Maybe you made a creative planner, and you are good with the planner part, but you want to work on the creative part so that it sparks joy and you want to look at it. This is the article for you!
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Your Creative Planner – Introduction
Whether you have a planner in your hands right now, and just want to know how to make it look pretty or you want to design a planner from scratch and want to guarantee that this will be your dream planner – I have you covered in this article.
Basically I am going to work from the starting ground that you are good with the function and want to work on the creative side of things, so that’s what these tips will be for.
Here are the 10 tips for a more creative planner:
- Start with the cover
- Choose your colors
- Decide your amount
- Boxes or no boxes
- Simple or abundant
- Choose your decoration
- Embellish or not
- Don’t be afraid
- Fill it in right
- Make it a page turner
1. Start with the cover
This can not be overlooked. If you are not happy looking at the cover of your planner, there is no way you will be inspired to open it day after day.
So how do you make your planner cover spark joy?
If you haven’t yet bought your planner, you may want to choose a place that let’s you pick your own planner cover design like here.
If you have already got your planner and want to jazz up the cover then don’t be afraid to get stuck in.
You could use label paper and print your own design and stick it on top. You could get your paintbrushes out and add your own art on top, stickers, etc. There are lots of options to create the dream planner cover.
2. Choose your colors
Let’s be honest, we all have our favorite colors.
Do you gravitate towards the bright and bold, or do you like a muted, softer look?
It’s important to check in with ourselves about what kind of preferences we have when it comes to colors. Remember we want to spark joy – so ask yourself – what kind of colors will spark joy in my planner.
[Side note, it’s good not to rule out certain colors. I don’t particularly like pink, but once I did a bullet journal theme that was pink, and I loved it. The important thing was that I chose certain shades of pink that I actually thought were nice. It worked. So even colors we don’t like can have certain shades that we do]
3. Decide your amount
What on earth do I mean by this?
There have been so many people who started a creative bullet journal only to get overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort it takes to get it set up.
So I’m saying – right now – decide the amount of time and effort you are willing to give to this creative outlet. There is no point getting overwhelmed and not being able to continue.
4. Boxes or no boxes
That’s right – it’s a thing.
Whether you like to see structure and boxes on your pages or whether you like to see lots of free writing space is an important thing to consider.
What if you have bought a planner with structured boxes and you decide you don’t like boxes?
Well, good question – my only suggestion is to try white out corrector pen, or something like that to see if you hide lines. Or you can use other pages that don’t have boxes and stick them on top of what you have.
Otherwise, if you don’t have a ready made planner yet, please consider if you like boxes while you are creative planning.
5. Simple or abundant
This basically means – decide your overall look.
Do you love to keep adding until you have a full abundant page, does that spark joy?
Or do you prefer a simple, minimal look that just gives you peace vibes?
For your creative planner or creative bullet journal to give you the joy you want, it’s very important to tap into your amount of decoration preferences.
6. Choose your decoration
Many people ask: how can I make my planner interesting?
Some great planner decoration options include: doodles, borders, washi tapes, stamps, stickers. You can also add interest by getting creative with fonts, and color highlighters. Another great choice is adding a background geometric pattern.
There are so many options, my suggestion is to research the different options and see if the look inspires you. For example, I will never use stickers – I just don’t like the look. [Sorry planner community]
7. Embellish or not
There are lots of little planner embellishments out there now – pen loops, bookmarks, charms. Do you like them?
Think about what will spark joy for you as you take your planner out each day.
8. Don’t be afraid
This one is really important I think.
For me, and I know many others, there is a desire for perfection, but that fear of getting it wrong, can lead to inactivity. Not adding the great ideas that you want to add.
So I say get stuck in and make it your own.
9. Fill it in right
You might have got all the decorations set up and pretty, but if you come along with a blue ball point pen and start scribbling all over the place, you might ruin the look you have created.
Setting up a creative bullet journal theme is one thing, but do take care that when you are filling it in day to day that you keep in line with your theme and the look that you are going for.
When creative planning you might just need to think about what you want a to-do list to look like after the tasks are done.
10. Make it a page turner
This was a mistake I made sometimes in my bullet journal.
I had set up some beautiful pages that really sparked joy, but then I would add on extra ‘notes’ pages, messy ones, just for function.
But actually why not include a ‘brain dump’ page and decorate it like the others. That way every page is one that sparks joy.
Conclusion
The truth is that you can create a dream creative planner or creative bullet journal.
Did you find any of these tips helpful? Was there a new idea for you?
Please let me know below in the comments.
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