If you’re just joining the planner sticker craze or are feeling overwhelmed with all of the different types of stickers to choose from, here is a list of the main types of stickers and when I recommend using each type.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you (at no extra cost to you).

1. Planner Specific

There are many shops selling planner stickers (in addition to mine!) so you can find just about any sticker sized to fit the exact planner you’re using whether it’s the Erin Condren Life Planner (ECLP), Plum Paper, Day Designer, Simplified Planner, Happy Planner etc.

While some stickers are ‘sized’ to suit a certain planner, you might be able to trim them to fit or cut list stickers in half or thirds to fit different size boxes for daily, weekly or monthly planning in another planner. You can also ‘stack’ multiple stickers one atop another.

If you want to print the stickers at smaller size, experiment with the scale function in your printer menu (e.g. scale to 70% or 80%, see this post on printing tips for more details).

Using Erin Condren size planner stickers in the Mini Happy Planner

If you like my style of planner stickers, these are the main pre-sized stickers that I have:

ECLP Full box size
ECLP Half box size
ECLP Horizontal planner
ECLP Horizontal planner (or can be used with any planner) divider strips these are ideal if you’re using a planner which has a long horizontal writing section for each day and you want to divide into 2 sections e.g. work and home, business and day job, work and school, work and chores, chores and meal planning etc.

2. Headings / titles / phrases planner stickers

I designed these to suit the Erin Condren vertical life planner, back when it still had the morning day and night title headers. The newer versions of the planners now have a blank space above each section of the daily boxes where you can write in a heading. Or, if you tend to use the same titles each week in a planner other than Erin Condren, you’ll no doubt find these stickers useful.

If you’re not sure what stickers you need, heading / title / phrases stickers are a good place to start:

They usually come in multiple colors – perfect for color-coding
They’re functional but still add color to your spreads and are more interesting to look at than just your handwriting
People who make and sell these usually include multiple copies of each sticker to fill out an entire sticker sheet, rather than an assortment of different size and types of stickers (so it’s easier to find the sticker you’re looking for)
Text stickers need to be small so you can usually fit a lot of them on a sticker sheet which is more economical
Use in multiple sections of your planner – sections for each day, sidebar, notes box, monthly calendar, monthly planning, habit tracker pages, notes pages

Oh Hello Co Stickers

These foil stickers are from the Paper Studio. Their sticker books have a mix of functional and decorative stickers.

Some phrases / headings you might use to organize your planner include:

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
Organizing by school subject e.g. assignments, homework and examples for math in blue, or all exams in blue, all assignments in pink, all homework in orange etc.
Different colors for different clients e.g. if you have a photography business
Different colors for different products you’re working on if you’re a business or different projects if you have a hobby e.g. sewing
Any recurring/routine task that you’re sick of hand-writing into your planner all the time

If you want a little more room to write but still want editable stickers where you can choose your own titles, try these. You can also cut out multiple stickers together as one piece/to create one big list sticker – because they’re printable and you cut them – you get to choose how long to make the list based on what you need. Some options are to stack (place on top of each other) one color, alternate (e.g. blue and pink) or use a different color for each task on the list.

If you want to learn how to make your own text label stickers with whatever phrases you need, see this post for a tutorial.

If you don’t want to make your own stickers, try this collection from Sunny Streak.

3. Icons

These are my favorite stickers – they don’t take up much room and add a nice pop of color to your planner.

You can also print a LOT of icon stickers on only one page of sticker paper. My icon stickers are formatted to print as many stickers on the page as possible (and they’re close together to minimize cutting) – 270 icon stickers will print on a single sheet of letter size paper. You can purchase re-positional full sheet label paper from Online Labels for 30c a page (or 0.001 per sticker)

Week 40: Using the MAMBI Happy Planner Horizontal

Types of icon stickers you may find helpful:

Bloom planner stickers

4. Functional Stickers

Functional stickers could be checklists, reminders, icons and routine task phrases like ‘wash the dog’. They have a purpose and help you plan your day rather than just look pretty on the page (although they can do both!)

Popular types of functional stickers include:

Lists. I shared some free printable flower list stickers in this blog post (they are sized for the Erin Condren vertical life planner but can be cut to suit any size planner).
Medication tracker
Routine and habits trackers
Reminders
Appointments
Hydrate/water intake tracker
Fitness tracker
Study habits and college planning
TV show stickers
Birthday reminders
Work
Colored dot stickers

The main size I use (and which I offer in my shop) is 1.5″ wide x 0.5″ high. These are essentially the icon stickers but with room to write on the sticker instead of on the page beside the sticker.

I shared some free pineapple ombre list planner stickers I created for the Erin Condren Vertical Life Planner in this blog post (they can also be cut in half/trimmed to size if you’re using another type of planner).

For whatever reason, it’s actually quite hard to find functional sticker books. Most are decorative or only a few sticker sheets of an entire book are functional. I compiled a list of my favorite functional sticker book brands in this post.

Life Organized Planner Stickers

Weekly planning in the Erin Condren using only solid dot stickers

5. Sidebar stickers

These are stickers you place in the column that’s beside the days of the week on the weekly or monthly spread or your planner.

I personally prefer to use routine trackers, meal planning and to do lists in my sidebar. You could add bill trackers, vitamins, fitness etc.

You can stack the ECLP full box stickers, half box size or any types of stickers to create a custom sidebar.

Other sidebar stickers you may be interested in:

Anything checklist
The 6 section anything checklist
Direct sales planner
The ECLP full box planner stickers in my shop are great for stacking (place one on top of each other) to create a sidebar that suits your exact needs. Some include: social media engagement/posting tracking, meal planning, more meal planning, cleaning routine, work, habit/daily routine tracking (cut multiple stickers out as one ‘piece’)

6. Notes page stickers

I designed these to fit 2 on the width of a medium size planner (about 7″ wide x 9″ high so Erin Condren, Plum Paper, Happy Planner etc.) to create 2 columns for list making.

I also made stickers designed to fit up to 4 per notes page plus some space for any other reminders you need to add.

7. Scrapbooking/decoration/cute

These are stickers that are typically the size of a full box in a vertical weekly planner (or half the box). If the pattern is pastel you may be able to write over the top of it, otherwise these are just for decoration in your planner. Because I don’t use my planner for decorating and only use functional stickers, I haven’t made any of this type of sticker.

If you don’t want to use decorative stickers, try washi tape instead.

8. Samplers

These are a page with a bunch of different sizes of stickers and maybe only one or two of the same stickers e.g. two dollar sign icon stickers mixed with other icons for bill paying and other, different sized money themed stickers. You can find all different types and sizes of samplers. Some themes you might come across include:

Lists
Money & bill paying
School and college
Chores

Sampler stickers are usually more decorative but can also be functional. The Happy Planner budgeting sticker books are a good option

9. Holiday/Seasonal

These are stickers for special occasions and one-off events such as my holiday full box stickers and Christmas countdown, countdown to vacation, pregnancy, Countdown to Disney vacation.

10. Flags

Flags are a cute way to add interest to your planner if you’re sick of rectangle stickers or draw attention to important events, priorities, things are due etc. You can find:

Flag reminders stickers such as payday or rent due
Flag list stickers

11. Inspirational Quotes

These can boost your mood, inspire and motivate you to take action! I created these with some of my favourite quotes.

12. Corner stickers

Short on space? Try triangle/corner stickers.

13. Date / number stickers

Purchased a perpetual/undated planner and hand writing in all of the dates is driving you nuts? Don’t like your messy hand-writing? Does your planner start on a Sunday but you want the weeks to start on a Monday? Try some date stickers

See this post for a list of my favorite brands of date dot stickers: 10 brands that have date dot stickers for your planner or bullet journal

14. Unusual Shapes

If you do a search on Etsy for planner stickers you’ll find that the most common shapes for stickers are circles, rectangles, squares and flags. These are certainly the most functional shapes but if you’re looking for something a little different, try teardrops or I’ve also seen some cute hexagon icon stickers.

15. Bundles/Themed Kits/Sets/Color-Coordinated

You can find sticker bundles for themes such as:

My planner stickers come in 8 different colors – perfect for color coding. Use different colors for:

Each family member
Chores
Meal planning
Level of importance/priority/urgency
If you’re a service based business, a different color for each client
Days of the week
Morning, afternoon, evening or other times during the day
If you’re a blogger, for different tasks in your workflow e.g. shooting videos versus writing blog posts and social media

More color coding categories and tips

If you’re not sure where to start or what stickers are right for you…

Ask yourself how you use your planner? Do you want something that is functional and practical or more of a scrapbook/journal you can look back on later.

If you’re more into functional planning (like I am) then I recommend:

Icon stickers
Functional stickers
Sidebar stickers
Notes page topper stickers
Color-coded
Dot stickers
Date dot / number stickers

If you’re more into creating a scrapbook/journalling then I recommend:

Themed kits
Inspirational Quotes
Holiday/seasonal

You can, of course, use a combination of both.

If you’re not sure what sort of stickers you need, ask yourself:

What am I repeatedly writing in my planner?
What takes up the most room in my planner? Is writing the same things? Is it your hand-writing?
What do I keep forgetting to do? E.g. you’re paying late fees because you forget a bill was due
Do you prefer to schedule by hour or or do you prefer to just write lists?
What are you actually using your planner for? Do you use it to keep track of your blog? Your business? Your direct sales business? School? Your family? Meal planning? As a food journal and exercise tracker? Work hours?
Do you brain dump in your planner? You might need title stickers to make mini lists for each day or washi strip stickers to create sections

If you want to get into planner stickers, the ‘basics’ I recommend you start with are:

Bill due or money stickers
Birthday reminders
To do
Don’t forget

Start small by purchasing only a few themed kits to try them out and see if they suit your style of planning, or by purchasing only 1 or 2 sticker sheets from a few different shops to test the quality and service. It can be tempting to want to BUY ALL THE STICKERS but just buy a few and see if you like them first, by the time you add shipping costs it can really start adding up.

If you’re tossing up between printable and printed stickers, here’s a price comparison:

Printable Planner Stickers

Full sheet label paper can be purchased for approximately $0.30/sheet (I recommend Online Labels or eBay). I shared a list of a few different places you can buy label paper from in this blog post. Printable planner stickers range anywhere between $1/sheet to $4/sheet on Etsy.

Make sure you look for those that:

Fit a lot on the page (because you’ll go through less label paper and get better value for money)
Have multiple icons the sheet (if you start printing 1 page full of bin day stickers where the icon is exactly the same – it might get boring)
Cutting lines or the stickers are close together to minimize cutting

If you want to cut your stickers using a Silhouette (the machine that many Etsy sellers offering printed and cut planner stickers use), it costs around $200. See this blog post for more help with printing stickers using a silhouette.

I use a paper guillotine and cut 5 sheets of stickers at a time. You can cut by hand using scissors, use an exacto/cutting knife or a paper trimmer.

Printed & Cut Stickers

Most printed planner stickers on Etsy will offer half a letter size page of stickers (or sometimes only a quarter of a full page size) for $3 – $5 USD plus a couple of dollars shipping (more if you live in a different country to the seller).

So you can purchase a printable template once and print it an unlimited number of times for your personal use, or you can buy one sheet of already printed and cut stickers (plus shipping) which will probably only last you a few weeks or months. Now of course I’m bias because I sell printable planner stickers but they really are better value.

If you’re purchasing printed sheets of planner sticker kits, these can get expensive. Like, really expensive. Kits are usually between $10 and $30. Now I know I’m bias because I sell digital not printed planner stickers, but when you do the math, printable planner stickers really do work out cheaper in the long run. Let’s say you use one themed kit per week and the kit costs $15 (including shipping), that’s going to cost you $780 a year! It’s much cheaper to purchase a silhouette machine, print and cut them yourself.

Still confused by how printable planner stickers work? See the FAQ & Printing Tips

See how I organize my planner stickers in this post (includes some free printable labels too!)