Tips for Planner Beginners

Did you know planning can actually increase your productivity, help you to become more organized, and can help reduce stress. For makeup artists and hair stylists it's incredibly important to take charge of our chaotic schedules. If you have never used a planner before it can seem overwhelming and you might be staring at it wondering where to even start. Read on for tips and tricks for beginner planners so you can tackle this yea ready for anything that gets thrown at you!

1. Keep your planner with you or in a visible place. Leave it in the same dedicated place or take it with you to set. Make sure your access to be handy and convenient.
2. Plan to plan. Schedule dedicated planning time in your planner. The daily planning space is usually the best place for this. If you also like digital tools, set a reminder in your phone to alert you when your dedicated planning time is. Always remember - plan your day or someone else will plan it for you.
3. Consistency is key. Your planning time should be the same time every day, or every week. Pair your planning sessions with your favorite playlist, podcast, tea, wine, coffee, or treat. Make the experience enjoyable so it is something you look forward to. 
4. Set up your year. Consider any major life events; birthdays, anniversaries, major events, and add these to the monthly spreads in your planner. You can also plot them on your year-at-a-glance in the Mapping Your Path section of your planner.
5. Set up your weeks. We want to finish off the current week by writing in our income for the week in our ledger, and calculating where you are towards your income goal for the month. If you have any expenses like supply runs make sure to catch up on them before moving on to the following week. Complete anything left in your To-do lists for the week, or roll it over into the next week. Think back on your week and note something positive that happened under your weekly win. Decide what tasks you can complete with the time you have towards the current goal you are working on achieving. Now flip to the next week and start filling in things that you already know will fill those days like bookings or meetings. Set up your free space for whatever it is that you are using that space for. 

You might be wondering about some best practices for keeping your planner looking organized. Keep your systems simple. Here are some tips!

1. Don't feel the need to over-plan your time. You really want to use your planner to track high priority tasks for each day. You can even block out a chunk of time that would be appropriate to complete a task as opposed to a specific hour unless it is time sensitive. 
2. Color code!! Break out the pens and highlighters and use one color for a specific category. It is a great way to visually register a task category and can really keep things looking beautiful. 
3. Use task stickers, or keep your handwriting small. You want to make sure you have space to jot down things that just pop up.
4. Not sure how to use your free space? Use it to jot down quick notes from meetings, conversations, ideas you have, etc. If you wrote some notes on a sticky pad, pop it right into the free space.
5. if you have a task that you repeat often - grocery shopping, laundry, meal planning, etc, consider an abbreviated code to take up less space. 

If you've seen some elaborate planner decorations on pinterest or other social sites and you feel so inspired, here are some tips for decorating your pages!

1. Start any basic decorating before you begin writing things down. Make sure your habit trackers or doodles are already drawn in. You can also block off time with planner block stickers or add in any of your other favorite stickers to dress it up.
2. Washi tape is a quick trick for covering things up, splitting up days, or adding in a quick decoration. 
3. Use colors that make you happy to complete your pages. 
4. Try picking out a theme for a month or a week, and pick out decorative stickers, washi tapes, and pens to support that theme. 
5. Fill your whitespace with signatures and notes from co-workers. 2022 is, after-all, a yearbook theme. You can also use instax photos, stickers, quotes, and so much more to fill your whitespace.

There is no right or wrong way to use your planner. Remember some weeks will be stacked full and some weeks may be quite sparse. If you miss a week you can always pick it back up. As you get more confident in using your planner on a consistent basis try using it for things like time keeping and bridal client tracking using time tracking stickers and our bridal inserts. Happy Planning!!