The great thing about planners is that there are nearly an endless amount of ways to customize them and add personality to keep you motivated with your daily goals and to-dos! I am asked all the time about my planner personalizations and so I thought it would be fun and helpful if I gave you a run down of 10 Ways to Personalize Your Planner! Although I use a Filofax Original Planner in Fluoro Pink, you can use most of these customizations in any planner you own and use, from a Kate Spade, to an Erin Condren and even a Sugar Paper planner!
#1 Pens
A really cute and coordinating pen is must have item in my planner that I think adds a lot of personality to it. There are quite a variety of pens out there in planner world, and among them multipens like the Pilot Hi-Tech C Coletto are very popular because they give you the ability to write in a variety of colors! Friction pens as well are very popular because they are erasable and as a planner person, you know how scary it can be to write in an appointment and then have things change!
#2 Charms
Planner charms are a very fun way to add personality to your planner because you can literally use a wide variety of charms to coordinate with your interests. Although many sellers on Easy make custom charms in fun shapes like coffee cups, cute animals and even desserts, you can find charms at your local craft store or use ones off a keychain!
#3 Custom Dashboard
As one of the first pages in your planner, a custom dashboard can do a lot to help motivate and inspire you whenever you open it up! It’s simple enough to make your own dashboard by laminating pretty scrapbook paper or cutting down an acrylic screen print to size. I recommend using acrylic prints or laminating regular paper so your dashboard is coated and more durable- it also works well for holding and removing sticky notes!
#4 Custom Dividers
Custom dividers are an excellent way to create a theme for your planner. You can purchase sets of themed dividers on Etsy, but I like to make mine by printing out images and pictures, adding tabs and then laminating everything so it’s nice and sealed! Use your own pictures, quotes, and snippets from magazines to create a collage for your dividers or stick to pretty scrapbook papers if you like a simpler look!
#5 Page Markers
I love to use page markers to help me quickly locate important notes and pages in my planner. There are lots of different varieties of page markers; magnetic ones, paper clips, and even adhesive tabs. They are a great way to add color and style to your planner that you can appreciate even when your planner is closed!
#6 Printable Inserts
Although your planner may come with a set of dedicated inserts, there is always room for more, specifically, for fun and inspirational inserts that help to add personality to your planner and keep you on track with more than just your to-dos and schedule! The insert above is actually a free printable checklist titled 30 Days of Thankfulness that is available through my shop! Inserts like this are a great way to add inspiration to your planner and to add a little fun to your days!
#7 Stickers & Washi
Although planner decoration isn’t for everyone, if you do want to add a little fun and interest to your planner pages, using stickers and washi tape is a fun way to do it! I have quite the collection of washi tape and I always have more than enough stickers around because I usually make my own and print them onto full sheet labels! The sets shown above are currently for sale on my shop, so if you want to print your own stickers at home and like these designs, feel free to check them out!
#8 DIY Folder
Not all planners are created with equal amounts of pockets and storage, so if you need an extra space to store stickers and notecards or whatever else you need to keep inside your planner, check out my easy DIY Folder Tutorial that shows you how to turn a regular file folder into the perfect little storage solution for your planner!
#9 Journaling Cards
Journaling cards are a great way to add instant decor and inspiration to your planner. They can even act as page markers, dashboards and even dividers! This #INSTALOVE card comes from my personal collection of printable journaling cards and is designed to be a frame for square, Instagram style pictures. This is a great way to keep photos of your friends and family with you in your planner! You can also use project life cards and MAMBI pocket pages like this striped card above!
#10 Colorful Paper
Why use plain old white paper in your planner when you can quickly add interest to your pages by using rainbow-colored copy paper? I keep a stack of colorful papers around and cut them down to size and punch them in my planner. They are great for color coding notes or visually dividing up sections or just adding a little fun to your pages!
Of course, this wouldn’t be a complete planner post from me without a fun video to go along with it! If you would like more details on some of the items I have shown in this post, feel free to check out this video!
As always, I hope this post (and video) were helpful for you and gave you some ideas for your own planner! If you have other planner personalizations that I missed, please let me know about them in the comments. I’d also love to see pictures of your planners and how you customize, so please feel free to tag me @MissTrenchcoat in your Instagram pics!
xoxo,
Wonderful post, Alexis! Such great personalization suggestions and beautiful, LUSH photos 🙂 Also, you & your hubs are so adorable!
Thanks Chelley Dear! You are too kind!
PRETTY!!
Thank you!
I love the way the black and white pops with the hot pink. Your Filofax is so pretty! You’ve given me loads of inspiration, thanks so much!
Thank you so much! That pink and black and white is my obsession right now! Glad to inspire you with your own planner! Have a wonderful day!
Your planner is very nice to look at – but what I really love is that it is functional too! I have to admit I was getting a little bit annoyed/confused with some of the over decorated planners on YT/blogs lately that leave no space for actual planning. Lol. I was unfollowing a lot of people because I honestly couldn’t figure out why they even bothered with planners. But your nicely balanced planner definitely renewed my interest in decorated planners instead of just the plain usable kind. So thanks for that and for the lovely suggestions 🙂
Hi Gabby! Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! Although I like to make my planner look nice by decorating it, it is first and foremost a planner for me. I find that a little decoration keeps me inspired especially since I am a creative person and my work revolves around that! Most of my decoration is either out of the way or serves a distinct purpose, which I think is the best of both worlds! Obviously, people can buy planners and use them for whatever purpose suits them, and if they want to decorate all their pages and go to town with that- that is certainly their prerogative and it’s not right for anyone to criticize their choice, but I agree that it’s nice to see when people are getting good use out of their planner as well as keeping it pleasing to the eye!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Don’t be a stranger!
I love your videos and your Filofax. Before coming across your Pinterest site I was obsessed with stationery and never herd of Filofax. Of course now I am obsessed with all things Filofax. So much so I purchased nude and fluor pink .
OMG! Those are both such beautiful planners, congrats!! I would love to see pictures of them if you could tag me on IG or tweet some to me!!
I’m so happy I found you through Pinterest!!! I never heard of kikki.k until I saw your beautiful post/pic showing the mint planner. I’ve always used Franklin Covey and I’m very attached to the 2 pages a day system because I have so many appt.s and to-do lists for work. Do you know if any of the franklin covey pages fit into the Kikki.K planners?
love your ideas… Going to use them I mine for 2015. Thanks for the ideas
Thank you so much! I’d love to see how you use these ideas for yourself, so please please tag me in an Instagram pic… @MissTrenchcoat!
I loved your ideas! I just started decorating my planner and it gave me some nice inspiration, thanks! 🙂
Excellent! Always glad to be inspiration for a planner! Enjoy xx
hi Alexis,
I am in the process of trying to find the perfect planner, Ugg lol, I seen two of yours the teal with the band and the pink with the snap. Which do you prefer this is my first one. The only thing I know I really want in my day to open on to two pages but I don’t know what planner to get any input would be gratly appriciated
Love the DIY folder. Such a great idea.
http://giftieetcetera.blogspot.com
realmente me encanto y el tutorial me sirvio muchisimo !!
muchas gracias !
xoxo
Thankyou for the great ideas can’t wait to test them out!
I just stumbled on this post and I love how you’ve totally personalized your planner! I like how you’ve done your dividers and tabs. But I have a question!
How do you attach the different colored tabs to the dividers? Do you glue them or tape them? I also want to laminate them so I’m wondering if gluing or taping would be better to go into the laminator…your thoughts??
Oh my goodness! I just got my first planner and this is exactly what I have been looking for. I didn’t even know what a dashboard was.
Thank you so much!
Great post! WHERE did you get your holiday card from? LOVE IT!
Home Goods!
I love your videos and posts. Quick question, where did you find the macaroon paperclips and Korean Girl Page Flags/Paperclips? I can’t find them anywhere.
Thanks
Are those page markers little macaroons? Where oh where did you get them?
Hey there I found your post through Pinterest. I was wondering where you got the macaroon page markers from? They’re so cute.
Hi
I was wondering if you have a special hole punch to punch the pages or if you do each hole individually?
This was an awesome post. I will try to incorporate all these ideas into my Personal sized Saffiano planner (Filofax), which is in poppy. Thank you for writing such a nice post and putting in all the how to’s and the extra information.
What size is your planner?? A5 or personal? 🙂 it’s so cute btw
I love that you have recurring colour schemes in all your planners- for example black, white and pink, or black, white and turqoise etc etc
I love all of the idea’s that you use I just wish you could have the months where you can get them more often for example the 30 days of thankfulness or the 31 days of October and such if you could give me more idea’s on how to make my planner more functional and fun I would appreciate it.
Securing the DIY folder is the hardest part! The one I currently made gets paper stuck. Thanks for the video 🙂
I have a spiral bound planner, would like to incorporate these ideas, but don’t think a spiral bound notebook planner allows for all of them…. but do love all the little ideas. thanks for the tips
Best. Filofax. Ever. Thank you for the terrific ideas.
I absolutely love your planner ideas. I would like to add pages to my planner and a folder pocket. Only problem is I have a spiral planner and don’t know how to do that. I am new to this planner thing, so any ideas you can give me would be awesome. My planner is about ,11”x10”.
Carla