Let’s Talk Planner Inserts: What can you put in your planner?

When I was a teenager, my best friend said that she loved seeing people’s rooms – she said you could tell everything about them from how they have their bedroom. We may have been about 15 at the time, but I think she was on to something. My walls were plastered with posters of Keanu Reeves, but if you looked beyond that, you’d also see lots of drawings, many, many notebooks, a whole hoard of pens, and a stash of neatly preserved stickers. I may no longer have the posters (Google Images will suffice), but I still have a serious stationery habit, so maybe things haven’t changed all that much…

Just like your teenage bedroom probably revealed a lot about you, so does your planner.

Whenever I tell someone what I do, I find myself explaining that a planner isn’t just a diary, it’s anything you make it. The contents of your planner could be as unique as you are, as long as you just take a little time to think about what you really need from it. I tend to change the contents of my planner every few months; not just because I like setting them up, but because my needs change. Sometimes, I feel I need it to help me relax and keep an eye on my self-care and healthy habits, other times, I need it to be a source of inspiration for home projects I’m working on. Sometimes I just need it to give me hit of motivation… life doesn’t tend to be the same, so why should your planner?

While an off-the-shelf planner with a diary might get you off to a good start, you may be missing a trick if you never go off the beaten track a little. Once you start to look at your options, you understand what potential your planner can have. I love being able to provide people with their perfect planner inserts; it’s so satisfying to receive a quickly sketched layout from someone and then translate it into their ideal layout. There’s something about helping people turn a customer’s idea into printed reality that’s just so…. pleasing.

I don’t want to keep you scrolling forever, so I’ll just give you a quick rundown of the inserts that Sort Stuff Out has to offer, and what you can expect when you receive your first pack.

The ranges available

You have a choice of two different ranges for your printed inserts; the Classic and the Grid ranges. The Classic range is composed of crisp, clean lines and white space, to give it a modern and minimal feel. You’ll have headings on your inserts, but also areas that give you the option of adding your own section names. The Grid range has a modern Honobichi-style grid layout with no headings, just plain headers for you to add your own titles. They’re designed to be the ultimate in versatility; they’ll work best when you mix and match them. My favourite tip is to add a sectional design page in the middle of a hectic week to give me a little more room for those all-important lists. Basic lined, grid and dot grid paper are also available if you like to use your planner as a bullet journal.

The different types of inserts

In the shop, you’ll find a wide range of types of inserts. There’s a selection of daily, weekly, monthly and task planners, but also some more niche inserts such as online order trackers, online refund trackers and wish-lists. The grid inserts lend themselves to a whole range of uses, whether you want to plan your meals or workouts for the week, plan lessons, keep a track of medication or take notes in a meeting.

Going custom

As I mentioned earlier, some people like to get creative and request something a little different. If this is the option for you, all you need to do is get in touch and we’ll chat about what you’d like. There’s no design fee, all I ask is that you purchase more than one pack at the regular price to cover the additional time taken to produce them.

For the stationery nerds

At school, I always dreaded my teacher handing out the lined A4 paper that had an almost powdery finish; it made my fountain pen nib scratch across the surface and made me want to write as little as possible. I suppose I’ve always been a stationery nerd at heart. There’s nothing more satisfying than finding your perfect paper that works well with your pen of choice. After sampling many, many sheets, I settled on 100gsm paper (thick, but not too thick) that was bright white (looks fresh and good with stickers), and buttery smooth (hey, butter’s good, right?). The paper holds up very well to fountain pens and it will allow you to use highlighters without showing through. Perfection.

So hopefully that’s given you an idea of what’s available and what to expect. All that’s needed now is a little consideration of what would be your ideal planner setup. Go on… think big. What would you like if you could have anything? Have a look, and if you can’t see something that fits, give me a shout at ellie@sortstuffout.co.uk.