Some of these are probably obvious but nonetheless, these are the methods I use to cover up mistakes in my planner and bullet journal:
1. Erasable pens & highlighters
When drawing up a bullet journal spread I always use erasable pens. If you follow my blog you’re probably already familiar with my favorite – Frixion pens.
If you don’t want to buy erasable pens, you could use a lead pencil then draw over the top with a pen. But this takes twice as long as you have to wait for the pen ink to dry before you can erase the lead pencil underneath or the pen ink will smear.
Read more: My favorite erasable pens for planners and bullet journaling
2. Whiteout
Specifically, white out tape also known as correction tape, I never, ever use liquid white out. I hate that it takes ages to dry, a giant blob might come out when I only need a little bit etc. My favorite whiteout is Officeworks’ Keji brand (pack of 2 for only $1!)
Read more: What type of pens write best on correction tape? (gel pens vs. ballpoint vs. marker pens)
Related: 7 Tips to keep your bullet journal neat
3. Washi tape
You’ve probably already done this one before. Just try and use washi tape that has a pattern with not too much white – some of them can be see through.
- My Favorite thin washi tape for planning
- 10 Functional Ways to Use Washi Tape in your Planner
- Best pens for writing on washi tape
- Favorite washi tape for planning, planner decorating & color coding
I used glitter washi tape to cover up sections I didn’t need when I converted the Erin Condren teacher planner into a weekly planner – ever since then glitter washi has been my go to tape for covering up mistakes.
Week 25: Using the Erin Condren Teacher Planner for weekly planner
4. Sticky notes
Your first thought was probably using sticky notes to cover things up, which you can do…
Or you can use them to prevent mistakes in the first place by mapping out what you’re going to plan where:
Read more: Week 13: Using a Kmart lists book to plan your week (planning by task, rather than by day)
5. Glue stick
If it’s a really bad mistake and you don’t want to be reminded of it, you could use a gluestick to stick 2 pages together. I’ve never done this and I doubt I ever will as it feels like a waste of pages. Instead, I’d resize a printable (tutorial here) and use washi tape (or a glue stick) to adhere it to the page.
Related: Rainbow Color Coded Weekly Spread Using the Passion Planner
6. Separate Notebooks
While rescheduling / rearranging your week then needed to using whiteout so you can re-write things isn’t really a mistake, if you keep things in separate notebooks you’ll have more room to spread your plans out and might cut down on the whiteout and extra sticky notes etc.
I use 3 notebooks which works well:
- 1 notebook for daily or weekly planning
- 1 notebook that is a reference notebook (e.g. seasonal cleaning tasks, passwords etc.) – things that rarely change – like a household binder / homekeeping notebook
- 1 notebook for master lists / life lists (blog post ideas, reminders, movies to watch, things to do over the holidays etc.). I recently switched to using Excel for recurring tasks which has been working well. Details (and download my Excel template) in this post
7. Planner stickers
There are plenty of decorative stickers available nowadays (if you’re on a budget steer clear of the MAMBI sticker books!!)
Quote stickers and washi tape like ‘strip’ stickers like the ones below are ideal for covering things up.
Read more: Review of the Be Happy Box (Collaboration between Me and My Big Ideas and Amy Tangerine)
More planning tips
- DIY Tutorial: How to Print and Assemble Your Own Planner
- Planning on a budget: If I only had $50 to spend on planner supplies, this is what I’d buy
- My favorite sticky note brands for planning
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N says
A white Posca marker gives you more control than whiteout for tiny touch-ups, but be aware that it may mix with the ink below it if that ink isn’t waterproof.
Instead of gluing a whole two pages together, you could cut out a piece from a spare page (unused previous journal pages, or if your journal has a few removable perforated pages at the back, are really handy for this) in the shape to cover the mistake. I have also used standard printer paper to cut out and cover whopper woopsies 😛