If you’re new to the planner world or are new to using planner stickers, these are the 7 planner stickers I consider the ‘essentials’ which you should always have on hand:

1. Days of the week

Some instances where I’ve used days of the week stickers:

Expired planners – around April and October each year most planners go on clearance as they make way for new stock. This is the best time to try out a new planner layout.
Maybe you like a layout but not the Sunday start. Days of the week stickers can be used to convert it to a start day that suits you
Maybe you need more space for Saturday and less for Sunday. White-out on a divider line of a weekly spread and the day, then add a day of the week sticker to resize
Bullet journaling
Creating a DIY planner
Doing a no-white space weekly spread and want everything to match
Want to change the colors of the planner you’re using

I tried out an expired Milligram planner using date dot stickers

There’s plenty of days of the week stickers available nowadays. My personal favorite are the traditional Erin Condren header title (block format with white text and a colored background) as well as cursive. There’s so many different weekday sticker styles available these days. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, these are the stickers I call the ‘essentials’

MAMBI Bullet journal stickers (the nice cursive word stickers)
My printable header stickers (rainbow)
Oh Hello Co Days of the stickers (rainbow & cursive), there’s also months of the year if you need those too

Converting the Erin Condren teacher planner into a weekly planner

2. Numbers

You’ll usually find number stickers in the form of date dot stickers numbered 1 to 31. However, I’ve also used them for numbered priority lists and appointment times.

My favorite number stickers:

If you’re not sure what number stickers to get, go for neutral stickers like these. Then you can use a highlighter, colored pens or a marker pen to make them whatever color you want.

Week 17: Using the Plum Paper Vertical Weekly Planner

Instead of days of the week labels, I sometimes use numbered stickers for listing out blog posts to publish each week

Quick 1 page rainbow spread in the Happy Notes

3. Colored dots

These work great for:

Flagging important events
Creating DIY date dot stickers (write the date in white pen)
Checklists (can make as long or as short as you like)
Color coding
Dividing up vertical planners

I pretty much only use these colored dot stickers I made. If you don’t want a printable, my sister has a print & cut version in her shop.

4. Categories

By categories I mean areas of your life. Years ago I made a ton of stickers that suited the Erin Condren vertical planner (back when it was all the rage and there weren’t many options for pretty planners). I definitely don’t use the Erin Condren planner anymore but I do like the size of the stickers and still use them for weekly spreads in other planners as well as bullet journaling.

Week 13: Using a Kmart lists book to plan your week (planning by task, rather than by day)

I also made some larger stickers which work well for pages where you have 2 columns, rather than in the planner spread.

Some category stickers to consider:

Different colors for each subject you take at school or college, or if you’re a teacher, each subject you teach
Extracurricular activities
Chores/cleaning tasks
Cleaning zones – you might also like this cleaning zones planner insert
Meal planning – you might also like this meal planner insert
Children’s schedule
Exercise
Scheduling
Mom
Dad
Bills to pay
Blog to do
To do
Business to do
Things to order (if you have a business, direct sales business etc.)
Errands
Reminders/Don’t forget
Appointments

Week 8: Weekly Planning using the Plum Paper Memory Keeper Book

5. Icons

Icon stickers are so handy, can be used however you like (e.g. a calculator could mean time to budget, do your taxes etc.), are an easy way to color code and since they’re small they don’t take up much space.

Some icons stickers to consider:

How to color code bill paying in your planner (7 different ways)

Bullet journaling with planner stickers in the Happy Notes Book

Week 40: Using the MAMBI Happy Planner Horizontal

My favorite icon stickers

Carpe Diem calendar sticker book
Carpe Diem Icon planner stickers
Icon stickers I made which are available in my sister’s shop (including birthday stickers, everyday icons, cleaning, shopping, meal plan and work)
Studio Stationery ‘Stick It’ sticker book and the even more fun sticker book
Happy Planner budget icon stickers
SRM Press icon stickers

Studio Stationery Planner Stickers

6. Boxes

You may think why would I would bother adding a colored box when i can just write straight onto paper… well it looks pretty! A cheaper hack is just to do a border with highlighter.

I’ve used them for blog post planning, daily reminders, meal planning and appointments. They work well when you layer icon stickers over the top. I consider them a must have for no white space weekly spreads.

If you want to try some box labels, my recommendation is the the MAMBI sticker books (lots of stickers for good value). They have tons of styles in different colors so you can use them for color coding too:

Rainbow boxes (these are my favorite) in MAMBI classic size and MAMBI big size
Colorful Boxes sticker book (intended for teacher planners)
Colorful boxes + gold & silver foil
Same as above but designed for the MAMBI monthly calendar
Colorful boxes in bright rainbow (plus some quote stickers)
Carpe Diem Planner Basics Sticker Book

Week 22: Using Erin Condren size planner stickers in the Mini Happy Planner

7. Events

If you like to flag things like St Patrick’s Day etc. then I like:

MAMBI event stickers (too many sticker books to link! check their seasonal sticker book range)
Carpe Diem sticker book

Whistle and Birch Rainbow Weekly Spread using the Zebra Mildliners

Other stickers to consider:

I no longer use planner stickers for budgeting (I switched to Excel / digital spreadsheets). However, when I did use paper, bill due stickers were one of my favorites
Label stickers – these stickers usually have an icon and writing space that you can use for anything. A house label sticker could be used to write extra repayments, cleaning tasks etc.
Sidebar stickers – these are handy if you’re short on space – especially on the monthly calendar. I used to use them all the time for habit tracking until I switched to a habit tracker printable
Months of the year stickers – for using the notes pages at the back of a planner, and also for tabs