Been using your planner for a while and want to mix it up a bit? Here are 10 quick planner hacks you need to try!

1. Laminate

If you don’t own a laminating machine you need to buy one! Laminating will turn any printable you use regularly into a re-useable page.

Another alternative is to use a clear binding cover (I use these ones from Officeworks) and place it over the top of the printable or page in your planner.

I’ve found the best places to find thin tip whiteboard markers are Daiso and Kmart. And then just wipe clean with a tissue.

2. Make a DIY cover

Don’t pay a rip off price for a custom cover – make your own, laminate, hole punch and add to your binder or planner. See this post for a tutorial (plus a free printable planner cover)

Related: How to make a DIY Erin Condren Planner Cover for less than $2 (plus free printable cover) 

3. Utilise the front of binders

Insert a stripe pattern paper into the front of a binder to create a urgent to do or reminders list or daily schedule.

Related: How to make a stripe pattern in Photoshop 

Click here to download the binder cover inserts shown in the image below. 

4. Frixion Erasable pens

These pens are my all-time favorite – they come in plenty of colors, pen tip sizes and are erasable – perfect if you’re a perfectionist like me!

Related: My all time favorite planner pens: Pilot Frixion Erasable Pens Review

Did I mention you can get erasable highlighters too?! <3

Related: Favorite erasable highlighters for planning 

5. Resize printables

See this post for a tutorial. Want to try it out? Download a free printable from the library!

This is the planner I made and used in week 20 of the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge

This is the anything checklist. I used a similar version with 8 boxes per day and shared the printable in this post.

Related: Week 5: Planning by category and task, rather than by day

6. Fold pages

If you’re using a A5 planner but have purchased a printable that comes in full page size only, you can resize it, or print at full page size and fold to fit the planner.

Related post: Monthly blog post planning using sticky notes (my 6 step process) 

7. Short on space? Use the margins

Planner pages usually have a half inch margin which can be used. In the image above I used it to record the date, you can also use it for the categories that you plan (see the image below)

Related: Honest review of the Happy Planner by Me and my Big Ideas (MAMBI)

8. Washi tape for page marking

If you don’t want to use tabs, a strip of washi is a good way to color code the page – it’s obvious to see the colored strip when your planner is closed by turning it on it’s side.

Washi tape can also be used to create DIY sticky notes <3

Related: Planning using the daily and weekly Momentum Planner by Productive Flourishing (Week 36 of the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge)

9. On a tight budget? Use Crayons

Yep, crayons like you used back in school! I found these in the kids craft / stationery section at Target.

Tip: Make sure you color code after you’ve finished writing as pens don’t work well over the top of crayons.

Related: Simple method for organized brain dumping of blog post ideas using a notebook and zooms 

10. Use White Pens

White pens can be used over the top of a black marker pen (or any color marker pen). My personal favorites are the Uni Pis marker pens and then the Sakura Gelly Roll 08, Uniball Signo or Pilot Pop Lol pen brands in white.

In week 29 I covered up the notes title to create a ‘key’ section.

Related: Week 29: Plum Paper Me Planner 

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Related Posts

• 6 Ways to color code your planner to increase productivity
• How to choose the right planner pens: what to look for when buying planner pens
• Plum Paper Planners Haul & Review (better than the Erin Condren?)
• How to keep track of blog post ideas using sticky notes and a notebook 
• Week 20: Weekly planning using only a checklist and habit tracker – download a free printable