I'm currently working with two planners and have decided that I might need to pack around the extremely large Carpe Diem for research purposes whilst I still have the Personal Domino as my on the go and everyday planner.


Inside the case, I've put every single thing I would possibly need. Pilot Frixion markers, Pilot Frixion pens, Pilot Frixion Hilighters and  Staedtler ball point pens practically fill each and every one of those pen loops. I use these pens for revision notes and my planner.


The second tab contains all of my planner stamps, some Pilot Frixion pens, mechanical pencil, correction tape, stamping block, inkpads, and paper clips. I could downsize to one inkpad, but I love the colours and I do love colour in my otherwise black and white organiser.


Further inspection of the planner stamps, I've got my favourites from The Sweet Stamp Shop, Studio L2E, Kelly Purkey, and Technique Tuesday. It seems quite a lot for planner stamps, but I use them all. I don't bring washi tape with me. I'd rather keep those at home when I'm leisurely decorating and doing revision notes. It seems weird that I've got a planner supply kit when I'm doing my post-graduate studies online with CSU Dominguez Hills, but a lot of times, I make my way to the library to study or go to class. There's less distractions at the library such as the television and the kitchen!


There are some Christmas and Thanksgiving stamps in my collection and although the holidays are over, I still use some of the icons in the set for everyday planning such as the bake caption, camera, mail, and cocoa.

What about you? How much of your planner supplies do you carry?

Planner

Memory Keeping and Listers Gotta List (plus supplies used)

12:04 PM

Last year I embarked on a challenge called "Listers Gotta List" created by The Reset Girl which I found on Instagram. Unfortunately, as with my hobbies and challenges, this fell off my fun things to do as I've began my first trimester of postgraduate studies. I hadn't planned on continuing with the the challenge until recently (during Christmas), I received a bound planner from a friend who knew I had a penchant for all things planner/organiser and paper related things. Unfortunately, I've already got two planners I'll be working with (an A5 and a personal size). So, I decided to use the planner to memory keep and complete a years worth the Listers Gotta List challenge.



For the first three days of this year, I haven't had much to memory keep. Thankfully, the Listers Gotta List challenge took up quite a bit of room.



First day challenge materials:

1. Steak and BBQ grill images came from the Plan Summer from the Sweet Stamp Shop.
2. Suitcase image came from the Plan Everyday stamp from the Sweet Stamp Shop
2. Heart shaped image came from the Plan It stamp from Studio L2E.
3. Charlie Brown and Snoopy image is a stamp I've purchased in the late 1990s. I can't tell you what brand it is or when I've acquired it as its been too long.

The second day challenge, materials used:

1. Coffee Cup image, Plan To Go from the Sweet Stamp Shop.
2. Family Time and Menu captions, Plan It from Studio L2E.
3. Knife and serving fork image, Plan to Eat from the Sweet Stamp Shop

Third day challenge, materials used:
1. Brenda Walton Alphabet Stamps purchased from Joann's Fabrics.

The inkpads used in all three challenges were the Memento Fast Drying Ink in Bahama Blue, Rose Bud, Dandelion, Pear Tart, Tuxedo Black.

The pens used are the Pentel Energel in .07 Tip and Pilot Frixion Markers.

Planner

2016 Organiser Set Up and Carpe Diem Planner Review

8:09 AM

Happy 2016. With the new year new resolutions emerge and of course, in the planner community, a chance to showcase new diaries, organisers or planners.

In my previous post, I mentioned acquiring the Carpe Diem A5 planner. As much as I would have loved to purchase the Union Jack Filofax Original in the A5 size, I decided against it. After all, I've accumulated quite a bit of Filofaxes over the years. Unfortunately, whilst Christmas shopping at a local scrapbook shop, I came across the Carpe Diem Planner and fell in love with the colour: Robin's Egg, which is a shade lighter than the Tiffany's jewelry box.



My whole purpose on using the Carpe Diem planner was to give my A5 Filofax Original a break from the wreckage of my bag as well as an attemp to downsize what I carry. Last year, during a holiday in Hawaii, I was unable to bring my Filofax as I've already overloaded my carry-on situation with my postgrad books, laptop, and of course, scuba gear. Yes. I've got scuba gear designed as a carry on.

As I retired my Filofax and moved into the Carpe Diem, I noticed the size difference. The Carpe Diem planner is slightly bigger by an inch compared to the Filofax Original and the ring sizes are also bigger. It is also quite bulky. The organiser is made out of textured faux leather/vinyl, similar to that used on the Filofax Metropol. This is one of the reasons why Carpe Diem is inexpensive. At $45 a piece, anyone who is looking at moving into an A5 size can purchase one without burning a hole through their purse, although I wouldn't recommend this as an everyday planner. It's big and bulky. And if you're planning to carry an A5 around, I would suggest in investing in a Filofax. They're slightly higher in price, but you get what you pay for and they've been in the organiser business since the 1920s.

The interior of the Carpe Diem planner is not made out of the faux leather that covers the exterior, but with a black polka dot fabric material. On the front flap, there is a side pocket with credit card slots and the back flap holds a notepad.


The inserts that came with the organiser are beautiful and colourful. However, it is not dated. I like my diary pages to come already dated so I can just go in and plan and schedule in dates without having to figure out which day falls on what. It also saves time in having to date the diary pages. The purpose of having an organiser and diary pages is to facilitate proper time management. With undated diary pages, it takes time to write down each date. Once each date is written, then one can start planning.

It's a cute organiser, but as far as their diary pages, it's highly unlikely I will use it.

Now onto the set up.

The first tab in the planner (I made my own by using heavy duty scrapbooking card stock and some Martha Stewart's peel and stick tabs) contains my information as well as dates and holidays that came with the diary inserts I purchased from Filofax.



The second tab, I placed the foldout month at a glance pages I printed from the iCal app on my Mac. I use these foldout months to see what I've got going on at one glance rather than rifle through each page. On these pages, I use the photopolymer stamps I purchased from Sweet Stamp Shop, Studio L2E and Technique Tuesday. I've also used the colourful monthly dividers that came with the organiser to sort out each foldout monthly calendar.


The third tab contains my diary pages. This is where I record everything from appointments, chores, work, and post-graduate dates.


The fourth tab is where I'll keep my notes. It's basically a memory dump page, but a bit neater than the one I keep in my Personal Domino.

The fifth tab contains all post-graduate university related information. I've also copied the Filofax To-Do pages and placed them in this tab to record my readings. As a post-graduate student of history, I have a lot of reading and research to do as well as writing, so the reading list will help me keep track of all the reading I need to do. I've also added the program information in this tab so I can refer back to it whenever I need to.




Lastly, I've got a blog schedule list which I obtained from Philofaxy. I haven't blogged at all last year and one of my goals this year is to blog as much as I can in hopes on getting on a design team.



The only gripe I had about this planner is that it did not come with a tabbed ruler. The ruler is sold separately and the local scrapbooking store did not carry the ruler not have I been able to find it on Amazon or the manufacturer's website, which prompted me to make my own.

How to do you set up your organiser this 2016?

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