If your bullet journal spreads are looking a bit boring, here are some quick ways to do functional decorating using planner stickers.
Versatile planner stickers for your bullet journal spreads
- Basic shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, flag banners can be used for making checklists, reminders and flagging important things
- Use 1 color or different colors for days of the week
- Alphabet stickers
- Number stickers (dates & numbered to do lists)
Some of the best sticker books with functional stickers
See this post for my recommendations: Favorite brands with functional sticker books for planning and bullet journaling
More posts on using planner stickers
- How to organize planner stickers using folders (plus free printable labels)
- Planner Newbies: The 7 Planner Stickers you need to stock up on
- Which planner stickers are right for you?
- How to use functional icon planner stickers
Quick bullet journal weekly spreads with planner stickers
1. Days of the week stickers
My favorite way is probably the most obvious, using days of the week stickers.
Roterunner purpose planner inspired weekly spread
Days of the week stickers also look good when layered over washi tape.
Using a monthly calendar for weekly planning
Gold themed weekly spread in the Erin Condren Focused Planner
Quick and easy washi tape and highlighters weekly spread
2. Alphabet Stickers
If you’re short on space and can’t fit the entire day of the week or just want to try something different, alphabet stickers are another option
Pastel themed weekly spread with Simple Stories Carpe Diem stickers
3. Checklist stickers
If you want to try the classic vertical weekly layout you can get from most planner brands without actually buying an entire planner OR you need slightly different column width and sizes, you can make your own layout using checklist stickers.
I have more time on weekends so used 2 different shades of the same color on these days for morning and afternoon. You may want to do this for your weekdays for work and personal too.
Tip: Mix stickers from different brands. I created the above spread with:
- Happy Planner days of the week stickers (handwritten plans sticker book)
- Checklist stickers from 2 different Happy Planner sticker books (essential boxes 831 & borders and colorful boxes 594)
- The sidebar stickers are from the Happy Planner essential home sticker book
- And the number stickers are Carpe Diem
4. Labels / box stickers
I always thought the smaller box label stickers were a bit of a waste in the Happy Planner sticker books as you can only fit 1 or 2 words on them. But since the box stickers are a staple in most of the Happy Planner stickers books and I didn’t want to waste them, here’s how I’ve incorporated them into some of my spreads over the years:
- Weekly Priorities – 1 box per priority
- Cut the big happy planner vertical daily box size stickers into smaller stickers
- Meal planning
- Reminders
- Appointments
- Pomodoro tracker
- Countdown stickers e.g countdown to a holiday if I’m using a large page size and have the space for it
Matte sticker paper is easiest to write on and the best pens to write on them are ballpoint pens (less chance of the ink smearing).
Read more: My Favorite Ballpoint Pens for Planning & Bullet Journaling
Weekly spread using the Plum Paper meeting notes add on page
5. Date dot stickers
If you don’t want to end up with tons and tons of stickers (I admire your self control), then the ONE type of stickers I absolutely could not live without, are date dot stickers.
Because these are a staple in every planner addicts collection, there are so many colour and font style options from different brands to choose from. Etsy is flooded with different colour options too.
If you want to learn how to make your own I teach how in my ecourse: How to Make Planner Stickers
If you don’t want to learn how to make your own I did a roundup of some of my favorite brands that offer date dot stickers: 10 Brands that have date dot stickers for your planner or bullet journal
Love a completely fresh rainbow sticker sheet. Do I use 1 color for all days of the week, or pair 2 colors, or 3? Or rainbow? Or black with a colour, or all in black? So many possible combinations…
Related post: Weekly planning in a rainbow theme – does it ever get boring?
6. Dot stickers
If all the photos of date dot stickers hasn’t convinced you (tough sell!) then simple dot stickers surely will. Use these for:
- Checklists
- Workflow (I’ve used them many times for my blog post workflow)
- Write the date over the top
- Use multiple to spell out a word by writing 1 letter per sticker
- Create a border at the top or bottom of the page (especially useful if you have some dead space after ruling up your spread)
7. Divider Stickers
Perfect for the minimalists, instead of using thin washi tape or just drawing a boring line, use some pattern stickers to create dividers – ideal if you keep work and personal stuff in the same planner too.
Not many sticker brands offer thin divider strips, they tend to include wider strips trying to replicate washi tape and these can be annoying to trim with scissors. I know I’ve mentioned the Happy Planner quite a bit in this post but they do offer plenty of sticker options, including thin divider strip stickers.
Rainbow weekly spread with Happy Planner Half Sheet Inserts & Fun Brights Sticker Book
8. Icons
Useful for recurring tasks instead of writing them out all the time, but useful for list titles too!
My favorite washi tape to make boxes with is this 3mm rainbow washi tape (comes in a pack of 20 colours so there’s plenty of options!)
9. Categories
I made the category stickers in the below photo for blog, to do, work, cleaning, personal. I made these at Erin Condren vertical section divider size but they make handy list title stickers too.
I show how to make labels stickers like these in my ecourse: How to make planner stickers
Read more: How to design planner stickers from start to finish (a sneak peak at my design process)
If you have messy handwriting like I do, stickers for common categories such as to do, schedule, meal plan etc. really do make a difference to how a spread looks.
10. All the stickers!
Even better than using a few like I did in the spreads above, use all the stickers!
- Days of the week
- Checklists
- Priority boxes (with the star icon)
- Task stickers
- Date number stickers
- Clean house
- Dentist icon
- Check budget
- Digital clean out
- Do all the things
Rainbow Weekly spread using Planner Kate stickers
More ideas
If you want to make your own stickers, a tool you can use is the poooliprint (which is how I made these days of the week stickers):
Weekly spread with DIY stickers using the Poooliprint inkless pocket printer
These washi tapes are from Sunshine Sticker Co (more economical than buying days of the week sticker sheets).
Weekly spread in the Leuchtturm using Sunshine Sticker Co Washi Tape
I hope you found this post helpful!
More bullet journal inspiration
- 7 Ways to quickly and easily cover up mistakes in your planner or bullet journal
- 6 Ways to color code your planner to increase productivity
- My 7 favorite planner supplies for making lists
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Milia says
OMGosh, I LOVE these ideas 😍 !!!! I think my favorite is using alphabet stickers for days of the week since I have LOTS of these for scrapbooking & cardmaking. It’s neat seeing them used in this way 😀 !