It wasn’t all that long ago that the planning community was itty bitty. Now it’s exploded into this huge, wonderful thing, but it’s definitely a lot harder to be noticed in such a big crowd. Lucky for me I had a growing business and an established blog to help propel me along, but if you’re just getting started it can seem like a lot to wade through. So if you’re trying to stand out in a crowd full of planner people, here are a few of my tips and tricks.
Cultivate your own style. People are constantly looking for new ways of planning or to find something different than what they’re doing. Whether it’s stamping or putting stickers into an uncommon planner, find something to set your planning ways apart from everyone else. And then share those ways. Post regularly about what you’re doing so people will stumble upon you more often.
The best way to cultivate your own style is to ignore everyone. The planner community is super big on sharing, I get it. I’m sharing right now and do it regularly on my YouTube channel. But if you’re serious about trying to figure out your own style and start to make headway in the community, you can’t be constantly watching what other people are doing. It’s so easy to get caught up in trends that way and to try and shape your planning to fit someone else’s style. The best thing I did was unfollow a lot of the planner people I constantly found myself trying to keep up with. It’ll do wonders for your personal planning style and you’ll be a lot happier without all that self-imposed competition.
One of the most important things to help you stand out in the planning crowd is to take good photos. Even if they’re just for Instagram, make sure your photos are well lit. No one likes a dark photo. Use natural light from a window during the day to get your photos nice and bright. Plus take a bunch of photos at once so you’ll have them to post or use for blogging when it gets too dark.
If you really want to start gaining more traction in the planner world, be consistent beyond belief. Give yourself a schedule and stick to it. Even if you’re just trying to gain a larger audience on Instagram, post regularly. No one is interested in following someone who posts once every two weeks randomly and then disappears again.
With so much noise in the planner community it’s easy to feel like your voice isn’t being heard or that no one cares about what you’re doing. But don’t give up. Try some of these tips and keep planning away. Because at the end of the day you plan because you love it, and other people will see that too.
Although I’m a huge fan of my planner for just daily life, the Erin Condren Life Planner has so many extra features and pages to really step up a planning game. I sat down and thought of 10 unique ways to use your ECLP beyond just the basics. Let’s do this thing.
1. Use the new coloring pages in the back of the planner as trackers. Color in a space for every book you’ve read, every pound lost, or use it to track daily moods with different colors.
2. Use the year at a glance as a mood tracker if you rather just color in your coloring pages like normal. After every day, shade in the corresponding mood and after a full year you’ll have a rainbow of feelings.
3. Use your monthly view as a gratitude journal and write something you’re grateful for every single day. Add in a sticker or two to spice things up.
4. Use some note pages to make a bullet journal within your ECLP. Track movies you’ve watched, books you’ve read, places you want to travel, tv shows you want to watch. The sky’s the limit and there are plenty of pages to track anything you can think of without needing another planner.
5. Use your planner as an actual scrapbook. Planner decorating is more or less just “daily scrapbooking,” so use a coil clip or some glue and put down photos, ticket stubs, and other mementos into your planner. I recommend adding them in little by little so your planner doesn’t get too bulky.
6. Use the note pages as places for self reflection. Write who you are currently on one side and who you hope to become on the other. A big part of self-improvement is being accountable. Writing it down in your planner can definitely help. Try the exercise every few months to see how much you change and grow.
7. Use the yearly plan page as a monthly memories recap. Write down big events that happened each month, add photos, and throw in a sticker or two. By the end of the year you’ll have all the highlights in one place.
8. Use the note page before the monthly spread for a large project you want to complete in a month. Maybe you plan on redoing a bedroom and want to write down everything you need to accomplish. Maybe you have a big project at work. Use the circles for main objectives, the two lists for ideas and tasks, and the bottom section for inspiration.
9. Use the yearly plan page to tackle a year long project. Home improvements aren’t so intense when they’re split up a month at a time. Use this page to plan out when everything will get done and the note pages before the months to break it all down.
10. Use your planner as a baby tracker/baby’s firsts keeper. Use the monthly spread to write something new that happened every day and the weekly pages to track things like breastfeeding, sleep schedules, and daily photos. After a year you’ll have a lovely book of memories.
I’d love to hear if you have any other unique ideas for Erin Condren Life Planner uses beyond just daily planning. Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Erin Condren’s third seasonal surprise box has to be my favorite. Due largely to the fact that everything inside the box isn’t available on the website yet or is exclusive to the box. I can’t help but get pumped over hard-to-get items. Plus they’re all downright fabulous.
So here are the deets. Boxes are released every couple of months for $35 with free shipping. At first they seemed incredibly limited in quantity, but there seemed to be more available this go around. It’s currently sold out on the website, but you can sign up for notifications on the next one.
The box contained nine different items. My favorites have to be the Oh, What a Week Notepad and the Shine On Clutch. Stationery is what sent me down the path of decorative planning all those years ago so whenever a new notepad enters my life I get super excited. It’s on quality thick paper and has quite a few sheets. I’ve already started using it in excitement. I also feel like no woman can have too many little clutches. I have dozens no doubt but can’t help the rush when another one joins my collection. This one definitely inspires me to clean out my collection so I just have high-quality ones left. I love the rose gold detailing and the logo as the zipper. So plush. So fancy.
The box also had two sheets of stickers that will likely go into my growing collection and remain there, horded. They are gorgeous with foil detailing, but I can never convince myself to use them. The metallic cover is seriously gorgeous and I’ve already popped it onto my planner in a hurry.
For the smaller items there’s a new set of pencils, a small notepad, a turquoise elastic keep-it-together band, and a lip balm. Out of the group I’m most excited about the small notepad of course. The other items aren’t terribly exciting, but round out the box nicely. Plus they’ll make good giveaway items or gifts down the line.
Overall the box is definitely worth way more than the $35 price tag. The clutch alone is $20, with the pencils being $6 and the sticker sheets at $3 a piece. Metallic covers are usually around $13. Plus there are still the two note pads, the lip balm, and the keep it together band not included in the price.
If you’re a fan of Erin Condren or planning supplies in general, this is definitely a great box to try. It’s getting better and better with each release and I for one can’t wait to see what’s in the fall box. There’s also a metallic cover I’ve popped onto my planner already. Check out today’s video if you want my first impressions and a closer look at each product.
The cruise ended much too quickly and I’m now back home wondering if it’s too soon to book another one. Although I’ve had a planner during travel in the past, this was the first trip I really hunkered down to figure out a system to document the adventures. Plus I filmed a before and after video to show you what I completed before we set sail and what I added afterward.
My biggest advice for travel planning is don’t complicate things. Keep it as simple as possible. That could mean not bringing any supplies with you at all and doing all the documentation once you’re back. I kept my supplies to a minimum, but probably only took out my planner twice during the entire week. You shouldn’t worry about planning and documenting while on your trip. If it doesn’t happen, don’t sweat. You can always do it when you get back.
Before you leave on your adventure, write down where you’re going at the top of the planner. Just writing out our ports helped me immensely in remembering them even when I didn’t have my planner around. Plus it helps to give your spread an outline during the trip.
Add in what you do know. Leave space for what you don’t. Put in any information from itineraries that you know is going to occur, but be sure to leave room for trip spontaneity.
My favorite thing about travel planning is adding photos. I’m a dreadful scrapbooker, so being able to add photos into my spread helps me get around that fault of mine so I can look back and see what we got up to. It’s a super easy way to round out a travel spread and adds a lot more value to your planner. Decorative planning is basically daily scrapbooking after all.
We are leaving on our belated honeymoon/my sister’s wedding cruise in just two days and I am not ready at all. We had the great pleasure of being a part of the Planner Boss Collective sale over the weekend and are still recovering. It’s like getting married. You never believe what people tell you it’s going to be like until it happens to you. We were blown away by the number of orders, but are facing a serious deadline that has caused a series of sleepless, work-filled nights. But I’m rambling.
Regardless of the workload situation, the cruise is happening in mere hours and luckily I started packing early. I don’t plan on bringing a ton of planning supplies with me, but I do want to document the trip better than I have other trips in the past.
I’ll be bringing my ECLP hourly, but stripped down to just the planner itself. I’ve removed all of the extra papers and stickers I had floating around in the back to make it lighter. I’m also bringing a small hardbound notebook because I’m sure being away from work will spark a mountain of new ideas.
I’m also giving the new Planny Pack a serious test out on this trip. It’s going to be what carries the few stickers I’m bringing as well as a couple of pens. So far I’m quite the fan of the accessory, but it’ll be nice to see how it fairs in an actual travel situation.
As for picking the kit I wanted to use for the week, it was a no brainer. The Novel Coffee has the perfect beach-themed weekly kit that I’ve already preplanned out so I don’t have to bring unnecessary sheets with me.
If you want to see what other few sheets I’m planning on bringing with me, I’ve included close ups in today’s video. The key for me is simplicity. Sure there might be a chance I need some obscure sticker to mark some unforeseeable event, but I much rather keep my travel stash small so I’m not toting around a ton of things I might need. I don’t want my planning supplies to hinder the trip, but rather enhance the memory keeping of it.
The day after an Erin Condren Launch always feels like the day after Christmas. Still overwhelmed by all the goodies and planning out what to do with everything once it arrives. I wanted to dedicate yesterday’s post solely to the magic that is the colorful, vertical ECLP, but today it’s all about the accessories.
I’m a sucker for stickers (surprise, surprise) so of course the Designer Sticker Book Edition 3 had to join my collection. I may or may not have every single one of the sticker books available. I’m both proud and ashamed. This one has a great mix of planner friendly stickers as well as a bunch of to/from label stickers for gifts. I just love how versatile EC products are for a bunch of different purposes.
I had no idea about these tall sticky notepads until this one showed up in my PR box. I’m officially obsessed. It has an adhesive tab on the back so you can place it anywhere in your planner, including on the ruler that comes with it. They’re nice and tall and skinny to fit in the sidebar of the monthly view or on a weekly spread. Plus the adhesive on the sticky note extends almost half way down the sheet so it won’t go anywhere when placed.
At first I thought the new Planny Pack was a bit of a gimmicky product, but now that I have experienced it first-hand I’ve completely changed my mind. It goes onto the planner easily, has a lot of space in the zipper pouch for pens, and there’s even a back pocket for stickers or sticky notes. I’m looking forward to really putting it to the test when I go on the cruise in a few weeks.
There are tons of other new accessories out there for any type of planner gal, but I find these to be ones that I know I’ll actually use rather than just horde in my collection. The entire launch is seriously impressive and my favorite one to date. Oh Erin Condren, you crafty planner queen you.
