Planning Styles, Where do you align?

Hey Friends

Let’s talk a little bit about planning styles. What do you think your planning style is? I’m going to summarize the ones I’ve seen and done a bit of research on, but if you have others in mind please feel free to share, and I’ll add them.

I didn’t want to categorize planning timeframe – day, week, quarterly, etc but I think this is something to be considered, as some people do better on a day-to-day planning basis, or a weekly or even monthly basis. I think most of us tend to hybrid plan, as needed we change each week to fit us, and that’s truly the best method. Make planning work for you by using what works best for you – you can always go back and add stickers later if you want if that week was particularly busy.

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No White Space Planning

Starting with the most extreme. I use to love seeing these spreads, personally, it’s amazing how well they work together. I feel like I’ve seen these less and less over the years since sticker shops started popping up. No white space planning is just that – using stickers to completely cover the planner pages. Scribbles Prints is a good example, and you can search the hashtag to see more #nowhitespaceplanning

This group of planners love their kits and sometimes will even back plan to fill out their planner for memory-keeping purposes.

White Space Planning

This is the next deco style of planning, what I prefer and what I see most often. It is using stickers for decorations and accents, but not covering the page entirely. This is what most sticker planning does. I think it is more popular as it takes less time, money and you can mix and match easier. If you did no white space planning every week, 52 weeks x $14 a kit, you can definitely see why conserving your kits made sense to some people.

I love the way this method looks personally, as many kits and people use the white space to their advantage.

Scrapbook Planning

Now, this method I am making up, as I did not see many people talk about it but I’ve seen it grow and love some of the layouts. I would say this method of planning is using scrapbooking supplies or leftover papers to accent your layouts.

A great example would be Planning with Bumble – her use of paper in her spreads is just so creative it deserves its own mention. Truly.

Memory Planning

Another method mentioned under deco planning I’ve seen is memory keeping – which is a form of the above but with memories for the week. The #memoryplanning has some good examples. I think this could fit into any of the above or below as ‘what’ you are planning but I would still consider it a style as you are reflecting on the week or day, vs planning out your days.

Functional Planning

I would say I have heavily leaned into functional or minimal planning. I love my stickers, and I try to find space for them but what gets me through the week is a good ol’ functional page. Functional planning is minimal in appearance but you may track a lot of things and keep many lists, it’s just less decorated and more easy to read and see at a glance. I think this planning is picking up as people who wanted to be deco planners got into the hobby and just realized what works best for them is simple layouts.

List Planner

There is a group that just uses a list too. Todo list, this week’s list, and so many more. Lists were really popular a few years ago, Reset Girl has a ton of options and you can still find her stuff on Pinterest (the challenge was Listers Gotta List if you want to get started!).

Making list can be a fun way to destress and work through things you want to do. We still tend to see 20 before 2020 lists, etc, pop up every year for a reason – they are fun to do. I like having a to-do list for each day as well, it helps me manage chores and habits better if I write down the essentials each day.

Bullet Journals

I think bullet journaling is on its own level entirely, you can do it minimal or functionally, with no white space, light stickers, all drawn, etc. When I think of BUJU I think of mostly drawn pages, but I get why people use stickers to fill in spreads too – time-saving and adorable. I think a bullet journal would be considered a spread you created yourself, hand-drawn but maybe decorated however you want each week. It’s a complicated line but I love seeing the spreads and artwork.

Digital Planner

Finally, digital planners also can use any style above as well, as long as it can be imported they can decorate it. There are more and more digital planners popping up you can download or create as well. I think these started taking off when Good Notes came out on the IPad, and if you can get a ton of free items and stickers, I see how this is super popular with college students. I would absolutely have loved Notion as a student.

Do you have more planner styles in mind? I’m sure we’ll continue to add to the list as we make new things up! This doesn’t even go into sizes or types of books. It’s important to not get overwhelmed with all the options, as many as there are. I still get distracted when someone shares a new item and thinks I need it. I almost bought a stalogy the other day >>; but I resisted. I still may end up with it later this year, just to see how it feels. I am weak.

If planning is your hobby, and it’s not food or the planner, by all means, enjoy your hobby. Buy the pens, notebooks, and all the stickers you want!

Life is too short and if it makes you happy enjoy it.

Happy Planning friends